Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

“The defects and faults of the mind are like wounds in the body; after all imaginable care has been taken to heal them up, still there will be a scar left behind.” - French writer Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Ronnie

After making me fly out of his truck, Trick drove back to where our stuff was before coming to join us in the water.  Andie and Chett claimed that he had done the same thing to them at one point or another, and it was only a matter of time before it happened to me.  The impact of the water didn’t hurt, and the area was a little too deep for me to touch the sandy floor.  It was crystal clear so I could see where I’d be placing my feet even though it was unnecessary; nothing was on the floor except for the soft sand.

“Sorry ‘bout that,” Trick laughed as he approached us.  The water reached his shoulders, even where Andie and I couldn’t reach.  I hung onto Chett’s shoulder to hold myself up as I reached out and whacked Trick up alongside the head.  At the same time, I looked further out at the water just in time to see someone on a trick jet-ski jump a wave and flip backwards with it.  From the looks of things, he and his two friends were slowly making their way to the main beach.  While I was watching them, something hit the water next to me, making me look back at my family.  I looked down next to me and saw Andie coming up to the surface.  She spit water out of her mouth laughing and coughing at the same time.  A hand grabbed me and pulled me forward.  Trick.

“Your turn!” He hoisted me up onto his shoulders before I could pull away from him.  I positioned my feet just right and held onto his hair lightly, having to lean forward a little bit to keep from falling backwards, especially as he started to back up so he was further away from the pier.  Being a slayer really helps with this because the person on the bottom can put more force behind pushing off the ground and the person up on the shoulders can jump higher than the average human would get.

“Make this a good one,” I laughed.  Trick had started to go under the water but stopped after I said something to him.  A grin formed on his lips as he looked over his shoulder and up at me.  Oh boy.

“Remember…you asked for it,” he warned.  I opened my mouth to object to him but he was already under water.  It was almost like I could feel him bracing himself for a good pushoff.  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Andie and Chett moving out of the way.  Trick tapped my ankle as a warning, letting me know to hold my breath and close my eyes.  I didn’t, however, until he bursted up out of the water and I jumped off his shoulders.

My back smacked on the surface of the water, numbing my skin.  The stinging feeling lingered, even as the cold water submerged me.  I couldn’t see how far away I landed while I was in the air, but considering how long it felt before I hit the water, it was either pretty far or I just got really high in the air.  All I knew for sure, was that where I landed, seemed deeper than where we were by the pier.  The first sound I heard, before I even got the chance to swim to the surface, was a motor.  Was I really that far out?  I couldn’t have been…that’s impossible even for a slayer.  I swam up to the surface and let out the deep breath I took while I was in the air.  Waves smacked me in the face as soon as I started to look around.  The saltiness burned my eyes and left a bitter taste in my  mouth.  It was strong enough to make me want to throw up and it made its way to the back of my throat, which was where the bitterness was weaker but it left my throat almost completely dry.  I pressed my hands tight against my eyes in attempt to get them to water so they’d flush out the salt water, trying to rid them of the dry burining.  What made it worse was that, was that it was directly sprayed into my eyes, not even giving me a chance to close my eyes.

Damn jet-ski.

“Hey!  Watch it you dumbass!” I managed to open my eyes in time to see a guy with wet blonde hair, the color of wheat, making a loop on his blue jet-ski.  He was looking back at me with a grin and once he made eye contact with me his grin turned into an interested smile.  He may have been cute but almost hitting me with his ski overruled it.  I looked back where he came from and saw two more coming towards me, the first on taking a sharp turn in front of me.  Just a little bit of water sprayed my face this time, but the wave was enough to make me bob for a few seconds in the water.  The driver of that one looked a lot like the first one, so I guessed they were related in some way.  He looked back at me as well and then up at the guy behind him.  I followed his eyes and looked at the third one, noticing that the ski was different; it was a trick ski.  The driver slowed down once he saw my face and a small girn started to grow on his lips.  I smiled at him and bowed my head a little bit even as his friends started calling to him and my family started calling to me.

“Meet me on the shore in an hour,” he whispered in my ear.  Straightening up, he passed me slowly and then sped back up to catch up with his friends.  I didn’t even get a chance to tell him whether I would do that or not.  But the chances of meeting him at the beach, out of all the possible places he could’ve been, were slim and since it happened, I wasn’t about to refuse his invitation.

