Hi everybody! You may have come here after reading my other story, Wonderfully Not a Dream. In that case, I am going to apologize for not posting the next chapter. I have been low on muse lately, and my brain was only giving me fuel for this.
If I get good reviews on this short story, I might make this into a series of several short anecdotes. Sound cool?
Thank you for clicking on the link! May you be blessed with a thousand years of good luck.
Disclaimer: The Outsiders content belongs to S.E. Hinton, not me.
Poker Face
I sat on the living room couch, staring blankly at the TV screen. Some dull soap opera was turned on and the boys were playing poker in the kitchen. By 'the boys', I meant the crazy greasers I spent most of my time with. There was Ponyboy and Darry Curtis, both brothers. Then, Sodapop, the middle brother and my…romantic interest. Dallas Winston, a real badass character. Steve Randle, Soda's best friend and kind of a prick. Johnny Cade, quiet and shy, Pony's best friend. He was also the one that Dally liked to mother. Two-Bit Matthews, the idiot who we only kept around for his hilarious antics.
Well, not really, but we still tolerated him.
I flipped off the TV and yawned, getting up to go see how the game was going. As soon as my foot touched tile of the kitchen, Steve shot out of his chair and started yelling at Dallas.
"You cheatin' bastard! There ain't no way you had the ace of spades, because I have it right here!" Steve yelled, slamming down his cards and shoving his ace of spades in Dally's face.
"How does that make me the cheater, Randle? It could have easily been you," Dally replied calmly. He raised an eyebrow with a cocky smile.
"Hey guys, whose winning?" I asked, grinning and pouring a glass of water for myself. I didn't even have to ask, I knew it was Dallas by the huge pile of money and cigarettes he had in front of him. "Congratulations, Dally," I said flatly, leaning on the back of Two-Bit's chair with one hand and taking a drink of water with the other.
"I can't tell whose playin' fair around here anymore. I quit!" Darry said, pushing his cards away and standing up. I thought for a second, not wanting Darry to go back to being boring and adult-ish.
"Hang on, I'll moderate!" I saw Two-Bit's confused expression and rolled my eyes. "I'll referee? I'll watch for cheaters?" He seemed to understand, because his face lit up with amusement.
"Alice, you don't even know how to play!" Ponyboy complained, looking at me skeptically. I clucked my tongue.
"Oh, shoo. I don't need to know the rules to know when someone's cheating. Hey, it might even be a benefit that I don't know how," I said, shrugging. I couldn't really think of any benefits, but I was bored and wanted something interesting to do.
"Maybe it would be a good idea. Then we could have a fair game, for once," Sodapop said, smiling at me. I beamed back at him. How sweet.
"Shut your trap, Soda. We all know you're the biggest cheater here! The only reason you want her in is because she's your girlfriend." Dallas smirked at Soda, which earned him a punch in the arm, which earned Soda a punch in the arm, which earned the rest of us a brief fight to watch.
"Or, you're just scared I'll catch you cheating, Dallas Winston! Come on guys, please?" I looked at each one of them with wide, pleading eyes. They all grumbled to themselves, when finally Dally sighed.
"Okay, fine man! You can referee or whatever the hell you wanna call it."
"Yes! Thank you, Dally!" I squealed and went up to hug him. He stiffened automatically and I danced away, going to sit next to Soda (who was giving Dallas a death glare, for some reason).
After a few more arguments and taunting, Johnny dealt. I watched carefully, but I was pretty sure Johnny wouldn't cheat. Everything seemed to go like people normally dealt cards. Well, that just showed how much I know about poker. There was a serious silence in the air, and it was slightly uncomfortable. I realized how important poker was to them. It was like, a test of manliness, or something.
Johnny finished up and the boys were looking at their cards. I watched them closely, noting their faces of stone. Two-Bit had a slightly quizzical look, but he always did. He rubbed his forehead and took a swig of beer, leaning back in his chair.
"I'll open with five." Darry said, putting some money in front of him. Everyone stoically did the same. I squinted at him. His face was as blank as ever. He must be really good at the whole poker face thing.
"Raise five." Dally said, smirking and scratching his stomach. I watched his hands carefully while he set his money out. I tried to look like I knew what I was doing, but I really had no idea. I smiled guiltily to myself as everyone added another five to their piles.
"Call," Steve said, shooting Dally a look. Well, nothing fishy there, right?
"See." Two-Bit seemed a little glum about that, but he suddenly put on a wide grin.
"He's a smooth caller," Soda whispered to me, grinning and leaning over. I had no idea what that meant, but I smiled as if I did.
"Raise…six," Soda said, putting out another six and grinning crazily.
Ponyboy sighed from my left. "Fold." He tossed his cards on the table and stood up, going into the kitchen and cutting a slice of cake. Dally smirked. "Pussy."
I growled at him. "Watch your fucking language, Dally," I retaliated, grinning devilishly.
