Guilty pleasure

Explain

"Care to explain what the hell happened to you yesterday?" Julian said completely dismissing the fact that I told him to calmly ask Ace how he ended up on our doorstep beaten and half unconscious. Sighing I picked up my coffee off the table and started to drink as we all listened.

"First of all I'm sorry you all had to see me like that. I told Lucas to drive me to a hospital instead but it was too far" Ace explained to Julian and I meanwhile Mia sat next to him.

I shook my head telling him it wasn't a problem his friends and Mia bought him here but we needed to know who hurt him and he seemed reluctant on telling us the truth.

"I need to know who did that to you boy cause the last thing I want is trouble sniffing around here looking for you so give me the names and I'll deal with it." Julian's piercing look shot at Ace for a better explanation of what happened yesterday afternoon.

"Even if I wanted to tell you it wouldn't change anything" Ace stated taking Mia by surprise but neither Julian or I were shocked at the news. It was quiet for a few minutes since Julian was in thought and I chose to let him do the talking.

"How long has it been going on for?" Julian asked breaking the silence.

Ace shot a look at Julian squinting his eyes in shock before his head titled to the side. "If you knew to ask that question than you'd also know I can't tell you the answer to that either"

Julian nodded his head understanding that Ace was far too deep to get out whatever it is he was stuck in. "I'll make some calls. Your staying here with us until we figure out how to deal with this" Julian declared.

"I don't need your protection. I can take care of this myself" Ace grumbled not all liking the idea of depending on any of us and I knew he was saying that because he didn't want any of us getting hurt as well.

"It wasn't a fucking offer! You'll stay here and focus on school while I fix this" Julian snapped making it final. I wouldn't have put it that way but then again I didn't disagree with Julian. It was a good thing he was here otherwise I would've been a lot softer on the kids, but we couldn't have that with the situation being so serious and all.

"Fine" Ace agreed not really having a choice. I looked toward him as he winced from moving too much and it was clear his wounds were still fresh.

"You can take the downstairs study room, and someone will go with you to grab some gears from your house" I stated before getting up to walk out of the lounge.

Julian said that he'd take Ace back to his own house to grab his belongings. Once they'd left the house Mia and I decided we'd start cooking dinner and get the lunches ready for tomorrow.

"Do you and Julian know what happened to Ace?" Mia asked while chopping the onions at the kitchen bench.

I glanced at her while putting the mince in the frying pan. "What gave you that impression?" I asked instead of answering her question.

"It seemed like you both understood what had happened since Julian was asking the right questions" Mia stated clearly seeing that the conversation between Ace and Julian had hidden meanings.

I sighed wishing she weren't so smart for her age. Grabbing the bolognaise sauce I added some to the mince. "I honestly don't know what happened but I have my assumptions and so does Julian. If you want the full story it would be better hearing it from Ace" I said tell her the honest truth.

She nodded her head before swiping the onions into the pan along with the mince. "Thank you for helping him yesterday and Julian for being kind enough to deal with the problem" Mia said.

"Your welcome. Let's just hope we can put all of this behind us once it's all over" I smiled grabbing some garlic and throwing it in the pan.

Once the food was cooked we set up the table and called Carlos downstairs to join us. We already started eating when Julian and Ace walked through the door.

Carlos squealed before running to jump into Julian's arms. "Hey little man, what's to eat?" Julian looked down at the kid in his arms beaming like the sun. Oblivious to the red marks on Julian's knuckles it seemed as though Carlos had his full attention drawn to Ace.

"We're having spaghetti bolognaise" Carlos smirked. I watched as Ace placed his bags down next to the study room door before he slowly made his way to the table.

"What happen to your face?" Carlos whispered to Ace wide eyed. After Ace had told Carlos he tripped over we all released a breath glad that he came up with an excuse. I don't believe in lying but dragging Carlos into this wasn't an option either. We were all glad Carlos seemed to buy the story.

I ended up calling Zara after dinner to catch up. "Hey, how have you been? I feel we haven't spoken in awhile" I said to which she had agreed.

"I know we've been so busy these past few days. How are the kids? Julian told me Ace got into a bit of trouble is he alright?" She asked.

"Yeah he's staying with us until Julian sorts out the problem. I'm starting work with Levi this Friday" I stated as I sat down on my bed.

"Wait really?! I thought he was never going to get back to you on that deal you both made. Heck it's been what? Eight months?" She replied making me laugh.

"Yeah it's been awhile but I managed to bump into him at the party when you and Julian left" I revealed. Honestly I didn't know if I wanted to tell Zara everything but I knew that I'd eventually open up to her. Instead I chose to change the subject asking her about her relationship with Julian.

"So, are you and Julian together again?" I said addressing the elephant in the room. It was silent for a few seconds and I guess it was because Zara wanted to think about her response.

"We're never going to be the same again Aria but at the moment we're just taking it one step at a time" her voice was light but at least she didn't sound sad.

"As long as your happy" I replied. We started talking about work for the next hour, and she'd told me Eddie had a new boyfriend.

Once the call ended I decided to get ready for bed. Jumping in the shower I grabbed a scrubber pouring soap on it to wash myself down. I could hear my speaker on the bench playing my favourite song cause if you shower without playing music your absolutely boring.

Walking back into the room the steam from the shower followed me like a bee attracted to nectar. I put on my alarm for the following morning because I knew it was going to be a long day back at work.