When she set the box down and walked away, Jax had fully been expecting that to be the extent of their conversation. He couldn’t really blame her. His reputation not just around the studio, but as a whole wasn’t great. “Oh, well thanks. Nice to meet you, Rory,” he said as she disappeared back into the studio “I’m Jax-” but she was already gone. She had possibly been the first person he’d met at the studio that didn’t annoy him immediately. So, once she was gone, he went back to sitting on the curb. He wanted to leave, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to drive in the state he was in right now. When he heard the door open again, he didn’t lift his head this time. “I’m going to get out of your hair don’t worry,” he said, “I just need a god damn second,” he said, finally lifting his head again. Seeing it was Rory again instead of security surprised him. “Oh, it’s just you,” he said, letting out a small sigh. He didn’t have the energy to deal with security. When she told him to lean his head down again, he was a little hesitant. It was no secret that Jax didn’t get along with really anyone, so why was she being so nice. Especially when he had just caused such a huge scene in the studio she worked at. He did what she said regardless. As the cold bottle came to his neck, he let out a small sigh and closed his eyes. He did as she said and began to count in his head. Before he knew it he was feeling a lot better than he had been just five minutes ago.
After a moment, he lifted his head so he could look at her, “Um, thank you for that,” he said, his eyes scanning over her briefly. She was really cute. How had he not noticed her around before? “Sorry, if you had to witness all that,” he said, nodding back towards the studio. “Shit’s just been rough lately,” he said, letting out a small sigh. Usually, Jax didn’t like to talk about stuff like this. He would with Al, but that was really it. It had been hard enough talking to his own brother about it. For some reason though, he felt completely relaxed around this girl. “I don’t mean to be super straight forward,” he said, pausing to let out a small laugh, “Okay, I’m always straight forward, but could I take you out for lunch?” he asked, “It’s the least I could do after you helped me like this,” he said with a small smile, “Plus, I’m sort of kicking myself for getting fired. Work would have been my excuse to talk to you, so I need a new one now,”
It had been a really, really long time that Rory had been dealing with her anxiety. She’d suffered from it since she was a kid. Her fathers had tried a lot; therapy, medication, even homeschooling to keep her away from large groups of people. And yeah, all those things helped a little. She was still on medicine and still saw a counselor once a month, but what helped the most was just genuine, real help. Her dad had taken to pulling her away from a situation and making her focus on some small, remedial task until the feeling passed and she was back on earth. He made her cover her eyes and talk him through her favorite memories or recite the lyrics to her favorite song. It helped, a lot. She didn’t know the lengths of what Jax was dealing with, especially seeing as his anxiety was brought on by very recent PTSD, but she hoped it’d help. And it seemed to. As she sat with him, she watched as his chest heaving with his breaths began to grow smaller and smaller until his breathing had steadied completely. It filled her with a teeny sense of pride, but mostly relief. If her panic attacks were bad, she couldn’t imagine how tough he had to be feeling right now.
“It’s no problem. I-I’m glad it helped.” Rory pulled the water bottle away from his neck and passed it into his hands. “Drink some water. You need it.” She offered a small smile, and prepared herself to get up and leave again. He was not a peoples’ person in the slightest, so he probably didn’t want her sticking around for long. He hated the show, anyway, she imagined that he was gonna head home fast and enjoy his much needed day off. “O-oh, uh...” Rory felt her cheeks flush a deep, deep red. She got attention from men often enough; even if she never felt very pretty, other people usually had a different opinion. But she generally just dodged compliments and left the situation fast. And nobody like Jax had ever showed any interest in her. He was a f*ckin’ superstar, for God’s sake. The offer made her nervous, one hundred percent, but it was intriguing to her more than anything. He didn’t seem so bad. Yeah, he pitched pretty public bitch pretty often, but he seemed sweet. To her, at least. So, to her own surprise, she started nodding. “Yeah... um, yeah, I’d like that. Sure. Just give me a moment to go get my bag and let my papa know.” She stood up from the sidewalk, anxiously wiping any potential dirt off her behind from the ground, and went back inside quickly.
Her papa was not very thrilled to hear the news. He not-so-gently reminded her of what just happened and of the numerous other scenes Jax had caused during his time of set, but Rory just grabbed her things and promised him that she’d be back soon, that it was just because she didn’t want to be rude by turning him down, and she went back outside to meet Jax before he could argue with her any further. “S-so, um, are you ready to go?”
