Chapter Eleven: Scared
Georgie POV
We were two houses away when I stopped.
"I don't think I can do it..."
Tim looked at the house and back at me.
"I'm guessing you left on bad terms?"
I nodded. I started walking towards the stayed with me.
"You don't have to walk with me."
"Yeah, I do. At least I do with you in those clothes. Now, what's going on, Miss Trouble?"
I told him some of what happened.
"How'd you end up walking down the road?"
"I took a cab to the edge of the east side and started walking from there."
"You didn't have no bags?"
"I left them at the airport. There was no way I was walking with them... They'll hold them for me..."
"What're gonna do?"
"Who's that?"
We both turned to the voice and Mikey was staring back at us. It took him a second to realize who I was.
"Georgie!"
He ran up and hugged me. I liked Mikey. He was one of the sweetest guys I had ever met. A good friend of mine. I hated it that he was in Tim's gang. He was too nice.
"Where have you been, girl? Man you look weird. I thought you'd left for good."
"Yeah, I think she did, too."
Tim went on to tell him why I had left. We had made it to the park by then and went and sat on the merry-go-round.
"What're you gonna do? It's too cold for you to stay out here. Especially in a dress..."
"Don't even mention the dress... And I don't know..."
"Is there anybody in your gang you'd be willing to talk to? Any of them at all?"
I thought about it for a minute then looked up at Mikey.
Darry POV
We were all sitting around having a good time, but I could tell it wasn't the same. Around 10:00 there was a knock at the door. Ponyboy answered it.
"Darry, it's for you!"
I walked over to see Mikey standing there.
"Darry, Tim wants to talk to ya."
"Well, can't it wait two days?"
He shook his head.
"Nope. Says it's real important. Also said to come alone."
I tried to think if I'd done anything to piss Tim off.
"Look, if you guys are gonna gang up on me..."
Soda was behind me. Mikey laughed a little.
"No one's fightin'. He just wants to talk."
"Darry's not going anywhere without us."
The gang all agreed with him. Mikey sighed.
"Look, Darry. You know I would tell you if something was gonna happen. You can't come if you bring the gang, and if you don't come it's gonna be bad. Not for you, for someone else."
"Are you threatening me?"
That's what it sounded like. That he was threatening if I didn't come someone would get hurt.
"No, I ain't threatening you! I didn't mean it like that! Just, please trust me. It's important."
"No, he ain't going without us..."
"Soda..."
Mikey sighed defeated...
"Someone's in trouble, Darry. That's why Tim sent me. He needs help."
He started to walk away.
"Wait!"
I turned back to look at Soda.
"I'm going."
"Darry..."
"If I'm not back in an hour, come looking. I'll be fine."
We drove in my truck to the park. Tim was sitting on the merry-go-round. We walked up to him.
"Tim."
"Darry."
"What was so important?"
"Someone's lost and can't find their way home."
This confused me. He nodded towards the fountain.
"I thought you could help them."
He and Mikey walked away. I looked over at the fountain to see someone's head on the other side. For a moment, I thought he'd killed someone and was putting it on me, but the head moved. I walked over to the fountain.
"Hello?"
The person jumped.
"Darry?"
The voice was strained. They were crying.
"Who is that?"
The person stood up and walked around the fountain. She stopped about three feet in front of me. It was dark, so all I could see was that it was a girl. A Soc girl. What Soc girl knew me?
"Follow me."
I followed her to a street light. Her back was turned to me. She slowly turned around. My eyes about bugged out of my head. For a second, we just stood there. I was taking in her appearance. She looked like a Soc, and she couldn't have weighed more than 120 pounds.
After a minute or two, I ran up and grabbed her around the waist and lifted her up. She put her arms around my neck.
"Where the hell have you been, kiddo?!"
"It's a long story..."
I finally put her down. She was shivering.
"Come on, let's go to the truck."
When we got in, I turned it on and turned on the heat.
"Where have you been?"
"Aunt Carol's... I heard everything that night..."
"What night?"
"The night I left... I was standing outside the door from the time you read my assignment until you told everyone to shut up..."
I wracked my brain then remembered.
"I had never realized how much stress I'd put on you guys... I thought you guys would be better off without me..."
"That's not true. Not at all... What made you come back? Are you back for good?"
She looked at me like I was crazy.
"I didn't know if I'd be welcome back. Not after what I said..."
