"What are you doing here?" Tim asked a few days later.
Dally stood and swaggered over to Tim with a cold beer. "Waitin' for you to get home, man."
"And Angela didn't kill you?"
"Naw. Came in through the window."
Tim took a swig, but turned to Dally. "You know this ain't gonna work."
"What ain't gonna work?"
"Gettin' me drunk. I can't get hard for you, not even then."
"Dallas Winston pays no heed to 'can't's. He'd call that a challenge."
Tim sighed, sitting down on the bed. "What do you want from me, Winston?"
"The honest truth?"
"The honest truth."
He sat down on the bed next to Tim. "I don't know."
"Don't you bullshit me, Winston. You knew well enough to . . . kiss me. Twice."
Dally shrugged. "It don't mean nothin'." He took a swig from his own bottle.
"Bullshit. Total bullshit. 'Write to me'," he mocked. "You don't call that meanin' somethin'?"
"It's different now."
"Get awful dramatic when you're goin' to jail, do ya?"
"I wasn't supposed to, that time."
"Yeah, you were supposed to die. Right? Wasn't that the deal?"
He leaned back on the bed casually. "Well, Johnny was gone, Tim. No one else woulda missed me."
"That's the most intelligent thing I ever heard you say. The justice system finally fix you this time?"
Dally winced and said nothing.
Tim lay down too, facing him. "Did it?" He chuckled a little. "No. You ain't fixable, I guess."
"Right."
The silence was a little awkward.
"Can I crash here tonight? And I don't mean on the motherfuckin' couch." Dally tossed the empty bottle over the side of the bed.
"I don't care."
"Okay."
The next morning, Dally made breakfast. Angela shrieked to see him in her kitchen, but they all managed to calm her down enough for her to head back to her room and hate him from there.
"She'll get over it," said Curly.
Dally shrugged. He didn't care if she didn't.
Dally stayed for a few more days. There was a party at one of the members of Tim's gang's girl's place, and Tim invited Dally to come along with. After he invited him, though, he kind of regretted it. He feared Dally would do something stupid to jeopardize his rep. He worked hard to be the leader of his gang, and he'd kill Dally if he ruined that for him . . . or close to it.
Dally seemed to sense his unease and while Tim started drinking, he slipped off to have fun with one of the single broads. He danced with her, some of the dancing getting pretty dirty. Another broad went ahead and cut in, and Dally was glancing at the other guys smugly.
Big deal. Tim already knew Dal was a real ladies' man. They just slurped up whatever he gave 'em, like dogs. Big fuckin' deal.
But when both the broads dragged him up toward the bedroom, to cheers, Tim got a little jealous. Of all three of them. Which made him all too happy to drink more. He left only feeling slightly better. He was almost tempted to see if he couldn't peek in on 'em, but that was stupid. He'd already seen Dal fuck a broad anyway, the sloppy shit.
He fell asleep feeling alone, which made no sense. Maybe he was just achin' for a little action himself. He could have stayed and tried to find a broad, but most of them there knew what he was like. He wasn't exactly the most considerate guy.
When he woke up, Dally was next to him, freshly showered, hair still a little damp, and he was dead to the world. That was good, because he was already dead to Tim. Tim kind of felt like he'd been showed up the night before.
But goddamn if Dally didn't look serene in the sunlight there, wasting fuckin' space. Tim shook him.
"Fuck! Go away!" Dally batted him off, curling up, tense again. When he was asleep, he'd looked at peace, for once. Tim hadn't liked it.
"You overstayed your welcome. Go back to Buck's or somethin'. I don't care. Go." He dragged him out of the bed.
He shook Tim off him, brushing himself off. "Yeah, guess you ain't the mornin' after kind of fella."
Tim didn't like this kind of teasing no more. It had to stop. "You fuck two broads, then you come back here and sleep in my bed? You're fuckin' crazy. Crazy, man."
Dally stepped closer, traced Tim's scar with that fingertip . . . .
Tim yelled, shoving Dal so hard he almost lost his footing, but caught himself and, with a cocksure grin, said, "Maybe I am."
Then he was gone again. Tim felt like pulling an Angela, but he'd have to chase Dally down first, and all his energy had left him.
