Chapter 7
On this day Buttercup decided to fly home, and quickly. She was meeting Ace today at Bonsai Park in ten minutes and she had to get her bass. The house was empty when she got home, she even beat Blossom home. She didn't stay home to long, she quickly grabbed her bass, and the CD she and Elena made. As she was about to leave, she checked herself in the mirror. She was wearing one of her baggy band t-shirts and shorts, her dark raven hear was swooped back into a ponytail and her eyeliner had melted down her cheek from the warm weather. After quickly scrubbing underneath her eyes, she slung her bass over her shoulder and took to the skies heading to Bonsai park.
Even flying high overhead, the air was warm, she approached Bonsai park and landed swiftly at the entrance, the air was thick with the smell of cherry blossoms. At the park it was typical afternoon, several children were splashing and cooling off in the lake, couples lounged under the shady tress watching their kids while others rode their bikes around the paved paths. Buttercup scanned through the slew of people. She found Ace over in the far corner leaning up against a large tree far off from all the activity of the park.
He seemed to look around the park sullenly, watching all the others of the park with a mix of boredom and distaste. Like he before he had on a black graphic t-shirt that seemed to cling to his muscles nicely, and this time his signature shades covered his eyes and his greasy black hair fell lazily in his face. When he finally noticed her from across the field, he smiled and raised his hand waving at her. Buttercup grinned and made her way over to him.
"Hey kid," Ace greeted her not moving from where he leaned against the tree.
"Hey," Buttercup greeted as she felt her stomach begin to churn at thinking over the last time she saw him. The embarrassment of being drunk and stoned was coming back to her, "look I wanted to tell you that I'm… I'm sorry for throwing up all over you last time we…hung out."
"Eh no biggie," Ace shrugged it off, "I've had worse moments then that when I was drunk."
Buttercup not looked at the graphic on his t-shirt, it was of a Cobra sinking its fangs into a heart with a banner over it saying 'Venom Ink Tattoo'.
"Is that your shop in Citysville?" Buttercup questioned.
"Well…not my shop," Ace said tugging at the hem of his shirt, "it's my buddy Leo's shop, he's owned it for the last twenty somethin' years. I've worked there for about four years now."
"That's awesome, I'll have to come check it out when we get there," Buttercup grinned thinking in anticipation of tattoo. Her and the rest of the band had all made plans to get matching tattoos of roses, Mitch already had his which his mom paid for on his 18th birthday.
"Well you're gonna have to wait a bit," Ace pointed out, "we don't tattoo minors."
"Hey two more months," Buttercup asserted again and reached for the pocket on her guitar case that held the CD and held it out to him.
"Thanks," Ace said sliding it into his back pocket.
The two stood there for a moment in an awkward silence.
"So," Buttercup started to ask, "you're staying with Arturo now?"
"Yeah," Ace nodded as he sat down in the grass and invited Buttercup to sit with him, "he owns a really good Mexican food joint near the dump and he's letting me stay with him. I actually decided to stick around a little while longer because I got a booth to go tattoo at the Skater Boyz fest."
"Oh the band and I tried out for a spot to play at the festival but we didn't get in," Buttercup stated as she got comfortable opposite from him under the shady tree.
"That sucks," Ace responded.
Again, awkward silence. They both just sat there unsure of what to say really so Buttercup grabbed for her bass.
"So how'd you get into playing?" Ace asked as he watched her.
"Actually it was when I was around twelve or thirteen," Buttercup started to say as she pulled the strap over her shoulder, "Elena had been my best friend for a few years and her dad played guitar and he taught her how to play. I always loved listening to her play and she got me into really awesome punk and classic rock music, that was where I really got my passion for it. And for my birthday her and her dad bought me this bass and I started to teach myself."
Ace smirked, "I always figured you'd end up doing something like that."
Buttercup smiled and paced her hand on the neck, "Yeah… I don't know what I would do without Belladonna. She's basically the only escape I get from my life."
"Is everything ok?" Ace asked.
"What do you mean?" Buttercup replied unsure of what he meant.
"I mean," Ace said running his hand through his hair slicking it back, "you talk about leaving a lot and you seem… different."
"Well you're a lot different from what I remember," Buttercup pointed out eyeing his muscly arms, now that they weren't standing in a dark alley she could see some ink on the inside of his forearm.
"Yeah… I guess we've both changed," Ace replied simply and glanced down at his tattooed arm and held it up, "I've only got five tattoos right now, this one is a Banksy style street rat."
There was something oddly cute about the rat, Buttercup thought. Next to it was also some simple graffiti style letters that said 'I'm not trash'. Buttercup looked at Ace with a pained look and wondered if he there was a deeper meaning behind this tattoo.
"So play something' for me," Ace said leaning back resting on his hands, "I wanna hear you play."
Buttercup now felt self-conscience, she didn't understand why she felt nervous about playing in front of Ace, "What do you want to hear?"
"Anything," ace said and smiled warmly at her, is fangs poking out of his smile.
Buttercup wished he'd take is glasses off again, she remembered his deep brown eyes. With her hand on the neck of the guitar, she took a deep breath and started to strum. She decided to start with the most melodic song for bass, it was one of their more quiet and sad songs, it was a song about Elena's parents' divorce. For the next half hour, Buttercup just went through playing various songs that she knew. She even knew how to play a few songs that Ace had asked about.
