Loving the Fighter

56

Jax's POV

My shirt was off my back before I made it outside of the cabin.

After almost slipping in Andrew's office I knew I was going to have to be careful for the rest of the night, which meant no more touching anything for the rest of the night.

The cabin was about as normal as always when I walked in. Ryder had a movie playing; Callum was pretending to watch it while he cuddled with Ryder. Liam sat on my bed with a new book in hand.

At first no one realized I came in and I hoped I could just slip through and pretend I wasn't here in attempts to stop a conversation before it even started but that doesn't work too well when someone is sitting on your bed.

When I passed by Liam he smiled before looking down at my shirtless chest and giving me a confused look.

"Too much touching," I whispered to him as I slowly sit on down on the bed, trying to avoid my back touching anything.

Liam only nodded in response as he came to sit at the head of the bed with me.

My eyes switched back and forth between the movie, Ryder and Callum, and pretty much anything else to keep my mind busy.

"I noticed Abbott is back," Liam stated as he looked up from his book. "Was it bad in there today?"

"It was better than it could have been," I say with a small shrug. "Andrew said he's going to talk to her so he can make sure we stay together in her class so that should help a bit."

Liam only nodded as my eyes began to close; the lack of sleep was starting to catch up to me.

"We'll have dinner soon," Liam said just as I was about to doze off.

"How soon," I grumbled with a glare.

"About an hour."

"Wake me up before you head down?" I asked as my head leaned down and used Liam's shoulder as a pillow.

Liam said something but I didn't really care at that point, I was already too far asleep.

Liam's POV

I couldn't help but smile to myself as Jax fell asleep on my shoulder. His head weighted a ton and he would probably wake up with a sore neck but it still felt nice.

"It's almost time for dinner," Callum said after a while, finally noticing Jax was here and now asleep on my shoulder.

"Yea but he was tired. He can always go back to sleep when we get back."

"I meant that as we should probably get him up so he has time to get less cranky before we head down," He said as he stood up and walked over to Jax, leaning down next to him.

"Not like that," I say. Callum tends to only wake us up one way, which always involves a lot of kissing and touching. "He said he was done with touching today."

Callum frowns as he takes a second to look over Jax's chest.

There weren't many places on his body that didn't have a scar. Even his heart tattoo was covering up a scar. I can't help but stare at the tattoo. Callum followed my stare while Ryder shot us a confused look.

"What are you doing," he asked as he came over as well

"The tattoo is covering something," Callum says as I squint, trying to see through the ink. Ryder frowned and began to look with us.

In the back of my mind I acknowledged how weird it would look to Jax if he woke up and the three of us were just staring at him but I try not to dwell on it.

Callum must have figured out what the tattoo was hiding considering his entire demeanor changed in half a second.

His face showed that he was beyond pissed as he backed away from Jax while combing his hair with his hands.

"What is it?" I asked with a bit of hesitation, not really knowing if I wanted to know anymore.

" 'Fag' is craved into his skin," Callum seethed as he glared at the tattoo. "Like someone took a knife, held him down, and cut into his skin."

Ryder gasped and looked at the tattoo again, as if he were hoping he would see something different.

Whoever the artist was they actually did a really good job covering it up but now that Callum had pointed it out, it's all that I could see.

My heart dropped to my stomach as I tried to keep myself calmed down for Callum sake.

"Do you think his dad did it?" Ryder asked.

"I don't know," I whispered before turning my attention back to Ryder. "But I know that he will tell us when he's ready." Ryder seemed displeased with my answer but seemed to understand it was the best we had right now. Now onto Callum, "but he's not going to appreciate being looked at like a kicked puppy."

"So you're saying we have to ignore it," he stated with a frown as he forced his eyes away from the tattoo.

"For now, yes. It's all we can do."

We were quiet for a while until Jax began to stir. Ryder backed away slowly in attempts to not freak him out while Callum excused himself to the bathroom to calm down a bit more before Jax was completely awake.

Even after his nap, Jax looked exhausted but tried to hide it with small smile as he wiped the last bit of sleep out of his eyes.

"What happened?" He asked while looking over at Ryder, who hasn't quite mastered the art of hiding emotions.

"The movie ended," he said a bit too quickly while pointing to the small TV that was thankfully rolling the credits. "It has a pretty sad ending."

That seemed to be enough for Jax, any other day I'm sure he would be suspicious but for now it was clear he was a bit off today.

"Are we ready for dinner now?" Jax asked as he stood up from the bed and stretched. I couldn't help but watch Ryder's face with a smirk. He was practically eye fucking Jax at this point.

Jax seemed to be in a better mood now too. He stood up straight again with his head held high. His eyes seemed to be brighter and a small smile appeared on his face rather than the emotionless mask he normally has; everything was much different than pre meltdown Jax.

"Yea," Callum said as he walked out of the bathroom, looking a bit better too. "But you might want to put a shirt on for Ryder's sake," he teased while smirking at Ryder, who was now practically drooling.

Ryder glared at Callum and mumbled a 'shut up', leaving them to a whole new conservation.

I looked back over to Jax, who was looking at the shirt in his hands with a glare.

"You doing okay?" I asked as I moved a bit closer to him.

"Not sure if I want to test it," he whispered, still glaring at the shirt. I can't help but frown as I come up behind him and take the shirt away from him, making sure I don't touch him in any way.

"Then don't," I say as I throw it back on the bed. "Ryder might stare at you the whole time but I'd rather risk that than the alternative."

Jax smiled but it was more of a sad smile, as he walked to the door and opened it before looing back at us.

"Well are you coming or not?"

Last updated March 22, 2021