Chapter 7 – Boobs, Ice Cream, and A visit from Ace
Yes, yes! The title is very weird today – weirder is the fact I put it as the title lolz! Anywayyyyy, as usual I wish you the best of luck reading my story. My fingers are numb from typing so much. This is a pretty long chapter so be warned! And please – don't forget to review ;)
Chris's POV"Oh great another Elvis tune to listen to!"
We were all in the ice cream parlour, after another rotten day at school. We usually hung there often, more than usual now than the treehouse. Outside, the sun beat down as the temperature rose. It was only April but the weather was just like the summer. It had been the hottest April since '38, and all of us were walking home from school, sweltering in the heat.
"Jesus it's hot!" Vern panted, trudging along with us.
"Well done Mr Obvious!" Brooke rolled her eyes at him and shoved him slightly, "I wish I was a guy…" she said suddenly. We all stopped and stared.
"What?" I asked, giving her a puzzled look. She sighed again.
"Because I could take my shirt off without anyone giving a shit, but because I'm a chick…"
"You can still do it, we don't mind!" Teddy winked. She gasped in mock-horror and pushed him, "You complete whore, Duchamp!"
"Aw come on, we're your friends, its not like we're complete strangers!" Teddy begged. Brooke just laughed.
"Actually, you guys just followed me, I don't know who the hell you are!" she teased, "Well apart from Chris, he's on a leash!"
"You wish!" Teddy grinned. Brooke flipped him the finger and stared up at me, "He's an ass, isn't he?"
I nodded, "Biggest one in Castle Rock!" smiling back down at her.
"Still…" Brooke started to lift her top up, we all gazed at her wide mouthed, "He deserves a treat now and then!"
"No way, she wouldn't?" Gordie gasped. Slowly, she rolled her top up. I felt my jaw drop. Teddy's tongue practically rolled out of his mouth and hit the floor. Vern & Gordie were just blank.
"That's enough where that comes from" Brooke pulled it down again and I shook my head to wipe out the thoughts.
"But…" Teddy babbled, "I deserve a treat!"
"Yeah, we're gonna go get ice cream!" Brooke giggled, "Its like as hot as an oven and its cooler in there anyway, who's up for it?"
"Sure" I smiled. She's such a tease! Poor Duchamp…
Gordie came back to earth, "Ooh ice cream!" he laughed madly, "Me LOVES ice cream!"
"We know!" I rolled my eyes. Brooke started to run, "Last one there has to bite shit!"
"We all know who it's gonna be" I laughed, starting to jog next to her, "VERNO!"
"Aw screw, you know I can't run fast!" Vern panted from behind. All Teddy could say was "Eat my dust!"
*
We arrived at the parlour minutes later; we'd been sitting there for most of the day. It was refreshingly cool down there, and like Brooke, many had the same idea to go to the parlour and it was packed full of hot sweaty customers, we'd been sitting at our usual seat watching them squeeze in, eat their ice creams then squeeze back out.
"The ice cream is on me" Brooke said happily, "But first, I'm gonna go look at the jukebox"
"Here," I flipped her a quarter, "Put summit good on, yeah?" She high fived me and jogged off to the corner of the room. I watched her tanned slender legs bouncing up and down in their short shorts and I sighed.
"Having a good time eying up Brooke?" Gordie grinned, sucking nosily on the straw of his coke. I shot him a dirty look.
"For the love of god, Gordie, why do you think I like Brooke?"
"Because you do!" Gordie replied, a smug expression on his face.
"Seriously? I don't. She's not my sort of girl anyway"
"Then what sort of girl do you like?"
I wriggled uncomfortably in my seat, "Eh, you know… chicks like that?"
"Like what?"
"You know…" I struggled to come up with a suitable suggestion, "Big tits?"
Gordie's mouth twisted into a giant grin as laughter filled the table at once. Teddy and Vern joined in with it aswell.
"Brooke does have pretty good knockers" Teddy smirked, "All big and round!"
"Like pillows!" Vern chorused, bright red in the face.
"She's a chick, they all have them," I said, "It's not a big thing if Brooke has them also!"
