Chapter Twelve

Monday on the school bus, words were sparse between Gordie and me. I sat with my cheek against the cool glass, the hood of my coat pulled up and close around my face.

Gordie was thoughtful, his brows creased together and his eyes vacant. It felt like the two of us had some sort of hangover even though neither of us had touched a drop of alcohol that weekend. About ten minutes into our journey the bus rolled to a stop and I saw Chris standing on the sidewalk. His hands were pushed into his pockets and his expression was troubled. My stomach sank when I saw the purple bruise under his left eye. Our gazes met only briefly before he looked away and stepped up to the bus doors.

Chris always sat at the back. That had been his spot since we were freshmen but this time, he raised his hand in greeting to us, or maybe just to Gordie, before he sat down a couple of seats from the front.

Gordie stared in disbelief at the back of Chris' head before he looked at me in disgust.

"You know how fucking stupid is this?"

I didn't say anything, turning my head back towards the window.

"Hey Chambers, where you sitting? I saved you a spot."

Chris turned back to us, showing Gordie the full extent of his eye injury.

"I'm good here, Gordo. Got my history essay to finish anyways."

Gordie ground his teeth together before he nudged me sharply.

"This is actually worse than when you two hated each other," he hissed. "At least then, you wouldn't be on opposite sides of the bus."

"Well, just go over there, would ya?"

His irritation was pissing me off. I had warned Chris not to play Ace and he had flat outright ignored me. And now I was supposed to feel guilty because he'd lost the game?

Or thrown it. For me.

I shook that thought off and watched Gordie's changing expression as he deliberated moving seats.

"I can't leave you, " he mumbled.

"Yes, you can. I picked up his backpack and handed it to him. "Look at his damn eye. He needs you more than I do."

Gordie took his bag and looked guiltily at me ."I'll be real quick. We'll get this straightened out."

And then Gordie was gone, leaving me alone with thoughts.

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Gordie didn't come back to his seat on the bus.

When I next saw him it was at lunch and he dropped heavily into the seat opposite me.

"You okay?"

I glanced up from my sandwich that he'd made me that morning in his Mom's kitchen before I nodded. Actually, I was in a rotten mood. Everyone was talking about the stupid dance and I'd heard at least three invitations being extended that morning. It felt like everyone was going but me.

"Yeah."

I looked past Gordie expectantly. I knew he and Chris had biology together just before lunch but there was no sign of Chris in the lunch hall.

"So where's Chambers? Still avoiding me?"

"No and yes." Gordie took out his own sandwich and set a bottle of coke on the table beside it.

I gave him a blank stare until he continued.

"Well, he's not avoiding you right now. He's talking to Lucy Rowe. But yeah, he's avoiding you."

"Because of Ace?"

"Because of the deal he made with Ace. Unlike your boyfriend, Chris is a man of his word."

I scoffed at this.

"And is the man of his word asking Lucy to the Spring Dance right now?"

"If he is, he's doing better than me," Gordie mumbled, ducking his head. I turned around to see Violet walk by with her lunch tray. I wasn't even sure what he saw in her to be honest. She was kinda mousy looking.

Gordie's cheeks looked a little pink.

"Will you ask her already?"

"I will. I'm just waiting for the right moment."

Violet set down her tray on an empty table nearby. I looked at Gordie pointedly.

"I'd say this is it, Romeo."

Gordie looked Violet's way and as if by magic, Violet looked back in his direction. Gordie immediately dropped his eyes and even though Violet stared at him for a little longer, eventually she looked away too.

As soon as she did, I leaned over and rapped him on the arm.

"What the hell was that about?"

Gordie shrugged.

"I'll ask her when I'm ready."

"If you don't ask her soon, someone else will."

"Jeez, Nina, why the hell are you bitching at me?"

"Because-" I snapped. "Unlike you, I don't get to go to the dance. So excuse me if it's painful to watch you pissing and moaning about asking a girl who's obviously into you anyway."

I scraped back my chair, picked up my bag and walked out of the cafeteria.

I thought back to all the arguments Gordie and I had had lately. Usually we got along just fine and It's not even like we were fighting about Ace, who was usually our only source of conflict. But when I thought about it, I guessed that we were always indirectly fighting about Ace. Gordie was pissed that Ace was making it difficult for him to share his time between me and Chris. And I was pissed that Ace wouldn't take me to the dance.

As I walked out into the hall, I almost smacked right into Chris and Lucy Rowe standing by the lunch room doors. She was smiling widely at him as he grinned down at her and whispered something in her ear.

I made sure I bumped shoulders hard with him as I passed but I never looked back.

