All Roads Lead to Charming || j.t. [2]

Chapter 10: SAMCRO Royal Wedding

We should have just run off to fuckin' Reno!

That was the thought that coursed through Jessie's mind as she was trapped in Wedding Planning Hell.

Like it's not enough that I have lessons to plan and papers to grade, a new home to close on, a rental to clean and pack up, a child to raise and a man to love, I have to spend every damn night on this wedding shit.

Jessie held her head in her hands as she heard the "wah, wah, wah" noises emanating from her soon to be mother-in-law and her Matron of Honor. Across the dining room table, Gemma was sitting comfortably in a chair with a pair of reading glasses perched on her nose, a cigarette in one hand and a guest list that seemed to be twenty pages long in the other, while Donna was quite happily tapping away on a laptop, steadily entering in names for the final guest list.

Gemma had promised her that she would plan everything for the wedding and yet, somehow, Jessie found herself dragooned into participating. Her best friend, who should be supporting her in her efforts to get away from the nightmare, had instead joined Gemma with all the happy enthusiasm of a mental defective on crank. Donna, who got to enjoy what Jessie considered to be a dream wedding in Reno, did not understand Jessie's reluctance to participate in the festivities in which she was to have the starring role.

But Jessie knew that her reluctance came from the part of her that was having a hard time believing that marrying the man of her dreams would actually happen. That nay-saying superstitious part of her that said that, after everything she and Jax had been through, not taking the opportunity to go off to Reno and marry right away had all but guaranteed that they would never make it down the aisle. That in spite of Gemma's best efforts to put together a kick-ass wedding in less than four weeks, Jessie would never get the chance to finally be Mrs. Jackson Teller.

By the time she was six years old, Jessie had already lived a hard enough life to realize that fairy tale endings were not meant for girls like her. She had quickly come to understand that there would be no happily ever after and no Prince swooping in on a white horse to save the damsel in distress. It was only when she came to Charming that Jessie realized that having a family that loved and cherished her was not a fairy tale, but something every child had the right to enjoy. That even though evil witches like Valentina existed, there were also knights in shining armor like her father and Uncle Elvis and that she could have her own Prince Charming in the form of Jax Teller.

However, after the events of that horrible day at the Clubhouse when Jessie decided that destiny had other plans for her and Jax, it was difficult to believe that it would all take place according to plan, no matter how much Gemma stressed over each little detail. Jessie's A-type personality was too fixated on the fact that just too many things had conspired against them at the end of their relationship over four years ago, making it almost impossible for her to hope that this wedding would really go off without a hitch. Something was bound to go wrong. Her father would suddenly go ape-shit on her, some other gash from Jax's past would pop up, this time with a baby in tow no less, proclaiming herself as her old man's newest baby momma. Or worse.

So Jessie tried her best to stay out of the whole wedding planning drama as much as possible, not wanting to get her hopes up. Yet here she was, trapped like a fly in honey and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it.

Jessie rose to her feet and went to the kitchen to get another bottle of wine.

If I'm going to sit through this I need to be seriously drunk.

Returning to the table with an open bottle of Pinot Noir, Jessie had intended to pour herself a large glass, but decided that the glass just wasn't big enough. Drinking straight from the bottle, Jessie swallowed several large gulps.