"Sure thing, bitch," he said, a trace of a genuine smile painting his lips. I laughed and looked at Soda, who was glaring at Dally again.
"I say you'd better not call her that again, or I will personally tear off your-"
"Hush, Sodie. No need for violence. You know Mr. Winston was just joking." I looked at Soda lovingly and gave him a quick kiss on the lips, blinking innocently at Dally. He grumbled something to himself and Two-Bit whistled.
"Alright, Darry, your turn to deal!" Steve reminded us impatiently, nodding at Darry.
"Yeah, let's remember that we're trying to play a game, here." Darry looked at us meaningfully and started to deal out another card to everyone. I felt the color come to my face and saw Dally grin through his cigarette. It was Soda's turn to grumble to himself.
"Raise it by ten!" Dallas called, tossing in another ten dollars (which barely diminished his stash).
"Shoot, Dal. I fold." Johnny didn't have any money left, anyway. At least he would have Ponyboy to hang out with. They weren't very competitive and never won any money. I guess now it was only the big boys- and me, of course.
"Fuck you, Dally," Steve said, getting up and flipping his cards. I giggled at him and took a drink from Sodapop's Pepsi, scooting closer so he would put his arm around me. He did.
"Call," Two-Bit said, pretending to puke at our display of affection. I kicked him under the table and grinned.
"Same here." Darry rolled his eyes and sort of smiled at us. I poked Soda in the face, who was lifting the edges of his cards up with a thoughtful look on his face. "You going to say something?" I teased. The boys were getting a little impatient. Craning my neck, I tried to see his cards but he let them snap back against the table before I could. I frowned.
"Call." Soda smiled widely at me and started to blow in my ear lightly. I ducked my head and laughed, but then raised an eyebrow. "Soda, I want to see your cards! You have to teach me how to play!" I nudged him a turned to look at him with my best clueless eyes, sticking out my bottom lip. He laughed and hoisted me onto his lap, picking his cards off the table and securing an arm around my waist so I wouldn't fall off. "Alright, you're too cute. Here, let me tell you the hands. First, there's a high card. Basically the worst way to win; what Two-Bit has."
"Hey! I do not! Why don't you come over here and see, lover boy?" Two-Bit slammed a fist on the table and cracked a smile at Soda. Sodapop stuck his tongue out and laughed. "Then there's a pair, so the second worst hand, which is what Darry has." I giggled when Darry scowled.
"Yeah, why don't you tell us what you have, little buddy, instead 'a pretending like you know what we've got!" Darry punched Soda jokingly. Soda, in response, put on a look of hurt. "Be careful around this pretty face, Dar! If you mess me up, I'm screwed, 'cause there ain't no way Alice is stickin' around for my 'personality'!" I laughed again and flicked his nose, smitten with his adorableness.
"Sodapop, shut your mouth. You know that's not true. In fact, you have many defining qualities that were part of the initial attraction I felt for you. Of course, your astonishingly handsome looks were the overall bait for my olfactory senses to even attempt to absorb your pheromones. Don't get me wrong, I love your extremely extroverted personality even more than I love your physical attributes." After I said that, everyone was silent and just stared at me. I mean, this is seriously something I would have said out loud in 2012, but I forgot that people weren't so advanced in 1965. "Oh, I mean, uh…I love all of you," I said, while Two-Bit pinched himself to see if he was dreaming. I rolled my eyes and grinned.
"That was so hot," Two-Bit said, clapping and watching me with googly eyes, "and I don't even know what the hell that all meant." Darry's eyebrows were shooting higher than I thought possible. He rubbed his eyes in defeat and mumbled something about 'the things I've heard in my life'. Dally seemed genuinely confused, though, which was especially satisfying. Although, when I turned my head to Soda, he had the exact same dumbfounded expression.
"…Yes?" he tried, obviously trying to comprehend what I had just said. Apparently, I had just asked him a yes or no question. I chuckled again and explained it to him by kissing him instead.
"You know, I always did think smart girls were cute," Soda said, laughing and squeezing my sides, the devilish glint returning to his eyes. He lowered his voice to a whisper and picked up his cards, putting them where I could see. "Okay, this is a two-pair as well, but what we're looking for is another one of both of the cards. That means we'll have full house. Which is even better, you see?" I looked at his two 10's and 5. That had no meaning for me at all, but I figured it was the same thing that had happened with my little speech. "Okay, cool," I said lamely.
"Well, if you don't mind, I came here to play some fucking poker. Not to watch two shits and their giddy lovemaking." Dally scowled at us, going quickly from confused to annoyed. I glared at him, but knew he was just being a party pooper (as always). "Alright, fine. Go ahead and deal," I said, sighing and waving a hand nonchalantly at him. He started aggressively flicking the cards out. I wiped away my frown and started kissing Soda again, readjusting my body so I straddled his legs and had my arms around his neck. It was mostly to be spiteful of Dallas (that's a lie; it was mostly because Soda was so damn irresistible). There was a lot of smacking noises as we leaned farther and farther back into the chair.