The rest of the day went by real slow. I didn't wait for Gordie out front. Instead I waited at the bus stop and was first to board the school bus home. Chris and Gordie got on a minute or two after me and after saying something to Chris who sat himself down at the front again, Gordie walked down the bus, dropped in the seat beside me and dumped something in my lap.

Two Spring Dance Tickets.

"Great. So you asked her." I tossed the tickets back at him and he grabbed my hand and forced the tickets back into them.

"I'm not taking Violet. I'm taking you."

I shot him a look.

"Did you pussy out, Lachance?"

"Yeah, you're welcome, Willis. And no, I didn't pussy out. I'm taking Violet for a coke on Friday and I told her I would have liked to take her to the dance but I'm going with friends. She was cool about it."

I stared at the tickets in my hands.

"Why?"

Gordie took the tickets back from me and stuffed them in his back pack. "Let's just say I'm sick of looking at your miserable face."

I stared at him in a growing state of happiness. I was going to the spring dance. I wrapped my arms around Gordie and squeezed tightly.

"Yeah, yeah." He tried to shove me away but I held on tightly. "Just stop being such a grade A bitch, okay?"

Gordie continued to try and wriggle out of my grip while I held on until he burst out laughing. I joined in. For the first time in a long time, I felt joyously happy.

And for some reason Chris Chambers was turned about in his seat, smiling at us softly.

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I was standing in the take out line at Pizza Palace when I first heard Stan's voice again. Low, slurred and cruel, it set the hairs on my skin up.

"Hey. Hey, you little shit." It was a small town. I should have counted on running into him before now.

I kept my back to him shaking my coins distractedly in my hands and trying to pretend that I didn't feel sick at being this close to him. I had stopped in for a slice of pizza then I would be on my way.

"Hey, I'm talking to you, kid." He had skipped two places in the line to poke me hard in the back.

I turned back to him irritably.

"What do you want, Stan?"

"Whaddya mean 'what do I want'? I put a roof over your head, fed you- that's how you talk to me?"

The couple who had been between us but were now behind us looked uncomfortable. There was a guy in work overalls in front but he seemed more keen on getting his pizza than listening to our conversation.

"Stan, you never did any of those things, my mother did. Now let me alone, okay?"

I had turned away when his hand came up. I probably would have been cracked a good one if not for someone stepping in.

I heard the slapping sound of someone's hand catching Stan's wrist and I spun back around to see Ace standing there.

"I told you once before, old man." The solid punch sent Stan flying across the room. He careered into a table but Ace was striding right towards him. Before Stan was on his feet, he dragged him towards the door and threw him outside onto the sidewalk.

"Ace, stop." I squeezed past him in the doorway, blocking him from exiting the Pizza Palace. "You'll get arrested again."

" I don't give a shit," he snapped.

Behind us, Stan was dragging himself to his feet and clutching a bloody nose. I kept my arms level across the doorway.

"I give a shit," I said softly.

Ace looked down at me with a frown and I tried to focus on him and not at the countless faces staring out at us from inside the restaurant.

"You gonna stand there all day or what?" Ace finally said.

I dared a look over my shoulder and was gratified to see Stan was nowhere in sight. I stepped aside and he moved out into the street.

"Never turn your back on someone like him." Ace lit up a cigarette.

I watched him inhale and exhale and realised I'd missed him the last few days. His comment about me 'crawling' back was still ringing in my ears though. It had been enough to keep me from showing up at his door.

"You cold?" I didn't understand his question until I realised I was shaking. I shook my head and he put out an arm and pulled me towards him. He carried on smoking the cigarette over my shoulder while I clung onto him. I didn't give a shit about Stan but running into him was raking everything up with my mother again.

Once Ace finished his cigarette he stepped away.

"You wanna go for a ride?" He nodded at his car parked across the street.

I thought about it.

"Does this equate to me crawling back?"

Ace looked pissed.

"No. Shit, you know I only said that cos I was mad."

"Uh-huh." Something suddenly occurred to me and I gave him a suspicious look."What were you doing in Pizza Palace? You hate the place."

Last summer Ace had sworn off the Pizza Palace, claiming it had given him food poisoning. The truth was he had said this because he had puked in front of his gang behind Irby's. I knew it was the booze, the Cobra's knew it was the booze, but every one of his kiss ass gang boycotted the Pizza Palace anyway.

Ace stepped off of the kerb.

"Look, you coming or not?"

"Not until you tell me what you were doing in there."

He eyeballed me for a few seconds before he gave in.

"Alright, I was driving by when I saw you go in. Thought I'd wait until you came out but then I saw Stan walk in."

I smiled.

"You were following me? So who came crawling back, huh?"

Ace gritted his teeth.

"Don't push it, Nina."

I watched him stride stiffly away before I hurried after him.

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