SOA Fan Fic - Teenage Jax & Tara. Disclaimer: I own nothing and all rights go to SOA.

"Fuck you!" Tara screams. It's the first of January and she's freezing. She came to see Charming's yearly New Years firework display, but forgot to put on enough warm clothing in her haste to get out of the house, and away from her Dad. The fireworks have ended now, all the parents and young children have gone home, only the teenagers remain running rampant and abusing each other. Tara has been crying all evening. Sobbing, even. She's exhausted, she came to the fireworks to just escape for a few hours.

Now, Jax Teller, the wise ass little shit, keeps throwing fireworks at her.

"I didn't quite hear you, darlin'!" He shouts, a cocky grin on his face as he launches another firework. Tara darts out the way, screaming as she does. It explodes as it hits the tree behind her. She turns to look at the damaged tree, open mouthed, then her temper flares and she turns to glare at Teller.

"What is your problem?!" She marches towards him, he launches another and it narrowly misses her but this time she doesn't flinch, doesn't make a sound, she continues to storm towards him, all she can feel is anger. When I get to him, she thinks, I'm going to shove one up his fucking ass and watch him explode.

He's laughing and Tara slightly falters at just how good looking Jax is, she's known him her whole life, and yet whenever he's smiling, really smiling, he always manages to throw her off guard. When she sees him pick up another firework though, she pulls herself together.

She reaches him, he's still laughing, lighting another, without a moments hesitation, she smacks it out of his hands just before the fuse takes and kicks over his shitty little box of fireworks, stamping on them in pure anger. She destroys them all. He's laughing so much his head is thrown back in joy.

Tara's anger dissipates a little at the sight of a carefree, happy Jax, then she remembers that Satan was once an angel too and just because he's laughing, isn't cause for distraction.

"You ruined my fireworks," he says simply, before she can shout at him, his laughter halted, but he's grinning like a boy who can do no wrong.

"Are you a serial killer now?" Tara asks. If looks could kill, she would have struck him down.

His grin gets wider. "Maybe?" Jax puts his hands on her hips and pulls her in close, their faces inches apart, she's so shocked that she freezes. "Does that excite you, babe?" His voice is husky. She blinks, lost, in awe, in anger, wanting to kiss him, wanting to push him away - she's a walking contradiction. Then she remembers it's Jax Teller, she shoves his biceps hard, he stumbles back. He's so shocked he can't help but laugh, she turns on her heel and storms away from him.

"Come on, Tara!" He calls, jogging to catch up with her. "I stopped you crying at least. Didn't I?" He falls into step as she continues to stomp away.

Tara blushes and thanks God it's dark so he can't really see her. She came to the park at night so no one could see her crying, not for notorious bad boy Jax Teller to try and stop her. She holds back a groan of embarrassment.

Then it hits her, she turns and spins to face him, "by trying to kill me?!" She asks, incredulous, her eyebrow raised, hands on hips. The sight of her, a match for his anger, makes Jax annoyingly happy.

"Are you dead?" He laughs again. "You seem very alive to me. Energetic even."

Tara can't think of anything to say, so she turns and stomps away again, Jax follows, swaggering by her side at ease. Other teenagers throw them looks as they walk together, and though she would never admit it, it pleases Tara that people might think Jax likes her.

"Hey brother!" A voice calls, Jax and Tara look to their left to see Opie, a big boy with a big walk, especially for the age of sixteen, is lumbering towards them.

She doesn't know why, but she stops and waits with Jax for Opie to reach them. Jax is standing close to her, boarding on invading her personal space and she's enjoying it. She can feel the heat rolling off him on this chilly night, it makes her feel warm inside.

"We gotta go." Opie says when he gets to them, "we're needed at the clubhouse." He looks from Tara to Jax. Tara looks livid, there's a slight blush on her cheeks. Jax looks amused. Opie shrugs, thinking it's wiser to say nothing.

Jax nods once at Opie, something twinkling his eyes. Suddenly, so fast, Tara isn't even sure it's happening, Jax kisses her on the forehead. "Laters babe," He winks at her. Then he and Opie head for the carpark with Tara staring after them.

It takes her a while to compose herself. What exactly was Jax playing at? She's known him for years, but she wouldn't exactly say they're friends anymore. They used to be, Tara thought she actually had a good influence on him, that she was the reason he would come to school. Now she was lucky when they exchanged comments on books they'd read, or suggested books to each other, sometimes Tara would tease Jax for dumbing himself down when she knew he was smarter. But friends? That they were no longer.

They had become too different, she was too good, she wanted to learn. Jax had become more of a bad boy, he thought school was a mockery, a waste of time, he didn't need it. For Tara, it was her way out.

Jax had changed when his baby brother died last year, he didn't show up for school for an entire month after, she had tried to see him but she wasn't allowed. The club would never let her in the clubhouse, said it as family only, and Opie would never give her any information on how Jax was doing. They had so many arguments that Tara had taken to ignoring Opie all together, knowing he wouldn't tell her shit. Then he also stopped showing up to school for a couple of weeks.

When Jax finally came back, he was drunk and/or smoking pot all the time. It appalled Tara, knowing first hand what happens to someone when they become dependent on drugs or alcohol to lessen their pain. She didn't feel sorry for, or pity Jax, she wanted to hit him. At least, that's what she told herself, she knew he would hate pity, hate someone to feel sorry for him, so she bit down those emotions, but she couldn't help be concerned for him, his dependency on drugs, his careless manor.

Jax lashed out at her, told her to shove her concern where it was wanted, told her to go and look after someone who needed her, go and take care of her alcoholic father. He said it in front of the whole school, and they all laughed at her. She was humiliated and couldn't understand why he was desperate to push her away.

Then the girls started, he was always seen kissing multiple girls in a day, and that made her blood boil. The Jax she knew was too smart, too intelligent, to let mindless bimbos entertain him. When she pointed this out to him, he started making out with them against her locker. They wouldn't move until the last warning bell, no matter how much she shouted and pushed, making her late for nearly all her classes.

Then his daddy died, and Tara didn't see Jax for two months. How he was allowed to come back to school after missing so much time off bewildered her, and when he came back he was bloody and bruised, he had cut all his long locks off, he had black eyes from bruising and no sleep, he looked gaunt, hollow but somehow was still as handsome as ever.

She tried to talk to him, but he told her they weren't friends anymore. That he didn't have time for girls like her, who thought they were better than him and his family. He stopped kissing girls against her locker, he stopped making time for her, he didn't mock her, didn't sit next to her in any classes, he stopped acting like she existed and she did the same for him. That was a year ago.

They haven't really spoken since. Until today.

Tara used to pride herself on the fact she looked past his family's power, and his good looks, she liked to think she saw a deeper Jax, that there was a connection between them both. But half the time she concluded that she didn't really know much about Jax Teller at all, if not the same amount as everyone else in Charming. But tonight, he was the old Jax she used to know and she couldn't even ask him; what's happened? What's changed?