Darry cleared his throat, just as Soda and I were about to tip over. Soda slammed the chair legs back on the ground and we both started laughing hysterically, me sliding back so I faced the table. Two-Bit was obviously getting some sort of sick pleasure from this, because he looked pretty bummed when I turned around. Soda looked sheepish when he picked up his new card to see what he had to work with.
"Fold. See ya'll next game." Darry got up and sighed. Obviously, he was not happy with his fourth card.
"As much as I love watching you two make out, I fold. Can I have a goodbye kiss?" Two-Bit looked at me with the hope of a child on Christmas morning. I shook my head in disbelief that these were the people I chose to hang out with. "Sure, Two-Bit. Just because you are going to be forever alone." He skipped around the table and leaned over excitedly. I gave him a motherly peck on the cheek, but I could feel Sodapop's arms holding me back ever so slightly. The corners of my mouth twitched in amusement. Two-Bit ran off like a school girl who just talked to her crush, which made me break out into a full on smile and shake my head again.
"Hmmm…Dally, I'm raising by twenty. You can always go crawl back to Buck's if you're scared."
Now that it was just the two of them left, it was going to get pretty fiery.
"Yeah, can I? Fuck you, Curtis. Maybe if you were smart enough to stay in school you could figure out the odds of you winning are just like your balls- there are none. Call."
I giggled. Sue me.
"Okay, you guys. Let's just get this over with." I smirked (for once, it was me instead of Dally). Soda bared his teeth at Dally, picking up the deck and dealing the last card. He flipped it up and grinned at Dally. "You can fold now, if you want, Dally. There's really no point in going on."
"Yeah, right, little man. I'm all in, sucker." Dally pushed everything he had into the middle of the table.
"Fine, I'm all in too, then! See if I care when you lose all of your money!"
This was just getting really irrational, now. "Come on, is that necessary? Only one of you can win."
"So? I want to see this wiseass cry when he loses!" By now, both of them were standing up and giving each other looks that could physically harm. I sighed. "Alright, I think that means you need to flip over your cards now. So we can see who wins." I looked at them both questioningly, waiting to see the outcome.
In the same moment, they both turned over their hands and I face-palmed.
Two royal flushes. I only knew that because my dad had told me (before I wound up here), and didn't everyone know? Soda had one in spades and Dally had one in hearts, but I knew something was wrong. I narrowed my eyes at both of them.
"Sodapop, don't even try. I know you cheated. You showed me your two 10's; did you think I was an idiot?" I crossed my arms at him, which made him look at his socks glumly. Then I turned to Dally. "And let's see here, Dallas Winston!" I picked up the remaining deck and rifled through the cards. "Oh, a jack of hearts! Interesting how there's two of them. You wouldn't have anything to do with that, would you?" My face contorted in frustration. "Can neither of you play with integrity, for once? Dallas, you're so low I already expected it of you, but Sodapop! How could you? I should have believed them when they said you were the biggest cheater here!" I marched up to Dally and wrestled his left boot off, tipping it upside down and letting the cards fall out. Now I was just having a little bit of fun. Both of them stood there in shame, but the rest of the guys who had retired to the living room were laughing crazily.
"God, sometimes you really can be a bitch, Alice," Dally said, sitting back down after picking his shoe off the floor.
"Well…what are you going to do, huh?" Soda said, shuffling his feet and looking up at me with a smile. I started to soften up a bit (who doesn't, after seeing him smile?), but quickly regained my pissed off expression. "Neither of you get any money, you hear me? The winnings shall be split evenly between the players who folded," I declared, grinning at Ponyboy and Johnny's excited murmurs. That was more than they had started with. Then, I turned back to the two culprits. "And you two…you two apologize to everyone who had to play with your false hands. Dally, you shall…you shall go to Buck's place and have drunken intercourse with a skanky girl. Soda, you shall come with me into the bathroom where we will talk about politics for at least ten minutes."
More than one face lit up.
"Can I come and talk politics too?" Two-Bit, of course, asked excitedly. I shot him a look. "No." Sodapop grinned at me. "I love talking politics with you."
"Screw you guys. I'll get my money back next time I whip each and every one of your asses, you'll see." Dally snarled angrily at us and left with a door slam.
"Okay, now that Drama Queen is gone, the rest of you can get paid!" I smiled at the losers (or winners) and divvied up the money. Even though Dally had neglected his responsibility of apologizing to everyone, I didn't really care. As long as I got to talk politics with my cheating, poker playing boy, I was alright. And everyone was happy.
"Alice, you should referee some other time." Ponyboy gave me an innocent smile.
"Yeah, it was actually pretty funny to see Dal get all hot and bothered like that." This time, Steve grinned at me and pocketed his money.
"Hmm," I said, pretending to ponder that and linking arms with Soda, "I think I'll take you up on that offer."
A/N Review it, please, if you had anything to say about it. Thank you so much for making it this far! Have a wonderful day/night.