"Hey you're pretty good kid," Ace acknowledged with approval, "if this CD is as good as it think it is you'll all do great in Citysville."
"I just can't wait to get out of here," Buttercup said rolling her eyes.
Ace looked her over speculating, "Buttercup… are you sure everything's ok?"
Buttercup felt her stomach turn a bit, she thought to all of the tension back at home and the drama between her sisters and the professor.
"It's all just stupid drama," Buttercup said trying to find the words, "the Professor has just been acting weird lately."
"Weird how?" Ace asked.
"He's just…" Buttercup said sighing, "really stressed I guess and I just don't think any of us really know whats going on right now."
"He hasn't been like," Ace started to say delicately, "he hasn't hit ya or anything has he?"
"No," Buttercup responded, "he wouldn't ever do that to us."
"Good," Ace replied and changed the subject, "So how's Bubbles? She ok?"
"Yeah," Buttercup said and told him about how Boomer got a job with the police force full time and they gave him a small apartment and how they planned to live together.
"Good for her," Ace said smiling warmly, "she's a nice girl…and Blossom?"
"Still annoying," Buttercup replied simply rolling her eyes.
"Hey be cool," Ace pushed, "she's your sister."
"Yeah the most controlling sister I've ever had," Buttercup explained, "she tries so hard to keep the professor happy and all the while she's trying to steamroll everything me and Bubbles do."
"I get that but she's still your family," Ace responded.
Buttercup regarded the grown man next to her curiously. The last she remembered of him he was a selfish, angry and manipulative smooth talking kid. He would constantly pick on anyone that he could take advantage of them, spray painting and graffitiing all over town, constantly stealing cars and anything he could from stores and even pushing around his gang brothers to do his bidding. Now here he was, more mature and calm and talking to his teen hood nemesis about the importance of family and encouraging her to do the right thing.
"What?" Ace asked with a small smile.
"Huh?" Buttercup said snapping out of her gaze embarrassed upon realizing that she had been staring at him for the last minute.
"Penny for your thoughts?" Ace asked.
Buttercup chuckled and started to say, "Well… you're just so different for what I remember. I mean last time I saw you, you were always so…angry and mean. Now you're like a totally different person."
Ace's jaw clenched but still hung onto every word that Buttercup was saying. Buttercup could tell his mind was running with the look on contempt on his face as he said, "Yeah… a lots happened since then. I'm not the same man I was before."
Buttercup was reminded of the first day she had seen him a few weeks ago, alone and crying in a grave yard. She still didn't know who he was mourning and she didn't feel it was her place to ask.
"Will you tell me?" Buttercup asked softly as the cool summer breeze blew her ponytail, "What happened when you guys left."
Ace shifted besides her, changing his position, "Well… let's just say the system finally caught up with us. Arturo was a runaway kid that had been missing for a few years once he got caught he got sent back to his family. It didn't last long though, he just ran away again to come back here to be with his girl and now they own that Mexican joint. Billy's family was sick of us hanging around their son so they moved to a Florida when he was seventeen and Grubber got sent to a 'special needs' facility in another state, I get emails from them every once in a while, and I think they're doing fine. My and Snake got sent to a detention center in Citysville because the one here in Townsville was full."
Like Ace, Buttercup held onto every word he was saying, picturing each of the boys that she for one night when she was six considered to be her friends. She was curious of how each of them would ultimately end up.
"Then what?" Buttercup pressed on.
Now Ace's look of contempt changed to anger, a face that Buttercup recognized well.
Ace sighed and ran a hand through is hair and started talking quickly, "Same shit just a few years older really… once I got out of the detention center started stealing, and painting walls all over Citysville. I got caught up with the wrong people, worse than any of the shit that the Gang Green Gang ever pulled in this town. From there I got really deep into drugs, and drinking and fighting."
Buttercup watched him tell his story with wide eyes picturing Ace on the streets of Citysville
"Eventually I got caught dealing and went to a jail in New York for two and half years," Ace confessed with a look a guilt.
"You were in jail?" Buttercup asked surprised. Usually all the things that Ace did was stupid petty stuff that he managed to get away with, and even then, it he always usually ended up in a juvenile delinquent center.
"Yeah and you know what? That was probably the best thing that ever happened to me," Ace confessed, "while I was in, I couldn't get to any of the drugs I was addicted to. The withdrawal was some of the most painful shit I had to go through. The people I was locked up with, they were all rapist and murderers. I was a just stupid kid who thought I was tough shit and could handle anything, all those guys in there set me straight real quick. My parole officer knew I was into graffiti so he gave me pencils and a pad of paper and told me start drawing instead of fighting. I learned to keep to myself and all I would do all day long is just draw. For the first time in my life I found something that I love that wasn't drugs or fighting. Once I got out I was living in a halfway house and I promised myself to turn around and I met Leo who I apprenticed with for little over a year and ended up getting a job at Venom Ink."
Buttercup sat there letting everything that Ace had told her sink in, "And now…here you are."
Ace nodded with a still dreamy look on his face as he quietly said, "here I am."
The sun was starting to set and the park was beginning to clear out. The sky glowed a bright orange color as the sun warmed Buttercup's skin. She could picture every part of his life and how it played out. She understood that everything that had happened had shaped and changed the boy she knew into the man who was now sitting next to her. She never really had any idea about what had happened to her old crush. As the years had passed, she had come to momentarily forget about them as life went on.
