In these months, Dally held true to his promise. He was home at 9:45 once a week, and only three times he came in at 9:45 twice a week. On most nights, he was home by 6:00. Dally proved himself to be ready for all of this. But I didn't know if I was.
I had just finished screaming at Kelcie. We have been friends forever, but we obviously have different values. She and Johnny just started dating, and they're taking it really slow. I don't care how fast or slow you take it, just as long as you love the one you're with. But Kelcie thinks moving at the speed I did is totally wrong. That day she yelled at me for it.
"Why are you into this, anyway?" she screamed at me.
I was kind of surprised, so I laughed. "Into what?"
"Oh, don't play dumb, Lucy. You know what I mean. Look, you got married when you were twenty. Now we're twenty-one, and two months after you got married, you found out you were going to be a mother. How do you manage with this speed? It's way too fast, and I think it's bad."
"Kelcie, it's my decision. Just because you want to move at the speed of a turtle on a hot day doesn't mean I have to."
She glared at me. "Very funny. I just don't understand why you think taking it slow is so hard!"
"Because it wasn't for me! I was meant to what you might call rush into things, but the things I rushed into were real! You and Johnny have something special too, but it's just different. It's not bad, and the way Dal and I took things isn't bad either."
I stormed out of Kelcie's apartment and walked a half-mile to my old house. Becky was there, and Soda was out shopping for her. She says she does too much of the shopping, so he's taking it off her hands.
"Hey Beck," I greeted her wearily.
"Lu," she said, standing up, "what's wrong?"
"Kelcie and I just started yelling at each other because she thinks what Dally and I did was wrong. We meant to get married last year, and just because it was fast means nothing. And this whole baby thing was a total accident!"
Becky stared at me for a little while, and then she whispered, "Did you want the baby?"
Then I looked at her and smiled a small smile. "Of course I want the baby, Becky. I didn't know it was going to happen like this, but I knew I wanted one eventually. Still, if it was supposed to happen now, it was supposed to happen now."
"That's a good way of looking at it, I guess. God, we've got one crazy life, don't we?"
"No. We've got two crazy lives."
Becky slapped me for correcting her common sense. "It's good to have you as my friend, Lucy."
"And you mine."
We had to be the luckiest people alive.
A few months later, I had a daughter. Dally and I named her Lola Sheridan Winston. All of my friends and family were there when Lola was born, except for Kelcie. She and Johnny broke up, and Kelcie wound up moving to California. None of us ever really saw her again. Jacklyn says that she's been called before, but I haven't talked to Kelcie since the day she yelled at me before I had Lola.
All in all, things were pretty good. Dally was a great parent, which was a little surprising because of his reckless past, and Lola seems to adore him. She looks more like me, but that smile is all Dally's. Four years later, we had another daughter, Sadie Rebecca Winston. She looks more like Dally, but her eyes look just like mine.
Even though the way I grew up was rough, I knew that I had a great life, because my friends and family truly love me, even though we had odd times. I loved everyone in my life, and even though Kelcie left and we met Alyson right before Soda and Becky got married, I loved both of them just the same.
When Lola was thirteen, she was in love with a Soc named Derek Holden, who happened to be Michael's son. I told her not to worry if Derek broke up with her. She might find a Greaser who loved her too much and she'd be as happy as I was.
Dally looked over at me and smiled as I said this to Lola.
"I love you," he mouthed, because the girls hate it when we say it out loud.
"And I love you," I mouthed back.
Things would never fade from that day as a teenager; even until the day I died. Once I found true love, it stayed with me forever.
