Chapter 3: Strangers As Red As Blood And Death

Hard Stayin' Sober

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I do not own "The Outsiders" or any of the Curtis' Gang. The real owner of "The Outsiders" is the best author ever, S.E. Hinton. I also do not make a profit from the stories that I write on this site.

A/N: If you like it, love it, or even if you hate it, you know what to do. Tell me in a review. Suggestions are always welcome, no matter what they might be. Thanks.

Within seven minutes of updating I already had two reviews. *squeals* Guys! Your the best!

Nellie's POV (September 24th, 1966)

The image of my parent's bodies loomed in front of eyes. I wanted to look away yet at the same time I was as frozen as they were. We were all somehow back at the funeral, again. It seemed so much longer than just thirty seven weeks ago that the cop knocked on our door.

My mother's normally gentle, caring eyes stared at me hard, cheap, and cold. My father's lips, which were normally curved into a reckless grin, were chiseled into a hard, permanent frown. I always remember the funeral as a closed casket, but I saw them as clear as days in front of me, the caskets opened by somebody or something. Their shirts were stained as red as blood and their eyes were as dark and cold as midnight. I wondered if this was what Darry saw when he had to identify the bodies. When he came back late that night, he drank whiskey long and hard when he thought no one was watching. He was wrong, I was always there. I wondered if it ran in the family to get drunk after someone dies.

At they same time both of my parents jolted up, and I felt arms strangling me from behind. I screamed, but it came out strangled because of my lack of air, and saw that it was my ex-boyfriend, Johnny, choking me.

"It's all your fault!" My mom screamed at me. I turned to look at her and saw the pain and hatred in her blue-green eyes. It might have just be me, but I'm pretty sure that Darry never heard voices when he went to identify their bodies.

"Tu, putita tan muerto. ¿cómo pudiste hacerme esto a mí, nena? Te amo. Y tú me mataste! Culpable!" Johnny screamed at me, still cutting off my air.

A strangled noise came from the back of my throat. I didn't understand all of what Johnny said, but I caught words like "guilty" and "whore", and even "amado" which is the past tense of "love".

He used to whisper sweet nothings in my ear beautifully in the Spanish he knew. "Mi hermosa Eleanor. Te amo más que la vida misma," he would whisper shyly the nights I would sneak out of my room and lay in his arms on the couch. I thought he was so smart, he spoke English and Spanish beautifully.

The four cold, hateful faces staring at me look like strangers, not the people I once knew and loved. Dally lunged for me as I jolted up in my bed, a blood-curdling scream tearing it's way from somewhere deep in my chest.

"Nellie," Sodapop said to me in a calm, yet firm, soothing voice. I grabbed onto his shirt and buried my face into his hard chest. He rubbed my back and let me stain his shirt with my tears. It felt like hours later when I was finally too exhausted to keep crying. I laid back down and he smoothed my hair out comfortingly.

He looked at me with so much pity in his eyes that I could have smacked him. I don't need his pity, I don't need anyone's pity. I get enough of that from total strangers at school, while the other half just ignore me. Some of 'me are scared of new, and while most greaser girls are proud of that, I just ain't. If only the Socs would learn how to ignore me, though. That's something that I wouldn't complain about.

"Get some rest, Nellie," was all Sodapop said as he kissed my forehead and left me in my dark bedroom. I resisted the urge to crawl into his bed with him like a two year old afraid the "monsters" and instead worked on trying to fall asleep, even though I knew it would take hours, maybe not at all.

IMPORTANT: Author's Note: My poll is still open. Three options remain after the last chapter and this one: Curly (relationship after book), Johnny, and Steve (drunken rape). Please vote I only have four votes as of 9/4. And this was one of my longest chapters ever!

Aufenthalt Gold,

~Alee xXx