Cheating The Deck [boyxboy]

Cheating The Deck {13}

                Something felt different lately, though. It had felt different ever since Alexis had abandoned us. Maybe Alexis tore something when he left, but I would fix myself just like I always had.

                Always. Always. Al-

               "-ways a disappointment, Ace. Always! Al-"

                -ways keep myself together.

                I stopped walking and sat down on edge of the sidewalk, feet pressed against the road. I rested my hands on my knees, anxiously tugging at my shorts. Keep it together, Ace. Just keep it together. I'd figure something out to keep my mind at ease. I'd patch up the cracks in my brain that were letting these memories through.

                "Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall," I mumbled, reaching up and brushing my fingers against my beanie. I remembered reading that as a kid and asking my dad what it meant.

                "Men always lose their footing," he'd told me. "The higher the man, the longer the fall."

                I could remember sitting my room that night, my thoughts running wild. Beautiful things made men fall. Lucifer, Icarus...

                I stood up, sick of my thoughts. I wasn't in a beautiful heaven. I wasn't close to the sun. I wasn't Adam or Lucifer or Icarus or any man who had happiness in the palm of his hand. I was Ace Foley, I scraped away at the bottom of my own Hell, and I had a sturdy foothold.

                I moved, forced my legs to carry me down the sidewalk. A light breeze tickled at my face, blowing my hair across my forehead. I was still standing on two legs and I would move forward until I was cut down.

                Delaney's apartment came into view and I went up, ringing the doorbell and waiting. I listened as someone shuffled down the stairs, opening the door.

                "Ace," Jack said. "I can't believe I actually walked downstairs just to see you."

                I smirked at him. "I know I'm your favorite sight, Jackass. Where's Delaney?"

                "Not home." Jack stepped out, closing the door behind him and shoving me back. "Let's go for a ride until he gets back."

                I raised an eyebrow at him as he locked the front door. He turned back to me and noticed my expression, shaking his head.

                "No, no, no. I'm not trying to flirt with you," he said sternly. "Now get in the car and let's go. I'm bored and I've barely moved in the past two hours. I need to stretch and remember what sunlight is."

                I shrugged it off and got in the car with him, having nothing else to do without Delaney around. The thing about working all the time and trying to keep relatively unknown around town was that you tended not to have too many friends.

                Jack began to drive towards the plaza we had been at yesterday. He had plugged his phone in and music was playing out, a background noise that eased the silence between us.

                "Don't you work all the time?" he asked, as if reading my mind.

                "I work in the evening," I said, gesturing out the window. "This is daytime."

                "If I wanted sass, I'd go to someone funnier," he said.

                I snickered. "I think you're fond of me. Why else would you keep inviting me to hang out with you?"