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Growing up say, in a sood old boys hadn’t been any picnic Jax had stopped growing at five foot six, and his body hipcord lean, but it wasn’t only his size He nor similar to what he currently had on, black skinny jeans with boots that laced up almost to his knees, with a tiny, stacked heel They were his favorite boots, and he’d bought them for himself at Walmart three years before

He earing a black hoodie with an alternative band logo on the back, one of his favorites, and he even had piercings in his eyebrows and one in his nose Overall, his style was not exactly the norm for Pieder, wearing camo jackets and ballcaps, but it never really worked The last couple of years, he’d given up the ugly, tacky clothes his peers wore and e the clothes that better suited his personality He’d decided anybody who didn’t like the way he looked could just g

o fuck themselves

Anyway, he knew fro from a few of the bikers that his style had been noticed and no doubt frowned upon They weren’t giving him dirty looks exactly, but more speculative, interested Jax hunched over his coffee and tried to ignore their narrow,appraising glances The last thing he wanted to do right noas attract anybody’s interest Tucking his floppy blond hair behind his ear, he chewed on his bottolare the biker dude with the bandana was still giving hi down hard outside, Jax thoughthis coffee, he looked longingly at the five-dollar bill

Jax wasn’t a thief, but the te He had to take care of Mason, and he was als too, that he’d pushed way down deep where he didn’t have to look at theh, so he buried them a little deeper to take out and look at later on when he wasn’t so tired and scared Right at this moment he had to do whatever it took to survive He didn’t ry himself, but he didn’t want Mason to suffer if he could help it He bargained with hi ot his job out west he could put five dollars in an envelope and send it back here to the café with a little note apologizing

As soon as the waitress had her back turned to hi an order at one of the bikers’ tables, he slipped the five-dollar bill out froot up, motioned to Mason to follow him and started tobiker guy’s table that it happened A strong hand stopped his progress by grabbing onto his wrist and holding him there

“What the hell? Lethand that gripped hirabbed his other arly without lared up at hi their order, looked nervous and cast a glance over at the cashier in case they needed to call somebody for help

“What is it, Jax? What’s the matter?” Mason asked beside hilared back at the guy, refusing to le t hio, damn you ”

“No, I don’t believe I willlet you go,” he said, and tightened his grip “At least not until you give this nice lady back her tip you took off that table back there ”

Jax felt his face fla with pretty much everybody else in the roo somebody would need to scrape off the bottom of their shoe Mason stepped closer to hiain on his other arm

“What’s the ue?” the man teased “Here, let me help you out ” He reached into Jax’s jacket pocket and pulled out not only the five-dollar bill, but the load of crackers and jelly packets he’d stuffed in there as well “Well, what do we have here? You really are a little squirrel, aren’t you?”

Jax tried again to wrench away frorip felt like an iron band around his wrist

“What else you got, little man?” he said, and moved his hand down to search Jax’s jeans pocket It was as he was doing this, leaning toward hiht his other fist around and punched the older man on the side of his head as hard as he could The man fell back with a bark of surprise, and Jax turned, jerked Mason by the hand and sprinted toward the door In despair, he sao of the guys nearest the door jump to their feet to head them off, but a sharp command behind them made the men stand aside so he and Mason could scramble outside

The miserably cold drizzle had turned into a hard, steady rain, and the puddles in the parking lot were like an obstacle course they had to splash through to reach the relative safety of the road The little pools of water sucked at Jax’s boots as he ran, clutching at hi up, but barely, clinging tightly to Jax’s hand Mason stumbled once and went to his knees, but Jax yanked hi lot and onto the highway

Stu over his shoulder He ran until his breath was cos felt like rubber He hadn’t eaten anything since thehi a few steps ahead of hi quite as much trouble as Jax