Who Won?
It was the morning of the following day of the rumble that would end it all- for the most part, anyway. The fight amount would decrease rapidly, the rivalry would slowly die out, and maybe Socs and Greasers would finally learn to get along. Cherry thought that the way she felt about it was maybe the way women felt during the Civil War- or any war, for that matter. She didn't know who had won, who had surrendered, what had happened, how long it had lasted, or anything else about the rumble. The suspense of any news about what had happened was eating her alive… she had to know!
Cherry quickly got dressed then ran downstairs to the first floor of her house. She practically ran into the kitchen where the table where she and her family would eat was placed. Her father sat in his seat, drinking from a coffee mug while reading his newspaper. She tried to look at the front page, both hoping and doubting that there would be anything about the rumble. When all she saw on the front page was just a bunch of articles she couldn't care less about, she started toward the phone.
Cherry stopped when she heard her father turn the pages of his paper and gasp slightly in alarm. She start back toward the kitchen table, as did her mother.
"What's the matter?" her mother asked.
"Two teenagers died last night," her father answered a bit sadly.
Cherry felt her heart begin to race in her chest. "Does it give their names?" she asked nervously.
Her father was quiet as he scanned the article. "Says here one was named… Jonathan Cade, and the other was Dallas Winston."
Cherry felt her throat tighten shut and her heart stopped and shattered into a million pieces. She didn't move, didn't even breathe, out of shock. She couldn't believe what her father had said- or more the names her father had read. How were they dead? They were just teenagers, like herself. She'd seen them just a week and a half earlier at the drive-in; Dallas had tried to flirt with her, and Johnny had defended her. Sure, she knew about the fire and how they'd ended up in the hospital, and that they weren't doing that great, but they weren't doing terribly either, based off of what she'd been told.
So how were they dead?
It couldn't be true. It had to be some sort of misprint… yeah, that was it. Misprints happened all the time. That was it.
"Weren't they two of the three boys who killed Bob?" her mother asked, both annoyed and confused.
Cherry felt anger build up inside of her. "It was self-defense!" she nearly yelled, "Bob and the rest of the guys were beating up Johnny and Ponyboy and were gonna be killed if they didn't do anything!"
Her mother and father gave shocked looks at their daughter; they didn't know she was still so sensitive about everything that had happened. "Honey," her father began gently, "If you're so upset that this boy killed Bob-"
"No! No, look- am I sorry that Bob is dead? Of course I am. But you know what? I hate to speak ill of the dead, but he was asking for it! That night was not Ponyboy and Johnny's fault! Bob, Randy, and the rest of them were gonna kill Ponyboy and Johnny, what else could they have done? I'm sorry, but you know what? Bob was asking for it. And even if they hadn't done that, someone else would've eventually, and you know it's true."
"Sweetheart, why are you defending these two boys?" her mother asked a bit confused, "I mean, they're… they're-"
"Greasers? Is that the word you're lookin' for, Mom? So what if they're Greasers? That has nothing to do with them doing what they did, but all the matter with what Bob was doing to them."
Her father stood up from his seat. "Sherri Marie Valance, I don't like that tone of voice you're using with us."
Before Cherry let herself explode, she let out a deep breath in attempt to calm herself down. 'I need some air," she snapped. She turned and headed for the door, grabbing her small purse that held her keys, wallet, and phonebook on the way out. She stormed to and into her car, slamming her door shut as she got in, then drove off. She pulled out of the driveway and drove onto the streets of Tulsa that led to the center of town.
Once Cherry reached the center and main street of town, she pulled over up to the sidewalk. She let out an angry sigh then took a deep breath in attempt to calm herself down. She sat alone in her car in silence as she tried to calm down from both what the newspaper article had said, along with her "discussion" with her parents before she had left the house.
After five minutes, Cherry got out of her car and began to walk down the street. She walked down the sidewalk and into the DX. She went straight to the newspaper stand, picked up a bundle of paper, then went to pay for it. When she reached the counter, it was someone she'd never met before. Steve and Sodapop must be healing from the rumble, she thought. She paid for the paper quickly, left the DX, then went to her car and read the article.
"Around midnight last night, two teenage boys from the East Side died. The younger of the two boys- Jonathan Cade- died in the hospital, trying to recover from injuries caused by a fire at an abandoned church in Windrixville. The older of the two boys- Dallas Winston- was shot and killed by police after robbing a store not long after the other died and resisting arrest," the article read.
Cherry stopped reading the article after that. She let out a deep breath as she folded up the paper. She felt hot tears form in her eyes, and she let them fall down her cheeks. She let her eyes shut, causing more tears to roll down her cheeks. She didn't know how long she'd been sitting in the driver's seat of her car crying over the deaths of the two boys she'd met at the drive-in that fateful night, but she did know she had been sitting there for a long while.
"Cherry?" a familiar voice asked, catching her attention, "You ok?"
Cherry looked up and saw her best friend's boyfriend, Randy. "Yeah," she answered in a gentle voice, "I'm fine, what's up?"
He was skeptical of her answer, but went along with it anyway, thinking it was the best thing. "Thought you might be curious about who won the rumble last night."
She perked up eagerly out of curiosity. "Yeah, I am. Who won?"
"East Side. Heard everyone from the West Side got scared and retreated."
"Good," Cherry said genuinely, "I'm glad the East Side won."
"Yeah, me too," Randy answered in an equally genuine attitude, "Me too."