You done good, buddy boy.
The words kept echoing around Anybodys' head. You done good. They didn't blame her, they still accepted her, she was part of the gang. Buddy boy. She grinned. If Action treated her like that, then the rest would have to let her in the gang – really in the gang, not just hanging around the edges.
She plonked herself in the middle of the group where they had gathered in Doc's shop. The boys barely noticed her presence, preoccupied with Riff's death and Bernardo's. Tension within the group was running so high that even Anybodys, not regarded as the most perceptive member of the group, knew that something was going to happen when Anita walked in the door. She tensed, moving almost unconsciously away from the Shark girl.
"I have a message for Tony," Anita said, her voice barely steady. The boys taunted her, and Anybodys joined in, until she saw the signs of recent tears on Anita's face, and remembered her laughter, dancing with Bernardo.
When the boys moved in on Anita, pushing and prodding her, Anybodys joined the circle, hoping the Jets wouldn't notice that her hands were steadying rather than shoving.
Action started it, grabbing Anita, making the attack sexual. Action – the boy who called her buddy boy, who accepted her into his gang. She looked around, waiting for one of the others to stop Action, but one by one they joined in. For the first time, Anybodys feared the Jets. She ran, yelling something going for help, finding Tony, she didn't know.
Anita watched her go, and Anybodys saw contempt in her face, contempt for this cowardly little girl running from her own gang. Anybodys looked away first.
She ran into the cellar, grabbing at Doc's sleeve, gabbling incomprehensibly. It didn't matter, because by then Doc could hear Anita's screams. With Anybodys in tow, he ran up the stairs, yelling at the Jets, furious.
Anita got up and brushed herself off.
Anybodys stared at the floor, suddenly horribly of her own girls' body. She'd spent years being relentlessly called a girl, but for the first time, she felt really separate from the boys.
Anita snarled her message at them all. She met Anybodys' eyes.
"If one of you was lying in the street bleeding," she almost whispered, "I'd walk by and spit on you!"
She stalked away, and the boys filed out, ashamed. One looked back, checking on Anybodys, including her, and she didn't notice.
Arms wrapped protectively around herself, Anybodys stared at the floor for a very long time.