I don't own the Outsiders nor the Shepards. Everything you don't recognize, I own.

The next few days went by slowly, Tim would pick me up and take me everywhere, since both of my brothers were spending their time in City Jail.

The bag of money had been in my purse, and I was determined to take it to Damian today, since I knew Tim would be going on with his business. After school I took the bus home, but got off a few stops before, since I had a pretty good idea where Damian would be hanging. I walked by the river, towards a football field where I had seen him on multiple occasions.

As I reached the side further from the store, I saw his car parked in the lot next to the field, and started walking that way. Some of the Kings were there too, and one of them noticed me, pointing his finger in my direction. Damian turned around and grinned, when he recognized me.

He walked down the steps and waited for me to walk the rest of the way, "You're

brave to come here."

"I live close by" I informed him.

He raised his eyebrows, "I know. Now, what do you want?"

"I got your money" I said as I dug my purse for the brown paper bag. I gave it to Damian and he looked surprised.

He counted the money and looked at me, "I'm still one car short" he reported.

"How am I gonna get you a car?"

He lifted his arms up "Ain't my problem" He turned away and walked back to his car, and I walked back to the river side and headed home.

I walked home and saw Curly sitting on the porch. I walked up to him, surprised to see him, "What are you doing here?"

He looked up, "Tim told me to wait for you here, gotta take you back to my place."

He got up and took out a joint, lighting it up and taking a drag, "Tim'll skin you for that" I told him.

He looked at me from the corner of his eye and offered it to me. I accepted it, taking a long drag. He grinned at me "That makes two of us."

We walked around for a while, smoking the joint and feeling the buzz it was giving us. "You know what," Curly said, "you ain't as bad as I thought you was"

I felt light-headed, "You ain't as stupid as you let everybody think" I said to him and smiled. I gave him the rest of the joint, which he smoked and threw the butt on the ground.

I bet we reeked like weed when we got back to their house. Tim's car wasn't anywhere to be seen, so we were safe for now. When we went inside, I decided to study, so I'd graduate next year and sat on the couch with some books. Curly sat in the recliner and propped his feet on the coffee table, turning on the TV to watch a football game.

I have no idea how long we had been there, but I heard the door slam and Tim walked up to me, with a beer in his hand, "Mike saw you with Damian today. Wanna tell me about that?"

He sat next to me, put my book away and stared intensively in to my eyes. I swallowed a lump, that was forming in my throat. I could see from the corner of my

eye, that Curly made his way into the kitchen.

"Well?" he inquired.

"Well, I'm in a shitload of trouble, Tim" I admitted and looked down.

"Fucking great" he murmured, "What'd you do?" It took him a while, but then he

added, "Does it have something to do with Damian's visit on Sunday?"

I nodded in response.

"Fuck," he shook his head, "You should've told me" he said in a calm tone.

"I know, I was afraid you'd be pissed." he raised his eyebrows, as I added, "And I didn't do anything"

"Then what is it?"

I bit my lip, "Well, he wants me to clean up my brother's mess. He needs me to steal a car"

I could see Tim's eyes were flaming with rage, "Don't you fucking dare to do that" he raised his voice, which he rarely did.

I stood up and walked few steps away from him, "I wasn't going to.. I just thought maybe giving him the money.. "

Tim interrupted me, "What money? That's what you did today?"

I nodded, "Yeah, I don't know what it was for, but he still said he's a car short. I didn't know what to do Tim" I said, looking down at my shoes.

"They could've beat the shit out of you, they don't care about you bein' a girl. They ain't fair either, they beat people up for kicks. Jesus, what were you thinking Cas?" he massaged the bridge of his nose.

I felt my eyes filling with tears as I backed away from him. He was so angry it scared me.

"I don't know" I yelled.

Tim took a swig of his beer, "I thought I told you to stay out of trouble"

I was by the front door, "I wasn't asking for any of this" I screamed at him, tears pouring down my cheeks.

He lifted his gaze and he was angry, worse than I had ever seen "God damnit Cas" he yelled and threw his beer bottle.

I covered my face as the bottle shattered into small pieces, the pieces flying everywhere. I moved my hands from my face and looked at Curly, who had come from the kitchen. He was watching us, looking surprised. I turned to look at Tim, who massaged his temples, "Shit Cassie," was all I could hear before storming out the door and up the street.