Giselle

A Tale of Ace Gallagher Short from Book #1
by Jill D'Entremont

Athena looked on worriedly as Ace sucked in a deep breath. He slowly breathed it out, his entire body hunching over as he did so. His hand, instinctively held at his chest, finally dropped into his lap. His next breath was calm, clear, and quiet.

Knowing her gaze was upon him, he glanced at her from the corner of his eye. “You okay?”

She nervously looked away. “If you’re okay.”

“I’m fine now,” he straightened himself up. “Mioko’s magic sucked out the pain–for now–and I can breathe a lot better when I’m not trying to fight off an Amorfian twice my size.”

The young woman pressed her lips together. “Ace,” she offered softly, “thank you for defending me.”

He shrugged. “I wasn’t about to let him take advantage of you like that.”

“It’s just… after what those women said…”

Ace let out another deep breath. “You mean I took advantage of people too?”

“I just mean I’m surprised you came back to help me.”

“Just because I lie and steal sometimes doesn’t mean I’m heartless,” he said snidely.

Athena felt a pang of regret as he stiffened and turned away.  “Well, then, what made you start,” she paused, swallowing, “lying and stealing?”

His eyes lost their focus. “It’s a long and stupid story.”

“Then, tell me,” she urged. “Tell me what happened. Maybe I’ll understand.”

“Or it might make you hate me.”

“I’ll be the judge of that,” she quipped, raising an eyebrow.

With her persistence, Ace knew he would not be able to avoid the trip into his memories. More importantly, he would be forced to divulge the side of him he wasn’t proud of to someone he was truly starting to care about–or at least care about her opinion. That was going to be the hardest part of the story.

He breathed in deep and blew it out, looking out across the shadows of the woods around them.

“After I ran away from home, I was in a pretty tough spot. I felt worthless, useless, and pretty much like a waste of space. About the only thing I was good at was playing cards–but hanging onto enough money to do it was a challenge. It was hard to keep a stable job, I couldn’t beg because people knew I played cards, and handouts will only last so long before they dry up.” He glanced up into the treetops. “That summer, when I was at one of my lowest points, I found this really pretty girl. She was shopping with some friends–kind of crazy that their parents let them all out unsupervised, but that’s Fortanya for you. I really wanted to talk to her, but I was young, and stupid, and too afraid of rejection. But, next thing I knew, she was walking up to me.”

He started to smile lightly. “She told me her name was Giselle… and she told me she noticed me because I was cute. I couldn’t believe it. This pretty girl with a pretty name was talking to me–and she thought I was cute! And when she said she wanted to hang out with me? Oh, I was walking on clouds.”

Athena found herself smiling along with him, watching as he leaned over his knees and started picking at the grass near his ankles.

“I started to go on walks with her,” he continued. “We were thirteen, so it’s not like we could have done much else. Once, I thought it would be nice to give her some flowers one of the times we got together. I had just picked them outside of town. She was so happy! From that day on, she told all her friends she had a boyfriend, and that I had given her the most beautiful flowers.” The smile continued to play on his lips. “Next time I saw her, she asked to go to the bakery together. I scraped together what little money I had and got us something to eat. She was so happy; told all her friends, gave me a kiss on the cheek, and made me feel like I may have actually been worth something.”

The smile began to sour. “Snacks soon turned into wanting lunch. I didn’t have enough money to feed us both, so I pretended I wasn’t hungry. She didn’t seem to care.” He plucked at the grass, one blade at a time. “Lunch soon turned into window shopping for necklaces. ‘Oh, Ace,’” he mimicked her voice, “‘if only I could have that necklace. It’s so beautiful; it would make me so happy,’” he finished the words with a sigh and shrugged. “So, I did what any other card-playing boyfriend would have done: I saved up all of my winnings for a week and bought it for her. She couldn’t believe it! She wore that necklace every day, and I loved seeing her wear it and look so happy,” he paused, “that is, until she found a necklace she wanted more.” 

Athena watched Ace’s fist rip out a handful of grass.

“She almost immediately quit wearing the other one; she only wanted the new one. I wasn’t having a good week for earnings, but I wanted to get her what she wanted. I wanted to make her happy. So… that day, at lunch, I stole the first necklace back.”

“You what?” she winced.

“It was a lot easier than I was expecting,” he admitted, his hands retreating back into his lap. “I knew she had it in her bag, and she left her bag at her seat when she found her friend across the room. So, I slipped it out, and she never even noticed. That evening, I sold the necklace and bought her the newer one. She had no idea; she was just overjoyed that I had given it to her.”

