I lightly traced the tattoo on Ace's arm with my finger as I lay next to him. "Cobras" was printed in uppercase lettering underneath a snake entwined around a switchblade. It had been done professionally, unlike the other guys who got DIY jobs with a razor blade. Ace told me that Eyeball had designed it. I hadn't seen any of his other work, but from what I'd heard, Eyeball's drawing skills were direly undervalued. They said his crafty hand had developed with all the time he spent doodling in class and detention.
I thought about Natalie - also an artist.
I cooked Ace a pancake breakfast. I was generous with the maple syrup and added strawberries to sweeten him up as I tried for my best chance of getting what I wanted without him putting up a fuss.
"I'm going to see Eyeball," I told him as he finished the first serving.
He looked at me as he took another stack of hotcakes and smeared them with butter. "What for?"
"Because I don't like the animosity between us. I don't want him to hate me."
"He probably hates me more than he hates you, but I don't give a fuck."
"Well, I do. Eyeball's been nothing but good to me lately, and I feel bad for him that he lost Natalie."
"It's not about losing the girl. He don't like losing to Vince. There's always a competition between those two."
"I guess."
Ace sat back in his chair and just stared at me. It was one of those scrutinizing stares of his that I hate because it means he's onto me about something. "Whatever's going on between you and Vince, I'm gonna find out about it one way or another – you know that right?"
I looked down at my plate as I worked on getting a forkful of pancake – an excuse to avoid those eyes.
"If he's taking advantage of you in any way whatsoever, I'll fucking floor him."
"It's nothing... serious. It's nothing worth getting offside with him. You need him."
"And he needs to be kept in line."
"Like I said, it's nothing serious. I'm going to find Eyeball." I rose from my chair, and Ace did the same, blocking my way as I went to leave. He placed a warm hand on my cheek and then leaned in to give me a kiss that reminded me he was on my side.
"I'll be at the garage all day," he said after a bit. "Got a couple of cars to ship out tonight and some still need work."
"Is that because you've been... distracted lately?" I grinned coyly. "You've been slacking on your job?"
"Stop giving me that look or neither of us are going anywhere."
"Well... I'm not in an rush. Are you?"
He smirked before hedging me in and urging me through the house to our room.
-2-
It was late in the afternoon by the time I arrived at the Chambers residence. Eyeball hadn't been at Irby's and, quite frankly, I didn't know many other places to look for him. I stood at the bottom of his steep gravel driveway, feeling a little hesitant to go up there. Not because of the family's reputation, but because I might see Chris. Isn't that Ironic?
Rumors seem to be carried by the breeze in Castle Rock, and there was no doubt he would have heard about Ace and I. If I saw him I wouldn't know what to say. Chris usually scarpered as soon as the sun came up, but if his folks had told him to watch the kids, he could have been home. I decided to take my chances.
My runners rolled on loose stones with every uphill step, and as I neared the top, a large derelict house was revealed to me. Nobody was in sight, and the quietness of the property gave the place an eerie feeling of abandonment. The once-white exterior was caked in dirt and dust, and a few of the rotting weatherboards had fallen loose from their rusty nails. Painted on the front door in dirty red lettering was, "Door fucked. Use back," so I nervously made my way up the side of the house in search of a second entrance.
I found the back door wide open, and it was fronted by a ratty fly screen that swayed in the light breeze. I took a breath for confidence before stepping up to the doorway and rapping my knuckles on the wooden frame.
The house remained silent.
I peered down the long-neglected hallway that had bare floors and torn wallpaper. I wondered if anyone was home or if it was as abandoned as it looked. It was then that I noticed him. A little boy, no more than five years old, was peering out from one of the doorways in the hall. I could only see one eye and a mop of blond hair to begin with, and then he curiously stepped out as if to get a better view of me. He stood barefoot, and his legs were filthy like he'd been playing in the dirt all morning. With longish blond hair and big blue eyes, he was a miniature of Chris.
"Hi, is your mommy home?" I asked him. "Or your big brother, Eyeball?"
"Mama's not here," he replied in a tiny voice before bolting back into the room, out of sight.
I knocked again, a little louder this time, and out rang the voice of a mature male. "I heard ya! Hold your fuckin' horses!"
A solid, gray-headed man soon staggered out of the room at the end of the hallway and dragged his feet all the way to the door. He opened the fly screen and held the doorway for support as his bloodshot eyes ran up and down and all over me. You could tell that he'd been handsome in his younger days – as all the boys were in this family - but years of alcohol abuse had buried his good looks underneath blue skin and thread veins. It was like meeting an old, rugged, unshaven, potbellied version of Eyeball.
"What?" he said.
"Is Eyeball here?"
"Well. Not too often we get one of his floozies come wanderin' 'round here."
"I'm not... we're not... I just need to see him."
"Shit. You're another one of 'dem social workers, aren't ya? Well, I look after my kids good, you hear? At least I don't piss off like their fuckin' mother does every other week!"
"Woah, woah, I'm not a social worker. I'm just a friend."
