A Safe Haven

Six

Sitting on his bed with his legs bent upwards, Ace looked at his burner flip phone.  It had all of his gangs numbers on it but he hadn't called any of them.  He had told them he didn't know when or if he would be back and put his second in charge so most likely they were moving on without him. Taking Allisons number that he had written on a piece of paper, he added it into the phone when he looked up seeing somebody looking at him curiously.

"Whatcha doing?"  Spencer asked with a half smile and leaning against the doorway ledge.

Ace closed the flip phone and stuck it back in his back pocket. "Nothing. I'm just sitting here. What were you were screaming about earlier?"

Spencer screwed up his face as if he was deep in thought. Then he sighed and said, "I don't remember. Do you wanna play with me?"

Ace looked at the kid raising an eyebrow. The kid was 11 or 12 and acted more immature than that in Ace's opinion. He should tell him to buzz off  but instead he shrugged. "Maybe. What do you play?"

Spencer clapped as if Ace had said the magic word. "We could play Mario Kart? It's my favorite video game."

"How about something physical like basketball. I've been sitting on my ass all day," Ace said itching to get out and do something.

"I have a soccer ball. Do you want to play that?"

"Sure but you'll have to teach me. I've never played that," Ace said getting up and watching Spencer run to his room. He came back with his soccer ball. 

"Come on," he said leading Ace outside into the back where he saw a couple goalie nets that were set up. 

"You play this with your dad?" Ace guessed seeing everything set up.

"Yeah and he's real bad at it," Spencer said and laughed as he warmed up with the ball kicking it with his feet and knee's. "He likes baseball," he said and made a face.

Ace smiled and knew he was going to be real bad at it too. "Okay so what do I do?"

"I'll start and you get the ball away from me with your feet or knees only and aim for the blue goalie and I'll aim for the red. You can only use your feet or knee's to move the ball, but were not really playing because we don't have goalkeepers or enough players. It's just for fun," Spencer explained and without further ado kicked the ball up.

Ace had a feeling he wasn't getting the whole picture here as he went after the ball, attempting to kick it towards the goalie net, but Spencer was too good as he intercepted and kicking the ball the other way. He seemed to be an expert at keeping the ball within his feet space and in trying to kick the ball away from him, Ace ended up kicking Spencer who yelled, "Owww!" and fell on the ground. He had his face down and was holding his leg as he cried.

Ace went towards the boy. "Hey I didn't mean to do that." He looked around wondering if he should get Mark. The boy seemed really upset as he leaned down touching his shoulder. "Hey are you okay?"

Suddenly, Spencer pops up smiling. "Fooled ya!"

Groaning and rolling his eyes, Ace said, "Well I think I'm done. I suck at this."

"No don't go," Spencer grabbed his arm. "We don't have to play like that. We can just kick it back and forth for fun."

"Oh alright," Ace said and began kicking the ball back and forth using his feet which was harder than it looked.  He wasn't sure how long they were at it, when Mark walked outside. He felt like he was starting to get better, when Mark said, "Spencer its getting dark. I'd like you to take a bath."

Spencer looked like he was about to have another tantrum when Mark added, "If you do that without complaint, I'll let you play a couple of video games before bed."

Spencer stared at Mark pouting for a long moment, but finally said, "Ah okay." Then he stomped inside towards the bathroom.

Ace was sweating and ready for a shower as well but he could tell Mark had something on his mind. "What is it?"

"Was you in my office?" Mark asked obviously trying to make it sound casual.

Ace's first impulse was to get defensive and he would have if Marks tone had been hard.  After a pause, he said, "Yeah. What about it?" 

Mark took a deep breath and let it out. "I want to talk to you about what you saw on my computer. After Spencer goes to bed will you come to my office?"

"Okay but I need a shower too," Ace said and Mark directed him to another bathroom that was near Aces room. "Thanks," he said going inside and closing the door. He started the water getting it to a nice hot temperature that he liked, but wasn't scalding hot. As he let the water wash over him, he wondered why Mark hadn't yelled at him and what he was going to say at his office. 

Thanks for reading. I don't play soccer so if I'm totally off, that is why. I hope you enjoyed, vote and comment if you liked it.