She's beauty and she's grace

"Remind me when your birthday is again," he joked- or partially joked, he actually didn't know the exact date, just the general time of year. While he knew he didn't have to be perfect for her, he wanted to get pretty damn close if he could help it, just when it really mattered. Her pageants were important to her so that was definitely a time where it mattered, he wanted to show up for her, so failing to even do that today wasn't just letting her down, he'd disappointed himself as well. Rather than wallow in that disappointment though he wanted to do better, and knew he had to if he wanted to regain some of her faith in him.

"You were invited to so many of my birthday parties by default and you still don't remember the date? Did you only show up for the cake?" Arden nudged his shoulder, playfully scolding him, though she was sure the laugh she was struggling to hide back betrayed her reprimands. "It's October 16th. Don't forget it again. Write it down. Put it in your calendar. Set up an alarm. Cause next time i'm not gonna go so easy with my punishment." She pulled him in by the collar of his shirt for just a moment and smirked suggestively at him, before letting go, towing the line between taking charge and being a tease. It baffled her a bit, how she could go from from feeling so dejected to laughing the whole thing off and messing around with Marlo just by talking their issues out. Like she hadn't just contemplated throwing in the towel before things got too complicated. When it had been proven that the solution really was as simple as being open with each other.

"Please, you wish I was lookin' at you in the way you're thinkin'. You ain't my type, beauty queen and even if you were still wouldn't touch you with a 10 foot pole." Ace wouldn't do that to Marlo knowing how he felt about Arden. He shot the words back easily sensing she was trying to joke. "I don't need you to drive nowhere tonight, no worries." He looked around at the room, "You were stayin' here huh? After that fire and shit…Tougher than you look.That's good." He sat at the shitty little table in the corner and kicked the equally shitty chair opposite from him out so Arden knew to sit as well. "Alright so it's like this. If it's illegal you don't put it in writing or say it out loud on the phone that's why I wanted face to face but here's what I'm offerin' you. I want you to pick someone up when I say so, it'll be pretty late at night. They'll tell you where to take 'em, usually it'll be the airport but it might be somewhere else too sometimes. All you gotta do is drop him off. Everytime you do that, you get a grand. We got a deal?"

"What makes you think you're my type? And please don't say you're everyone's type or i'm gonna go around telling people you're corny, and also unc status. Besides, me and Marlo made things official so I think i've got the best you guys have to offer." Arden said with a small smile, still not completely unnerved by Ace's presence but warming up a bit now that they had a bit of rapport. If this relationship she was so confident in was going to last she knew she was going to have to figure out how to be around the Lost Boys without looking like a total wimp. Not that she wanted to look or act like some badass, she wasn't trying to pretend to be something she was not, she just wanted to be seen as someone durable and steadfast. Or at the very least not be someone who could be seen as a weak link to the people she cared about. "For a couple of years, yeah. Just until my mom recovered enough to even step out of the place and we scrounged enough money for the deposit and a couple of months rent on an apartment. I almost forgot what it felt like to not sleep on the floor." She said with a chuckle, taking the seat opposite him, arms crossed in front of her while she still clearly kept her guard up now that he was getting into business talk. "That's all i'd need to do? Just drive someone around. Sounds simple enough. There's gotta be some danger to it though, right? That's why you're paying so much?"

Ace didn't know how he felt about Arden yet, not completely anyway. On the one hand, she didn't seem to bite her tongue much yet, even if she seemed to be afraid of him on some level and Ace was a sucker for that shit, it said something about a person that they could recognize something (or someone in his case) as dangerous and stick around anyway. On the other, as far as he was concerned she had a big mouth and his tolerance for snitches was next to none, and the blonde's saving grave was Marlo. Still, he'd meant what he'd told her back at the diner, and she was under the umbrella of 'his people' so putting her on to make some cash had been on his agenda, it was only a matter of opportunity presenting itself, which it now had. He came over to the address she'd sent, mousekatool on his hip because Ace was almost always strapped, the exception being when he was going to visit his nephew. As he knocked he thought about how he hoped she didn't take long to answer the door because he felt way too exposed outside of the motel room. "Hey beauty queen." He gave Arden a wolfish smile and walked into the room before he was invited in, "You drive right? Like you know how?" @ardenatkins

