Chapter 162:

Ace, Ray, John and CJ skated for the whole day, stopping for some pizza once they got hungry. They messed around, tried new tricks, and just had an all-around fun day. They had also made plans to go watch a movie with an urban-sport crew they had met more than a year ago. They were from California, but travelled to New York often in order to record videos and get fresh footage every once in a while. They were making the trip today, and would be in the city for a few days, so they had asked if they wanted to do anything. They would meet today for a movie and probably go have food after.

Because of this, they each went to their own way earlier than usual, so that they would be able to have a shower, change clothes, and still have time to spare to get to the cinema on time.

Ace got home quickly, speeding through the road on his skateboard, weaving past vehicles, getting a rush of adrenaline every time he was just a tad bit too close to getting hit by a car.

***

A shower and a change of clothes later, Ace was pretty much rearing to go, he had some techwear black pants with some custom designed hoodie from his own brand. He had a black backpack were he kept his wallet, keys and various knickknacks, it also had some straps so he could hook up his skateboard if necessary, which made much simpler than just carrying it around.

He paired that with some white sneakers, and his now customary black facemask, leaving the building calmly, with plenty of time to spare.

It was a ten-minute trip to the cinema, and when he got there, about ten minutes early, Ray was there, and so were a few of the members of the urban crew. The crew had a pretty popular channel, and each member also had individual channels, where they posted various content. Their main point of pride was their high-quality videos, with extremely well recorded and edited footage, each video was a masterpiece of its own.

"Hey, guys,", Ace said as he got close, giving out fist bumps left and right, "How was the trip?", he asked, "Easy,", Jessica said, "We've done it so many times, it's just routine at this point. We might just get some extra sleep today and that's that."

"Ah, good stuff, although I assume you slept?", Ace asked Oby, who laughed and nodded, "Yep, so I am ready for anything now.", he said with a wide grin.

"The others will come now, they were just getting some food for the movie.", Jessica said, and Oby nodded. "Good, how's everyone?", Ray asked, and Oby winced, Ace noticed and asked, "Anything happen?".

Jessica sighed, "Yeah, Hans just went through a pretty bad breakup, so he is kinda down now, the goal of this was to get his mood up again.", Ace nodded, signalling that he understood, "That's not all though, my sister had a pretty big argument with our parents just before we left, so she is kind of pissed."

"What happened?", Ray asked, she was a good friend of Bea's, so she was pretty worried, "She decided that college was not for her, my parents had always assumed that I would not go, since this was going so well, but what they had not expected was that she would not go either. They knew that she was involved with the crew, but always assumed it was just because it was something I did, and she was along with the ride."

"Little did they know…", Oby began, and Ray nodded, "We know, she pretty much drives you guys forward, plus, she is the one that edits all the stuff right?"

Jessica nodded, "Not all, since she is teaching Moe, and he does some to practise. He is actually pretty good, and she says that he will be on her level in a few months, if he keeps on practising so much. That should also help share out the workload, and the plan is to get to a point where we can all edit just as well, but you know, that's pretty slow going.", she said with a cheeky grin.

"Ah, they are coming.", Ace said, as he saw them at the end of the road. He had seen them a while ago, but it would be weird explaining considering that they would not be able to make them out from afar.

"Yep, that should be them.", Oby said, as both groups walked towards each other, funnily enough, at that same time, both John and CJ came from one of the streets perpendicular to where they were, so all three groups met up at the same point.

They exchanged daps and fistbumps before they all went inside, they had gotten tickets online, so they just had to scan their phones on the machines as they went past, and all of them went as one big group to the correct room where the film would be shown.

The movie in and out of itself was pretty good, a comedy which made them laugh at a few points, they were alone in the theatre, which meant that they were able to add commentary and laugh out loud, without having anyone to worry about.

Once the movie finished, they huddled out of the cinema, still laughing about a particular joke CJ had made which had made the movie ten times better.

They decided where to go to eat as they walked along the street, finally deciding on a ramen place that was pretty hidden, but served amazing food.

Ace was walking behind the main group, talking with Hans and Bea. Funnily enough, he had ended up in a conversation with them, and everyone ended up making a silent agreement to let the three talk, they knew the effect Ace could have on people, and if there was someone that could cheer them up, it was him.

"So, bad breakup huh?", Ace asked Hans, going right to the root of the problem, Bea looked at him surprised, but Hans smiled weakly, "Yeah, he cheated on me, but it is what it is."

"You should not feel bad that someone cheated on you. There is actually a very simple reason as to why someone would do such a thing.", at this point, Ace decided on a plan, so he prepared to just talk out of his ass, say whatever was necessary to make his friend feel better.

"What?", Hans asked, now engaged in the conversation, curious as to what it was that Ace would say, "He thinks you are going to break up with him.", before Hans could say anything, Ace kept on talking, "Subconsciously, he feels that he is not good enough for you, and so is trying to find another reason as to why you would break up with him. This way, when it happens - and he feels that it will inevitably will, he will have an excuse to justify it for himself. You did not break up with him because he was not good enough for you, but because he cheated."

Hans and Bea looked at him, perplexed, but he continued on, "Therefore, I tell you this, someone like that is not worth cultivating a relationship with, someone that is unable to trust you enough to speak to you once he feels that there is a problem, someone who will try to do anything to find an excuse, in order to not blame himself.", Ace paused, as he saw that sink in, "Think about it, and think on what you knew about him, then, I assurer, you will realise I am right, and you are much better without him in your life."

Then, Ace looked at a surprised Bea right in the eyes, "And you…"