We swam for a little while longer, doing more launches, chicken fights, and just plain water wrestling, which we had to move to shallower water to do so.  It was good practice for our evasive maneuvers and tackling moves, but we didn’t really look at it that way.  We liked to think of it as just having fun, because that’s what it was for us.  It was also a good time for me to get back at Trick for throwing me in the water from his truck.  And Andie helped with it too.  She faked a hurt foot and when Trick would go to help her, she would smile at him and give me my cue.  I would then tackle him from the side and get him in a chokehold.  He always managed to break out of it, and I have yet to figure out how, because mine were actually pretty tight.  Once he got out, he would pick me up and toss me to Chett, who would throw me in the water.  It was a good time for the four of us.

I don’t know how long we were at it for, but we decided to take a break once we started to feel a little fatigued, so we went back to the truck for some drinks and snacks.  Trick had turned the radio back on, this time playing a CD of his.  I was sitting in the bed of his truck again with a bottle of water and drying my hair with my towel.  It didn’t get completely dry, but it was dry enough for me to be able to fix the part so it wasn’t all slicked back.  I didn’t bother drying off the rest of my body knowing that we’d probably end up going back in the water again anyways.  Besides, the sun would end up drying me quickly anyways.  Trick and Chett decided to start a game of catch in the sand and Andie just relaxed on her towel to soak up some son.  I was the only one that wasn’t really doing anything.  It wasn’t boring, just sitting on the truck; watching Chett and Trick throw each other difficult passes and trying to make the passes and catches fancy was entertaining enough.  Chett actually almost landed on his head at one point, trying to flip and catch the ball in the air at the same time �" his foot landed in a hole made by people digging in the sand earlier.  As if to get him back for making him do that, Chett put some speed behind his throw, using his archer’s aim to put it into Trick’s stomach.  That earned the attention of two nearby girls that looked like they could be swimsuit models.  They walked up to Chett and Trick with smiles.  The one that went up to Chett wrapped her arms around his neck while the one that went up to Trick hooked her arm in his and traced her fingers on the football.  The two guys just looked at each other and rolled their eyes.  I grinned and paid attention, knowing that they were going to give the girls their first ever denial.

“You look hot,” the girl hanging on my brother said as she wiped away a drop of sweat from his forehead. “How about we go for a swim to cool off?”

Chett gently pushed her away from him and looked at her like she was insane.  I could tell he was trying not to look annoyed with her hanging on him, but he was also struggling with keeping a straight face. “How about you go find someone that’s interested?  I already have a girlfriend.” Chett stepped around her and walked towards the truck, jumping up on the bed when he reached it.

“What about you?” The girl hanging on Trick’s arm smiled up at him and even gave him a little wink.  “Don’t tell me you’re taken as well.”

“Hate to burst your bubble, blondie, but I am.  Proud of it too.”

“Oh really?  I don’t see her?” She didn’t even look around.  If anything, she stepped closer to Trick, who seemed like he was having issues keeping an amused grin off his face.  Chett and I tried not to laugh as we looked at Andie, who was sitting up and watching the girl hanging on Trick.  And boy did she have a threatening look in her eyes.  She didn’t seem worried about what he would do, but she didn’t seem too thrilled about the girl hanging on him like that.

“That’s not the point.  I’m taken and I’m not interested.  If you must know, she’s sitting right there.” He pointed to Andie and moved away from the girl, tossing the football at Chett and going to sit next to my sister.  She smiled and gave him a kiss, not in a showing off kind of way but in a thankful kind of way.  There was nothing to worry about when it came to Trick’s loyalty towards her; he was about as loyal as a guy could get.  That’s how Chett and Monica were with each other and that’s how Andie tried telling me Corin was.  It apparently helped that Trick and Corin were practically best friends and hung out all the time.  Trick even told me that he was working with him on making him a little less of a gentleman for me.  Everyone knows that’s all I want…

Chett was sitting on the roof of the truck with a cold beer in his hand, watching the skiers out on the water.  He looked pretty comfortable where he was but nowhere near enough to seem like he was going to fall asleep.  Trick was lying down on his stomach on Andie’s towel while Andie was kneeling next to him, massaging his back.  He looked like he was about to fall asleep.  I was still sitting in the bed of the truck, leaning against the cab and putting on some sunscreen.  My skin wasn’t nearly pink yet, but better to be safe then sorry.  I don’t know how long it’s been since Ace told me to meet him along the shore, but it didn’t feel like an hour.  Especially because I haven’t seen a jet-ski pull up to the beach.

