When I woke the next day the room seemed busy; Ponyboy, Darry, Sodapop and Steve were around the bed.
"Hey sweetie" Sodapop cooed, "How you feeling?"
"A little better." My head now only felt like a slight migraine and my jaw was still aching but no longer stiff: my ribs felt quite tight though. "When am I allowed home? I don't like hospitals."
"Tomorrow, hon, tomorrow. They just wanna keep an eye on you – make sure your head's sewn up properly!" Soda chuckled. I knew I was going to be fine because otherwise Soda would be behaving in a more sombre manner.
"I want to know what happened" Darry said sternly. I wondered if he was mad at me, then I wondered how much about that night Dally had told them.
"What's there to tell? I left Angel's house and got jumped by five socs. Simple."
"No, not 'simple', Charlotte. You're being vague and Dally was being shifty, there's more to this, I can tell." Darry seemed impatient.
"Darry, don't hassle her now, she looks tired" Ponyboy said trying to keep the peace; he must have thought I would leave if bothered.
"Where's my hero?" I said after searching the room and finding Dally absent.
"He might come by later." Soda said in a soft voice.
"Might?" Dallas must really be angry at me. It wasn't his fault, how could it be his fault that I was jumped by socs; just because you're angry at someone doesn't mean you can blame them for things beyond their power. And besides, he saved me, who knows what would have happened had he not have come along. I was grateful to him; I wanted to thank him.
It was strange how I was missing my bed having only been back in it for a week, but I was. I wanted to be back with my pillows, blanket and big teddy that I hugged at night; I wanted to be at home.
"Where's Johnny?"
"Oh he's here, he's in physiotherapy; he'll come by and see you later." Steve informed me.
"Yeah, we were only dropping him off here otherwise we wouldn't have bothered coming to see you!" Soda said cocking an eyebrow; even when Two-bit isn't in a room his presence can always be felt.
Johnny eventually came by to see me and then the boys left to get to work and college, leaving me by myself. I was glad; I needed some 'me time' to think things over. When I wasn't thinking I was sleeping and when I was thinking I had doctors prodding me and running tests on me, it was thoroughly annoying. I'd never liked hospitals much, not since I was a kid and had my tonsils taken out; Sodapop had told me that the doctor's would take away an arm or a leg for their dinner, and as a six year old I believed him. Now I was pretty sure that a doctor was not about to amputate my limbs but I was still spooked. The clinical-ness of it all was horrid, how a person was supposed to recover in places like that was beyond me. I kept reliving the events of the night before, not just the beating: my night with Curly, seeing Dallas with that girl, hearing all the horrible things he had to say and trying to work out what he meant to say, before Curly had interrupted. "Listen, darling. Since you came back, I was confused…this whole thing… I din't…" Those were his words, I remembered them clearly, but what would have been at the end of that sentence!
I thought about it constantly, even the next day when Ponyboy came to take me home. Before we left Ponyboy was telling me what all the machines surrounding me did but I was only half listening; I don't think I would have understood it all had I been paying attention. When I got home the boys had laid out a feast at the table and gosh I was hungry! We filled our plates and sat around the television to watch a football match. The boys were going mental at the screen and I was being shoved all over the country with no consideration for my beaten state; I couldn't have been happier.
"Sorry for not visiting you in hospital, hon. I was too hung over! Are you mad at me?" Two-bit grovelled.
"Of course I'm not! I wasn't like I was dying!"
"Well I'll make sure whoever did this to you dies!" Two-bit stated dramatically.
I was about to respond when Dallas walked through the door, "Hey."
I turned and smiled at him, "Hey you, where've you been? I've been wanting to see you!"
"Why?" Dally said unconcernedly.
I huffed, hoping he wouldn't be in one of his moods. "Come up stairs with me" I pleaded as I held out a hand hoping he would help me up. He did so and we headed up the stairs, "Oh Darry! Don't look at me like that, it's innocent!" I said as I saw his expression; it read 'not in my house!'
We got to my room and I sat at the head of the bed, Dallas threw himself on the end of it. "It wasn't your fault, Dal, how could it have been?" I said smiling at him.
Dally was silent for a while, he looked like a lost little boy at that moment, and I don't think there were many times you could describe Dallas Winston as such. "So you don't blame me?"
"You rescued me, Dal. Why would it be your fault? Yes I was angry at you but it wasn't you who jumped me and it wasn't you that put me in that danger- I did. I want to thank you, baby." Dally raised his eyebrows out of surprise. "And I wanted to know… what were you gonna say in the kitchen before Curly walked in, you know, about me coming back?"
Dally looked at me, startled. "Huh? Um, I dunno baby. I can't remember, it can't have been anything important."
"Oh right, it's just that it kind of sounded like it was important, you said that you were confused about it all, and then we got interrupted." I realised I was fiddling with my hands a lot; I wondered if he could tell how nervous I was.
"Well it would have been just that: that I was confused about things" he said in a relaxed tone.
"Oh." I whispered sadly, wondering how honest I should be with him; I decided to be frank, "I thought maybe you were gonna say you'd thought about it and you'd like us to get back together; we'd been getting on so well…but then that was a stupid idea, I mean, had you have wanted us to get back together you wouldn't have slept with that Marie girl, would you?" I only realised the truth in this once I'd said it.
"Yeah but you slept with Curly. You wouldn't have done that if you thought we would get back together. That really shocked me you know, baby. I din't really think you were like that."
"I did that to get back at you!" I cried, immediately annoyed that I'd told him that.
His face fell. "Really, Charlotte? You slept with a guy to get back at me?" I started weeping, it sounded so vulgar. I nodded. "Oh baby, you silly girl!" he said moving across the bed and taking me in his arms.
I pushed him away, "It's not as bad as it sounds, I don't regret it; Curly was real sweet. But yes, the initial reason I had sex with him was because you were all over that Marie and I couldn't stand it."
Dallas sighed, "I only did that because I'm still so angry about you leaving me; I wanted to hurt you…I'm so sorry!"
I looked at him through my tears then I leant in to kiss him. It was a simple, innocent kiss, but it was nice. "Do you love me, Dal?" I asked, praying his answer would be different to the last time he'd told me.
He looked at me and slowly a smile formed across his face, "Like crazy, Charlotte Curtis, like crazy." He kissed me hard and deep and I kissed him right back. After a week of being back in Tulsa I had finally returned home.
