SAVING ACE

twelve

t w e l v e

Olivia Rose Spencer

I sat at the dinner table, waiting for Phoebe to finish off her dinner, as I texted my mom. She had business to do here in Diego-by-the-sea tomorrow, so she was also picking up Oliver. My brother was in the living room reading a book and I had yet to tell him that.

"I took Ace out to ride with me," I blurted out.

"You did?" Phoebe's eyebrows rose high. "Tell me everything!"

"Okay so, do you remember him having a Harley? It was actually quite an impressive bike, all red and it had flames painted on it, it was from 2011 and had..."

"Move on, I remember."

"You can't tell this to anyone, Phoebe, I'm only telling you because I'm really stressed out about this whole situation and I want to find out what happened to Ace, why did he have to move out, I want to help him..."

"You like him, don't you?"

"Why are y'all asking me that question today? Ollie asked me the same thing this morning," I rolled my eyes. "He's my friend, obviously I care about him and I want to help him."

"Yeah, okay, Liv, continue then."

I told her about his brother, the scene that he caused at Julia's the other day and that he caused an accident with Ace. I kept my mouth shut about the scars that littered his body, that I only noticed last night. Phoebe was flabbergasted, to say the least.

"Oh my fucking God, I'm so fucking stupid!" she suddenly shouted.

"Shhhh don't swear! My brother is around, Phebs!"

"Do you remember Nicole? She was a year older than us, a cheerleader? Light red hair, blue eyes, always wore red lipstick, like, always, always, it was her trademark or something?"

"Uh... yeah? Oh, she and Ace dated didn't they?"

"Yes! They dated during a year and a half or something but they broke off just before senior prom. And do you remember who she showed up with at prom? Ace's brother! It was the talk of the school for a shit load of time... I know you don't remember this because of... y'know, but I just remembered and I think you should know this."

"Ohhhh... so that's what Ace's brother meant when he asked if Ace was jealous".

"Why, are you jealous? That they always choose..." I recalled Alexander's words.

"That they always choose me... that's what he was going to say. He 'stole' Nicole and he was taunting Ace, saying that he would also get me, if I were to be Ace's girlfriend," I shivered in disgust at Alexander's personality. "That guy sure is a scumbag, he has nothing to do with his other siblings."

Changing the topic, as I was getting nauseous just thinking about Alexander, I asked Phoebe about Jacob. She rambled on and on about how he was such a gentleman, bla bla bla. I was happy that my best friend was happy, from what Ace told me, Jacob seemed also pretty interested in Phoebe. My sister deserved nothing but the best in this whole fucking world.

Ace M. V. Williams

"Acey!"

My jackass of a best friend flung himself at me, clinging to my back. We weren't on the same lifeguarding post today, so I had been waiting for him to walk home, in order to catch up a bit.

"Are you out of your fucking mind?"

"Awww Ace, don't get mad at me!"

He got off at me and we hugged each other, as I clapped his back with more strength than it was needed.