Cause You Were Here

Disclaimer; I do not own Stand By Me, or any Characters related to it or to the original Novella 'The Body' by Stephen King. I'm pretty sure that the master of horror himself owns said properties, and I'm not going to even start to try and defy that. I do, however, own Audrey - her parents Alan and Georgina and any other random OCs throughout this tale.

Author's Note; This has been re-written to improve not only grammar and style but story line as well. If you are a dedicated reader of this story, you may want to re-read through the story since the relationship with Ace is a tad different and the development of the relationship with Chris has also changed. Also, Audrey's story has been delved into more, and her character has changed in a few ways.

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Chapter One

"Audrey, hurry the fuck up!" A tall, muscled blonde boy yelled at the girl from the otherside of her bedroom door. He was getting impatient waiting for her to get ready. It was ironic really; he always wanted Audrey to look her best, but never wanted to spend the time waiting for her to meet his standards.

"Quit yelling at me Ace, and maybe I will!" She responded, just as loudly.

"I swear to God Audrey!" He replied, in a warning tone.

"Like God would ever listen to you, Ace," She muttered to herself, angrily.

She knew what could happen when you kept Ace Merrill waiting; she had witnessed it first hand. The last time she took a few minutes too long, he slapped her around some. Nothing too bad and he apologized the next day, but it was still obvious that Ace had a temper. Everyone saw that temper in him too, even his numb-skull friends, they just didn't dare say anything about it. They were afraid of what Ace could do to them.

Audrey exited the bedroom door and let Ace look her over. He decided that she was up to his standards, and took her hand as they exited her home as they headed out to his car - it was to the Cobra's hang out for them. Audrey's mother stared at the pair before she left, disappointed that her daughter would get involved with such a bad crowd. Her father shook his head at the two as they left, angry that his daughter was dating someone three years her senior.

She was an impressionable young lady, but quite mature and easy to deal with as far as being appropriate goes. That was what Ace liked second most about this girl; what he loved about Audrey was her gorgeous figure and her beautiful face. Ace was seemingly driven by testosterone alone, and he liked being the best bad guy around. One of the standards that had to be upheld was what his girl looked like, and Audrey was perfect in that caliber. Her amiable personality was just a plus. Before Audrey had moved to Castle Rock earlier that summer, Ace had been fooling around with the typical blonde twits that hung around the pool hall dying to be noticed by Ace, Eyeball Chambers, or even Charlie Hogan. After Ace met Audrey, the girls at the Hall began to make him sick - a fact that would perplex him until long after Audrey graduated from high school and moved away.

Audrey had moved to Castle Rock from Phoenix, Arizona in late June. It was early August now and with Ace taking up most of her time, Audrey knew no one from her sophomore class. If he could have, Ace would have loved to keep it that way, but not because he was selfish and wanted to keep Audrey all to himself. He wouldn't even mind if she made more girlfriends, it was just that Ace knew that Audrey was the same age as Chris Chambers, Gordon LaChance, Vern Tessio, and Teddy DuChamp. He hated Chris Chambers more than any of the other aforementioned because of the Ray Browers incident. Ace also had a sinking feeling in his gut about what might happen if Audrey and Chris ever met. He knew that Chris would be attracted to Audrey and he didn't want no one looking at his girl like that. Charlie Hogan had learned that the hard way – with a punch in the face.

The couple arrived at their destination not even ten minutes later, earning respect and obedience the moment they entered from all of the guys there. Charlie was giving some new kid a home-made tattoo as they listened to the radio and smoked cigarettes. Audrey liked all the guys, especially Ace, but she hated them as a group. She hated the way they acted and, even more than that, she hated that she actually fit in there.

"Yo, Ace," Eyeball called.

"What homo?" Ace responded, as he lit a cigarette cooly.

"I heard one of my kid brother's friends talking about your girl," He told him.

Ace inhaled, then exhaled, "Which one?"

All of this sparked her interest, but she wouldn't let it even seem that way. She had heard all about Vern Tessio, Teddy DuChamp, Gordie Lachance, and Chris Chambers. She had heard that two summers before, they 'stole' that poor kid's dead body. The boys hadn't gotten any credit for turning the body in, they simply made an anonymous phone call and the boy was found only hours later by the authorities. Audrey simply couldn't grasp why the Cobras were still so angry over something so stupid. She attributed their immature behavior to testosterone in the end and listened as the conversation moved on.

"One with the glasses. His dad's in the looney bin in Togus," Eyeball replied.

"Your kid brother say anything?" Ace asked, calmly. Perhaps it was the fact that Teddy was crazy that kept Ace from getting angry about it, or maybe it was the fact that it simply wasn't Chris Chambers that had been talking about her.

Chris was often compared to Ace and Eyeball, just another screwed up Chambers kid in the eyes of the public, but even Ace knew that Chris wasn't Cobra material. The younger Chambers was more intelligent than his brother, and besides that, his best friend was a good kid.

"Nah, man. He ain't said nothing about her."

Seeing as though Eyeball hated Chris as much as Ace did, Ace thought nothing of it and carried on with the smoking of his cigarette. After a couple hours of doing nothing, Ace leaned over and whispered into Audrey's ear.

"Let's get out of here," He murmured. He stared at her for an answer and she nodded softly, a small smile on her face.

They both rose from their spot on the hood of Ace's car, and he nodded to his friends, "We're getting out of here. See you homos later."

"Goodbye boys," Audrey replied, and the boys began laughing and horsing around. They knew as well as Audrey and Ace themselves did that what they were about to do wasn't exactly innocent.

The pair settled back into the car and headed out to one of Ace's many secluded areas in Castle Rock; a place that had privacy where they could have sex without any interruptions or distractions. To Ace, it was the best thing about dating Audrey. To Audrey, it was a bit of a different story.