Damn Good Reasons **DISCONTINUED - SEE NEW VER!**

Chapter 27 - The Lament

The next two chapters are building blocks for future chapters, but they're not that exciting lol. I'm steadily working my way through it though - gotta do these less-exciting bits to get to the good stuff haha.

Vince's expression was taut and his fists were clenched as he restrained himself from chasing them down the road as they walked away. There was really no point in him doing that, and he seemed to know it. It would only lead to more fighting, and the first fight hadn't earned him anything except maybe some gratification.

Vince stared Ace down with a maddened look in his eyes that screamed, "Why the fuck did you do that?!" and yet, he uttered no words. It was like Vince thought Ace was to blame for shredding up any last chance he had with Natalie. But she chose her man, and it seemed that she wouldn't be changing her mind.

The three of us jumped the picket fence that borders Natalie's yard into the back street that runs behind the old Diner and Irby's and all the other stores in that row.

"If anyone's touched my scotch, they're dead," Ace muttered.

He and I started walking towards Irby's while Vince went in the other direction. I noticed it first and tapped Ace on the shoulder to tell him.

"Where you goin'?" Ace called to him. "Quit sulking and come have a drink." Vince didn't reply. He didn't even turn around. "Fuck you then!"

Ace held Irby's back door open for me, but I hesitated to go inside. I felt for him, but if he was gonna sit at the bar to drink and wallow over Ants all night, I didn't need to see it.

"What's your problem?" he huffed.

"I wanna go home."

"I'll grab my stuff."

"No, I mean, I'm going to my house. By myself. I think you need some time without me around. You've hardly spoken to me all day."

"The only thing I need is fucking drink. Now, come on." He grabbed my hand and pulled me inside.

After reuniting himself with his bottle of scotch, he took me up to the view which was vacant on a Wednesday night. We parked in the same spot as the first time he took me there and sat in the car for a while. In silence.

He offered me a swig of his drink, but for once, I didn't feel like alcohol. I didn't feel anything. I felt numb and redundant. Pointless.

For a whole hour, I sat there watching him drown himself. I still wanted to go home, but we were up at Castle View now, and I was hardly going to walk all those miles by myself in the dark. I began to wonder if Ace took me up there so I couldn't go anywhere. Maybe he did need me. I thought back to a few days before when he was there for me, just rocking in his chair and letting me work through it. After all, sometimes the best way to be there for someone is to just listen, even if it's to silence.

He eventually got out of the car and staggered a little – he'd drunk damn near half a full-sized bottle by this point. I'd never seen him like that before. Hell, most of the time, it was hard to tell when he'd been drinking. He was the king of handling his liquor.

With the bottle in one hand and a smoke in the other, he walked right up to the ridge of the hundred-foot drop and stared down into the thick bush and thistle below. I didn't know what he was thinking, but he certainly wasn't stepping off it on my watch. I went to him and he wobbled slightly. I went to grab him, but then he sat down with his legs hanging over the edge. I sat down next to him... legs crossed. We looked out over Castle Rock as it slept in the darkness below us.

My mind began to wander. I wondered what Eyeball and Natalie were up to down there. I wondered if Vince was OK.

"I knew her for a while before I got with her," Ace said suddenly. "This one time, I come outta Diego's and there's this chick crying on the steps. So, I go down there and she starts telling me about all this shit going on in her life. I didn't care about it - I just thought she was a fox. But she said I was a real good listener and wanted to see me again. Gave me her mother's address, and I met up with her every weekend for months. We hung out and shit, and I tried it on of course, but she was scared her uncle would find out." He laughed quietly. "They can't resist this charm forever."

He took a final drag on his cigarette and flicked it over the cliffside, and we watched the embers glide down into the valley below.

"Things were going OK until her old lady and Diego had some stupid argument. He wouldn't let Ants see her as much after that, and that meant I couldn't see Ants as much. If it was any other girl, I would've broken it off then. But she knew how to keep me around."

"You loved her."

Ace gave me a sharp look.

"Don't try to deny it. It's obvious."

He looked back out over the town and took a couple of decent swigs from his bottle.

"We tried to keep it going, but it wasn't working out. And unless Diego got killed or something, it was never gonna work in the long run. I always knew that. She always knew it. But when she saw me with you that time... fuck, the shit hit the fan that night. She'd get jealous if I bumped into ex-girlfriends and stuff while we were out, but you – she didn't like you at all. Cause you were a real threat."

"I didn't know what was going on with you two. When you... had your arm around me, I guessed you were through."

"I was ready to walk – she just wasn't ready to let me go. Cause I was the best thing she ever had. The only thing she had."

"You're not blaming yourself for what happened to her, right?"

Ace shrugged. "Maybe I could've done something."

"Like what? Follow her to Europe? Snatch her out of their clutches? This is all Diego's fault – not yours, Ace. And anyway, you once told me that this kinda thinking won't do you any good. Things happened the way they happened. Things are the way they are. And I know it's not much consolation, but you do still have me."

Ace's eyes met mine, although it was dark and I could only just make him out. "Don't give yourself so little credit," he said. "Ants or no Ants, Diego or no Diego, it was always gonna be me and you, Cass. You're my girl – you got that?"

I nodded, and he slipped a hand around the back of my neck and brought my lips to his. I sighed softly, not just because it felt so good, but because I was relieved. Not only did I feel like he was rising from whatever depths he'd sunk to, I felt like I was properly and finally his. And just like Ants, I never wanted to let him go. His arm moved down to my waist and he pulled me in closer to his side. I couldn't stop smiling and grinning so much that I couldn't kiss properly.

"Well fuck me – you're actually happy," he said. "You're usually in a sour mood."

I chuckled.  "You can talk."

He nodded, and I could see him grin in the darkness. "I'm really fucking drunk."

"I noticed.  And I'm really straight."

"Then you're on top tonight. He pulled me around to straddle him which actually scared the shit out of me considering I had nothing but air behind me going 100 feet straight down.

I pushed him onto his back on the grass, and he thought I was all in, but really, I just wanted my hands on solid ground. He pulled me to him and tried to pull my shirt over my head, but I gave him some trouble with it.

"You do remember your legs are hanging over a cliff, right," I asked.

"Oh fuck...!" he gasped. "Grandma's back."

"Oh, shut up!" I chuckled, slapping him on the arm.

"Make me," he said, devilishly.

"Alright," I grinned. I leaned down to kiss his mouth shut, and he rolled me over onto my back and half-laid on top of me, taking back his control.

"Ugh... fuck," he groaned.

"What is it?"

"I gotta take a piss."

While Ace relieved himself, I went back to the car and lay down across the bench seat to look up at the stars. When he got back, he lay down next to me, squashing in and nearly pushing me off. I turned onto my side, inwards to him, so I wouldn't roll off the edge. I pulled his T-shirt out of his jeans to untuck it and slipped my hand under there to run my fingers up his side.

But I got no reaction. He was already asleep.