Ace Of Spades (Complete Raw First Draft, Unedited)

Twenty- One: Comfort

Ace and I were in the back of the car, and he felt for my hand in the dark, enclosing my fingers in his.

"You tell me if you want to go, okay?"  He said to me, stroking the back of my hand with his thumb.  "If it gets to be too much, we can leave."

I nodded.

"Thank you, Ace," I said quietly, and he tilted his head questionably.

"For what?"  He asked, and I stared at his hand, which was still grasping mine.

"For being so understanding."

"You don't need to thank me," he replied, his eyes soft, but I shook my head.

"Seriously," I insisted.  "You've made things so much easier for me with how kind you've been, and I'm so grateful for it."

He smiled and gently and squeezed my fingers, bringing my hand to his mouth where he brushed a gentle kiss against my knuckles, leaving my skin tingling from his touch.

Marcus obviously wasn't much of a gardener.  There were a few woody daisy bushed out the front, overgrown with long grass, but nothing else.  His front lawn was cut short, and the four of us made out way across it to the backyard where we could hear the sounds of multiple people talking and laughing over the music that was playing.

We were greeted warmly by everyone, becoming lost in a sea of unfamiliar faces, and I clung to Ace's side, trying to breath normally to calm my racing heart.

Ace's arm went firmly around my shoulders, and I tried to relax and enjoy myself like everyone else was.  This was for Ace, and I didn't want to ruin it for him by panicking and running away.

He introduced me to a few people, men from his club and their significant others, and I smiled politely every time. Ace handed me a beer, uncapping his own, and we went to find Bonnie and Clyde, who were talking to Axe and Marcus, laughing over something Bonnie said.

"Hold on," Axe was saying as we joined them, turning to Clyde.  "You're the one who told me that girls were nothing but trouble, and the first thing you do when you got out was go and make one your wife?"

Axe was looking at him incredulously, and shook his head.

"Imagine if the boys could see you now."

"I still stand by that statement," Clyde insisted, smirking at Bonnie.  "We met under some pretty weird circumstances, and she's been nothing but trouble since."

"Get fucked," Bonnie cried indignantly.  "I literally can't take you anywhere without you causing some sort of trouble."

Axe laughed again, thumping Clyde roughly on the back.

"It's nice to know that some things don't change."

Bonnie wasn't drinking, because, she said, she was working in the morning, in one of the local tattoo studios, so she would be the designated driver.  Ace and Clyde made up for her sobriety, and both ensured that I had a drink with me at all times.  It wasn't long until my head was swimming and I was smiling stupidly, leaning heavily on Ace.

There were groups of people dancing over in the corner where the speakers were set up.  Bonnie refused to go with Clyde, insisting that he was too drunk to even walk in a straight line.  Unfazed by her refusal, he shrugged and turned to Ace, who, just as intoxicated as Clyde, was more than hapy to oblige, and the two of them waltzed clumsilyaround the place together, much to everyone's amusement.

"They're a pair of clowns," Bonnie said, rolling her eyes at me.  "I don't know who's the bigger fool out of the two of them."

I giggled, finishing off the drink I was curently holding, and Bonnie eyed me.

"How man of those have you had, now?"  She wondered.

I tried to count, but I honestly had no idea, so I shrugged.

"Maybe... too many," I confessed, right as Clyde and Ace rejoined us.

"You missed out," Clyde slurred, leaning on Bonnie.  "You're officially no longer my dancing partner, forever."

"I'm quite okay with that," Bonnie insisted, placing her hand against his chest.

"What about Jenna?"  He teased, turning to me.

When he smiled, his grey eyes lit up warmly, contradicting their cool colour, and it suddenly occued to me that he didn't look so threatening, as he once did.  It was hard to imagine that I was ever scared of him in the first place.

"Leave Jenna alone," Bonnie scolded.  "She doesn't want to be seen with you, anymore than the rest of us do."

We stayed for a few hours, mingling with the people from Ace's childhood, and I was surprised at how much I actually enjoyed myself.  It had gotten late, and people were starting to head off.  Clyde wandered around, collecting empty cups and bottles, putting them into a pile, and Ace found a black rubbish bag from inside and threw them all in, much to Bonnie's dismay.

"No, you recycle glass, you idiots!"  She told them and began sorting through, seperating the piles into two.

"I dare you to ask her about landfills impact on the environment," Clyde told Ace, but he cringed, shaking his head.

We were some of the last people to leave, but, once we had helped tidy up the place somewhat, we made our way back to the car, and Bonnie dropped us home.