People say believe half of what you see,
Son, and none of what you hear.

I Heard It Through The Grapevine – Marvin Gaye

Chapter Two

Houston Cassidy

Fifteen minutes later Curly came out of the rusted grey medal doors of the Tulsa jail. He had a smirk on his face, that if you didn't know better you'd mistake it as a grin. But Curly Shepard doesn't grin or smile. He just smirks. He swaggered over to us, cigarette already in mouth.

"Aye, Texas," He greeted looking at me. He turned to Dally and glared. "Get out of my seat, other Texas."

Dallas laughed but made no effort to move. Actually he made less than no effort to move and let Curly sit up front next to me. Dallas kicked his feet up on the dash like I had done earlier and leaned further into the passenger seat.

"Dallas, you wanted to come with me don't be difficult. Told you when Curly got out you were gettin' thrown in the backseat again." I tried reasoning with Dally but God knows that never works. He's too proud. Too stubborn and prideful.

"Alrighty then," I smirked "Curly you wanna drive?"

"Sure thing, Baby."

I flung open my door and hopped in back. And I can tell you right now, Dallas Winston was not impressed. He was hardly ever out-smarted and now he had been by me. A female greaser. Not something he'd take a liking to.

"Houston! What the hell? You never let me drive!" Yelled Dally. I just laughed.

"You never asked, Dallas." I responded, innocently. Like I'd ever let him drive. We'd probably end up turned over in a ditch. With all the bickering and his speeding.

The ride to Buck's was unnerving. It was so silent you could hear the soft murmur of the engines purr. Dallas and Curly seemed to be in some sort of staring contest. A glaring contest, if you dig. Being stuck in a car with two dangerous hoods that are angry isn't so fun. If I wasn't dating one of them I'd be scared shitless. Curly stopped the car at Buck's and waited for Dallas to get out. Dallas hopped hastily out of the car, not forgetting to slam the old Chevy's door hard. I couldn't help but wonder why he was so pissed off. Yes, being pissed off was Dally's thing but why at Curly? What had the boy done, now?

Instead of getting out again, I climbed over the sticky and hot leather seats, sliding in next to Curly. He booted the engine back up, and drove until Buck's was no longer visible. All thoughts of Dallas had almost disappeared, and Curly pulled into the diner. Curly was no gentlemen—far from it. But he could be sweet. He came around to my side and opened the door grabbing my hand and leaving small kisses on my cheek as we walked into the diner. It was times like these I had no doubt me and Curly would never really be over. We fought, yelled, we did everything a healthy couple shouldn't. Over one day making out at Buck's the next.

After being with him the whole day, I brought Curly home. It was already five and I needed to pick up Soda. If no one needed the car during the day I usually borrowed it then picked up the boys, like I did today. But that also meant I had to pay for the gas I used but I didn't really mind, they were letting me borrow their car. I picked up Darry first, then I jumped in the passenger seat again. We sat in silence picking up Sodapop. Darry and I rarely ever talk. You'd think it'd be awkward but it never is. I kinda liked the silence after all day of either hearing Dally, Curly, or even Soda talk all day. We pulled up to the DX, which for me was the second time today and Sodapop hopped in and instantly the silence was gone. He just talked and talked and talked. I never seemed to get annoyed when Soda talked. He was hard to get annoyed or mad at Sodapop too hard.

As soon as we got out of the car we heard Pony yell.

"Soda!" Cried Pony. "Darry!"

We all just ran, following Ponyboy's voice. We find him just a little ways up the road a bunch of Soc's surrounded him, pinning him to the ground. I was defiantly not part of their gang. But Ponyboy was like my little brother or my best friend.

"This ain't your turf, Soc's." I growled. "You better leave."

They started to laugh but that was stopped short when the gang stepped out in front of me. They ran. They ran to their car and drove off like the cowards they were. We didn't even get to give them the beating they deserved. I was angry, I was only a girl, I couldn't fight well but I could throw a punch and I wanted to. I wanted to get it in with those Soc's. They can't just come to our part of town and jump us, jump people younger than them too.

Ponyboy was bleeding, Dally told me the pulled a blade on him. To calm myself down a lit up a Kool and offered Dallas one. He took it and a lit it for him. The others walked a head of us but Johnny hung back with us even more quiet than usual. I knew he was thinking about that incident a couple months ago, when he had been jumped. We found him bleeding on the grass barely able to talk. Oh, and his face. His face was horrible. Beaten and bruised and now scarred, just because the boy wore about a million rings.

"Dallas this ain't far! What? Just because we can't afford things it's okay to beat us up!" I was yelling now. "I don't this so!"

Johnny and Dallas kept quiet staring at me. I wasn't one to raise of voice I wasn't even one to get mad. I huffed and turned to go in the opposite direction.

"Look, I gotta go blow off some steam. Tell Pony to hang in there."

I ran off, one of them was following me but I didn't even care enough to look back I focused to the rock I was kicking talking my anger out on it rather than someone else.

"Calm down, Houston." Dallas demanded. "And stop muttering to yourself, people are gonna question your sanity. I already am."

So it was Dallas who had followed me then. I hadn't even realized I was muttering. Maybe I was insane, freaking out over Pony getting jumped. It seemed like a logical reason to freak out. But maybe I shouldn't have.

"You gotta calm down, Houston. You gotta toughen up because things like this are gonna happen." Dallas seemed calm. But I don't know how he did it. He was calm about almost everything.

"Damnit, when it happened to Johnny I felt the same. I got so angry! But you know where that got me? Thrown back into the cooler; because no one cares if you're hurt. No one cares for the reason you do things, just you did them and you're in the wrong."

I didn't know where Dallas was getting all this. He didn't seem the type to say something smart that actually made sense. It was the truth, no cared about why Greasers stole things, why they broke the law. They just liked to throw us into jail and give us a bad name. Take advantage of us because we can't afford good lawyers. Well I'm sick of it. I gotta leave. I gotta go. I can't stay. I need to get away.

"Dallas, one day, you'll see, I'll be gone. I can't take this anymore. One day I'm gonna catch a train somewhere and just leave.."

Dally and I shuffled along a little bit longer. For a while it was just quiet. We stopped talking, and I was still overwhelmed. We reached the boarder of the East and West sides and just stopped there. No one lived even close to here. And people rarely walked up here because your chance of getting jumped just went up a lot more. But I walked the imaginary line. It was all stupid. Gain a little money, the east hates you. Be broke and the west thinks your disgusting.

I studied Dally as we walked back to the Curtises. He looked normal from a distance. Bright icy blue eyes and blonde hair that was so white when I first met him I questioned him on it. Asking if it was his real hear color or he had died it. I bet if I had been a guy, he would've beat my face in. He never greased his hair, though. It wouldn't have fit him anyway. Like Curly, Dallas didn't smile, just smirked. But a outsider wouldn't be able to tell the difference. And his bright blue eyes I envied, were cold and unemotional. If you didn't know who he was and what he'd done you'd just think he was some lanky normal teenage boy with an elfish face. But Dallas Winston was tough, and collected. What I wanted more than anything to be. I didn't like the feeling of feeling too much.