User blog:SodaCat/Mutual Understanding

i have decided to elaborate on Ace and Johnny's "mutual understanding" is.

“Well, well, well. What do we have here?”

Johnny stiffens at the sound of a rough, beaten voice; he’s unwelcome here and he knows it. New Coventry may be greaser turf and everyone else at the school may respect that, except the punks. And according to them, he’s on their turf right now.

The voice has come from Duncan Haynes, who is sitting on the hood of a beaten, old car. The windshield is shattered and the hood is stained with what appears to be blood, but Duncan pays no mind to this as he leans forward and sets his forearms on his elbows. He watches Johnny with fierce, hungry dark brown eyes, waiting for the grease monkey to make a wrong move.

“Shut up, Duncan,” their leader commands. Ace Griffith is leaning up against one of the dirty brick walls in the alley, muscular, inked arms crossed over his chest. Irritated, Duncan leans back and crosses his arms, still glaring at Johnny.

Johnny’s gaze moves over to Ace, who is too watching Johnny intently, though his gaze is more relaxed. Johnny isn’t scared of Ace or any of the other washed out rejects in his group, but right now he’s outnumbered, and even the chick with the pink streaks in her hair looks a little bit intimidating.

“Vincent, right?” Ace asks casually, sounding more bored than anything else. He eyes Johnny up and down for a moment, sizing him up. He doesn’t look like a weakling, not like that twerp Derby or pretty boy Thompson, but he’s still most likely no match for Ace. He’s not concerned.

Hesitant, Johnny nods. “Yeah. These your boys, Griffith?” he counters, eyes traveling over the distinct faces of the kids in front of him. The tall kid with the purple hair, the crazy, weird twins, the little one with the blue hair. The art-crazed kid with the weird hair, the creepy looking one sitting on the car, and the pink-haired girl.

They looked like a load of clowns.

Ace surveys them, nodding slowly. “Yeah. Where’s your gang?”

Johnny looks back at Ace’s impossible to read eyes, unsure. Something about Ace’s tone is threatening him, and Johnny doesn’t like it. “They’re around. Listening just in case I need their opinions on somethin’.”

Or backup.

Chuckling, Ace straigtens and begins making his way over to Johnny. By reflex, Johnny pulls his hands out of his leather jacket pockets, just in case this kid wants to fight. Instead, Ace throws his hands up as if he were being held at gunpoint by a police officer.

“I’m not gonna fight you man,” he announces, still laughing, “put your fists away. Let’s just talk.”

Johnny didn’t get to be leader of the gang by being stupid, so instead he simply uncurls his fists and looks straight at Ace. “We’re not talking. You’re leaving, this is greaser turf and you know it.”

Ace stops, staring at Johnny just a little bit surprised. He’d admire Johnny’s courage, sure, if it wasn’t so fucking irritating right about now. What did he expect Ace do, just wrap things up and tell his boys they had to head out because Johnny fucking Vincent demanded it? Please.

“Your girlfriend. Lola Lombardi, yeah?”

<p class="MsoNormal">Johnny’s attention is immediately gained at the mention of Lola’s name. He stares harshly at Ace, as if waiting for his own brown eyes to bore a hole in Ace’s hazel ones. Ace has no business talking about Lola. “Yeah, she’s my girl.”

<p class="MsoNormal">Ace nods, the way a father would upon hearing a confession they were already aware about from their child. “That’s nice. Girls, they’re real nice. Say, Jack, you’re a girl, yeah?”

<p class="MsoNormal">He turns, looking over at the girl with pink streaks. Jackelin’s gaze snaps up, and she grins at Ace, nodding. “Last time I checked.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“And as a girl, you like tough guys, yeah? Smart guys. Guys who get you, yeah?”

<p class="MsoNormal">Jack nods, still grinning at Ace. She knows what he’s doing, and she admires his tactic, the same way all the punks admire everything about Jason Griffith. “That’s right, Ace.”

<p class="MsoNormal">Ace turns back to face Johnny, already knowing that he’s gained the kid’s full attention by this point. “Y’know, Vincent,” he says bluntly, inspecting the tattoos on his left wrist, “I hear you’re a virgin.”

<p class="MsoNormal">This earns a round of laughter from the boys—and girl—behind Jason, and Johnny immediately reddens at this. He doesn’t answer Ace, instead just stares at him, uneasy. He should’ve brought backup, he knows it, but at this moment he’s pretty grateful that the boys aren’t around to hear this.

<p class="MsoNormal">“And uh, as Jack so graciously tells us, ladies aren’t really into dudes who don’t get them… dudes who don’t know what they’re doing.”

<p class="MsoNormal">He smiles at Johnny as if he were no more than a stupid child. “And between you and me, I definitely know what I’m doing.”

<p class="MsoNormal">That bastard.

<p class="MsoNormal">“So let’s just consider for a moment,” Ace continues, his voice booming in the silent alley, “that one day I come across your pretty little girl and realize that hey—I get her. Maybe I’ll just go right ahead and let her know that there’s some guys around here that get what a girl like her is about, y’know?”

<p class="MsoNormal">“What are you sayin’?” Johnny demands, his voice cold. He’s panicking—he doesn’t know how he could gain the upperhand in this particular exchange—but he’d never show that to an enemy. And right now, Ace Griffith falls pretty hard under the category of ‘enemies’.

<p class="MsoNormal">Ace just shrugs, as if the two were having a friendly conversation rather than a tense faceoff. “It’s pretty easy to figure out, don’t you think? You and your guys, you’re all pretty tough, I think you could keep me in line if you had an eye on me, right? But how are you gonna do that if I’m say, in Bullworth Town or the Vale?”

<p class="MsoNormal">Johnny bites at the inside of his cheek. He’s defeated, he knows it, Ace knows it, and the punks behind Ace know it, too. “I guess Coventry is pretty big,” he mumbles finally.

<p class="MsoNormal">Jason smiles at him, nodding a little bit. “See man, I knew we could share. Why don’t you head back home and tell your boys the news, I’m sure they’ll be real happy to know they got new neighbors. I mean, unless you forgot the way, in which case Garrett can walk you?”

<p class="MsoNormal">The kid with the purple hair approaches Johnny, and even from a couple feet away Johnny can tell that he towers over him. He shakes his head quickly, avoiding the artificially-tinted violet eyes.

<p class="MsoNormal">“I know the way,” he snaps, annoyed, as he turns and begins cursing Ace Griffith under his breath.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Alright, man,” Ace agrees, his voice light. “And uh, you be sure to tell your girl that I said hi.”

<p class="MsoNormal">