After all the shit that her dad had gotten their family into because of his involvement with other greasers back in the day Arden swore to herself that she would never get involved in their business like he did. Not because she believed she was better than them but because she didn't want to get trapped in some hole like her old man, digging herself deeper and deeper down in an attempt to get herself out. She wanted to get out of Rosewood eventually, to live out her dream of being a broadcast journalist in some big city, to experience life outside of her hometown. She didn't hate where she was from, she didn't hate being a south sider, if anything growing up there was exactly what instilled the drive to do bigger things. That was why she finally got the sense to seek out Ace's help, despite sitting on his contact info for as long as she had, her pride wasn't greater than her sense of survival. Despite her friends trying their hardest to keep her out of the greaser side of their life, Cam especially, she was always going to have a proximity to it. She wasn't trying to sign up to be a part of their crew by any means so she didn't feel the need to prove that she was some tough chick, she could admit hanging around Ace made her nervous, but along with making her money she did want to show that her loved ones weren't wrong for trusting her. After a quick peek through the door's peep hold she opened the door, stepping aside quickly lest he run her down, closing the door just as fast so they weren't spotted together. Arden scrunched her nose when he smiled at her, feeling more and more like prey he was sizing up. "Ew. Please never look at me like that again." She said as a joke to ease some of the tension she was feeling. "Uhh. I mean yeah, I know how to drive. I've got my license. I didn't bring a car with me though. I didn't know i'd need one?"

Ace: I'm imaginin' it and you said you'd go lower than I imagined so shouldnt you just be sayin' yes?

"Just lucky." That and he'd known Arden long enough to guess what kind of flowers she liked, even if he didn't know a carnation from a peony, or the names of anything else that wasn't a rose (not her speed, by the way). He knew her enough to recognize when she was putting on a brave face too, like she was doing for him now. His guilt was practically palpable, heavy in the air between them, and all he could think about was how he was doing to make it up to her, how she'd never come second to anything else in his life again if he could help it. Any promise or apology he made now would just come up empty until he proved he was the guy he said he'd be. And as much as he wanted to come running when she asked, maybe he needed to set more realistic expectations with himself in that regard too.

"Careful. You've still got my birthday and Christmas to prepare for. You start giving me expectations you might be setting yourself up for failure." Arden teased, she actually didn't mind that he was a bit cocky, it was that self confidence and assuredness that she had always admired about him. Perfection wasn't something Arden was seeking from a partner. And that wasn't a dig on Marlo, who she actually had such a high regard for but felt she had never properly expressed. She had just been taught to not expect much out of anyone from an early age, starting with her own parents. Which was maybe why it had stung more when she thought he hadn't shown up. And maybe in a stupid self sabotage way she was allowing her disappointment to put those walls back up, to push him away with the excuse of saving their relationship, because she was scared of hurt more than that down the line. Which wasn't completely fair to him. Because he did show up. Sure he had arrived late but he was standing here in front of her and trying to make it up to her.

Text || Ace + Arden

It wasn't at all like Marlo to not follow through on a promise but how could he expect her to believe that? He was just as disappointed in himself as she probably was with him, and it was first taste of trying to juggle his two loyalties, his allegiance to the lost boys and his relationship with his girlfriend. The gang wasn't the problem though, it wasn't like none of the other guys dated, it was poor planning on his part. Just like he'd drop everything for his boys, he came running whenever Arden asked - he couldn't be two places at once though. For the first time (but certainly not the last) he was forced to choose between her and the gang, even when he thought he could manage both, and now realized he'd picked the wrong one. He could've handled his debt collection bullshit some other time but Arden should've been the priority. "No, I was just carryin' these around, yes they're for you." He was joking but it didn't have his usual energy behind it, there was a sweetness instead, as he handed the flowers off to her. His smile fell completely when he recognized the disappointment on her face, before she could say anything. "I know," was all he got out, a quiet admission of his fuck-up, as he held her gaze. As much as he owed her explanation there was none he wouldn't be embarrassed to offer her, no excuse worthy of breaking her trust. "I'm sorry. I meant it when I said I'd be here, I don't- I try not to make promises I can't keep." His loyalty was all he had so it killed him to let her down. "There was somethin' I had to take care of- It doesn't matter. I should've been here." His eyes flitted down to her sash again, if only to get a moment's reprieve from the look on her face that was breaking his heart, his thumb brushing over the fabric. "You look really pretty," he said as he looked back up. "But I already think you're the prettiest girl in every room."

