To stand by him

Little shorter then usual, I apologize just been a little busy.

I hope you enjoy the chapter, I was talking to a lot of people to get a good idea on the meeting with Nick and I think this is pretty good :)

Hope you like it and a big thank you to all you beautiful reviewers.

And to the reviewer that has been with me and encouraging me since the beginning and types the hell out of her reviews lol Mrs. AceMerrill, I have a surprise for you later on in the story, just gonna take a bit of waiting, maybe in the next chapter or two :D

Enjoy

Disclaimer: Do not own stand by me.

"Fair warning Anna, Gordie's parents don't like us too much." Chris said as he stopped the truck.

"Does anyone like you guys?" I asked as I jumped out of the truck.

"For your information yes."

"Name one." I said he looked at me for a moment.

"Anyways, Gordie had a brother. And so his parents kind of ignore him since he died and don't like us too much."
"So why did we decide to meet here?" I asked.

"Cause Vern's brother is in Ace's gang too, Teddy is rarely home anymore he shows up there and his mom might keep call the cops and get him on house arrest, I guess we could go to my house-"

"Okay you made your point." I said. Chris smiled and took my hand in his lacing our fingers together.

"Vern should be here soon." Chris said pulling on my hand to follow him to Gordie's front door.

"What about Teddy?"
"Your guess would be as good as mine."

We got to Gordies porch, my hand was raised to knock but the door was pulled open before I could. He gave a look I couldn't describe but had seen too many times to Chris then looked at me.

"uh, is Gordie here?" I asked he grunted something inaudible and shut the door on us.

I gave a side glance to Chris but he raised a hand telling me to wait. Soon enough Gordie was opening the door and stepping outside.

"Your dad?" I asked he nodded. "I like him." he laughed and followed us down the porch steps.

"Sure you would with the dad you got. . ." he trailed off getting a good look at my cheek.

"Thought I was lying." I said pointing to my eye.

"Sometimes I wish they'd hit me. At least they'd know I'm there." Gordie muttered. "Sorry, I shouldn't be saying stuff like that with you guys-"
"Gordie it's fine." I said stopping him. "I mean we're used to it by now."

"Lets just go." Chris said tugging on my hand to lead me to the truck.

"What about Teddy?" I asked following them.

"he's probably already there."

Teddy was in fact there already piss drunk and dancing with a girl on the dance floor.

"So whats the plan?" Gordie asked.

"I find Nick." I replied

"That's it?"

"That's it." I confirmed moving farther into the room, it was really crowded, filled with Drunks and those one sip away from being drunk. I was a little concerned not with all the people but how I was going to Find Nick in this place, it looked like there wasn't a still person in the whole place.

"Lets try over there." Chris said sliding his arm over my shoulder nodding towards the left side of the room.

"Alright." I let him lead me over to some couches and there he was Nick Todd. His hair looked black in the light of the room, his arm was around a girl, a girl I had never seen before but that didn't surprise me I rarely knew the girls around here.

All those sitting on the couches looked up and stared, it wouldn't have bothered me except all their eyes were on me, not a single on on Chris.

"Winston." someone growled, another victim I presume, but my gaze was set on Nick, who was now fiddling with the crucifix around his neck.

"Guessing your here to see me?" Nick spoke up. I nodded. "Figured." he sighed and got up from the couch leaving the girl to watch curiously.

Nick came and stood right in front of me, he was really tall, at least six inches taller then Chris.

"You really do have nerves don't you?" he asked. "At least eighty percent of the people you have hustled are here. So what do you want?"
"I want to gamble again." he let out a humorless laugh. "I'm serious."

"I'm not stupid, Winston."

"I never said you were. Just thought you might want to gain some pride back." I felt Chris tense beside me, letting me know that the comment was not the right way to persuade him but to my surprise he laughed.

"And what? Chambers here is supposed to help convince me get cleaned out again?"
"No, He just kinda came." Nick looked Chris up and down not impressed then turned his attention to me.

"I ain't playing Cards with you again." he said crossing leather covered arms.

"There are other forms of gambling." I reminded him. "Dice?"
"No."

"pool?"

"I ain't gambling with you Winston, now scram!" he threw his arm out telling me to leave but I stayed rooted to the spot.

"What about a gentleman's bet?" I asked.

