Opposites (Ace Merrill Fanfic)

9

As Ace sat down on the back part of his car, Lizzy headed towards him and sat beside him. Reaching into his pocket, Ace took out a cigarette and lighter and lit it. The rest of The Cobras were whispering among themselves with smug faces.
'Do they talk?' Lizzy whispered to Ace, laughing.
'Cmon boys' Ace said loudly, 'give a warm welcome to our guest'
Lizzy smiled and waved awkwardly as the boys welcomed her with overly enthusiastic 'hellos' and 'welcome, Lizzy'
'Better?' Ace turned to ask Lizzy to which she nodded back to him as he took a long drag of his cigarette.
'Hey Eyeball, pass me a beer' Ace called over to Eyeball who was sitting next to a box filled with beers.
The beer went through the air, lightly passed from Eyeball and firmly caught by Ace.
'One for the lady?' Eyeball asked, nodding his head at Lizzy.
'No thanks, I don't drink...or smoke for that matter' she said laughing slightly, dodging from the smoke from Ace after another drag of his cigarette.
'Not even a sip?' Eyeball asked curiously.
'Nope' she smiled awkwardly once again.
As Lizzy looked around at all the confused faces around her, probably because Ace was going for a girl who didn't even drink or smoke, she felt her cheeks beginning to get warm.
'Just the way I was brought up I guess' she attempted to justify herself over the mutters of the boys.
'Here' Ace said extending his arm towards her, offering her his bottle of beer.
As she slowly accepted it, she held it for a second, debating whether to drink it or not. All her life, she had lived under her Dad's rules, one of them being no alcohol. Oh well. She thought to herself as she took a large mouthful of the beer. She was already breaking her Dad's rules by being here. However, she couldn't swallow the foreign taste of alcohol as it burned her mouth. And so, Lizzy spat out the beer all over the ground, the boys's laughs following.
'How can you drink that?' She asked, wiping her mouth.
'Don't know babe' Ace answered, chuckling, taking the bottle of beer back off her.
'Don't laugh' she said, jokingly shoving him to which he smiled back at her.

The next few hours quickly went by. Lizzy and the Cobras talked and messed on and laughed. Soon enough she didn't feel like so much of an outsider anymore. She gave them girl advice, even though they acted like they didn't need it, and told them stories about where she used to live while they made jokes about each other and lightly teased her about the beer-spitting incident.

As Lizzy glanced down at her watch she was surprised to see it was 5:40.
'Ace' she quietly said, leaning in closer to him, 'I better go, I have to be back by 6'
'I'll drive you' Ace said, hopping off the back of the car.
'Bye' she waved to the rest of the boys to which they all shouted bye back to her.
*
'Is here okay?' Ace asked as he pulled up just before her house.
'Yeah, that's great. Thanks' Lizzy smiled and stepped out the car. She started to walk away but after 2 steps, turned back around and leaned into the car.
'I had a really good time' she told him
'Me too' he smiled
'I was nervous at first but after a while I actually had fun' she laughed slightly.
'I'm glad babe' he smirked.
'You're not as bad as people say you are, or as bad as you think you are for that matter' she exhaled.

Ace stayed silent. He didn't know what to say. Even his face had a blank look.
'Good night, Lizzy' he said
'Night' she said back to him with a small smile.
Ace sat there for a few seconds. He was the leader of the Cobras. One of the toughest, if not the toughest, gang in Castle Rock. Yet he just got told that basically he doesn't live up to the expectations that he should. Adding to this, his focus is on chasing after a girl that is so different to the girls a Cobra would normally go after. That's why I've been giving off the wrong impression. He reasoned with himself.  What kind of a leader would he be if he cared more for a girl than The Cobras? He decided then that he would prove Lizzy wrong, that he did live up to what people said about him, even if that meant she wouldn't like him anymore. I have a reputation to retain, that's more important. He thought to himself as he sped off to meet the boys again.