"Yeah but I bet if we asked her nicely she'd let us touch them!" Teddy's eyes sparkled. I kicked him from under the table.
"Shut up Teddy, you can't speak about Brooke in that way. Its gross!" I growled.
"Aw screw Chris! I know you're thinking the same as me!" Teddy grinned.
I wasn't going to admit he was right!
"I smell testosterone!" Brooke came to sit down next to me, pushing me over to the side, "What's cookin'?"
"Oh you know…" Teddy gave his trademark mad laugh, cocking his head up as he did so. He stopped suddenly.
"Oh great another Elvis tune to listen to!" he groaned, "What's with him that makes you chicks mad?"
Brooke laughed and pouted her pink lips, "Ahh, you just want a bit of that 'pelvic action' you know what I mean?"
"Actually, what Chris wants is a bit of…" Gordie began. I kicked him hard under the table, with my old coots and he groaned, "OW!"
"Chris did you just kick Gordie under the table?" Brooke asked.
"Um…no?"
Gordie gave me a look as he rubbed his leg, "Bastard!"
"So, Christopher, what was it you said you wanted?" Brooke was teasing me, the tip of her pink tongue sticking out slightly, as she nudged me in the arm, "Eh?"
"What I want…" I began, stammering slightly. If there was an award for messed up lines as you're trying to look cool in front of your best friends and also the girl you sort of like, Chris Chambers, you'd win that!
"I want some ice cream! Yeah! I want that good ol' knickerbockerglory. I'd best go over there and check out those flavours!"
I shot up from the table, almost knocking one of the Tupper babes in the process, and legged it over to the big board in the far corner. I cursed silently to myself.
Jeez Chambers, what are you? Some retard who can't get his words right? Damn, you messed that up big style. You know….
I shook my head, mumbling more curses under my breath, taking a couple of deep breaths and turned my head to face the table again. I threw daggers at Gordie, who was grinning like a cat who'd got the cream, then back at the board. About five minutes later, I felt someone prod my waist, I jumped shocked. Brooke smiled, innocently, that smile I adored so much.
"Hey Chris, have you made up your mind yet?"
"Um, no, there's quite a selection here!" I laughed nervously, running my fingers through my hair. Brooke's eyes flicked over to the board then back at me.
"Chris, there's seven flavours!"
"Yeah, pretty big selection!"
***
I never expected what happened next to have ever happened, but it did.
We'd just left the ice cream, full up on ice cream, running, laughing, hitting each other, just messing around like we usually did. Gordie and Vern were kicking dust at each other, and Teddy and I were taking turns giving piggy backs to Brooke.
"Ugh, Brooke, you are so heavy for a girl, jeez!" Teddy wobbled, jokily as Brooke screamed happily, "It's probably the weight of your tits!"
"Shut up Duchamp!" she smirked, hitting him over the head with her hand, "I'm just big for my age!"
"That's what they all say, even Vern!" Teddy snarled. Vern gave him the finger, "Go screw!"
"Okay, okay, its my turn now!" I piped up, "You've had Brooke far to long for my liking!"
"Yeah Teddy, I want a Chris back!"
"Yeah well – he wants you round front!" Teddy licked his lips and mimicked kissing.
"Shut up, you four eyed pile of shit!" I shouted, embarrassed slightly. I gave Brooke a 'don't mind Teddy, he's a loony' look, and she nodded approvingly, taking a run and jumping on my back. I caught her, puffing slightly as her weight finally hit me. She curled her long tanned legs around my waist, arms tight round my chest.
"Don't drop me," She whispered into my ear, "Or I'll kill you!"
"I won't I promise"
And that's exactly what I did, until I heard that usual revving up noise, and the loud chorus of drunken whoops coming from behind and I realised this would be big trouble. I dropped Brooke, shocked slightly as she hit the ground.
"Ouch! What the fuck, Chris" She rubbed her bottom from where she fell. I was about to explain when I heard Vern shout, "Oh Shit!"
From behind a car pulled over, and almost within seconds of the brakes hitting the floor, we were all grabbed from behind. I looked over to the car, Ace sat there, leaning on the bonnet smoking casually, before walking over. I struggled in the arms, of what felt like Billy Tessio. Eyeball had a firm grip on Brooke, who was lashing around like some mad woman. Charlie held onto Teddy, who was cursing violently, and Fuzzy and Vince were holding Vern and Gordie.
