Always There

Chapter 25

Ace sat in front of me.  His cold blue icy eyes were staring everywhere but at me.  I couldn’t take my eyes off  him.  The things he said to me and the way he made me feel all came rushing back.  Every emotion was coming at me harder, and before I could try and stop myself, I broke into tears.

My tears were silent ones and unheard by everyone in the room.  I remembered that someone had kidnapped me and forced me into this room.  I looked around the room and the faces of my 11 best friends were in front of me.  My head was consumed with so many questions, some for Ace and some for my other friends.  The only one I had the strength to put into words was.

“Why?”

“Why did we bring you here?”  Jeremiah asked.

“Yes, but not only that.  Why did you make me think you were someone else who was going to hurt me.  Why did you scare me like that?”

“Would you have come with us if we said that we wanted to get you and Ace in the same room so that you can talk things out?”

“No.”

“Exactly,”  I turned my attention back to Ace and caught his eye.  He looked at me and emotions were evident in his eyes.  He broke eye contact and then turned his attention to Jeremiah and said.

“Were you the leader of this operation?”

“Yes, Weston and I.  I was in charge of getting Caroline here, and Weston was in charge of getting you here.”

“Now what is your plan?” Ace asked sarcastically.

“You and Caroline talk it out and make up.”

“Well looks like your going to need a plan B.”  Hearing him say those words was realization that he had no intention of putting this behind us and moving forward.  

“Actually we don’t need one.  We are leaving you two here alone until you guys make up.  Neither one of you are permitted to leave until you guys are talking again.” They all exited the room and left Ace and I sitting in the center of the room in an awkward silence.  

I listened as there footsteps became more distant.  I looked in Ace’s direction and saw him sitting there staring at the ground.  I figured we weren’t going to get anywhere in the forgiving department, so I laid back on the cold cement floor and focused my attention on the very exciting ceiling. 

I laid there, tapping my fingers for what seemed like hours.  I switched to laying on my stomach and began to slowly drift off to sleep.  When I was almost asleep, Ace’s long forgotten voice echoed through the room.  

“You know we are never getting out of here unless we pretend to make up?” He asked.

“ Instead of pretending, why not just make up for real, or are you ready to throw me farther out of your life?”  That got his attention because he sat up instantly.  I followed suit and then he replied.

“I did not throw you out of my life.  You replaced me with Cole.”

“I would never and could never replace you Ace.  You are still my best friend and no one could ever replace you, no matter what.”

“Well it sure looked like he did a pretty good job of replacing me.”

“That is because you did not let me explain!”  I was shouting now.  

“No explanation was needed.  What was seen with the eye was pretty clear to me.”

“That is where you are wrong.  An explanation was needed because you jumped to conclusions and caused this whole fight in the first place.”