Chapter Three

Ace's car was just pulling out of sight when I first heard the yelling. It was like they were waiting for him to leave, waiting until my only escape was beyond my reach and I had no choice but to put up with their screaming until they tired or passed out.

Ace had turned up a little after eight just as I'd expected him to. We'd gone to the drive in movie, fooled around in his car and then he'd driven me home. I could have gone back to his place, now I wished I had, but it being a school night and all, I'd insisted he drop me home.

"I'll do whatever the hell I want, woman. This is my house!" Stan's favourite line, usually followed by Mom's favourite line:

"This was my house long before yours!"

"Well, you can pay the Goddamn rent then!"

When I walked in, he had a hold of her purse and was pulling out her money.

Stan was tall, six feet odd, with thinning hair and a dragon tattoo down one arm. He was rail thin with sunken cheeks due to all the drinking he did, but he was strong. Stronger than me and Mom anyhow.

"I'll take my rent money back then, woman. Since this is your house an' all."

It was a lousy shot to scam some drinking money from her. I knew it, Stan knew it, but most of all Mom knew it.

"You let that alone, Stan, that's my money!" My mother was a tiny woman, just about five feet, but she had a traditional Irish temper passed down from my Grandaddy.

She flew at him, a mass of dark hair and twig-like arms, just as I was attempting to duck out towards my bedroom. When I saw him reach out and slap her though, I couldn't contain myself.

"Let her alone!"

He had hardly even registered me so I guess surprise was my advantage as I crashed into him and he slid down the wall, dragging me with him. I was crouched over half on my feet when he came to and kicked me in the ribs. That was followed by a stinging slap that sent me careering into Mom.

And what was her reaction?

"Stay out of it, Nina! Why have you always gotta make things worse?" She screamed.

I can't say I was surprised. Her attitude was the reason I tried not to get involved in her and Stan's drunken arguments but hitting her in front of me was too much for me to watch. She was still my mother after all.

"You two fucking deserve each other!" I screamed. "Screw you both!"

I was backing towards the door when Stan started yelling at me.

"And where do you think you're going, you little tramp? Running over to your boyfriend's house? Think I give a shit? Tell him I'm waiting if he's got anything to say to me!"

It was all bravado of course. Stan didn't like Ace, probably because of the way my Mom hero worshipped him, but he wouldn't say jack to his face. Whenever Ace came around, Stan'd sit in the kitchen with a beer and mutter to himself. Ace was always civil to both of them, but I knew if Stan opened his mouth the way he was now, Ace wouldn't think twice about beating the living shit out of him.

As I slammed out of the door, I faced the usual predicament I did when they started fighting. Ace's house was a long walk; a good forty minutes. I could hitch, I guessed, but it was dark outside and I'd heard some stories about what could happen to girls hitching after dark. Gordie's place was probably a little closer but I still felt a little mad at him for the way he had let Chris Chambers speak to me that morning.

The closest place was the Blue Point Diner. I could make it in fifteen minutes if I walked fast. I had enough change to buy coffee and with any luck there might be someone I could hitch a ride from out to Ace's place.

As I started out, my ribs were throbbing under my shirt but after a while, I was more concerned about the biting cold than any pain I was feeling. I was wearing a vest top and capri's and while that had been fine when I was in Ace's car, out now in the wind, I felt frozen right down to the bone.

By the time I got to the Blue Point Diner, my teeth were chattering like crazy. I darted a look about for someone I could hitch a ride from but I was fresh out of luck. Being a Sunday night, the place was almost empty save for a shady looking trucker sat at the counter.

With a sigh, I went over and sat a couple of seats down from him before I ordered some coffee from the waitress.

"A little late for coffee, ain't it, Honey?" The waitress, Fran, gave me a small smile, and I watched as her eyes slid over my face and shaking shoulders.

"It's been that sorta day," I told her. "Any of the Cobra's been in?"

Fran leaned over the counter, resting her elbows on it, using her hands to prop up her chin.

