In the perfect dim lighting of the living room, I smiled down at the face of an angel. Her light, bubbly brown eyes stared into mine as I twined my fingers in her halo of chocolate hair. She smiled back at me, and sighed.
"Ponyboy, you're so warm." She leaned into my chest and closed her eyes.
"You're not so cold yourself." I chuckled. I glimpsed down at her, and almost screamed in surprise and horror. Instead of brown eyes, cold blue irises stared up at me accusingly. Pitch black hair sprouted out of her head like Medusa as I stiffened my body and pulled away. I diverted my eyes from the image of Dusty Winston with disgust and shame.
"Pony, what's wrong?" I forced a smile and cuddled back up to my girlfriend of one year and seven months.
"Nothing. Just having a day nightmare." It seemed like these "day nightmares" where accruing more and more. They started when two of my best friends died, and I saw them standing on the street corner or taking a drag in the park. But they receded after six months. Then she came back. The dreams kept pushing me towards her, haunting me to give Dusty Winston a second chance. In the end I gave in, allowing Dusty back into my life. But then she did the inconceivable, the unforgivable. She stole my virginity.
When she left (for the second time), the day nightmares come back. Johnny and Dally no longer haunted me, but Dusty. I can't tell you how many times I would just stand in the hall, or stare at the T.V., and swear I saw her. But those ended like the others, and no longer bothered me after eight months. Now they where back.
"Oh, don't worry. I promise I'll protect you from the scary monster."
"I doubt it." I mumbled under my breath. The thought of Dusty and Cathy going into mortal combat was enough to make my stomach sick. It was obvious who would walk away.
"I think I could handle it." Cathy pouted and crossed her arms over her chest. "Don't you have faith in me?" Again, I forced a smile.
"I have plenty of faith in you, Cathy. I always will." I kissed her, softly pressing my lips against hers. She pressed back lightly, carefully; something that Dusty would never do. "Damn it!" I bolted up right and put my face in my hands, shaking furiously.
"Ponyboy. What on Earth is wrong with you?!" I peeked through my fingers to see a furious girlfriend, standing up and headed for the door.
"Wait, Cathy! I'm sorry. It's just that the day nightmare got to me." She whirled around, tears brimming her eyes.
"How could something get to you like that?! Tell me, Ponyboy Curtis, or I swear I will leave now!" I grabbed her shoulders and sat her down on the couch, slowly stroking her hair.
"I saw my… my ex-girlfriend." I decided that was the best way to describe Dusty, even though it was much more than that. Cathy scrunched up her face and frowned.
"Is she that scary?" Cathy asked sarcastically. I stared at her with a dead expression.
"Yes. Does the name Dallas Winston ring a bell?" I was relieved to see a flicker of fear in her eyes.
"He's the hood that ran with the Shephard gang." She said breathlessly. I nodded.
"Well, she was his sister. He taught her everything he knew. He turned her into a lethal weapon." Then, quietly, I added, "Her name was Dusty."
"I never heard of her. You didn't mention her in that paper you wrote." I sighed and collapsed next to Cathy on the couch.
"No body likes to talk about her. She left a mark on everybody she knew and none of them good. I never wrote her into the Outsiders because I didn't want to think about the pain she gave me." I didn't realize that my hands where trembling until Cathy seized them.
"If she ever comes back, I'll march up to her and tell her you're mine and she can't have you." I grabbed her wrist into mine and shook her.
"No! Don't you ever talk to her! Weren't you listening to me when I told you she was lethal?"
"She can't be that bad, Ponyboy."
"Get her into a temper and she can. Did you know she beat Curly Shepard in a fight? And that was three years ago." Cathy stroked my face to calm it.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry I brought it up."
"No. It's my fault. I shouldn't of let it get to me like it did." We huddled closer to each other, Cathy shivering. I hopped that I didn't scare her. We both jumped when the door slammed open.
"Hey Ponyboy! Hope I didn't interrupt any good fortune." I threw my notebook at a greaser with rusty hair.
"Shut up, Two-Bit. Don't you have your own house to go to?" At age twenty one, Two-Bit Matthews still crashed the Curtis house. It annoyed me slightly that he didn't make something out of himself.
"Nope, the beer's gone. So where are twiddle dumb and twiddle dumber?" I rolled at the nicknames my friend gave to my brother, Sodapop, and his friend Steve.
"They went to the nightly double. I have no idea what's taking them so long." A crack of thunder made Cathy jump and me twitch. "That might be it. Soda hates driving in storms." Another crack of thunder went off, and the front door blew open.
"Come on, get in."