"Thank you. They're beautiful. Did you know my favorite flower? Or did you just get lucky?" She asked softly as she took the bouquet from him, her bottom lip jutting out in a pout as she tried contain her sadness. But the pang of pain she felt in her heart from him doing something so sweet and her reacting with such disappointment left her feeling ungrateful. Missing one pageant wasn't the end of the world. There would be more of them in the weeks to come, that was if they didn't end up fumbling their relationship before they could get that far. The whole conversation was uncomfortable and Arden had always felt like it was a waste giving in to negative feelings. But she had never shied away from being transparent with Marlo and she knew she could count on the same from him. Marlo had never let her down before so she had never had a reason to doubt his word. Which was why it hurt that much more when it sounded like in trying to juggle their relationship with everything else on his plate, in trying to stay in everyones good graces she had ended up being one of those things he decided could go on the back burner. And she couldn't help but wonder if this was something that would happen often. If she was just going to have to deal with coming second to his other responsibilities and waiting around feeling like an idiot for his attention.

With every intention of making it to Arden's pageant, Marlo stopped for flowers ahead of time, because it felt like the sort of thing you did, and then he had just one errand to knock out before he could get on his way. The errand in question was following up on a debt, nothing out of the ordinary except the dude wasn't where he was supposed to be - twenty minutes he wasted looking for the prick, who'd been hiding out at neighbor's, then another ten to chase him down once he took off running. "Eh it's a pinky, you don't need it that bad," he'd grumbled as he held the guy down, irritated by the inconvenience he caused him. Careful not to bloody up his own clothes, he tossed the guy, now down to nine toes, a towel once it was all said and done, promised he'd be back again soon. And then he was beyond late.

It was a wonder that Arden had won anything considering most of her attention had been on scanning the crowd for most of the show, her motivation waning the more time passed and she didn't see Marlo. Still, she had mastered how to plaster a fake smile on her face and make it look convincing, at least to those who didn't know her below the surface level, and that's why she had won her fair share of these pageants. The main thought running through her mind was what could have gone wrong? She worried that something had happened to him on the way there, that he had been caught up in some kind of danger, especially when she continued to check her phone hoping for an update only to be met with radio silence. Then she started wondering if she had put too much pressure on him. If she had possibly jumped the gun when she referred to him as her boyfriend the last time they had messaged each other. She thought that's where things between them were headed but maybe there was some kind of miscommunication, maybe other priorities came first.

"It's all in the timing. I'm nothing if not smart about self preservation," he grinned, though they both knew that even that wasn't true at the best of times. "How are you feeling about the season though? I mean obviously I think you're the most beautiful but also I firmly believe you should be allowed to tug on some extensions to get your point across." Even if he wasn't all in on the violence as an answer ideology, he was still a Claymore from the South Side. Certain things ran in his blood, he'd decided, as much as those he loved liked to believe he was better than. "I hear you. I guess I just ain't a quitter. I've decided I'm not gonna sit back and let my brother walk head on into an early grave again, not if I can help it. I mean, I don't know what the fuck i'm doin' but I gotta try. He'll fight me the whole damn way but at the end of the day he's family and I can see him changing. I can see it," he repeated, though he wasn't sure if that had anything to do with her presence in his life or not. "I know for a fact you're talkin' shit but fine, if I get first swing I'll allow it," he played along with a roll of his eyes and leaned over to wrap his arm around her shoulder and give her a squeeze. "As long as you're happy and as long as you're bein' treated like a queen. And, I mean... you seem happy. Like you ain't so much in your head lately."

"I'm liking my chances right now. I don't have any controversies following me this year. And one of the girls in our circuit got caught up in some drug scandal so the other girls found an easier target." She wiggled her brows as she caught him up on all the gossip, knowing he found it all entertaining. "I mean most of my sponsors think i'm too much of a liability after all that Panic shit so they're out. But it's fine. I did it on my own before, I can do it again." She shrugged. "You're coming to my first show, right?" She pursed her lips, biting her tongue to keep from discouraging his resolve since he seemed pretty on walking down this path with his brother. It wasn't her business to get involved but as his friend she worried. She had seen her mom go down a similar path with her dad and was now dealing with the fall out of that choice. She could only hope that was able to make the call to pull back if he had to. "You say it like quitting is such a horrible offense. Sometimes taking a step back and realizing there's nothing you can do in certain situations is stronger than trying to win a losing battle." She reached out to grab his hand and give it a light squeeze. "I'm not saying don't be there for your family. It's great that you're building a relationship together. I'm just saying be careful, like you told me." She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well it's kinda hard to form a lot of thoughts when they're getting pounded out of you. Seriously, i'm sure my brains are like scrambled eggs right now. But i'll spare you the details. I am happy though. Maybe a little too happy for my own good. How about you? Still locked down as ever?"

Arden: And if I am? What are you gonna do about it?