***Jack's POV***

                "So what exactly happened to your knee?" dad asked.

                We were sitting at the table in the kitchen, having settled down with chips and beer. I was still embarrassed that my parents had caught me tonguing Ace, but so far, they hadn't brought it up.

                "Hydroplaned into a ditch. The car is fine and so am I," I said with a shrug. "Some friends helped me get it out of the ditch."

                Mom pursed her lips. "You didn't call us to tell us."

                "Because I knew you'd freak out and drive down here to check on me," I said.

                "We deserve to know when you get hurt like that," she tried.

                "It's just a cut. I'm fine, mom," I said.

                "The knee injury was the only injury?" dad asked.

                I nodded and he leaned back, letting the topic drop. He didn't overreact about things as much as my mom, which was a nice balancing act.

                "So you and this Ace boy..." mom said.

                I held up my hand. "Stop right there, mother. I understand you saw a scandalous situation earlier, but we're not dating or anything. It was just a kiss."

                "Just a kiss?" mom asked, raising an eyebrow. "You've been calling me about this boy."

                "Okay, so it was more than just a kiss. But it's not like I'm screwing the guy or making plans to go get hitched and live together in the mountains," I said. "We're not dating or friends with benefits or anything like that."

                I gripped my beer uncomfortably. I so did not enjoy having this conversation with my parents.

                "Jack, didn't you say the frame of your bed was cracked? Can I go look at it? Maybe I can fix it," dad said, standing up. He was trying to give mom and I alone time to talk, but I really didn't want it.

                "Yea, sure," I said, knowing I'd never win this battle. Sooner or later my mom would trap me alone.

                Dad went upstairs and we heard my door shutting. Mom turned her gaze to me, waiting for me to speak.

                When I didn't, she started the conversation instead. "He seemed like a nice young man."

                "Because he's a waiter and in order to make tips he had to learn how to act like a nice human being instead of an insecure asshole," I said.

                "Jack," mom scolded. "Stop that."

                "What? It's true," I said. "Kid has daddy issues like you wouldn't believe. Mommy issues, too. I think his whole family was just screwed up."

                "It's not his fault if he was born into an unstable family. Some children are traumatized by the way they grow up," mom said, frowning.

                "Oh, Ace is traumatized alright," I said. I let out a sigh. "But I guess he's trying his best."

                I then proceeded to tell my mother what had been happening with Ace, leaving out the part about him and Delaney being fuck buddies.

                When I was done, mom sipped on her beer thoughtfully. She set it down and got the expression she always did whenever she was trying to carefully pick her words.

                "I think he's a troubled young man who doesn't want to be a troubled young man," she said at last. "Ease up a little, Jack. I understand that he's responsible for his own actions, but it sounds like he's had a switch flipped into survival mode for a while. If he doesn't want his family to find him, he probably tries to stay anonymous to people. It's got to be hard for him to go against that."

                I frowned, because I'd never thought of it that way before. But, as usual, mom was right. Ace probably relied on remaining fairly anonymous. Just another cheerful waiter whose name you'd forget by the time you got home from dinner. A guy you drank with in the bar and then never ran into again. A one-night stand that would fade from your mind as you moved on in life. Not a friend, not a boyfriend. Just that cute guy you spent a little bit of time with.

                "He needs to get his act together," I said.

                "He probably needs help," she said.

                "I'm not a therapist."

                "No, but you're a compassionate human being."

                "This is a highly debatable statement."

                "Jack."

                "Mother."

                She sighed and shook her head. "I raised a son who cares about others."

                "No, you raised a son who wishes he could just sleep all day and not deal with humans," I corrected.

                "I think you should give Ace a chance. If everything you told me is true, then it seems like he's really trying for you," she said.

                I groaned. "Mom, quit shipping me with him. It's weird."       

                "Think it over. I'm going to go tell your father he can stop hiding now," she said, getting up.

                She disappeared upstairs and I stared at my beer. I knew that Ace was trying. But I couldn't just hand him my trust, especially not after what he'd done. No matter what happened next, that was something he was going to have to earn back over time.

                But maybe in the meantime...

                I shook my head a little. Slow. I had to take this slow for both of us. If we went too fast, this wouldn't work out. Ace was insecure and I didn't trust him. That wasn't exactly a promising combination.

