Nonofficial Love - Ace Merrill (Stand By Me) (New Version)

Chapter Three: Bitch In Heat

Rebecca had just stepped out of the bar with Ace when she turned a corner and bumped into someone.

She sneered when she seen it was her annoying little brother Chris and right beside him was his equally annoying friend, Gordie Lachance.

"Watch where you're going!" She spat.

"You walked into me, Rebecca!" Chris replied.

"Then you should've gotten out of my way," she snarled, shooing him away with her purse. "Move it! You're breathing my air."

Chris stepped aside and Rebecca shoved him. And once she had walked past he glared at the back of her head.

Just as Rebecca was walking away, the sound of scuffling feet made her turn back.

"Hey, come on, man," Gordie cried, desperately trying to reach up and grab the cap that Ace had snatched off of his head. But Ace towered over him and he smirked with every attempt Gordie made to get it back. "My brother gave me that."

"And now you're giving it to me." Ace pushed the weedy boy away with two fingers to his chest.

Rebecca leaned against the window of Irby's and watched the scuffle, she was used to Ace picking on ankle-bitters.

"Just give him the cap back, Ace," Chris spoke. "It was Denny's."

"You think I give a fuck?" Ace growled. "Could belong to Eisenhower for all I care, 'cause it's mine now."

"You're a real asshole, you know that?"

Ace took a long draw out of his cigarette and flicked it to the ground as he stepped away from Gordie and took a step towards Chris.

Chris stood tall, never faltering. And if it had been anybody else Ace might've held an ounce of respect for it.

"Your brother's not very polite, Rebecca," Ace said, his eyes never leaving Chris' who stared back at him with just as much hatred. "Didn't anybody teach him manners?"

Ace held out the Yankee cap for Rebecca to take and she obliged.

"What's the use?" she scoffed. "It'd be like trying to teach a flea how to fly."

"How 'bout I try?"

"Go ahead."

"Try your best, Ace," Chris said. "But at the end, you'll still be an asshole."

Ace laughed. It was the kind of laugh he would usually give some wise guy in the parking lot on a Saturday night before busting their nose.

Ace nodded. "I'm gonna give you the opportunity to take it back. What do you say, dickbreath?"

"Well, you would know what a dick smells like." Chris had also inherited the same quick-witted tongue that got Rebecca into trouble.

Like lightning, Ace grabbed Chris by the collar of his shirt and pinned him down on the sidewalk, he then reached out and grabbed the lit cigarette and brought it to Chris' eye.

"No use in taking it back now, motherfucker." Ace spat. "Say goodbye to your eyebrows, and then your fucking balls."

And by the grace of God - or luck of the Irish - Irby stepped outside.

"What's going on?" he roared.

Ace, in a quick but calm manner, got to his feet, yanking Chris up with him.

Chris almost lost his footing as Ace shoved him away.

"Well?" Irby asked looking at Gordie and then at Chris with concern. Surely the kids would tell him if they were in any kind of trouble.