Disclaimer: I do ot own The Outsiders or 'One Way or Another' by Blondie.
A/N 1: This one-shot is a side-fic to Born to Run that takes place after chapter 33. You don't have to have read Born to enjoy this, but you might enjoy it a bit more if you have :)
Sunday, May 8th, 1966
Dusty light through dusty blinds. Evie groaned and rolled over, pressing her fingers into her pillow and rubbing her nose against the fabric. It was too bright - too much sun bouncing around the room. The air was too warm, her mattress was too hard, and the area where her pride should've been hurt a little too much.
It wasn't right, really. She shouldn't be as upset as she was. It wasn't as if she had actually loved him, but still …
Groaning for what must have been the millionth time in the last half hour, she sat up, tucking her knees beneath her chin. She needed a distraction, something to keep her mind busy. She could call Sylvia, do her nails, tidy her room … hell, she could probably do all three at once. It was tempting, but the idea of getting carried away with one thing and ending up spilling nail polish all over her floor wasn't that enticing.
She could just call Sylvia. Lord knew her best friend would have plenty to say to keep her mind occupied, but did she really want to hear it? There was a good chance she had been a part of the school gossip the last few days, and she wasn't sure she wanted to know what people were saying about her and Steve and whichever girl Steve broke up with her for.
Painting her nails seemed like a good idea, but if she were honest with herself, getting out of bed and putting makeup on that morning had been hassle enough. Pampering herself just wasn't something she could be bothered with.
Especially when she had no one to appreciate the end results of her pampering herself.
Her room was a mess and she knew she should definitely clean it, but … She shook her head. That wasn't even a tiny bit appealing.
A knock came at the front door and, remembering her parents and brother had gone shopping, she climbed off of her bed, checked her makeup, and left her bedroom. Despite her earlier thoughts about not wanting to talk to Sylvia, she found herself hoping her best friend had come to visit. Sylvia could be pretty distracting when she wanted to be.
The one remotely sane thought that ran through her head when she opened the door to see Steve and Anna was of how glad she was that she had bothered to get out of bed and dressed that day. It might have been frustrating at the time, but if she had to see Steve so soon after they had broken up, at least she looked good. At least he could see just what he had given up.
The second thought was curiosity about Anna being there with him. She hated to seem pathetic, but found herself wondering if her cousin had talked her ex into getting back together with her. She knew it was stupid, but she would have great satisfaction in turning him down if it were true.
Half smiling through her confusion she opened the door wider, pausing once she registered the looks on both their faces. She still didn't understand why Anna was there with Steve - or why Steve was there at all for that matter - but she quickly found herself not wanting either of them there. She didn't know what they wanted and she no longer cared to know.
"Can we come in?" Steve asked after a few moments' silence.
Evie frowned. "No," she said and walked outside, closing the door behind her.
She knew she was being rude, but as far as she was concerned there was no reason for the both of them to be there together and the fact that they were wasn't making her feel too hot. Or maybe it was the coldness of Steve's eyes and the obvious nervousness in Anna's that had her own eyes narrowing.
"What's going on?" she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.
Steve narrowed his eyes slightly at her change of mood and Anna shifted her panicked gaze between him and Evie before stepping forward a little.
"We need to talk," she said. "There's … there's something you gotta know."
Her heart began to thud, but she kept her face calm as she faced her cousin - her once best friend. "Somethin' I gotta know that you two need to tell me together?"
"Well, yeah," Anna said.
"Must be awfully important," Evie said sarcastically, despite the uneasy feeling that was settling over her.
"Evie." Steve's voice held a note of warning to it that she hadn't heard from him in a long time.
She frowned, dropping her arms. "What's going on?" she asked again.
"The thing is -" Anna began.
"We're together," Steve interrupted.
"Steve!" Anna gasped as Evie drew in a sharp breath.
"What do you mean, you're together?" she asked in a quiet voice.
Anna opened her mouth to speak, but Steve got there first.
"I mean exactly what I said." He ran a hand through his hair. "I know this won't be easy for ya, but there's no point in beating around the bush. Me and Anna are together now."
Her mouth was hanging open and she didn't know what to say. Part of her wondered if this was some stupid joke … the other part wondered if she had known this was coming for a while now.
She looked at them - Steve's hands shoved in his pockets, scowl on his face, standing slightly in front of Anna, and Anna sending half frowns in his direction and half worried glances in Evie's.
"So, you're dating?" she asked.
She watched as they exchanged a glance that told her everything she needed to know.
"We're more than just dating," Steve said. "We're together. Like, a couple."
"I'm real sorry," Anna said, stepping forward again. "We never meant for this to happen and we never, ever meant to hurt you, but -"
Evie didn't know quite what came over her but next thing she knew Anna had stopped mid-sentence and Evie had slapped her across the face. She had no idea what had come over her; she had never hit anyone in her life. That was Sylvia's game, not hers.
