A/N: This is the third in my series of stories from Tim's point of view, following on from These Streets and Cars and Girls. However, you don't need to have read them before reading this.

Obviously, anything you recognise from 'The Outsiders' belongs to SE Hinton.

As always, I hope you like it and would really appreciate your feedback on the story—so I'd love it if you could take a moment to let me know what you think :)

CHAPTER ONE

April 1967

Friday morning.

"Didn't know you were back in town."

Although I recognise his voice immediately I'm still pretty surprised to see Nick Miller, standing there in the doorway of the drugstore, grinning at me. Makes me wonder why he's being so damn friendly, exactly what he's wanting. Decide maybe I could do with not getting into it with anyone on my first day out and just go along with it.

"Yeah, got home last night." Nod towards the building across the street. "Just been over the parole office, getting everything straight."

"Oh, that's rough." He steps closer as he lights himself a cigarette, holds out the pack to me.

"Cheers." Digging in my pocket for my lighter, I shrug at him whilst I spark up. "It ain't so bad."

And it ain't, not really.

Not compared to the prospect of another eighteen months inside. All I've got to do is turn up on time and stick at the job that the parole officer has arranged for me to start Monday, carry on living at home, say all the right things that he wants to hear from me every damn time I have to go check in.

Keep myself out of trouble. Can't be that fucking hard, can it?

"So, you fancy a beer tomorrow night or something? Catch up on old times?"

Christ, this really throws me. I mean, I've known him pretty much forever, and I guess you would say we were friends for most of that time, that he was one of the few people I ever actually trusted in those days. But didn't exactly imagine there'd be any way forwards from where we left it. That he would just act like none of that ever happened.

"Won't Judith have something to say on that?"

He laughs a little. "Let's just say things didn't quite work out on that front. So you up for it?"

Mulling it over for a couple seconds, I figure it ain't worth falling out with anyone quite this soon after getting out and honestly, I could do with someone a little more astute than Curly to bring me up to date on me how things stand these days. Properly, without avoiding anything or just saying what he thinks I want to hear.

"Yeah, okay, where? Buck's or something?"

"Nah, place is mostly full of underage girls and his Rodeo buddies these days. Was bad enough before, but you should see it these days, it's really gone downhill."

Shaking my head, I grin back at him, "Didn't think that it was possible for it to get much worse in there, but I guess that explains why Curly's so keen to go there tonight." I mean for the girls, probably fancies his chances with someone and is hoping to impress me, 'cause he's about as much into rodeo as me. Promised him we'd have a few beers tonight, hang out some to placate him for the fact I wouldn't let him skip school just to bum around with me today. No way in hell I need an excuse for Ma to be on my case on day one. Bad enough I got to stay there, let alone listen to her yelling at me if I don't have to. "Okay, so if not there, then where?"

xxxxxx

Saturday night.

"Another round please, sweetheart."

Now I'm here, I'm aiming on working my way through more than my fair share of beers. The place is alright, a few people I remember from before stop and greet me, ask the same old questions that I'm already tired of hearing then tell me it must feel good to be home. Still, on the plus side there's a decent enough selection of broads, so I'm feeling pretty confident of getting some action before the night is out.

Ain't going to be going home with the same girl as last night though, not even sure I remember her name, truth be told.

And that girl from the bus station the night before, well I ain't convinced I knew her name in the first place.

But, hell, eighteen months is a damn long time to go without and I've got a good deal of catching up to do—for both beer and broads—and while it might be an idea to pace myself a little on the beers, that most definitely doesn't apply where girls are concerned. And with that in mind I take a sip out this new beer, pass the second over to Miller, then check out the two girls at the corner table who've been making their interest pretty obvious.

"So, you seen much of anyone else since you got into town?"

"A couple the guys, seen Simmonds down the Standard when I was fuelling up the car this morning, ran into Lang last night. So what happened to Myers?"

