Tell Me I'm Different (Finished!)

(12) Leave Me [Part 1]

Ace shuddered at the thought of that bear like man changing him.

“I hope that’s okay,” she said in a questioning tone, poking her head through the doorway.

“It’s fine,” he smiled, trying to hide the sound of disgust from his voice.

She smiled back at him then returned to the kitchen where Ace could hear the sizzling sound of bacon on the stove.

He stood up, slowly this time and searched the room until he found a door that led to the bathroom. He went inside and locked it. Ace stared at his reflection in the mirror, barely recognizing it was him. His face was decorated with large, dark circles under his eyes and his skin was so pale, it looked like it had a tint of blue. Ace shook his head, turned on the faucet and splashing chilling water on his face. He looked at the mirror again, but this time he saw a pile of rumpled clothes in the side of the bathroom. He turned around and saw that it was the clothing he was last wearing. Ace quickly stripped out of the pajamas and into his jeans and leather jacket outfit. The woman was right, the clothes were disgusting. They were caked in dried dirt and smelt like horse fecal matter, but Ace would rather be in his own clothes than that of someone he didn’t even know. He rummaged around the pockets of his jeans before his hand landed on his iPhone.

He quickly unlocked it and saw that there were over fifty missed calls and a hundred missed texts. Instead of looking through them, he pressed contacts and in an instant he was dialing Elvis’ number.

The phone rang and rang and finally when he could no longer take the endless droning of the ringtone, Elvis’ voicemail picked up. No personal message, just an automated voice messaging system that read his phone number and told the caller to leave a message at the beep. This was new, Elvis always answered his phone.

Ace groaned and redialed. On the fifth ring he hung up and threw his phone to the ground. His mind clouded with confusion. He cradled his head in his hands and remembered he had a remedy for the pain. He pulled out a clear white packet of powder from the inside of his rumpled leather jacket. His hands shook as he laid it’s contents on the counter, accidentally spilling some inside the drain. His eyes lingered on the powder with desire. He could practically feel the chills running up and down his spine now. Quickly, he pulled out his black AmEx card and made some lines. In an instant, the powder was in his body. He gasped with happiness and smiled despite himself.

He felt awful. All sorts of feelings of horribleness crept through his mind and body, but it was a good awful.

After a few minutes he decided he couldn’t stay in the bathroom forever so he threw open the door and walked out slowly. The woman sat with her back facing him in front of his bed with a red and white checkered tray on her lap.

She turned and smiled at Ace warmly. He tried to return the smile, with a new sense of happiness.

“I made you some pancakes and bacon,” she offered. She moved a little to her right, allowing Ace’s eyes to gaze upon the mass of sticky syrupy covered pancakes. Next to them was a plate of warm, crispy looking bacon that Ace could tell she had just made. Ace’s mouth watered as he said, “Yeah, that would be great.”

 She motioned for him to sit on the bed and he readily complied. She placed the tray on the bed and sat on the wooden chair. Ace barely noticed her as he practically inhaled the delicious home-cooked meal. Just as he finished devouring the food the woman said,

“I’m sorry. I never got to the chance to introduce myself. I’m Lisbeth and the man you saw earlier was my husband Anthony.”

“I’m Achilles but I go by Ace,” he nodded, wiping the syrup from his mouth with the back of his hand.