"That's enough," Steve growled, grabbing Anna and pulling her away from Evie.
Evie clenched her shaking hand into a fist and ignored the stinging she felt both in her hand and behind her eyes. She watched as Steve turned his back to her and pulled Anna's hand away from her face, carefully stroking her hair and softly asking if she was all right.
God, she hated them.
"When?" she spat.
"When what?" Steve snapped, looking at her over his shoulder.
"When did this happen? Before you broke up with me or after?"
"After." He turned properly to face her. "I told you when I ended things that there was someone else; I just didn't tell you that it was Anna."
She let that process for a few moments but decided it didn't even matter. It didn't matter when it happened; it had happened and that was bad enough. A thought occurred to her and she directed her gaze to Anna as she spoke to Steve.
"Something must have happened while we were together if you had feelings for her before we broke up." She glanced away from Anna, who wouldn't even look at her, to Steve's hard eyes. "Did you cheat on me?"
Steve frowned and Evie thought he finally looked a little sorry about what was going on.
"We kissed," he said, "once."
Her chest was heavy. "When?"
"The night Grandpa Joe died," Anna said in a small voice, looking straight at her.
Evie did the math, working out that it was a week after Anna's grandpa died that Steve broke up with her and less than a week later that they were together. Her chest clenched painfully at the betrayal and she looked away. She wanted to cry, scream, and slap Anna again all at once. She wanted to slap both of them if possible.
Instead she took a calming breath and, ignoring Anna's regretful gaze, focused on Steve's hard one. "I think you should both leave," she said.
Not bothering to wait and see what they did, she headed inside and straight to her bedroom.
And if the lights are all down
I'll see who's around
Evie sat on her freshly made bed, filing her nails and looking at the selection of polishes lying in front of her. Sunny Cinnamon? Racy Red? Pink Shock? Or perhaps California Coral? She shook her head at all her options, dug through the discarded pile, and grabbed her favourite Candy Apple Red. She liked to experiment with make-up as much as the next girl but considering her mood at that moment, something different just wasn't in the cards.
Unscrewing the cap, she began on her left hand, mind drifting back to what she had found out less than an hour ago. It was something she never would have expected but, now that she'd had time to think about, she realised it wasn't entirely unexpected at all.
The part that had previously wondered if she had unconsciously seen this coming had grown hugely. She remembered sending Steve to find Anna that night at the drive-in because she had known that he had become closer to her than she was. She remembered hearing about the two of them dancing at his birthday party and hearing that they had seemed a lot closer than what two friends should have but hadn't thought anything of it because he was her boyfriend and she was her cousin.
More importantly, she remembered Steve's mood when everyone had thought Anna was dating Sodapop. He had been angry, constantly irritable and hadn't wanted to spend any time with her.
Despite the anger and hurt raging inside of her, she calmly continued to paint her nails and think out her options. She had always found doing her nails to be somewhat therapeutic. Whenever she and Steve had fought while they had been together, or whenever Sylvia started going on about a fight she'd had with Dallas or just when she was worried about something, she would break out her nail polish.
Finishing the fingers on her left hand she moved onto her thumb, making long smooth strokes and silently wondered if she should just leave it. Leave Steve and Anna be and not ruin their happiness with her unhappiness. It would be the fair thing to do, she supposed, if she really cared about them.
"Screw fair," she whispered.
If fair was of any importance in this situation then she would still be with Steve and Anna would have nothing to do with anything. Neither of them had been particularly fair when they had gone behind her back and fallen for each other. Gone behind her back and kissed.
She dipped the brush back into the little bottle and considered what it was she really wanted. Was it to get even and make Anna hurt and unhappy the way she was? Was it to ruin whatever they had, break them up because if she couldn't have Steve then no one could? Or was it just Steve she wanted? Her ex-boyfriend?
Maybe it was all three.
She didn't love Steve, but he had been hers. Even after she had dumped him, he had been hers - wrapped tightly around her little finger - and she had known it. She had lied to him about not sleeping with anyone else while they had been apart, but he had cheated on her and moved on … to her cousin. They had both betrayed her, and she wasn't going to stand for it.
Her pride was hurting far more than anything else. Her boyfriend had dumped her for her cousin - her cousin who wasn't even as pretty as she was. Was she supposed to sit back and do nothing about it? No. She was supposed to do whatever she could to make herself feel better. If that meant hurting Anna, ruining their so-called happiness, and breaking them up because if she couldn't have what was hers then no one could then she would do it.
She wanted what was rightfully hers. And she was going to do whatever it took to get it. To hell with what anyone else wanted.
One way or another I'm gonna win ya
I'm gonna getcha getcha getcha getcha
A/N 2: Thanks to RileysMomma for beta-reading, thanks to la belle nuit who helped me with a title, and thanks to aero who just kicks ass. Reviews are appreciated :)