                My parents came back downstairs after a minute and gestured at me to stand up. I got up, finishing the last of my beer.

                "We're going to take you out to dinner," mom said. "Would you like to call Delaney and Nico and invite them, too?"

                "Nah. Dex is with a friend and Nico is god only knows where," I said.

                We left the apartment and I got in the backseat of their car. My dad started driving in the direction of Magellan's and I mentally sighed. It was the nicest restaurant in town and my parents loved the food there, so naturally that was where they'd take me. I checked the time and my despair grew, because we'd sat around talking after Ace had left and his shift would've just started. Even if he wasn't our waiter, I'd still probably see him.

                Dad parked the car when we got there and we left the car. We moved towards the entrance and I tried to peer inside.

                We stepped in, blasted by air conditioning. Dad stepped up to the hostess to let her know that there were three of us, and she checked her seating chart.

                It was quiet here tonight and I tried to count how many waiters I saw. Less waiters meant they had bigger sections, which meant I had an even higher chance of being seated with Ace.

                Aw, who am I kidding? My life had become horribly cliché lately and Ace was one of the most popular waiters here. Of course I'd get sat with him.

                Sure enough, I saw him moving down an aisle, stopping at a table with a charming smile as he set down a check. He moved along the aisle towards the back of the restaurant, not noticing us.

                The hostess gathered three menus and led us down the aisle Ace had just been in. She gestured to a booth with a smile.

                We sat down and she handed us our menus. "Your server's name is Ace and he'll be right with you guys!"

                "Ace Foley, what a surprise," I said with a sigh.

                The girl laughed a little. "You know him?"

                "Unfortunately," I said.

                She stopped laughing and frowned curiously. "Huh, you know, I've never heard anyone use his last name before. I didn't even know his last name."

                Mom shot me an "I-told-you-so" look as the hostess shrugged it off and walked away. We opened our menus and I sank down in the seat, dreading our waiter.

                "Well, well, well," Ace said, stepping up to our table a minute later. "We all meet again. I'll assume I don't have to introduce myself."

                He set down napkins for our glasses. He seemed a lot more at ease when he was at work, probably keeping himself occupied with memorizing orders and attending to tables.

                "Water," I said before he even asked what I wanted.

                "Jack, don't be rude," mom said sternly.

                "Does this mean we don't have to tip?" I asked.

                Ace rolled his eyes. "You could be a decent person and take pity on how small my paycheck is."

                "You are the last person on this planet to lecture on decency," I said.

                "You're not wrong," he said, and turned his attention to my parents. He took their drink orders and disappeared to go get them.

                "He's a very good looking boy," mom said.

                "Mom, please, for the love of god, stop talking," I said. The last thing I needed was to be talking about how hot a guy was with my mom.

                "What? I'm not trying to be weird. I'm just saying that he looks like someone you'd see on a magazine. He has very pretty eyes," mom said.

                I mean, she wasn't wrong. Ace was incredibly hot and he did have nice eyes. But he also had a giant ego that I didn't want my mother feeding.

                Ace returned with our drinks and took our food orders. He gathered our menus and left, not taunting me anymore. But I guess that, as much of an asshole as he could be, he was more concerned with earning money than he was with teasing me.

                So I used the time to catch up with my parents about things. They told me what they had been up to since I last saw them and I told them about my life living with Delaney and Nico. My father wasn't a super talkative guy, but even he managed to keep engaged in the conversation. My mom looked thrilled to be having a chatty family dinner.

                Ace didn't bother us as he brought us our food. He swung by occasionally to check on us, but the restaurant was getting busier and he was divided between a fairly high amount of tables.

                When we were done eating, I didn't miss the way my mom left Ace a large tip. We got up, stomachs full and conversation having died down to idle talk.

                I signaled to my parents to go on without me and moved towards the back of the restaurant. I spotted Ace and grabbed his shirt, yanking him around the corner and out of sight of people eating.

                "Very romantic," he said. "I'm a little busy, though."

                "You're a serious pain in the ass. But if you keep up the way you've been acting, then we have a shot. Just keep that in mind next time you want to do something stupid," I said, kissing him.

                I stepped away from him and moved around the corner, heading towards the exit without waiting for a reply from Ace. What he did with that information was his decision.

