Chapter 10

Ace Craige really wasn't that bad. In a way, he was kind of perfect. Not perfect in the sense that everything about him was figured out and he had no flaws; but in a way that he was perfect as the guy he was. 

I watched him as he let his brother tackle him to the ground outside. Ace had held a football above Noah's head, just enough to where he couldn't reach. Noah kept trying to pummel his older brother in the leg, stomach and back. 

Noah pulled himself back and ran at Ace with as fast as he could and even I could tell he was going to try to knock him over. The idea of it was hilarious and impossible but Ace, being the good big brother he was, pretended to be surprised by his attack and fell to the grass on his back. 

Noah sat on his check in victory and lifted his arms above his head and yelled, "I got him!"

Ace was laughing his head off, his perfect, white teeth showing. His grin was so wide, his eyes were squinted closed. He caught my eye and gave me a playful wink. I rolled my eyes, hoping to look somewhat annoyed with him; but he knew better.

In a quick motion, he had Noah over his shoulder, causing the little boy to shriek and slap Ace's back. But it only made Ace laugh harder as they made their way over to me. He set his little brother down and he immediately stuck his tongue out at him and ran away. 

He leaned down and grasped both my wrists in his large hands and easily pulled me out of my seat. I groaned in fake anger and smacked his bicep when he let go. "What if I didn't want to get up?"

"That's not my problem," he smirked down at me which earned him another light smack.

He chuckled, the sound sending a small spark to my stomach. "What do you want?" I asked him as he began to pull me along beside him, his hand around my wrist once more.

"Dragging you up to my bedroom," he told me with no emotion.

I glanced over at him in alarm but my heart slowed when I saw the smirk still firmly planted on his face. "Shut up Ace."

"I was serious," he confessed, his eyebrows raised.

I huffed out a laugh and repeated the words I had told him once before. "You know Ace, not every girl wants to-"

My voice was cut off when he let go of my wrist and covered my mouth with it. "My mother is going to kill me if she hears that."

"Not my problem," I smirked, or what I hoped was a smirk.

Ace took on my signature move and rolled his eyes. "Chill out, I just wanted to show you something."

Yeah, but what? 

At this point, I felt like Ace wouldn't try anything on me. He knew that I would seriously do some damage to him if he did. I followed him, willingly this time, up the stairs to his room. He opened the door that was all the way at the end of the hall and stepped in. 

His room was exactly as I remembered. But what surprised me was the addition of the guitars in the corner of his room by the window. 

He had two sitting on their stands; one was acoustic and the other, electric. There was an amp sitting next to them. I moved my gaze over to the opposite side of the rather large room. Ace also had a keyboard. The keys were shiny and it made me want to touch. 

I had learned to play the piano from my mother when I was younger but after she left, Harry sold my keyboard and I hadn't bothered to buy another. My feet took me over to it and I sat down at the little bench in wonder.

My hands smoothed over the keys, not pressing down to make any sound. I barely noticed Ace sitting beside me until he spoke. "Do you play?"

"I did," I looked over at him and gave him a little smile. He looked confused. "Harry sold my keyboard a few years ago. I haven't really played since my Samantha left."

Ace's face scrunched up, probably uncomfortable with the way I called my parents by their first name. It happened with most people. "Why would he do that?"

I shrugged and turned back to the keys. "Didn't have enough money to buy what he wanted I guess." Even to this day I didn't know what he did with the money. Harry wasn't into drugs but alcohol was another story. 

Ace turned on the keyboard and pressed a key, a dull sound escaping from it. He hit another key a little closer to me and then played a small little song with only a few keys. When he was done, he sat back and looked at me expectantly. 

I rolled my eyes but lifted my hands from where they rested on my lap. "I don't know if I still remember anything." 

"I think you'll find that it comes back rather easily," he leaned closer to me, practically whispering into my ear. 

I held back a shudder and popped my knuckles in anticipation. I bit my bottom lip and placed my fingers accordingly, over the keys. I decided to play something fairly easy that I had learned early on. It was simple and short and Ace was surprisingly right; I picked up on the keys and their order quickly.

I looked back over to Ace with a pleased smile on my face and saw he had a matching smile. "Is this what you wanted to show me?"

"Well I was planning on showing you the guitars but I guess this works too," his smile turned back into his classic smirk.

I turned to look at the guitars across the room and stood up, walking over to them. "I will admit, they're pretty cool too."

"Don't tell me you play guitar as well..." he trailed off as I took the electric off its base. 

He came toward me quickly, as if he was scared I was going to drop it. "No, I don't. I've always wanted to play guitar though."

He took it from my hands by its neck and sat down on the bed with it. "Plug it into the amp."

I did as I was told. As soon as it was on, Ace strummed a single note, filling the room with the guitar's shaking sound. My eyes lit with interest and I took a tentative seat beside him; but not too close.

He played a few more strings before handing it back over to me, helping me place it in my lap. He also took the time to place my fingers on the neck to make the C chord as he called it. I strummed lightly and looked over to him for approval.

He was smiling again but didn't say anything. He just moved my fingers once more and created the A chord. 

This went on for at least another fifteen minutes until my fingers began to hurt. I looked down at them and saw them and wished I had built up callouses like Ace had.

I had never noticed the hard skin on his fingers before; but now, it was obvious and visible. He had the hands of a guitar player. Yet, they were soft when they held mine. I went to strum the chord one last time when his bedroom door opened, revealing Anna.

