Wish Things Could Be Different

Two-Bit's POV

Everything has changed so suddenly. We were all shocked that Soda got hurt like he did. It hit all of us hard. Not only that, but Darry's words to Dally only made it worse. The only good thing about any of this so far is that Soda's injuries aren't as bad as we first thought. A couple more weeks in the hospital and possibly a surgery on his face was all that laid ahead. Pony was still real shook up about it though, so he and Johnny spent mot of their time visiting Soda, whenever Darry was at work. But Dally's been takin' it awful hard. He's been jumpin' Socs a lot more than he ever has before. We haven't even heard from him, since he blew up at Johnny and Pony at the hospital. I just wish things hadn't gone this way and that it could all be different. But I know it never will.

"Hey Two-Bit, good to see you out and about. How's Soda doin'?" a greaser, named Brent, called out to me as I passed by the Dingo.

"Better than he was. He'll get out of the hospital in a week or so," I yelled back to him and continued on my way. I wasn't goin' anywhere in particular, just tryin' to pick up a few girls and maybe a few beers.

It wasn't until I was almost at the drive-in that I noticed a figure of a man crouched over, sitting on the curb, highlighted by a single streetlight against the night sky. I approached him when noticed that the clothes were definetly that of a greaser's and wanted to make sure that the guy was all right, and hadn't been jumped. But it wasn't until I got pretty close that I noticed that he wasn't just any greaser, but one of our own. It was Dallas Winston. He had a handful of empty beer bottles at his feet and was completely, if not overly, drunk.

"Dally?" I asked him questioningly. "You all right?"

"Hey Two-Bit. What are you doin' out this way? You wanna a few beers or what?" Dally asked me with the effects of the drinks slurring all his words together.

"No, thanks, Dal," I said, knowing that if Dally was ever to get to a room at Buck's tonight, I would need to keep sober in order to get him there. "Hey, why don't we go over to Buck's place, you look like you need some sleep?"

"Two-Bit? Have you ever wondered if anyone would notice that you're gone when you die?" he asked, starring back at me with his steel blue eyes.

"Sometimes," I said wonderin' where he was going to go with this. "It's not so easy bein' a greaser, is it?"

"No, but have you ever felt like people would be better off if you're dead? Like you'd be doing them a favor. My old man use to tell me how he'd be better off if I was. Guess, I screwed up bad this time, and I ain't got a way to fix it. I never meant for Soda to get hurt. I guess my old man was right. All I ever do is screw things up. He use to tell me that my mom left because of me, and would always yell at me and slam me up against the wall. The older I got the worse things got at home. he always found somethin' to blame on me whenever he got drunk and he'd hit me over and over again until he passed out or until the pain was too much much for me and I'd conscienceness. It was real bad, you know?" Dally said staring out at nothing.

"I'm sorry, Dally," I said, not knowing what else to say, remaining in utter shock. "I had no idea."

"No one did. I remember one night when I came home real late and he was sitting in his overstuffed chair looking at me and you could see the drink in his eyes. Before I could even shut the door behind me, he jumped on top of me. He pinned me to the ground and was yellin' at me, but I couldn't understand him cause his knees were digging so hard into my chest that I had to spend all my concentration on breathing. When he finished yelling at me he started hitting me like he always did, but with more power and intent. I tried to protect myself the best I could and continured to call out for him to just stop . . . to just stop it. But he wouldn't stop," Dally said barely above a whisper, his whole body appeared to be shaking uncontrolably. "He pulled his knife out of his pocket and started threatening me with it. I started kicking and screaming for someone to help me, and somehow finally mangaged to get out from underneathe of him. I stood up and put my back to the wall as he came at me with the knife. I tried to jump to the side to aviod it, but it cut me anyway," Dally continued, tracing a line down his left side, as if reliving the incident. "I remember being consumed by the pain from the knife and the beating combined that I hadn't noticed him striking out at me agian. I didn't have time to move out of the way. He stabbed me high in the chest and I felt as if I was going to die. But when he came back at me again, I figured I had nothing to lose and threw myself at him. We rolled on the ground together, both of us fought for control of the knife. But he was so drunk that when I got control of it, I stabbed him in the heart when he made a move to take it back from me. But as he was dying the only thing that came out of his mouth was a string of curses directed at me that came continuously until he was dead. That's why left. I knew, I couldn't stay there anymore. I just ran from the house and collapsed in an alley a few blocks away. Someone must have called an ambulence cause I ended up in the hospital for a few weeks. But when I got out I took a one way trip out of there. That's how I got here. That's the real story behind the old Dallas Winston," he said, the drunkness creeping back into his voice.

I was stunned. None of us really knew Dally's background, other than the fact that he had come to Tulsa from New York City. He is tough and cold, and always in trouble with the law. I never thought about something like that ever happening to Dally or anyone for that matter. No wonder he's so cold, he had to kill his own father in order to save his own life. I just hope he doesn't get upset that he told me, if he even remebers that he did. But right now the thing for me to worry about is getting Dally over to Buck's.

"You ready to go over to Buck's place now?" I asked him, unsure of how to go about this.

"Yeah," he said standing up and almost tripping over one of the empty bottles.

"Okay, just watch where you're walkin'," I said, putting my arm around his waist to steady him.

"You know, he never told me he was sorry for any of it," Dally said shuffling foreward again. "Not once."

"I'm sorry it happened," I said, but wondering even more about why he had never told us.

"I wish it hadn't. You guys are the only family I've ever really had. But it looks like I screwed that up too."

"No, you didn't. Darry might be a little upset right now, but he'll get over it."

"How do you know he will? What if he doesn't? I got no where else to go."

I didn't know what else to say. Everything has changed so suddenly. I just want it all to stop, but there's no way it can. But I couldn't help but think about Dally and what all has happened to him.

It didn't take us much longer to get to Buck's. I knocked on the door hard, hoping that someone would hear us above all the noise and music. It was Tim Shepherd who finally decided to answer the door.

"Hey Tim, give me hand with Dally, will you?" I said to him, more as a command than a question.

"Sure," he said as he put one of Dally's arms around his neck and placed a supportive arm around Dally's waist. "What the hell happened to him?"

"I guess you could say he had one too many beers for one night," I said as we began to carry Dally inside and upstairs to the bedroom he usually claimed as his own. We laid him down on the bed and got him situated. It was only a matter of minutes before he was sound asleep. Tim and I stepped out of the room to talk and shut the door behind us. I tried to explain to Tim what all had happened without telling him what all it was we talked about. I thanked him for his help and decided to head back home, my interests in girls and beer for the night was ruined the conversation I had with Dally. I couldn't get rid of the pictures in my mind of what Dally had told me. I just wish things could be different. I just wish things wouldn't be this hard. But it never will.

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Wow, I was actually able to update on time. Just had the idea all planned out in my head and had to write it down before I forgot. And sorry if Dally and Two-Bit got a bit out of charcter. Once again, thanks forgottonletters for helpin' but I decided to kind of combine the two ideas so that Dally had to kill him. Did you like it? Well, thanks again to everyone who reviewed Chapter 6: Maddiecake, jinxyknockonwood, lae10, silverstagbeauty, forgottenletters, and Al-luvs-Kitties02.