"Any Cobra or one in particular?"

I guessed it was no secret I was with Ace but I didn't like the way she was looking at me, as though she thought Ace had done something to hurt me. People always thought that about him but nobody realised that at times like this, he was my safety net.

"Any," I answered. "I was looking to hitch a ride to a friend's."

She straightened up, poured my coffee for me and pushed the cup over the counter top.

"I finish in an hour, sugar. If it ain't too far out my way, I'll drop you myself. Where you going?"

I told her the name of Ace's street and she nodded and told me that was fine. Thanking her, I picked up my coffee and backed coolly away from the counter. Inwardly though, I was overcome with relief that I wouldn't have to walk there in the cold with no jacket on.

I picked the corner booth since it was the furthest away from the door and I still felt cold. But once I moved to the far end of the diner, I realised the place wasn't as empty as I thought it was.

A pair of blue eyes met mine from a table by the window and I cursed my luck. Chris fucking Chambers.

I sat down with my back to him and took halting sips of the boiling hot coffee. It burnt my tongue but soothed my insides on the way down with it's scolding heat.

Holy cow, I hated Stan. And my mother. I couldn't wait until I was old enough to get a job and leave home. Part of me was tempted to do that already but I knew I'd never get a job decent enough to pay rent without a high school education.

Some days I day dreamed about living with Ace but that was just what it was- a day dream. Besides the fact that we would probably kill each other, Ace had made it clear on more than one occasion, that although I was welcome to crash the odd night, it was his place; his bachelor pad. That left me counting down the days until high school was finished.

"Mind if I sit down?"

I looked up to see Chris Chambers standing over me. He was wearing a navy jacket but his checked shirt was torn underneath. He looked tired and he had the beginnings of a bruise under his left eye. Still, that wasn't my fucking problem.

"Yeah, I do mind actually. Plenty of seats in here. Go sit some place else."

It had started to rain outside. I sat and watched the droplets of water hit the window pane and slide down it but when I looked up, Chambers was still fucking standing there.

"Are you retarded? " I snapped at him. "What'd you want?"

He slid into the booth opposite me and then pushed what looked like a towel across the table.

"What's that?"

"Ice," he said softly. "For your face."

I reached up gingerly to touch my cheek and was surprised to learn it hurt like hell when I did. I hissed through my teeth then tossed back my hair defiantly.

"Looks like you need it more than I do," I said with a pointed look at his eye but instead of getting angry, he gave me a wry smile.

"Too late for ice. I took it 'cause Fran was tryin' to be nice. Yours looks…fresh."

"I don't want the ice," I told him, shoving it back towards him but he pushed it calmly back.

"You will tomorrow when you gotta go to school looking like you been in a boxing match."

I glared at him but he held my gaze steadily until I groaned and snatched up the ice. I put it to my cheek then gritted my teeth at the sting of it.

The rain grew harder outside. Chris fiddled with his lighter as I pressed the towel against my face, staring into the dark parking lot. It probably would have been awkward if either of us actually gave a shit.

"You going home tonight?"

It took me a second to register that he was talking to me and then I gave him a suspicious look.

"What's it to you?"

"It's just not the greatest weather for walking in. Least, not without a jacket."

My teeth may have stopped chattering but I was still trembling from the cold. I watched his gaze travel over my face and stop down where my hand was clutching my still aching ribs.

"Fran's giving me a ride when she finishes," I finally said.

"Me, too." He nodded.

Great, I thought. Community transport for the down and out's of Castle Rock.

"Guess she's doing her bit for charity," Chris went on, voicing almost exactly what I was thinking.

I stared at him, stunned that we seemed to have fallen on common ground.

"You look cold," he said. "Want my jacket?"

I stared at him for even longer this time.

"Why the hell are you being nice? This morning I was the dumbest person you ever laid eyes on and this evening you wanna be a gentleman, huh?"

He cleared his throat a little and then fiddled with his lighter some more.