Her face held a small smile that was directed toward her son but it widened when she looked over at me. Ace pulled the guitar off my lap and placed it back where it belonged before facing his mother again.

"It's about time for everyone to eat. We're eating in the dining room," she told us.

We both nodded to her and I stood from the bed. Ace turned off the amp. "Is everyone still here?" Ace asked.

"Most are still here yes. Doug and Penelope left with Kolby. And Grace left with Molly; something about nap time," Anna waved her hand around.

Doug and Penelope were his aunt and uncle, Kolby, being his four year old cousin. Grace was his cousin and Molly being her two year old daughter. 

Anna went to leave but turned around again, "keep this door open please." And then she made her way back downstairs, leaving the two of us with flushed cheeks.

Mostly everyone was already seated when Ace and I made our way down to the dining room. Katie saw us and patted the seat next to her. I sat beside her and Ace sat on my other side. The food was already placed in the middle of the table and everyone was digging in. 

Halfway through my plate and talking to Katie, she looked over at Ace and studied him. And then she moved her gaze back to me and studied me even harder. Her eyes narrowed into little slits and I glanced behind me to Ace to see if he was seeing it too.

The look on his face was just as confused and scared as I imagined mine was. He caught my eye and his face changed from nervous to mischievous. The next thing I knew, his palm was over my knee, under the table.

My eyes widened but from the corner of my eye, I saw Katie looking with approval. 

What in the world?

Katie went back to our conversation but I could barely concentrate with Ace's hand slowly moving up my leg to rest on my inner thigh. His thumb soothingly created circles on my skin and I held back a shiver.

Instinctively, I leaned a little closer to him, taking my chair with me. But he pretended not to notice. Katie's face morphed into the seemingly, family smirk whenever her eyes drifted to Ace's hand on my thigh.

When dinner was over, we waved goodbye to Ace's relatives and headed back out to his car. The night air was chilly blowing against my bare legs and I crossed my arms over my dress. I climbed into the car and waited for Ace to crank up the heat.

I didn't even have to ask him when I felt cold air blow into my face but slowly, it turned into warm air. We both shivered, waiting for the car to warm. Ace's face brightened as if he had come up with an idea as he reached behind him, into the back seat.

He pulled out a blue blanket and draped it across my body before clicking his seatbelt back to place. 

"Aren't you cold?" I asked him, my teeth still chattering. He shrugged and moved his hand to the radio, turning it on. "Well, thank you," I told him, my cheeks flushed.

"Your dad would kill me if you come home a popsicle," Ace joked. But instead of making me smile, my lips turned down. Harry wouldn't care if I never came home at all. Ace seemed to realize this because his chuckles turned into uncomfortable coughs.

I settled for an awkward, "yeah," and pulled the blanket up a little higher. 

The music was soft background noise most of the way back to my house. I wished he would turn it up to drown out some of the awkwardness but Ace kept one hand on the steering wheel. The other hand was tapping away on the center console. 

"Eat lunch with us tomorrow," he suddenly burst out with. 

I looked over at Ace and saw him keeping his eyes focused on the road ahead. "I'm assuming you mean with Raze and Loki, who hates me."

Ace rolled his eyes and tilted his head back toward me before turning back to the road. "Loki does not hate you Mad. He's just cautious."

"We're not even dating Ace! Why don't you just tell him that so he can go back to ignoring my presence?" He opens his mouth to answer me but I cut him off. "And don't even use that stupid excuse of needing them to believe it. I think you're just embarrassed about having to find a fake girlfriend."

Ace laughed, "and I thought I explained to you I wouldn't have an issue finding a real girlfriend."

"Then where is she lover boy?"

He was silent. 

This got me to finally smile; and I closed my eyes with laughter until I felt his hand push me slightly in attempt to get me to stop. My grin grew wider when I saw the tips of his ears turn pink.

"You're one to talk Mad. You've never even had a boyfriend."

I smacked his bicep and scoffed. "I haven't tried to get one, asshole," I told him teasingly.

"So you're saying that if you tried to get a boyfriend, all the boys will come running?" He looked over at me again with a smile. It was hard not to notice how cute he looked with his smile reaching up his cheeks and his eyes dancing with laughter. 

I shook my head, "I don't want all the boys rushing me Craige. Just one will do just fine."

"Who's the lucky guy King?" 

The question made my heart drop to my stomach. I didn't have a crush on anyone; I rarely did. So why was I nervous? "There is no guy. I was just saying..." I trailed off.

He nodded swiftly and the drumming of his fingers started up again. "How did you manage to change the subject? Anyway, back to what I was asking before." I rolled my eyes. "You, lunch with me tomorrow."

"You, me and your stupid friends. Sounds great," my voice made my sarcasm very clear.

"I thought you liked Raze," he stated, his voice curious.

I played with my hands that were resting in my lap. "He's nice; doesn't make them less stupid."

"Hey! I'll have you know, we all maintain at least 3.0 average." He tells me proudly.

I give up a little chuckle before saying, "wasn't Loki in juvie like, last month?"

"Yeah..." Ace sounds playfully defeated. "Alright smart ass, we're here."

I looked up and see my apartment building. I hadn't even noticed we were pulling into the driveway. I sigh heavily before turning to Ace. "See ya tomorrow lover boy."

"Same to you, smart ass," the smile on his face had yet to disappear. As I pulled myself out of his car, he tugged on my wrist. "Lunch?"

I nodded, "I'll think about it."