Ace chewed on his bottom lip. “Except, that only lasted so long before she wanted another. I tried to talk her out of it; told her she looked beautiful in the necklace she had. But that just made her mad. She threatened to leave me–threatened to tell her friends all sorts of lies that I had tried to do things to her I didn’t do,” he cringed, his eyes narrowing. “So… I stole money from one of her friends so I could buy her the necklace.”

Athena sucked in a gasp. “Ace…”

“And that was still only the beginning,” he glanced at her before huffing and looking back out into the woods. “Every time I turned around, there were more bracelets and blouses and bangles… And every time, if I didn’t get them, she’d threaten to leave me. I had been so conditioned into thinking I was worthless–so brainwashed that if I let her go, I’d never find anyone else who’d care about me… so I just kept doing it.”

He clenched his fists in his lap. “There finally came a time where I nearly got myself killed breaking into a house. I almost fell off the roof hiding from a nosy patroman, but I managed to slip away with enough valuables to cash in to buy her this really fancy dress. She was so happy…” he spoke the words through clenched teeth. “And, the second we walked outside, she saw another dress in the window across the street. She handed me back the dress I got her and walked over to that window. ‘Oh Ace, if only I could have this dress instead’...”

He turned to look at Athena. “It was then I realized she could care less about me. She wanted the baubles–the dresses–the gifts. I may not have been worthless, but I was only worth what I could give her, and it was never going to be enough.”

Pained, Athena reached across the space between them and rested her hand on his knee. “Ace, I’m… I’m sorry,”

His eyes narrowed as a grim expression filled his face. “I’m not finished with the part that’s going to make you hate me.”

Her frown was unchanged as she kept her hand on his knee.

Ace sighed and turned away. “I was done, but I really didn’t want to face her again. I packed up what little I had left and disappeared. I never saw Giselle or her friends again, even when I came back after a year or so.”

“Where did you go?”

“All across Northaven and Daethos. It was actually kind of nice to travel for a while,” he smiled somewhat before his attitude again soured. “But, while that got rid of the immediate issue, I still had the problem of needing money to be able to gamble. And then, I realized I had gained an even bigger problem: I knew how I could get money really easy now.”

Athena opened her mouth, but no words could escape her lips.

“She didn’t realize it, but Giselle had taught me everything I needed to know about stealing from girls. I learned how to distract them so they’d drop their guard. I learned how to lie to make them think I really cared about them when all I wanted was the right moment to take their fancy bracelet. I learned how to sweet talk so they wouldn’t expect someone like me was the reason all of their money was gone when the night was over.” Ace chewed his lip, looking up into the trees. “I learned how to play into all the things girls like her wanted so I could take advantage of them.”

The young woman shut her eyes, shaking her head.

Ace watched her carefully, waiting until her hunched form stilled and her eyes opened to meet his. Her expression was both disappointed and empathetic, and he knew she had to be wrestling with the urge to simply tell him off and leave the camp for good–like she had tried to do earlier.

“I’m so sorry, Ace.” Her voice finally came as her hand, still on his knee, squeezed even tighter.  “I’m so very sorry.”

The thief blinked a few times, surprised when her reaction was far from what he had expected.

“I hate that you had to go through all of that; I hate that she used you for her own gain, not realizing what you were going through to meet her insatiable needs,” she shook her head, finally releasing his knee to brush away the brown strands of hair that had fallen into her face. “And I hate that she made you think all girls are like that.”

“I know they’re not,” he stressed, reaching out toward her hand–only to brush the back of it with his fingers. “At least, I know… you’re not.”

She swallowed, her lips pressed thin.

“I wasn’t lying before when I said I could never dream of doing anything to you. I know that doesn’t mean much after everything I’ve told you,” he broke eye-contact for a moment, “and it doesn't take away what I’ve done… but I hope–maybe–it shows you that I know you’re different from anyone else I’ve met.”

She watched as he quickly scowled and tucked away his hands into his lap in shame.

“I feel like everything I say is going to sound phony,” he grumbled to the grass. “I should just shut up.”

“Ace,” Athena tried to regain his hand, but he recoiled out of her reach and turned around. She managed a half smile and scooted closer to him regardless.

Ace jumped when he felt her back against his. He resisted the urge to move away; instead, he tried to focus on her warmth. His heartbeat slowed, and his breathing evened out. He let out a slow breath and closed his eyes.

“Well,” she said after a moment, “I can at least tell you that you were wrong.”

He grimaced and tried to look at her over his shoulder. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

She turned to look over the same shoulder. “I heard the whole story, and I don’t hate you.”

Finding himself staring into her eyes, he whipped his head around and returned to face the darkened forest with a flushed expression on his face.

She found a smile and simply linked her arms around her knees, keeping her back against his white the campfire popped beside them.