"Hey, you let her go!" I screamed at Eyeball, "And you get your filthy hands off me, Billy!"
Eyeball just laughed as she struggled violently, screaming curses. Ace was walking right up to her. He stopped at her feet. She didn't look up at him, but when she did, her face was rich with anger, bright red, her hair sticking to her face. She snarled up at Ace. He smirked at her, then blew a mouthful of smoke at her face. She coughed hard.
Ace spoke, "We finally got you kids" he grinned, "We've finally got that moment to beat the shit out of you guys" Staring directly into the eyes of Brooke, "Because of what this little whore did to me"
Brooke hocked up, and spat directly at Ace, missing his eye by an inch.
"Bite me!" She hollered. Ace looked stunned, and wiped the spit from his lower eyebrow, sighing hard.
"All right, if that's the way you're gonna play it, that's fine" Ace said calmly. I shouted suddenly, "Surely you don't have the guts to beat up a woman, what about your father Ace? You followin' his example?"
That's the one good thing I know hurts Ace, deep down, when he's afraid to show his emotions. I knew that his father, an alcoholic, usually used his mum as a regular punchbag. And Ace didn't like that one bit.
"You what?"
"You heard," I said severely. I smirked wickedly. That completely got wiped off as I felt a fist pummel into my lower intestines, doubling up in pain. Ace's fist fell back in place with the rest of his arm.
"Don't you fucking hurt Chris, you hear?" I heard Brooke scream, "Lemme at him! I swear I'll…"
I realised that Ace could feel the connection we had as I looked up, still holding onto my stomach, look of pure pain on my face.
"Oh, I see!" Ace grinned evilly, "You don't like it when I hurt Chris because it hurts you to see him in pain?"
"No!"
Ace shook his head, "Well you wouldn't mind if I did this, would you?"
Another fist to my stomach, this time twice as hard as the first. I couldn't stop myself screaming in time, when I hit the floor, and all I could do is hold my stomach. Agony was all I could describe it as.
"Stop it Ace!" Brooke was finding it hard to play it tough when all she could do was watch my squirm in Ace's grasp. Gordie started to yell at Ace to stop it and all Vern and Teddy could do was struggle in the arms of the captures. Through my dampened eyes I saw her kick and scream as my brother held onto her harder than ever. I winced, finding it hard to speak when I'd just been punched in the stomach.
"Get…off…her!" I panted.
"Why don't you make me?" Ace replied, standing with his arms folded.
I forced myself up, using every muscle I had to try to stand up. I was sweating just trying to get one arm up. I got my top half up, arm still wrapped around my stomach protectively. I was up at the waist. Then in the next second I felt Ace's big boot ram into my stomach, knocking me back down again.
"Ace STOP IT GODDAMMIT!" Brooke was starting to let the tears out. Ace just smiled, and walked a little closer to me. I was still seeing stars, when I felt a foot stamp down on my thumb. A loud crack as almost instantly, breaking it. I bit my lip to stop myself screaming again, biting down so hard I could feel blood rush to the wound.
"Ace, enough! Okay, okay, you can do whatever you want with me, just don't hurt Chris anymore! Please!"
"No…don't…Brooke…I'm fine" I coughed. I couldn't see her hurt.
"No Chris, this is my fault" Brooke sobbed hard, "Ace here, take me"
Ace walked over to her, swaggering slightly. He looked at Eyeball.
"Let her go, Eyeball"
Eyeball let her go from his grasp. She stood there, head down, whimpering silently. Ace slowly pulled her tear-stained face up, hand underneath her chin.
"Never thought I'd see the day you let your emotions out, ol' girl!" Ace smiled, "You see, Brooke, if you punch me, I don't forget. I never will"
"I'm sorry, alright?" She interrupted.
"Ah, ah, let me finish" Ace commanded, "But I like you, Brooke. You're the only chick, who has ever done that to me, and I respect you for having the guts to face upto me, and that's why I didn't hurt you, instead I took it out on this faggot. But what would really make me happy is if I could…" he paused, "…take you out sometime?"