"Jesus, Tim, you're not looking to start no trouble over all that again are you?"

"Course not." Although I can't deny getting some kind of revenge has been on my mind more often than not, that if the opportunity arose...well, I wouldn't turn it down.

"Just as well. Look, you do realise all of that gang shit don't really happen no more? Not like it used to, anyway. I mean, you were sent down, then Lewis got drafted. Fry ended up in County last year and Myers? Well it seems Wayne quit town, six months or more ago. Ain't entirely sure what happened with him though, never did get to the bottom of that."

"And his brother?"

"Pete? He's still around." And for the first time tonight Nick looks like he doesn't know what to say as he glances awkwardly around the room. "Look, Tim, Pete don't do none of that crap no more. From what I hear he's settled down, turned himself around some and we both know he wasn't the brains behind any of that trouble we all had. So how about you just let it go?"

Wonder why he's so uncomfortable. It's not like he owes Myers anything, like they were buddies or nothing, like he would ever stick up for either of them, especially after what they did to him that time. Not entirely sure that I share his opinion of Pete not being all that influential before either.

"Yeah, yeah. Look, I'm not after no trouble. Just needed to know if I should be watching my back now I'm home." For a second I think about asking him the other thing that's been on my mind, but decide better of it and choose a different approach. "So how's your sister these days?"

"Sylv? Yeah, she's good. Married with a kid. Who'd have thought it, eh? My sister actually settling down first out of everybody."

"Yeah, was sure it would have been you and Judith." Think back to him giving up on us on account of that broad because she demanded he keep out of trouble.

"Like I said, that all fell apart pretty quick. Turned out that despite what she said she preferred her guys a little more wild after all. Ditched me for some guy out of Tiber Street, got knocked up, spends most her time home alone with a baby while he's in and out of county every other month."

Maybe I should persist a little more, because discussing his former girlfriend ain't exactly where I wanted the conversation to go, so I try to steer things round. "And the rest of that crowd, you see many of them around?"

He frowns a little, looks ill at ease again, like he's aware of precisely where I'm going with this but is deliberately misunderstanding me. "Like who?"

"No one in particular, just the people we all used to hang about with?"

"No. Don't think so." And then he a swig of his beer, looks at the floor, pushes a hand through his hair, before promptly changing the subject. "So how was it in there, really?"

Guess it was unrealistic thinking no one would ask. But we've spent the best part the night so far just catching up on what he's been doing and to be honest I'm more than happy to just listen. Got no real desire to share how things been for me, despite some people seeming to think it's cool I've been inside, think it makes you tough or something.

Only they don't have the first clue.

'Cause there ain't nothing tough about watching the closest you got to a real friend bleed out on a canteen floor and being powerless to help him, definitely nothing clever about... but God, I don't need to to think about any of that right now, can't afford to go there, risk losing it here, in front of all these people.

Shrug, look away, try not to think about it, about them, about what I've done. "It was nothing. Good to be home though. So how about them two then?"

Focusing my attention on the girls again, I try to settle on which one I'm aiming to pick up as we move to join them.

The bar is hot, crowded, getting noisier by the minute. Only it's a different kind of loud than I've been used to lately, people chatting and laughing over the music, no underlying level of tension. Least not yet, anyways. Hope to be long gone and somewhere a whole lot less busy by the time everyone's drunk enough for the fighting to start. I'm already trying to decide when would be a good time to suggest to her that we head someplace else, somewhere more private, trying to figure out whether the small amount of cash I've got left will keep us in drinks long enough for me to get that far, whether the expense will be worth it.

Glance up as the door bangs shut behind yet another crowd heading in, their voices sending the volume up a further notch as they call out to people they know and head towards the bar. There's six, maybe eight of them, guys and girls, picking their way through the crowd.

Bar's too busy, too dark, and I'm too far away to see who most of them are, but I when I do clock who's amongst them, I ain't feeling so keen to leave no more.