                My parents drove us back to the house and we went inside, cracking open more beers and sitting in the living room. My mom asked me about my friends and my dad asked me about future work plans.

                We talked and drank and just caught up together. Delaney texted me as it got later to tell me he wouldn't be home tonight. Apparently a party was going on, but he knew I wasn't big into the party scene.

                As it got darker out, my parents got up and helped me recycle the beer cans. We cleaned the kitchen together and mom helped me put everything away neatly.

                I walked them down to the door and they smiled at me. My mom held her arms out and I moved into them, having expected this.

                I wondered what it would be like to grow up not expecting your mother's love. How spoiled I was. How twisted Ace was.

                I hugged my mom a little tighter than I usually did. I just didn't understand how someone could abandon their own child.

                Mom released me and dad took his turn to hug me. My parents had never abused me, not physically or emotionally. They'd never abandoned me. They had their faults, but they supplied love to me freely and endlessly. They always supported me and tried their best. They worked hard to keep us a stable, nurturing family.

                "Bye mom. Bye dad. Thanks for stopping by. Feel free to bring more beer next time," I said.

                "You're underage. Be happy we brought you any beer at all," dad said, but he was smiling a little. "Be good, Jack."

                "We love you. We'll call you tomorrow," mom said, reaching out to squeeze my shoulder.

                I waved to them as they left the apartment. I shut the door and went upstairs to the living room, throwing myself on the couch and slinging an arm over my eyes. I loved my parents, but all the talking and questions exhausted me. I rolled over, burying my face against the couch and closing my eyes.

                                                                                                ***

                The sound of the doorbell startled me awake. I dragged myself off of the couch and rubbed at my eyes, my brain foggily recalling that neither of my housemates were home tonight. Oh great. I was probably going to get murdered.

                I went downstairs and pulled the door open a little. Seeing Ace's face there, I was tempted to slam the door shut and just go back to bed.

                But as psycho as he was, I figured he probably wouldn't murder me. I opened the door enough that he could step inside.

                "You smell like beer," he said.

                "Figures you'd have a nose for alcohol." I stretched and ran a hand through my messy hair, realizing that my hat must've fallen off while I was asleep. "I was sleeping, by the way."

                "Congratulations, you know how to use the past tense," he said, following me upstairs. We went up to my bedroom and I sat on the end of my bed.

                I'd expected Ace to sit next to me, but he surprised me by sitting on the floor, his back against my dresser. He was still in his work clothes, which seemed like it should be uncomfortable. But something told me that Ace worked enough to not mind being in those clothes for extended periods of time.

                "Why are you here?" I asked at last.

                "Because of what you said." He stood up and moved over to my bed, tilting my head up. "I don't know how to..." He struggled for a moment before forcing the words out. "I don't know how to do this kind of thing. I've never dated anyone before. I've only ever had Alexis, Christian, Ike, and Jer. So try not to rip my head off when I fuck it up, because I will fuck it up multiple times."

                "As long as you live and learn," I said, pulling him down and kissing him.

                We shifted back, my body pressed against the mattress and Ace on top of me, kissing me. He smelled like a mixture of foods and his work clothes were getting wrinkled as I pulled him closer, but I didn't mind.

                He was really trying. He was willing to keep trying until we figured out how to make this work. Maybe it wasn't complete, but it was a foundation. We could construct our own sturdy relationship on it from here. Trust would come as long as he kept this up, because I knew that he had trust issues to work through.

                A relationship with Ace wasn't something that would be easy, not by a long shot. But it was something that we could make work. We both had a lot to learn and understand. He wouldn't be the only one struggling to try.

                But I was willing to give it a shot. After everything we'd been through and done, I truly believed that this could work.

                "Ace," I mumbled against his lips. "Will you be my boyfriend?"

                He froze, lips hovering above mine, fear and unease in his eyes. This was new territory to him, and he was someone who liked to stay in his own boundaries.

                But he nodded anyways. "Yea. Don't ask stupid questions, Jackass."

                "Don't be an asshole to me. Acehole. Is that even funny? Fuck it." I pulled him back down to kiss him again, feeling his hands slide down to find my own, linking our fingers together.

                We fell asleep that night cuddled up together, Ace's shirt off and our lips swollen with kisses. It was a good start.