"You think I'm stupid? He ain't never had a friend that didn't have a cock 'n balls. Now get the fuck off my property and leave us alone!" He slammed the fly screen in my face and then tried to slam the back door closed too, but it stuck fast on its rusty hinges and refused to budge. "Ah fuck! Worthless piece of fucking shit!" He took a swing at the door with his fist, and since that only bruised his knuckles, he proceeded to put the boot in. Literally. They were steel-capped, and he lay into the door, kicking it over and over as if it were some jerk who had just mouthed off to him in a bar. His foot went straight through the bottom panel, and it was only then that he seemed satisfied that the door had paid its dues.
He took a step back and paused before calmly saying, "Where's my bottle?" He then trudged back down the hallway and skulked back into the lair from which he came.
I noticed the little boy peering around his doorframe again. He'd obviously seen his father's assault on their back door. As soon as I made eye contact with his sad little eyes, he retracted back into the room and out of my sight.
--2
When I walked around the corner to go back the way I came, I was surprised to see Eyeball sitting on a ledge with his legs hanging out the window.
"Sounds like you met the old man," he said before taking a draw on a cigarette.
"Yes," I said, still feeling a little rattled.
"What you want?"
"You wanna take a walk?"
He shrugged and jumped out of the window, landing beside me.
Eyeball lived on one of the rural sides of town and there were no sidewalks there, so we were literally walking down the road. We passed Keith's street, and I couldn't help steal a glance down it.
"I don't want you to be angry with me," I told Eyeball frankly. "You and me seem to get along, and I want to keep it that way."
He said nothing and sucked on his cigarette like he was draining it for every bit of stress relief it would offer him. "It ain't just you. Vince - I can't believe that asshole. I'm supposed to be his bud. And Ace - I've always stuck right by his side, forever, since we was little kids."
"Ace thinks Natalie's just another competition between you and Vince."
"Well, it ain't like that!" Eyeball parked himself on a low stone wall that we'd been walking alongside and flicked his butt onto the tarseal. I sat next to him as he stared up the road for a little bit, anxiously bouncing a leg. "Has she ever... said anything about me?" he asked.
I wanted to tell him 'no' for so many reasons. But I couldn't lie to Eyeball. Not after what he'd done for me.
"Cass?"
"She..."
"Jesus, does she want me or not?"
"Yeah," I said softly, unable to look him in the eyes. "More than she wants Vince. Far more."
"Well... what the fuck, Cass?"
"I'm sorry, OK? I didn't know you felt the same way. I mean, you were with Carol!"
Eyeball scoffed and shook his head but didn't continue to hammer me, so I guess he understood where I was coming from.
"I gotta get her back," he stated, quite matter-of-factly.
"But... Ace said..."
"Maybe it ain't all about what Ace says. Maybe life ain't all about what Ace says. You know a while back when we was talkin' in Irby's? And you said I should've tried to stop Ace when he pulled that knife on Chris?"
"Yes, but I wasn't there. I shouldn't have said that."
"What if he'd done it? What if Chris was fucking dead now? That'd be on me. And I'd be livin' with it. Mom would be livin' with it. She'd be a fucking mess. Everything would be a mess. All because I backed down. And, what if I back down again now? Huh? What if I let Nat slip away when, maybe, if I'd told Ace to go fuck himself, Nat and me could be together. Like officially. Maybe I might even marry her. Maybe she might even have my kids."
"Eyeball..."
"Maybe none of that'll happen; I don't know, but maybe it could."
"So, what you're saying is, backing down or standing up to Ace could determine your future."
"Exactly!"
"Wow... you do really like her," I chuckled. "And you said you hung out with her a bit? How?"
"Me and Nat got talkn' heaps sometimes when she hung 'round with Carol. But I dunno 'bout her folks. She can't be stuck in there forever, right?"
"She said she wants to leave. She loves her parents, but she hates it there. She wants to walk out."
"Yeah?" he smirked. "I knew she would. She acts real shy and all but, there's just somethin' about her, you know?"
"There's a strength in her."
"Yeah. So, when are you gonna help me go see her?"
"I dunno if that's such a good idea..."
"Come on, Cass," he said, backhanding me on the arm, unintentionally hard. Luckily, it wasn't my sore one.
"If you wanna go all gung-ho and stand up to Ace, that's your choice. But I'm not doing anything behind his back. This isn't my fight. It's yours."
"Are you shittin' me? What about Nat, huh? You're her friend, right? You want her to lose it to Vince?"
"No..." I blushed. "But, that's her decision. And anyway, you're not exactly the most loyal guy in town."
"Who said!"
"I hope you won't be seeing that redhead anymore if you get with Natalie."
"Aw, she was just somethin' to get at Vince. Cute, but nothin' serious."
"Well, you better treat Natalie right. That's all I'm saying."
"I will. Now, you gonna take me or not?"
I sighed. "I can't."
"Why the hell did you come here today then, huh? If you don't wanna help me? If you don't wanna help Nat?"
"Ace and I are good right now and I wanna keep it that way. If I help you, he'll find out. He always finds out."
Eyeball huffed. "You know, I liked you better when you and Ace weren't together. And I wouldn't have done nothin' to do with that if I knew gettin' with him would turn you into a pussy!"
"Eyeball!"
He abruptly stood and started walking down the road and away from me without looking back.