Damn Good Reasons (Ace Merrill | Chris Chambers) [2023 REWRITE]

6 Skeletons (part 1)

Wow, I just slept like a baby for a whole six hours straight! I'm usually lucky if I get half that, so getting a full night's sleep is amazing. And I feel great - totally recharged. I might not even need coffee! Ha. That'll be the day. Writing it all out must have helped, I think. It feels so good to be getting my thoughts and worries out of my head. I have a couple of hours until I need to work, so I'll use that time wisely to get even more of my story down. I'll just boil the kettle...

--

I used to stand in front of the Blue Point Diner and gaze down the street toward Mickey's. The building's fresh red paint gleaming in the sun stands in stark contrast to our own diner which has fading paint and a sign that juts out from the wall that is so marred by algae that it should have read "The Green Point Diner."

After deciding we had suffered enough shame, I heaved the creaky old ladder we owned through the diner and out to the front. Patty raised an eyebrow at me and then went back to flipping through the pages of Vogue. She obviously thought I was stupid for thinking I could fix this place up, but I still had hope. All I wanted to do was give the dull exterior a clean-up and a bit of color. I figured it had to make things better, right?

I propped the ladder up against the Blue Point Diner's wall and stared up at the sign. Moss and algae dripped over it like dark green ice cream melting over a child's hand, although, it was more slimy than sticky. Gross. I grabbed a soapy bucket of hot water, and then climbed the old, wooden step ladder, feeling its legs wobble underneath me. It wasn't high enough for me to reach the top of the sign, so I nervously balanced on my tippy toes.

There I was, horse brush in hand, soapy, green algae dripping down my arms when the door to the Billiards Bar a couple of stores down clicked shut. I was too preoccupied to care about it and continued scrubbing, eyes to the blue sky above. The top of the sign was particularly disgusting. I leaned to the left a little, being careful to mind my balance, so the little flecks of scum wouldn't get me in the eyes.

Suddenly, there was a hard thump beneath me which jolted the ladder so violently that I almost fell backward. I quickly snatched the sign, and thank god it was bolted to the wall, or I would have been done for. I clung to it like life itself while keeping the ladder from falling sideways with my toes. It felt as if something had knocked it; as if a large dog had rushed by and clipped it.

It wasn't a dog. (Actually... that's debatable.)

I leaped off the ladder, my insides still trembling, only to watch the back of two heads laughing between themselves as they strutted up the sidewalk without a care in the world. One of them had a familiar cut of blonde hair that lit up in the sunlight.

"Hey!" I yelled at them, exasperated. "Did you just kick this ladder?"

Ace came to a halt, and I could sense the conniving smile grow on the other side of that head. He whipped around, his sly smile becoming more apparent. He and his friend sauntered back towards me, full of arrogance.

"You talkin' to me?" he snapped, arms still firmly crossed.

"Why would you do that? I could have fallen and cracked my head!"

"Hey!" his friend jabbed a finger in my direction. "You're that girl I gave a ride to before, right?"

I blinked at him, trying to recall where I had seen him before. His light brown hair was greased up into spikes, and something about his face seemed familiar but I couldn't quite place it. Suddenly, it clicked. "Vince?!"

"You know her?" Ace asked.

"Yeah, I picked her up way out on the highway. She was so desperate for a ride she forced herself into the car," he chuckled. "You've fattened up since I saw you last," he said to me. "I barely recognized you. You were like a grungy twig in farmer's clothes. Like a scarecrow."