"Let go of me, asshole!" I froze. Pure terror seized my veins as a screamed rose to my throat. I gulped it down.
"Just get inside the house."
'Make me." A shiver ran down my spine at the venom in the familiar voice. Two seconds later, I herd a scream and a stream of curses as Soda walked in, a trouble expression on his face. Steve came in next, with a bulky object slung over his shoulder. He dropped it to the floor with a thud. It shot up, and glared around the room with piercing blue eyes.
"Hey, everybody! Look whose back." Dusty Winston glared at Soda in a way I've never seen her glare at him.
"I'm not back for you."
"I don't give a shit. Don't you ever do that again!" I thought I couldn't be more surprised, but the fierce tone in Steve's voice left me shocked.
"I can do whatever I want. Now if you don't mind, I have room reservations." She tried to shoulder past the two men, but they wouldn't grant entry.
"You are not going to Buck Merrill's place." She looked at them with innocent blue eyes that I knew where bluffing.
"Who said anything about Merrill's place? I'm simply going to stay with a family friend." Steve glared at her.
"Who are these friends?" Dusty's innocent eyes broke as fury entered.
"Look, it's none of your business. Who are you any way, to tell me where I can and can not go?" Soda took a step forward and placed a hand on her shoulder, something that only he would dare to do.
"We're your friends. And friends don't send friends into a house full of mayhem." Dusty sighed and calmed dawn a bit.
"Soda, I've lived in mayhem my whole life."
"Can you please just stay? For one night?"
"Tim will look for me. I'm suppose to crash at his house."
"No! There is no way you're staying with Shepard." Steve motioned to the beginning of a white line to prove his point.
"Where do you think I'll sleep?" Dusty shot.
"In Pony and Soda's room." Steve answered smoothly. For the first time since Dusty walked…or got carried into the house, I found my voice.
"No!"
"No!" I glanced over at Dusty, who was glaring at me menacingly. I didn't know what gave her a right to look at me like that, so I glared back at her with the same hostility.
"Fine then. The couch." Dusty shifted her glare from me to Steve.
"Don't you need to sleep there?"
"We'll share." Dusty groaned and started walking backward towards the second door. Steve grabbed her wrist and pulled her into his chest. "I don't care how much you complain, you're not leaving." Against Steve's chest, Dusty crumpled. She suddenly looked so tired, so weak. It scared me to see her like that, like it scared to see a tall, powerful building crumple suddenly.
"Fine. But don't blame me when Shepard comes hunting for you." Steve tried to pick her up, but Dusty opened one eye and shot him a warning glare that would make a lion cower. Instead he practically dragged her to the couch, and shot Cathy and me a menacing glare.
"Scat." I grabbed my girlfriend's wrist and lead her to the door, not looking back.
"I think you better leave." Cathy nodded with concern.
"Will you be all right?"
"Don't worry about me. Just get home safe." I kissed the top of her head and pushed her out the door, quickly slamming it. I whirled around, and forced Soda into the kitchen.
"What the hell was that?!" I asked in an angry whisper. Soda looked down at me with sad eyes.
"You didn't think I would let her stay with the Shepards, did you?"
"She seemed more than happy to." Soda suddenly glared down at me, something he rarely did.
"Ponyboy, I love Dusty as if she where my own sister. If anything happened to her, I would kill the guy who hurt her. I honestly would." There was a hint of a threat in his voice, and I dropped my jaw.
"You can't be serious." I whispered. Soda stared at me with neutral eyes.
"I would do the same for you too, Ponyboy." Soda left the kitchen briskly, leaving me as confused as ever. I pushed the argument to the back of my mind and stepped out of the kitchen. Two-Bit was positioned in front of the T.V. with a beer. Steve was discarding his shirt on the floor as Dusty scowled down at the floor. Her face had more angles since the last time I saw her, and her midnight hair touched her obvious biceps.
"Good night." I said to no one in particular. But Dusty shot her eyes on me and held a fiery stare.
"Good night." The amount of venom that leaked from her words was indescribable. I flinched as if I where bit by a snake and hurried to my room. Before I went inside, I couldn't help but glance back. Dusty was laying down now, Steve's arms secured around her so she didn't fall off. I was almost touched by how delicate and innocent she looked in sleep. It almost made me want to walk back, and stroke a dark curl out of her face.
The innocence was lost, and I was staring into the eyes of the devil as Dusty popped hers open; glaring at my invading eyes. I stumbled into my room, shaking from head to foot.
For the first time in two years, I felt pure terror and hate rock me when I thought of those hostel blue eyes.