"You mean play for nothing?" he questioned.

"Well yeah."
"Whats the point?" he demanded.

"You say you won't play me because you don't want to loose anything well what If there is nothing to loose?" I asked he eyed me carefully.

"What are you playing at?"

I waited a beat, this was it, the only idea I had in order to get him to play me.

"Look Imma be real with you, my credibility has been dying since I got here. You know new town, new people, new things to prove. And a lot of talk is going on about me rigging my decks and dice. That I rig the decks so I can win things out of people. I don't. But its hard to prove that, I figured a gentleman's bet with you, would make everyone see that I am not doing anything to the cards and I don't cheat to win things."

"Why me?"
"I know your rep. Everyone will want to watch a clean game, and if its not you'll be the first to beat the shit out of me. I want to play you cause I want everyone to watch, I want everyone to see that I don't rig my decks. You can pick the pack, the dice what ever." I said keeping my eyes on him. I had never rigged a deck or a set of dice in my life, and the reason he wouldn't play me is because he thought I did, I knew it, everyone thought I did. I had a plan and this was one step to it.

"I pick the dice?" he asked. I nodded. "You got yourself a Gentleman's game." he smirked.

They cleared the tables for us, and I sat down on one side and he was on the other.

Dice.

Not my best game but it was a good one. High card Low card was my worst game.

The game consisted or probability, the odds of different numbers coming up when you roll the dice. Many people were bad at it, but it was a game you needed to be smart in, to either be on or off.

"Three." I said rolling the dice and earning a nice three. Nick rolled his eyes and took the dice from me.

"nine." he muttered before rolling and getting a seven.

"Eleven." I said rolling a five.

"Four." four.

"Eight." snake eyes.

"Six" six

"Nine" Four.

He had won the game, but there were supposed to be three rounds.

The second round I won and the third he did.

'Damn Winston you've lost your touch." Teddy said watching us from his spot beside the table. Gordie told him to shut up as we played another game, which I happened to win.

"I'm done." Nick said standing up.

"Uh no you're tied." someone said.

"I'm done." he snapped at the kid.

"How about I make things interesting for you nick? You win, I will give you the fifty bucks I got from you." his eyes widened, but then narrowed. "You win?"
"The satisfaction of being able to say I won." he nodded and sat back down taking the dice out, I smirked looking at them and laid the money on the table. I could see the look on Chris' face. He had no idea what the hell I was doing.

We rolled four times that's all it took for Nick.

To win.

He smirked and everyone cheered as he took the money up from the table and walked away wrapping his arm back around the girl.

I stood there watching him walk away with a big smile on my face.

"What the hell are you grinning about? He just hustled you!" Teddy demanded gesturing around so much his beer was sloshing around everywhere.

"No I hustled him." I said taking my eyes off of Nick's back.

"Am I missing something?" Gordie asked. "He just took your money."

"No he took the bate." I smirked.

"What?" Chris asked.

"Now I won't have to find him, he'll come looking for me the second he looks at his winnings." I said pushing the chair into the table and walking towards the door the boys behind me.

"Better luck Next time Winston." someone called to me I flipped them off In return.

"What is going on? Why will he find you?"
"He'll be pretty mad when he notices that Andrew Jackson (A.N Sorry if its not right, I'm Canadian.) Looks a lot like a picture taped onto a tinted paper." They stopped walking their jaws dropped.

"You gave him fake money?" Gordie asked astonished.
"It's what he gets for playing with fake dice." I said continuing out the door and into the cool air.

"Fake dice?" Chris asked.

"The dice were loaded guys." I smirked. "I knew I was going to loose."

"He's gonna come and kill you." That's what I wanted he was going to come to me, and demand his money then I would remind him about his dice trick. Nick was a man of Morals, the crucifix told me that. Nick was not going to hurt me the moment I mentioned his little trick.

"That's the plan."

"What the hell are we going to do when he comes looking for you?" Teddy asked. "I'm not with you all the time."

"Just tell him where to find me, And relax I have a few ideas."

"That's what worries us." Chris muttered.

Okay so that little trick actually happened to my Buddy and he told me about it and I thought it was hilarious. So I added it into my story.

Thank you again for the reviews you're all amazing keep at it please. :D

Love you all have a great day.

-Lexi-Joe.