"C'mon Soda!" Darry groaned.
"Hold on," I called, locking up the cash register. Steve, Ponyboy, Two-Bit and Darry all stood in the doorway of the DX station impatiently. Pony and Darry had come to pick up me and Steve at work and I guess Two-Bit decided to come along. Two-Bit pretty much just goes where ever, as long as something's happening.
"It's been fifteen minutes, man. I'mma' starve to death!" Pony moaned.
"Waddya doing there anyway? Building a rocket?" joked Two-Bit eagerly.
I slammed the register shut and gave it a hard slap for good measure. "Done." I said, tossing the keys to Steve. Everyone rolled their eyes, grumbling "finally!" I grinned widely and chuckled. "Oh glory, you all are just a bunch of grumpy old men." I said as we passed out the door and Steve locked up behind us.
Outside, the sky was pitch black except for the buzzing light of the street lamp. We were goofing off as we walked down the street, laughing and horsing around with each other. I spotted the figure of someone who seemed to be kneeling up against the side of a brick building. It looked like it could be some drunken kid, passed out on the street but the shape was more slender like a girls.
I elbowed Steve in the side. "Ouch! What the f-"
"Hey," I interrupted all quiet. "What's that about?" I pointed to the figure.
He shut up and looked puzzled. "I don't know, man." I pulled him by his shirt and walked briskly towards it. The rest of us followed.
As we stood above the person, she tried to stand up but clutched her side in agony. It was a girl, I finally realized. She was wearing a red and white varsity sweater, like the Soc girls we'd seen the other day.
When she moved her hand from her side to press them to her forehead, we saw the whole side of her sweater was stained blood red.
"Shit," Two-Bit muttered. I saw she had an open gash along the side of her face and the part of her socks that covered her knees were also stained red. We looked at each other frantically.
Finally, I asked, "Are you alright?" She opened her mouth to speak but winced in pain and her eyes closed. Then she slipped down toward the ground until Darry caught her by the back.
"Sh-she's out, I think." Pony exclaimed.
It was then that I realized she was the same girl we'd seen in Ken Brockmen's Corvette. "She's Marc Fisher's girl." I said. We were all kneeling around her and started to try and get her to come around. "She's out cold, guys." I said because we'd been trying to get her to wake up for some time and she wasn't budging.
"What do we do?" Pony asked anxiously, with his lost puppy look on. I would have laughed if it was any other time but now.
"Call the heat?" Steve suggested.
"Hell no," Two-Bit shook his head. "One look at us and they'll throw us in the cooler for sure." Two-Bit was right. None of us were really on the fuzz's nice list lately.
Then, Darry started picking her up. "What the hell are you doing, Darry?" asked Steve.
"We can't just leave her here." Darry said blandly. "We are obligated to help her." We gave him a confused look. "We're taking her to the hospital." The girl made a quite kind of whimpering noise. Darry started shaking her, thinking she was finally waking up.
"Wake up!" me and Steve both urged.
"Say something." pressed Darry. "Say something!"
She opened her eyes a crack. "Alright, alright!" she finally moaned. "Will ya just stop shaking me, goddamnit!?"
Two-Bit stifled a laugh and I grinned.
"Can you hear me?" asked Darry, elevating his voice like he was speaking to some death old lady of something.
"Yes, I can hear you." She wailed, pressing her hand back to her head. "Please don't talk so damn loud!"
"Yeah, she ain't deaf, Darry." Two-Bit said.
"We're taking you to a hospital, ok?" he explained slowly.
"No!" she said and tried to bring herself up but again gripped her side. "No. Leave me here if you're taking me anywhere!"