Chapter 2:
Billy Tessio stopped by the diner the following day with an agenda. He breathed out slowly before summoning up his courage to ask Ace a favour. Ace was not known for his fondness of granting favours to his friends but it couldn't hurt to ask right?
"Hey Ace, could you drop me off at the high school?" he asked nervously.
Ace looked away from the waitress he had been eyeing with interest. She was a bit older than the girls he usually went for but she had a fairly decent pair of legs and blonde hair. He loved blondes.
"What's that?" he asked not really having heard the first time.
"I wanna ask out that chick Connie Palermo," Billy clarified.
Ace smiled to himself, he was in need of a new girl.
"How old is she again?" he asked.
"Sophomore," Billy replied, "Why?"
Ace just nodded, a lot of those girls were sixteen now, he thought to himself. He smiled again.
"You gotta swear on your mothers good name not to embarrass me," Billy warned, misreading Ace's expression.
"You got nothing to worry about," Ace smirked.
"Oh my god it's him," Connie whispered excitedly to her friend Laura as she spotted Billy and Ace approaching them. Laura turned around. She'd been hearing about Billy for a little while now and was wondering just who he was. She didn't really know too many boys.
"The blonde one?" Laura asked curiously.
"No the other one," Connie hissed frantically smoothing down the front of her dress. "Ok shh they're coming this way."
"Hey girls," the one who must have been Billy called out. "Connie, uh, would you come here a minute," he said hurriedly as he grabbed her wrist and pulled her away.
Not knowing what else to do Laura sat down on a step to wait for her friend, staring down at her shoes.
Ace studied her form, she was blonde which he liked immediately, but not the darker golden blonde that the waitress had been. Her hair was lighter. It fell over her shoulders and ran down her back in a style that was bit longer than was fashionable. It looked soft and he found himself wondering how it felt. His gaze left her hair and ran down her body but his view was obstructed by the conservative clothes she was wearing. Her skirts fell to well below the knee and she was shrouded by a bulky cardigan when she could have easily gone without one.
"Hey sweetheart, aren't you hot in that jacket?" he asked, leering forward.
Laura looked up to see Ace staring at her intently. She felt her heart flutter.
"Oh, um, a little maybe," she stammered. She wasn't used to boys talking to her like this.
She now stared back at him with her big blue doe eyes. Ace hadn't noticed before but she was absolutely gorgeous. His eyes narrowed briefly before his lips curled into a smile. Now he had to see more.
His eyes zeroed in on her fingers as she fiddled with the first few buttons before folding her arms uncomfortably in front of her chest.
"Come on, take it off," he coaxed her, wanting to see everything.
He smirked as she blushed and turned away from him.
"Now you're all flushed," he continued in a serious tone, "You don't want to overheat now."
She pulled off her cardigan smiling at him awkwardly but he wasn't looking at her face. He seen now that her arms were slender, delicate and matched with the narrowness of her waist. The swell of her chest was surprising and he suspected the reason she was wearing the cardigan in the first place. His eyes flashed back to that beautiful face and she seen she looked embarrassed and wasn't surprised when she folded her arms in front of herself again and ducked her head down.
She was getting him hot. He didn't usually go for shy girls but she had this vulnerability about her that was doing all kinds of things for him. He felt like if he wanted to, he could have her right there. He was thinking about exactly what he wanted to do to her when he caught she was saying something. She even sounded like a sweetheart.
"What was that?" He asked, noticing she was looking at him again. She still looked flustered but curious. His lip curled. She was into him, he could tell.
"I asked what your name was" Laura repeated shyly.
"Ace," he responded. "How about you babe?"
"I'm Laura Stratford," she replied shyly, giving him another flash of her Bambi eyes.
"I'll remember that," he winked at her, pleased that her cheeks flushed once more.
"Come on Laura!" Connie called out grinning wildly.
Evidently she had agreed to the date. Billy leaned up against Ace's car, he knew better than to interrupt when Ace was talking to a girl.
"I better go, it was nice meeting you," Laura said in a rush, she stood up and began walking over to where her friend waited for her.
"Bye Ace," she called out behind her, turning around to look at him once again.
"Bye Doll," he replied, watching her walk away.
Later that night Ace and Eyeball decided to head over to Fairdale High, two towns over. They were having a school dance and Eyeball had decided he wanted to check out the action. Ace however thought it would be a good place to pick up some tires.
On the drive over Ace had mentioned to Eyeball about the girl he had met that afternoon.
"Oh yeah is she pretty?" Eyeball had asked casually.
"Better," Ace replied, trying to remember her face but he couldn't quite get it right.
"Yeah? Do I know her? What's her name?" Eyeball asked.
"Laura..." Are frowned, what was her last name again? "It started with S...Stratford," he finished.
Eyeball shrugged. "I don't think I know her. The only Laura I know around our age is Laura O'Neal and she ain't no looker."
Ace snorted, he was right about that.
"You gonna go find her tomorrow?" Eyeball asked.
"I won't have to," Ace smiled. "She'll come to me."