I heard Teddy mutter; "Is he crazy?" as Brooke's face was stunned. She looked down on me, a puzzled expression on her face, then back up at Ace.
"What?"
"Do you wanna come out with me sometime?"
"I…" Brooke shook her head, "I don't know…"
"Well, how about I give you an idea?" Ace started to walk back up to me. I had managed to sit myself back up, even without any movement in my thumb. I felt his big black boot crash into my chest again, ramming me down again, groaning. His foot was over my head.
"Either you come with me one night, have a good time and possibly we could do it another time, or you don't, and this pathetic little boy will have his brains leaking out onto the road. Whattaya say?"
"No, no, Ace! Look, okay, I'll go out with you sometime okay?"
The foot moved from my head and back to solid ground and I breathed a sigh of relief. Ace nodded to himself.
"Did the right thing babe, I guess I'll see you again and we can make some plans. Boys, let the rest of them faggots go"
All at once, the gang dropped Gordie, Vern and Teddy, who stood there for a moment, as Ace and the Cobras got back into their car, and started the engine. They watched them speed off into the distance, howling with laughter. And when they knew for sure they had disappeared from sight, they ran over to me. Brooke crouched down beside me.
"Oh my god Chris, what did they do to you" Still holding onto my throbbing body, I forced myself up (with the help of Gordie). Brooke helped me up, as I yelped in pain, as Gordie and her hooked my arms around their shoulders.
"We gotta go!" Teddy and Vern started to back off slowly, then sprang into a jog. I watched them; actually quite angry at the fact they hadn't helped me. I winced as we started to walk.
"We're gonna get you some help okay?" Brooke walked slowly with me.
"Why'd…you…do…that?" I asked, still breathless.
"Do what?"
"Go…with…Ace?"
"I had to!"
I shook my head, "You didn't!"
"I did, if I hadn't, they would have killed you!"
Silence as we walked together, Brooke, Gordie and I up to a house I recognised as hers. She led me up the path and to the door. She knocked loudly. The door swung open, revealing a man most likely to be her father. He looked shocked.
"My God, Brooke, what happened?"
"I'll explain later! Just please help him!"
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, it's just Chris"
"Come in then, we'll get him sorted"
Brooke looked at Gordie, "I can take it from here"
He nodded, "You sure?"
"He's in safe hands"
He looked at me, "You can trust Brooke with your life" I smiled and nodded, "She's a great kid"
Once Gordie left, she led me inside her house into her dining area, where she sat me down on a large wooden chair, her father crouching down to inspect me.
"What happened, son?"
No way I was going to grass off Ace. That would be a double beating for today if I did, so I kept quiet.
"Some guys just beat him up real bad, I don't think he knows who it was" Brooke gave me look, as if she knew what I was thinking. I nodded.
"That's right" I said softly.
Her father finished expecting my thumb, I didn't know whether he believed me or not.
"It's broken all right! Brooke, go get the bandages from the cupboard"
She nodded, and waltzed out. I was left with her dad.
"So, you're one of Brookes friends?" he asked kindly.
I nodded, "I'm Chris Chambers"
He nodded back, "Yes, she's mentioned you before. She seems to speak very greatly of you, did you know that?"
I shook my head, "No I didn't. But you're lucky, sir, to have such a great daughter. She's a real great person"
At that moment, Brooke came through the door and passed a box to her father and took a seat next to me. She looked up at me.
"Are you feeling any better now?" she asked. I gave her a weak smile.
"Not the best I've felt, but it's not so sore" I watched her father bandage up my thumb, gently.
"Do you think we should call his father?" Her father asked suddenly.
"NO!" Both Brooke and I gave each other worried glances. Her father raised an eyebrow"
"His dad's away at the moment on business" Brooke lied for me. He sighed, as he finished bandaging my finger. By now, my stomach was at ease, although when I lifted up my shirt, I could see the redness swell from where the boot slammed into my stomach. I felt Brooke lean over suddenly and grab onto other hand, squeezing gently.
"Don't worry Chris, it won't happen again, I promise"
***