“Whoa!  Hey pal!” Trick’s voice made me look up.  I watched as he sprung to his feet, startling Andie, and walked away from the towel.  He didn’t look very happy as he stopped the person walking towards us, putting a hand on his chest. “What the hell do you think you’re doing here?  You’re sure as hell not welcome,” he growled.

“I have a right, don’t I?” Ace’s cocky tone made me put away the bottle of sunscreen at the same time as Chett got in position to jump down if needed.  Looking at Ace, the first thing I noticed was that he was exactly the same size and build as Trick, but his body looked slightly better, which amazed me.  Over his left breast, he had a black and gold tattoo of an upsidedown, gothic style cross.  It was at least five or six inches in length but I’m pretty sure it was bigger than that.  The design of it was delicate and clearly carefully done, the colors bold and not faded in the least bit.  He was still wearing his cross necklace around his neck but it was wrapped around twice, my guess was because it lowered the chances of it falling off in the water.  It didn’t surprise me that his swim trunks were black, but it did surprise me that he still had his piercings in.  Around his wrist, instead of the skull bracelet, he was wearing a single string of black leather that was tied in a knot, and dangling from it was a black cross with a silver, inverted pentagram in the middle of it.  Didn’t really surprise me a whole lot.

“No, you don’t.  Like I said, you’re not welcome.  Now why don’t you turn your a*s around and walk away before I get angry.” Trick pushed him back a little bit and Ace just took it, keeping his hands at his sides as much as he looked like he wanted to hit him.  Andie stood up and walked over to Trick, pulling him back in a suggestive way.  She knew that if she didn’t jump in he might get out of hand, and so did I.  That’s why I got down from the truck and joined them.

“Oh really?  And how is that a threat?” He took a small step closer to Trick. “No wait, scratch that; since when are you strong enough to do anything to me?”

“Hey you.” I gave Ace a smile as I walked up to him, pushing past Trick even as he tried to stop me. “I didn’t know you pulled up.  I would’ve met you.”

“Nah…don’t worry ‘bout it.  I didn’t want to make you walk all the way over there.  Especially alone.” His harsh expression softened a great amount when he looked from Trick and at me, a casual look taking over.  He turned to face me completely, glancing at Trick from the corner of his eye cautiously.

“Um, Ronnie, care to make some introductions?” Andie crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against Trick’s side, eyeing Ace curiously.  The tattoo on his chest seemed to catch her attention more than anything else about him, but she managed to look away from it in order to look at me.

“Oh, yeah!  Ace, that’s my sister, Andie, and my brother Chett is up on the truck, and…that’s Trick…” I pointed to Trick lazily, making him let out an incredolous chuckle with a slight shake of his head.  Ace had the same reaction.  I felt like I was missing out on something.  The tension in the air was thick and the two of them didn’t seem to bother trying to conceal their distaste for each other.  Especially Trick.  He seemed like he wanted to hit Ace.

“Yeah…we’ve met before,” Trick said bitterly.  I looked between the two of them as Ace turned to stand toe to toe with him.  Niether of them seemed willing to backdown from their standoff, but at the same time, they didn’t seem like they were going to advance in anything either.  They seemed pretty content in just standing in each other’s personal space as they stared each other down for dominance.

“Trick, cut it out.” Andie pulled Trick back and scowled at him as a mother would to a child that was throwing a tantrum.  She pushed him behind her as she slowly turned back to face Ace with a warm smile. “I’m sorry about him; he’s just a little defensive of her.  It’s nice to meet you, Ace.  I’m glad to finally meet the guy my sister had such a good time with at the club the other night.” She held her hand out to him and waited.

“Pleasure’s mine.” Ace gripped her hand with a grin, shooting a quick glance over at Trick. “And don’t worry about it; I may not have much experience with kids but uh, I’m sure I can handle it.”

“Oh you wanna go there, huh?” Trick pushed Andie behind him and got in Ace’s face, clenching his hands at his sides.  The muslce in his jaw twitched as he tried to stay calm.  Ace stepped closer to him and placed a hand on Trick’s chest, giving him a little push.  Immediately, Trick jerked, about to reach out and strike Ace, but Andie and I got in between them, pushing them away from each other.

