Overexposed

Ch. 16 The Sons

Piper stared out over the cemetery from his seat at the top of the steps leading to the front door of Bones' apartment. He knew Kenny and Bones loved the funeral home. Loved hanging out there at the apartment and walking around the cemetery. He didn't get how they could spend so much time surrounded by death without getting depressed or creeped out. Even Ellie admitted she wasn't a big fan of spending the night there. Of course, she didn't like spending the night at his and his Ma's place either. Ellie preferred staying at her tiny apartment in Berkeley over anything. Frankly, Piper was pretty sure she'd prefer being anywhere but Charming.

He didn't blame her for that. Not after her history there. He, on the other hand, couldn't see himself living anywhere else. Moving to Charming when his Mom married Opie had saved them, given them a good place to live, a nice house, a family. Opie hadn't been a great father figure, but he'd been as close to one as Piper ever had and the few times they'd gone to the SAMCRO clubhouse for a lockdown, the Sons had treated him as if he were Opie's son. He had loved every moment of being in that place. Loved the way the Sons laughed and joked with each other, watched each other's backs. Ever since his first lockdown, he'd been dreamed of prospecting and joining the SAMCRO family. His mom had been all for it too. SAMCRO had given her everything including their brand new house and her job behind a camera. She'd been so happy when they'd given him his Prospect cut on the night of his eighteenth birthday. So proud. His mother's smiling face was a memory he kept revisiting now that she was kidnapped.

With his mom in danger, he was starting to question the Reaper and what wearing it would mean for the people he loved. It was easy to forget all of the bad things that had happened within the club when he was younger especially since he had been shielded from a lot of it. It'd been years since anything truly horrible had happened within SAMCRO. In those years, the Sons had found a strange sort of stability and had started to be less of a gang and more of the brotherhood Piper had always wanted to be a part of. He never thought prospecting would be so hard, though. He was everyone's bitch. Most of the time, he was on his hands and knees cleaning shit or running all over the place doing whatever his brothers wanted. He hated it. It was yet another reason he was debating going through with it all.

Running his fingers through his hair, he sighed and dug through his cut for the little joint and lighter he had stored there. He had just put it in his mouth when the door opened and a very frazzled looking Juice stepped outside. Piper watched him grip the railing at the top of the stairs, letting out slow breaths, his head bowed down. "You okay?" he asked, alerting him of his presence.

Juice's head whipped up, a look of fear flashing through his eyes for a brief moment before he quickly masked it. "Hey. Didn't know anyone was out here," he breathed, running a hand through his hair.

It was weird to see him with so much hair now, Piper thought, looking the older man over. It made him look like a completely different person than the goofy guy he'd met so long ago. "Yeah. Needed some air. Too much anxiety down there with the nerds," he explained on a shrug. He took the joint out of his mouth, playing with it for a moment and just dying to light it. He needed something to calm his nerves, to soothe the churning of his stomach as he waited to hear any news about his Mom. "You mind?"

Juice chuckled, shaking his head. "Not at all. Wanna share?"

Piper wasn't too surprised by the question. Once upon a time, he knew Juice had been quite the stoner. "Yeah, man," he said, lighting it up and taking a long toke. He let out the smoke, handing it over to him. "It's good shit. Got it from this weird place called Clear Passages."

Juice smirked, taking a long toke and holding it in his lungs for a moment before letting it out like a pro. "Good place."

"You know it?"