She was real cute and cuddly in my arms, like I'd figured she would be. I didn't normally go for chicks with short hair an' she had the whole 'Twiggy' thing going on, but it suited her, 'cause she was tiny. She didn't try to hide it by wearin' real high shoes, neither, in fact I think I nearly always saw her in little flat shoes and Capri pants that showed off her tight little butt.

Didn't always see her in a low cut top like tonight though. Not that I was complain', no way.

Cute though, I always thought she was cute.

She'd said she was cold and didn't have a ride home, so what was I gonna do? Leave her at the mercy of any passing hood who cruised by the drive-in?

Only, when we was drivin', suddenly she wasn't cold no more and she didn't wanna go home, she wanted to go down by the lake.

And when we was down by the lake, she was cozying up to me, wantin' to share a smoke an' a beer, tellin' me she'd always thought I was tuff, playin' with the collar on my jacket.

"I dunno, Evie, you only just broke up with Steve." I hesitated. She flushed just a little, but she was still right up next to me and like I said, she felt real cute and cuddly.

"So? That's his loss," she said. "I always liked you, Two-Bit, didn'tcha know that?" She was sliding her arms around my neck. What could I do, but hold her right back?

Only, something didn't feel quite right and when she started kissing me, it felt even more screwy. I'd thought Randle was an idiot for dumping her, but somewhere in my head it still felt like I was going behind his back. I pulled away from her. Glory, that was hard. She was real cute.

Evie looked at me, a strange expression on her face. Then she scooted back across to her side of the seat and kinda curled up, hugging her knees. Shit! She was crying.

I never know what to do when chicks get to bawlin', especially if it's been my fault. I didn't think it was down to me this time.

"Evie?" I had no idea what I was gonna say to her.

She looked over at me, sheepish-like, wiping under her eyes. It kinda smudged the black stuff she had painted there, but I didn't say nothin'.

"Sorry, Two-Bit. I'm sorry," she said in a real small voice. I shrugged. She took a deep breath. "I do like ya, really I do." She tried for a watery smile. "But I still wanna be with Steve."

"What was this for, then?" I couldn't help asking.

"Sylvia said to make him jealous, to make him realize he'd made a mistake..."

"Sylvia's a no good little...broad.." I caught myself, "...you don't wanna be listenin' to her!"

"But she said that's what she used to do to Dally, all the time, an' it made him come back..."

I highly doubted that's why he kept going back to her. I was pretty sure it was to do with the things he told us she'd do in bed, but that's another story...

"You ain't Sylvia an' Steve ain't Dally." I shook my head. Jeez, it was real hard to say his name, without seeing him lyin' there, hearing the sound of the cops' guns. I rubbed my face to stop thinking. "You know Randle, he blows up all the time, he might come round yet," I tried.

She shook her head sadly. "He ain't never been like that with me before, not that angry."

"Because of Sandy?" I kinda knew what he'd been raving about, when Soda was so down. He thought Evie was part of the lie, although she'd denied it.

Evie looked at me and swallowed, hesitating before speaking. I knew then that she'd lied to Steve.

"That was a shitty thing for her to do to Soda," I said quietly. She couldn't hold my eye, but she nodded as she looked down.

"She was my friend," Evie said, her voice wobbling a little. "I only covered for her a coupla times..."

"Guess that was all it took."

"Sylvia said, those college boys were always careful, Sylvia..."

"Glory! Sylvia wants to shut her fuckin' trap, if you ask me!" I made her jump as I snapped. I was suddenly real tired. I took a deep breath and turned the ignition over. "I'm takin' you home, Evie."

She was silent all the way. I didn't have nothin' to say either.

Outside her house, she hesitated with her hand on the car door. "Two-Bit?" she said quietly. "I never went with them. To the frat parties. I wouldn'ta done that to Steve. I still really..." Her lip trembled. "Two-Bit? You won't tell him about tonight, will ya? Please, I just thought it might work, because of..."

"No, I won't tell him." I interrupted her before she could blame Sylvia again. She nodded.

"Thank you."

I watched her go up to the house, her cute little butt wiggling in those capri pants.

Maybe I closed my eyes for a second, just thinking, what if? But then I gunned the engine and went to look for Randle and Soda, to buy them a drink.