A Royal Mess

18. After Party

All of us are now huddled together in the field, passing out hugs and congratulations.

I see Ace flinch a little when he stretches his arms to pull me into a hug but before he can do that I put my palm out stopping him in mid action.

"You hurt your arm when you fell after the winning goal didn't you?" I question worriedly.

"It's nothing a little icing won't be able to fix. Don't worry, Alex. I'm fine." He says reassuringly.

"No you are not. We are going to the nurse's office, right now. Come on." I stretch my hand forward for him to take.

"If it gets you to hold my hand then I'm all for it." He replies smoothly, his blue eyes lightening up.

I give him a mock glare, grab his hand in mine and start dragging him towards the school.

"Good evening, Mrs. Duets." I address the school nurse. She is in her forties and loves all the children as if we are her own. It is said that she can even bring a dying man back to health, a little far-fetched if you ask me. But nonetheless she is really good at what she does.

"Good evening, kids. Hurt yourself during the game again, Adams?" She addresses Ace with half of a kind smile gracing her features.

"Yeah. I fell on my arm during the game." Ace replies embarrassedly.

"No worries. I'll just have a look at it for you then. Take off your shirt, young man."

Ace grabs the hem of his shirt and pulls it over his head with a little bit of difficulty due to his injury. As soon as my eyes fall on his bare chest, I'm left blushing. Karma for my earlier teasing making its way back to me. He has well-toned abs the likes of which a guy would pay for. When I continue to stare open-mouthed, I hear the sound of a throat clearing.

"You are making me nervous by staring like that." Ace says, a little flustered.

I blush at his comment but recover quickly, "Well I like what I see." I add a wink at the end which leaves him blushing like a maniac.

I notice that we are alone in the room now.

"Where is Mrs. Duets?" I inquire.

"She said it's just a bruise and that she is going to get some ice for it." He informs me.

"Oh. That's good. Thank god it's not worse." I say with relief.

He gives me a small smile, still a little self conscious. I don't get it. He has a body even models dream of. What is he so nervous about? That's when I notice the scars. Some of them are faded but some remain clearly visible on his chest which makes me wonder how I had even missed to notice them in the first place.

"Oh my god. Who did that to you, Ace? Are you being harassed? Because if that's the case you know I can deal with it for you.." I am now full on panicking. I can't imagine a single reason for which anyone would hurt someone like Ace.

"Calm down, princess. No one is harassing me. It was an accident." He tries to explain.

"No one gets scars like that from an accident, Ace." I look at him sceptically.

"The scars aren't from the accident, though the ones I did get because of it run quite deep, emotionally speaking. I was 12 when it happened. I had gone out to watch a movie with my parents that night. It was a great film. It was a great night actually. Beautiful night." He has gone into some kind of trance now. A look of pain, sadness and a reminiscent smile rests on his face. "We ate at Mc Donald's after the film and were on our way home when this car comes out of nowhere. My mom made it to the hospital but my dad who was driving, he died on the spot. These scars you see are where they shocked me to bring me back. I was the only one who survived. Sometimes I wonder if it is a good thing or a bad thing but then it happened anyways so I can't really do anything about it. I hate them, the scars. They are ugly and they are the reminders of that night, permanently etched onto my skin." He is looking out the window now, crying silently.