Helped someone

Ace was at his house, lying near the swimming pool, with his hand inside the water, thinking about the fight he had with Edwin few hours back. He was still angry with Edwin, and he couldn’t get him off his head. No one in his life irritated Ace, like Edwin.

When Ace was in his thoughts, Jacob walked to him, shouting his name. Though his shouts were audible enough, Ace didn’t respond to Jacob, as he was in his own thoughts. Jacob gritted his teeth, seeing Ace, and he pushed him into the swimming pool, angrily.

“Bloody hell!” Ace shouted, while coming out from the water. “Jacob? What are you doing here? Damn, in a few hours, it’s morning, man.”

“What the fuck did you do, Ace? Have you lost your mind?” Jacob shouted.

Ace asked, wiping the water from his body with a towel, “Me? What are you talking about?”

Jacob pushed Ace back, shouting, “You bloody attacked Edwin.”

“So? Don’t say you feel bad for him.”

Jacob rolled his eyes with Ace’s sentence. He said “Who the fuck cares about him? Tell me, you sent a text to Edwin from Kate’s cell phone, don’t you?”

Ace started to laugh, seeing Jacob’s angry face. He pinched Jacob’s nose, saying, “Oh! You are angry because of that.”

Jacob pushed Ace's hand, and shouted, “You did that without telling me. When I was talking to Kate, you sent the messages, didn’t you? Kate called me, and she accused me for everything that you did. She kept thinking; us entering the restaurant, my talk with her, then the messages... everything was my plan.”

Ace sat on the chair, saying “Relax Jacob. I saw Kate’s cell phone there, so I decided to not leave the chance. If you want, I’ll confess it in front of her, Jacob.”

Jacob sat beside him, holding his head. He said, “Another bad impression. Damn, my life.”

“Oh, please don’t act like you are the greatest man on this earth. You are a douche, Jacob.” Ace laughed.

“Really?” Jacob punched him.

Without stopping his laugh, Ace gave a glass of alcohol to Jacob, and they both started drinking. After a few minutes of silence, Jacob asked, “So, how bad did you beat him?”

“As bad as I could. In return, I too got the same. I must admit that his attempts to fight me, were damn amazing.” Ace said, while having his drink.

“You should’ve told me, Ace.”

“I wanted to unleash every bit of my anger only on him instead of sharing it with you. Now I feel better.” Ace said.

Jacob wrapped his arm over Ace’s neck, laughing, “Poor North Hill captain.”.

Ace smirked, recalling the fight, then they both continued their drink. Ace asked looked at Jacob, “You really want her in your life, don’t you?”

Jacob nodded his head in acceptance. He said, “I’ve been with many girls, man. But the feel I have towards Kate is more than anything. I’m in love with her, Ace.” He smiled.

“Is this your hundredth love or what?” Ace laughed. “I can’t even remember the number of girls you dated.”

Jacob rolled his eyes, saying, “Ace, trust me. This time it’s different. I feel something strange for her.”

Ace hummed as a response, and then they both kept quiet. Jacob asked, “What about you, Ace?”

“What’s there about me?”

“I mean, many girls are dying for you, but you don’t even care about them. Damn, look at that Olivia. She is literally going through hell to get you. I can’t understand how you can avoid that sexy one.”

“Sexy? More than that, she is fucking annoying.”

When Jacob was about to say something, Ace interrupted him, saying, “I don’t want to talk about this.”

“Fine then.” Jacob continued to drink. They kept drinking while talking, and sometime in the early morning, they both nodded off.

****

Edwin was too tired to go to his college because of last night beatings, so he continued his sleep for another hour, at Kate's house. His slumber was interrupted with the knock on the door. He opened the door to see Kate with a coffee mug in her hand. He thanked her for her kind gestures, and they started to talk. Then Edwin reached his house after talking to Kate’s parents, whereas Kate left for college. Edwin then informed his coach and Ralph that he was unable to attend the classes as well as practice. He spent the entire day at his home, as he didn’t want to see Ace, not even by any chance.

Days kept going the same for Edwin. The same college drama, basketball practice and last but not least, Ace’s torture at times. Edwin kept trying to escape him, but Ace was too stubborn to leave him easily.

Jacob was trying so hard to win Kate, but she kept ignoring him as always. Though she started to feel certain emotions towards Jacob, she kept pushing them aside as she didn’t get over Edwin completely, and she was afraid to have a relationship with someone, who had been an enemy to her friends.

Edwin was on his way to his clothes store, after his college. While he was walking, he saw a few men bullying a guy. At first, Edwin ignored them as he didn’t want any more troubles in his life, but a word from one of the men' mouth stopped Edwin from moving forward.

“Bloody homo.” One of the men shouted at the guy, while punching his face.

Edwin turned his side to them and kept watching the men. They kept insulting the gay man by cursing, beating and calling him with offensive words. Edwin couldn’t control his anger any more and stepped towards them.

The men pushed the gay, and when he was about to fall, Edwin stopped him from falling. To his surprise, there were two more hands holding the guy, other than Edwin’s. Edwin was shocked to see Ace beside him, and Ace too gave Edwin the similar look.

They both looked at each other for a moment, then shifted their gazes at the men, who were bullying.

“You guys, leave that fag and back off.” One of the men shouted.

Ace kicked the man, angrily, and Edwin started to hit the other guys. It was really shocking for Edwin, to see Ace fighting for a gay instead of bullying him, which he always does to other people. He noticed pure anger in Ace’s face while beating the people. One of the men pushed Ace, and when he was about to hit himself to the brick wall, Edwin held his hand and pulled him towards him.

Ace was only a few inches away from Edwin, and their faces were almost touching. Edwin’s gentle touch made a tingling sensation in Ace’s body, and he kept looking into Edwin’s eyes without even blinking. In a moment, Ace came back to his senses and pushed Edwin, then resumed his fight.

“If you trouble him again, I swear I’ll show you the hell.” Ace shouted.

Then the men ran away from there after getting beaten so badly by them, especially by Ace.

“Thank you so much.” The guy thanked both Ace and Edwin, then he left the place.

Ace started to walk to his car, that was parked on other side, but Edwin stopped him from his walk by holding his hand. Ace looked at him, raising his eyebrows, then he freed himself from Edwin’s grip.

“Why did you help him?” Edwin asked.

“What the hell is this question? Go away.” Ace shouted and continued to walk away.

“I didn’t expect you to support people like him.” Edwin said.

Ace let out an irritated sigh, hearing him. He shouted, “What the fuck is your problem? If you stay here for one more minute, I don’t know what I’d do.”

Edwin gritted his teeth and said, “Why the hell are you so mean to me? Can’t we get any better?”

Ace pushed Edwin to his car, holding his throat. He looked at him angrily for a moment, then he traced his fingers on Edwin’s cheeks when he started to have the urge to touch him. He then suddenly pushed Edwin aside and drove off in his car.