"I'm never nice," Cherry recalled Dallas whispering into her ear, as she smirked to herself while having lunch with Marcia.
"What you did, Cherry," Marcia interrupted Cherry's thoughts, "it was the right thing to do. Boy, I'de even dare to say that that Ponyboy Curtis had to be madly crushin' on you." Cherry only nodded, for she was not properly listening at this time.
Cherry couldn't stop pondering about her agreement with Dallas; the proposal to testify in court that Bob and the Soc's were drunk, and therefore would prove that Johnny's actions were only in light of self-defense. Now, she was currently sipping a Coke with Marcia at the park, and she couldn't help but thinking about a certain boy.
"What's on your mind, Cherry?" Marcia asked.
"Huh?" Cherry responded. She looked away to avoid eye contact with the one person who knew exactly when Cherry had been feeling for a boy.
"Tell me!" she giggled. "Nothing's on my mind, Marcia." Cherry calmly stated as she glanced back at Marcia, who wasn't believing a word of what she was saying. "I just can't shake that Dallas Winston off my mind. Can you believe the nerve on that boy? The nerve!" She glanced in the direction of the fountain; the exact location in which Bob had been stabbed.
"After the guy asks over and over to talk, I talk. I give him all I could give, and I did all I could to save Ponyboy." she stood up and walked away from where she sat, and then walked back towards Marcia, directly facing her. "And then what? The guy gets the nerve to offer me a coke? Who is dumb enough to do such a thing like that Marcia?"
"The boy obviously isn't in his right mind, either. Did you see the mean look in his eyes? You know he just got out of jail recently? That's what I heard." Cherry shook her head, arms crossed, and looked back at the fountain. And she began to remember. She remembered Bob, she remembered how he urged her to drink many times, she remembered how much she adored him at one point in her life. She thought of the very moment she had found out that he had been killed. She thought of how she had battled her own thoughts, wondering if he had gotten what he had coming for him, or if what happened was undeserving. Then she thought of Ponyboy, of his sweet voice, of the way he treated her like a lady, the way he almost acted like a Soc himself...with the greaser lifestyle, of course. And then, whether she wanted to or not, she thought of Dallas. She thought of how he reacted to her unexpected appearance at the gas station.
It was the late afternoon, Dallas was out with the boys at the gas station. He had been feeling preoccupied with wondering how Ponyboy and Johnny were doing out at the old church, even though he knew they'd be cool. Dallas knew that the two were smart kids. They may have not been as smart as he was, but he taught them well. He only wished that he could have been with Johnny when the incident happened, otherwise they wouldn't even be caught up in this mess in the first place.
Dallas stood alone, lighting up a cigaret. He had his famous look of carelessness wiped around his face. That was the cool thing about Dallas, the edge that elevated him above other greasers. He looked like he didn't care, mostly because he didn't, but he also possessed a look of empowerment. Something was lit inside the kid, but no one could ever know what; Dallas was never the type to let people in that much.
He looked up from staring at his pockets, and had to look twice, just to notice that Cherry was inching in from yards away.
"Well, look who it is." he inched his chin up with fake pride, teasing the girl with his smirks.
"I'm not here to chat all night, grease. I'm here to discuss some things." she replied with a defiant tone.
"Ow, and she still bites!" he smiled.
He made Cherry want to scream, he made her want to rip her own hair out. That was the way Dallas talked. In order to keep calm, she paused. Standing directly in front of the eighteen-year-old bundle of catcalls, about 2 feet away, she waited with the ounce of patience that she had.
"What's the matter sweetheart," he asked while allowing a long strand of soft smoke exit his mouth and rush toward her small, pale face.
He began to talk more sternly. " Look, if you're gunna come over here with your 'hey grease' and your this and that, you either start talkin' or you get lost. You hearin' me, Red?"
Cherry wanted to respond with a harsh and yet classy comeback. She wanted to give that Dallas Winston a good slap to teach him how a real boy should act towards a woman. She wanted to grab that cigaret and toss it five hundred yards away…But she didn't. She couldn't.
After a long pause, Dallas continued to smoke his cigaret, while Cherry finally decided to take charge.
"Listen, Dal-las. I'm here to help two people, and two people only: Ponyboy and Johnny. Now you could tell them, wherever they may be, that I'm willing to testify in court that Bob and the guys were drunk that night. It might do a little, it might not do much. But Johnny could at least get off for self defense, in my opinion."
"-Woah woah hold on, hold on, hold on," Dallas interrupted, "What is this? You're saying the Soc's were drunk…"
"Yes…"
"You're saying the Soc's were drunk, and you're willing to testify they were drunk that night?"
She nodded. Dallas paused for a quick second, and stared right into Cherry's eyes. He was trying to figure her out.
"What's the catch?" he finally asked with narrow eyes.
Cherry, looking annoyed and puzzled, responded "…I'm sorry?"
Dallas looked her up and down with his smart-ass smirk and his cigaret in hand. "What, you want like a uh…A date or something? You want money?"
Cherry patted down her skirt nervously. She didn't want any trouble with this kid and, though hard to admit to herself, she was a bit scared of Dallas; The Dallas Winston that was involved with gangs back in New York.
"I want this to be the end of our conversation." She tilted her head slightly, then smiled. Dallas smiled back, he liked the fire in her. He wasn't used to rejection, although he still carried the thought in the back of his mind that she still wanted him. Cherry turned away and headed back out to her car, before any of the Soc's would see her socializing with any greaser. Not that any Soc would be found in this area at this hour, anyway.
As Cherry walked away, she felt someone grab her arm and turn her around. Once she was whipped back around, it was discovered to be Dallas, still smiling and recovering from Cherry's last remark. He then murmured, "Hey, excuse me miss. I don't know what team you're playing on," he let go of her arm and took a step closer to her. His chin was at about her nose level at this point, and with his hand he touched her chin. He did not grab it, he only held it and stroked it lightly as he continued and murmured "Thanks." Cherry used every power within her little body to not smile while Dallas touched her. This was the first time she hadn't minded him being so close, and it made her question why she was even doing this. Was it to just help Ponyboy and Johnny? Or was it also to give Dallas a second chance?
She couldn't allow herself to be like the other girls, the others who would give anything to have Dallas' attention for only a second.
"Just give the boys my regards. I'll see you later" she said.
"Hey Red, you don't gotta go home now. What do you say I drive you to the Dingo, I'll buy you a coke."
Cherry thought for one split second that Dallas was a gentleman. For one split second, as she was turned away from him to leave, she wanted to run away with him and let him buy her that coke. She wanted to forget about everything, just for only a second. Then she looked back, and saw the way he lit another cigaret, the way he looked around like nothing mattered, like she was just another girl to score, like this would only be a favor for a favor. This made her upset, and it made her feel like she almost went for that whole "stupid giddy girl" stunt. So she blurted out exactly what she thought, and what she wanted Dallas to do since the very first moment they had met,
"Go to hell, Dallas." and she left.
And that was the end of it. Cherry walked back up the hill that Dallas saw her walking down only a few minutes ago, leaving Dallas thinking.
"Crazy broad," he muttered to himself, and walked to his car. Once again, the red head leaves the boy alone and confused.