“Let’s go for a walk,” I said nervously, keeping my hands on his chest and pushing him back gently.  His heat burned into my palms, making my fingers flinch a little bit, but I didn’t move my hands.  He stepped back and looked down at me with a grin that made me smile.  It was an interested grin on his part; interested and surprised.  I glanced back over my shoulder and saw Trick was starting to turn his back to us, and looking up at Ace, I saw that he noticed the tattoo on his back.  He grinned to himself and chuckled quietly as I stopped pushing him and stepped so I was next to him as he turned around.  At first he had his hand on my lower back, probably just to piss off Trick, but after a while he dropped it and left his hands at his sides.  He didn’t want to move his hand �" I felt some hesitance behind his removal of it, but he probably felt that he should have.

Ace

It wasn’t my intention to allow Trick to see me coming for Ronnie, nor was it my intention to piss him off.  At all.  If he gets riled up enough, and seeing me with his girlfriend’s little sister could very well be his stresser, I’m fucked.  He’s usually so well in control of his emotions, however, so I guess I’ll have to tread lightly until I can figure out how much he cares about her.  Until then, someone’s going to have to watch him to make sure he doesn’t tell the slayers anything.  If he confronts me about it personally right away, well then I’ll get the chance to play dumb and question if she’s a slayer or human.  Maybe if I can get him to believe that I think she’s human, he’ll calm down and hopefully not say anything.

Seeing Ronnie in a swimsuit was something that I could get used to.  It allowed for easy visuals of how nice of a body she had and even of her tattoo.  That was my only concern �" Rye or Vince finding me and then seeing her tattoo could create potential trouble and with Trick around, I don’t need anymore of that.  I told Accursius I had this and I intend to keep my word.  He can’t know of anymore problems in this plan.  Telling him that Trick was around was a difficult move on my part, but he sure was appreciative of my headsup.  However, he was not happy at all; he knew that things would be more difficult and he did not want that.  I didn’t eitther but I’d get over it.  The plan was more fun now.  And more dangerous.

“Ironic meeting you here.” That was an honest statement.  No one tracked her down for me and, clearly, she didn’t tell me.  When I watched her swim to the surface just as Rye turned in front of her I got nervous.  It trumped the surprise I felt.  No, they didn’t know what the slayer I talked about looked like, but that didn’t calm my uneased nerves at the time.  Besides, they probably figured it out when I told her to meet me.

“Very.” She smiled up at me and then quickly down at the sand as we walked along the water. “How do you and Trick know each other?”

 

Ronnie

I noticed Ace’s body tense up a little bit at my question, but he relaxed quickly as a small grin threatened to play on his face.  He looked anywhere but at me, his gaze shifting from in front of us, to the water, and then to the sand.  I expected him to have some hesitance about answering me, but he had none.  Instead, he looked a little amused by me asking him that.

“Oh, we go way back; we’ve known each other for years.”

“Really?  He’s never mentioned you before.” I bent down and picked up a shell, curious about its shape, but once I got it out of the sand I realized part of it was broken.

“Doesn’t surpirse me.” I felt his eyes on me as I dropped the broken shell in disappointment. “The last time we…hung out didn’t go over too well and that’s kind of why he’s a little bitter towards me, I guess.”

“What happened?”

“It’s a long story.” Evasive.  It wasn’t a long story; I could tell that from the look in his eyes.  He just didn’t really want to share.  There’s probably a secret behind it.

“We have time.” I gestured up to the sky, where the sun was burning brightly.  I could feel its heat burning my skin, making me suddenly yearn for shade.  Good thing we were approaching the pier.

The shade was nice and cool, the sand like cold silk between my toes.  I sat down with a loud sigh and smiled up at Ace as he remained standing.  He was grinning down at me, his eyes leaving my face.  It was subtle, and I almost missed it when he looked at my legs.  I looked down and caught glimpse of my scar.  Damn it!  I comopletely forgot I had it.  Casually, I pulled my leg in, hiding my ankle under my other leg.  It surprised me that he didn’t say anything about it.  Didn’t ask me how I got it, when I got it, and so on.

“Yo!  Ace!  What the f**k happened to you?” I looked off to the side and saw that the same guy with the wheat-colored hair that was on the jet-ski earlier was walking towards us.