Disclaimer: Not mines. Anything mention here isn't mines.

Who did Ace Merrill think he was?

Jane Dawson thought to herself as she walk through the front door with a slam.

"Honey, is everything alright?" She heard her mother call from the kitchen.

"It's fine Mom." Jane called back as she went to her room. She had dump her pack into her desk chair before falling down on her bed. She couldn't believe how her afternoon had gone.

She and her friends had decided to go to the Blue Point to get something to eat and talk about their plans for the weekend. It only took a couple of minutes before they heard the front door jingle and in came Castle Rock's local troublemakers, making loud noises before heading to a booth.

"Just ignore them." She muttered as she scanned her menu. But she once made the mistake of looking up over the rim and saw Ace Merrill staring at her. She quickly looked back down but it was too late. She heard the scuffling of keds scrapping against manoleum before it stop and heard a throat clearing. Grudgingly, she look up and saw the man himself, hands in his pockets and a smirk on his face, jeans and T-shirt too tight and too much grease in his hair.

"Hey Jane, never thought I see you here." He said to her, "Why don't you and I blow this place and I take you out somewhere real nice like?"

Jane had to use everything in her power to keep her eyebrow from rising.

"No thank you."

"Why not? A healthy girl like you shouldn't hold herself up with schoolwork." He said, eyeing her pack full of books.

She pulled a strain of hair behind her ear. "I'm not really in the dating mood. Especially after the incident a month ago."

Ace just snickered. "So because Golden Boy kicks the bucket, you become a nun?"

Jesus Christ, did he not hear what he just said?!

"I better get going." She muttered under her breath. "I'll see you all tomorrow?" She asked her friends as she got up from their table. She tried to make her leave but Ace Merrill tried to stop her.

"C'mon, at least let me get you a coke." He offered, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't touch me!" She yelled, giving him a good shove in the process before making it out the door.

She couldn't believe he tried to ask her out even knowing she was still recovering from Denny's death. How could he had possibly thought she was ready to start seeing other people after boyfriend had been tragically killed in a jeep accident?

He probably didn't care, why would he?

Despite everything that happen, it had taken every ounce of her willpower not to kick him in his knee or slap him across the face. Now she was stuck walking all the way home with a weird tingle on her shoulder.

She didn't know what it was about him. He certainly wasn't handsome, at least, not in a conventional way. His eyes were piercing and cold—not the kind of eyes that danced and smiled, letting you know how special you were or that your company was enjoyed. His face was rugged and fuzzy, like he rarely ever used a razor. Hair bleached blond and smothered in grease. She rarely saw him at school and she figured that, if he still lived with his parents, they had probably thrown him out of the house years ago. No, he wasn't a handsome boy, and he certainly wasn't nice or respectable either. He was destined to grow up bitter and alone, sulking in some dark hole reminiscing about the "good old days" or dying young because he got into some trouble with some bad people. He definitely wasn't marrying material, the type to settle down and raise a family …

Not like Denny anyway.

Denny with his smooth complexion, pointed features, gentle smile, and the most gorgeous brown eyes she had ever seen. Denny with his letterman jacket and all the friends a guy could ask for. She had felt so honored, so privilege, to feel him hold her hand or put his arm around her. To look at her like she was the only person in the world that mattered. And yet, despite her better judgement, she had to admit there was something about Ace that made him just as attractive as Denny. If not a little more.

Thinking back to the incident at the Blue Point, she had to admit, being in such close proximity with Ace, the musky tone he uses in his voice and the light touch on the shoulder, made her want to explode, or implode in this case. It had awaken something inside her, like she had been asleep all this time and had just woken up from an eternal dream. Denny was nice, nice and safe, but Ace had a certain unpredictability about him. It's amazing how one simple touch (at least for someone like Ace) had stirred something inside her.

She had overheard girls at school talk about spending nights with members of Ace's gang and she had to laugh at the thought. How could these girls be so stupid as to not realize they were the ones being used, not the other way around? How could any upstanding girl, such as herself, want to be with a hood? And yet, a dark part of mind entertained the thought of spending a night in his bed, or if she was being realistic, the back of his car. And for what? A moment of awkward intimacy followed by something even more unbearable: the thought of knowing what, or rather who, she had done. It didn't make any sense but a tiny part of her yearning for it.

Yes Ace Merrill was a pain, a pain Castle Rock was stuck with until the day he decided to leave this place for good. He was the type of person nobody liked, yet respected for some godforsaken reason with very few having the guts to stand up to him. He was completely wrong for her in every way but for one brief moment she couldn't shake the thought of being with him.

He was right that one day she would have to get over Denny and move on with someone else.

Could that someone be Ace?

Stupid hood, making her all fluttery inside.

Who did Ace Merrill think he was?

The End.