"I was outta line this morning, okay? Gordie made me see that after you left. It's just- well- Ace Merrill's not exactly my favourite person. Even less so when I see you sitting here like this."

"Ace didn't do this to me!" I snapped at him. "Christ, he's never laid a finger on me!"

He eyed me boldly when he asked the next question and that made me even madder.

"Is that the truth, Nina, or is that just what you tell Gordie so he won't flip his lid?"

"It's the truth!" I exclaimed.

He digested this slowly, rolling his lighter slowly between his fingers before he looked at me again.

"Guess I got that wrong then. Sorry."

"No kidding," I huffed.

He was already pulling his jacket off as I said this and when I shook my head after he held it out, he leaned over it and dropped it neatly over my shoulders. I was just about to tug it off when the delicious warmth of his body heat from inside the jacket crept over my clammy skin. I wasn't quite proud enough to give it back.

"Thanks," I said grudgingly. He just nodded.

We didn't say much else, him fiddling with his lighter, me sipping my coffee until Fran came over with two slices of apple pie and hot cocoa.

"Just some leftovers. They'll get thrown out at closing anyhow," she told us, but as I met Chris' eyes across the table, I could tell he knew that was bullshit as well as I did.

We ate and drank quietly and when he was finished, he leaned back in his seat and his eyes seemed to glaze over.

"What's up with you?" I asked, after he sat there stock still for a good five minutes. He seemed to come out of his daydream then.

"I was just trying to remember why it is we don't get along."

"We've never gotten along," I reminded him.

"I know.' He draped his arm across the length of the bench seat. "But I don't know why that is."

"You never wanted me around," I told him. "It was always 'no girls' when you were at Gordie's."

The jerk had even made a sign which he'd attached to the outside of their stupid tree house. No girls allowed, it had read. That means you!

He smirked.

"It's been a long time since we've had a no girls policy."

"But you never stopped being an asshole."

He was quiet then, staring down at the table top before he said:

"Gordie's my safe place. I guess I didn't wanna share back then."

I thought about it. About how my Mom used to freak out after my Dad died and then how Stan came along and made everything even worse. Whenever I went to find Gordie, Chris was always there.

"I guess I didn't wanna share either," I admitted quietly.

"And then you started seeing Ace," he said, raising his eyebrows. "And hanging around him and my brother. That made me dislike you even more."

I looked at him obstinately.

"Ace isn't a bad guy."

Chris smiled the ghost of a smile before tucking his lighter back into his pocket.

"That, Willis, is something we will have to agree to disagree on. But ya know," he took a breath. "We don't have to hate each other now. We're not kids anymore and I reckon we got a lot more in common than we think."

And then I knew the remnants of his fight weren't from a scuffle with a kid in our class, or an over zealous wrestling match with big brother Eyeball. He was sat there in that diner for the same reason I was. His parents had massively failed him in the same way Mom and Stan had failed me.

"You've actually surprised me tonight," I told him, pulling his jacket tighter around me.

"I like a surprise now and then."

He grinned at me and I found it amazing that in all the years I'd known him that was the first time I'd ever been on the receiving end of one of his smiles. Maybe I'd have liked him a little more if he'd smiled at me like that. His face grew suddenly serious again though and the smile was as if it had never been.

"There's still one thing I haven't changed my mind about though."

I leaned back a little, stretching my legs out underneath his seat.

"What's that?"

"You can still do a hell of a lot better than Ace Merrill."

I thought about what he was saying and for the first time realised that I wasn't just with Ace because I thought he was sexy as hell.

Maybe it was because of the fight with Stan, maybe it was because we were in an empty diner late at night, but I found myself talking to Chris as though he were my greatest confident.

"Ya know what? Sometimes I think if I hadn't met Ace, I wouldn't even be here." I told him. "That there ain't nothing else here for me to live for."

The sad pitiful look he gave me made me want to crawl right under the table.

"I've heard some sad shit in my time," he said. "But that has by far gotta be the fucking saddest."

And all of a sudden, I hated him again.

888