Ace Of Spades (Complete Raw First Draft, Unedited)

Sixteen: Understanding

Katy seemed ecstatic to see me again when Ace dropped me off with the Specters that morning. When Ace and I walked in, she jumped up from where she was watching the game of pool that was being played and bounced over to us.

"Hey, Acey!" She cried, as she threw her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek. "What's up? I thought you were working today."

"I am," he responded, then gently placed his hand against my back, between my shoulder blades. "Just giving Jenna a ride here."

"I didn't think you'd come back," she admitted, enveloping me in a hug, not seeming to notice how I subconsciously stiffened when she did.

"Can I talk to you for a second?" Ace said to her, tilting his head towards a quiet corner of the clubhouse.

Katy nodded her head, her bright red hair flopping into her eyes, and followed him. I looked around, trying to ignore the way the man at the pool table was openly staring at my chest.

I folded my arms around myself, turning my back to him, and waited for Ace and Katy to return.

"Alright," Ace said as they returned to where I waited. "I'll come pick you up in a few hours, alright?"

I nodded, returning his smile, and watched him leave the clubhouse again, hearing the roar of his motorcycle as he left.

"So, you and Ace, huh?"

I turned to Katy, but, she must have misinterpreted my confusion as horror or disgust, because she laughed.

"Oh come on, Ace isn't that bad," she said, leading the way to the rooms in the back. "He's a cutie, don't you think?"

"What do you mean?" She had completely lost me.

"You're not into big, beefy guys?" She laughed again. "Don't worry, he does actually have a brain in there, among all that muscle. Shocking, I know."

"I'm sure he does," I replied, not sure what else to say.

We walked into one of the five rooms in the back, which was slightly bigger than the others, where there were couches, a TV, a book shelf and a small bar fridge, not quite as big as the one out the front.

There were a few other girls in there as well, some on their phones, others talking and laughing over beer cans or bottles of water.

"Hey, ladies," Katy called, throwing her arms in the air theatrically as we entered. "You guys remember Jenna?"

"Bonnie's mate?" Laughed one girl with green hair and tattoos up her neck.

The others all joined in, but, at the mention of Bonnie, I shrank away, slightly.

"I'm just teasing, sweetie," the girl said, grinning still. "Nah, Bonnie's a cool chick, just don't get on her bad side."

"Obviously," Katy said.

I joined them on the couch, listening to their conversations. I didn't have much to contribute, since most of it was just gossip about people they all knew or parties they'd been to.

Amity, the girl with green hair, and Claire, the third girl in the circle, tried including me in the conversation, asking me about my life, but I kept my answers short and vague.

"Where'd you grow up?" Amity asked me, rolling a ciggarette and lighting it. It smelt strange, kind of herby and not so pungent as I was expecting.

"I moved around a lot," I told her with a shrug.

"Yeah?" Amity took another drag, then handed the cigarette to her left, to Tanya, a curvey brunette I remember meeting the other day. "Do your oldies still travel?"