"You didn't mean it. I know you didn't."
I put my arms around her.
"Please come home..."
"What if everyone else isn't as nice about this as you are?"
I pulled back. She had a point, there was no denying that.
"You'll never know if you don't go back and find out..."
"I'll just stay for Christmas... Then I'll go back to Florida..."
"Let's just see what happens first. Alright?"
"I'm scared to face them... You were the only one I wasn't scared to see..."
"Why is that?"
She was quiet for a minute, and then looked at me with tears in her eyes.
"Because you're my big brother..."
I smiled. I had always looked at her as a little sister, but I always thought she only looked at Ponyboy as a brother.
"I really don't know if I can face them..."
"You've got to..."
Pony POV
It had been almost an hour before we heard the truck finally pull up in the driveway. You could tell all the tension in the room was instantly gone and then Darry walked in.
"What did Tim want?"
"Someone was lost and couldn't find their way home."
Soda looked confused. We all did.
"Oh? That's it?"
"Yeah. So I took them home. No big deal."
At that time the screen door opened again, and a girl walked in.
"Who's tha..."
The question never completely got out of Sodapop's mouth before we were all standing there with our mouths wide open.
No one moved. No one did anything. We were all too shocked to do anything. Finally, I stepped closer. I was almost convinced that my eyes were playing tricks on me.
"G...Georgie?"
"Hey, Ponyboy..."
For a minute I didn't move.
"Where've you been?"
"Aunt Carol's..."
"Ever since you left?"
She nodded. After another few minutes of nobody saying anything, she teared up and walked out the house. Darry groaned and went after her. Soda turned to me.
"I didn't know what to say..."
"I'm pissed and relieved. I don't know which one to show..."
Steve put a hand on my shoulder to calm me down.
"If we push her away now, we might never get her back..."
I nodded and walked out the door to see her and Darry at the gate.
They both turned to look at me.
"Can I talk to you for a minute?"
She looked scared. Darry whispered something to her and put his hand on her back to walk her to the porch. He gave me a pointed look before going into the house. She didn't move. She just sat there...
Georgie POV
I didn't know what I was suppose to say to him. I could tell all of them were pissed off. We stood on the porch for what felt like hours. He was burning a hole in the side of my head. I wouldn't look at him.
"Was it true?"
"Was what true?"
"What you wrote?"
I was starting to cry a little.
"No... I needed to say something so no one would come after me. It was the only way to make sure that didn't happen..."
"Why...?"
"I heard what you guys said that night..."
He looked guilty. I couldn't stand that... It wasn't his fault.
"I came home early... I was selfish, I didn't even realize how much of your lives revolved around me..."
He shook his head.
"You did know that. You always tried to hide stuff from us for that reason. You weren't selfish, just stubborn."
I just stood there.
"But, I'll tell you one thing..."
His voice was getting angry. I winced.
"Running off like that was selfish. And so was leaving that note. Don't you ever do that to us again, Georgie Dallas Smith. Ever."
I nodded.
"Are you staying?"
"For Christmas..."
He looked at me like he was scared.
"Why aren't you staying...?"
I looked at him the same way I looked at Darry earlier.
"I didn't think I'd be welcome back."
He rolled his eyes.
"Just because we're pissed at you doesn't mean we don't want you here. How many times do we have to go over this?"
He ran over to me and gave me the biggest hug he'd ever given me.
"That was one of the scariest times of my life. I didn't know where you were for two months... Please don't ever do that to me again."
"Yeah, don't ever do that to us again."
We both turned to look at the screen door.
"How much did you guys hear?"
"All of it..."
Steve and Two-bit came over and hugged me. All that was left, was Sodapop. He looked at me.
"Guys, can we have a minute?"
Everyone nodded and walked back in the house.
Soda POV
I didn't say anything for a minute. I couldn't think of anything to say until I got a good look at her.
"Why're you dressed like that?"
She looked down at herself and automatically grabbed her ponytail off of her wrist and put her hair in a bun.
"I was trying to be someone I'm not."
"What for?"
"Cause I don't know who I am anymore..."
I walked up to her.
"Is that what this whole thing was about?"
"No, I heard you guys..."
"No, I knew that. I meant is that why you were sad before?"
She looked like she was thinking about it.
"I don't know..."
She turned away from me and put her hands on the railing. I stood next to her.
"Aunt Carol told me something that scared me..."
"What was that?"
"That I was turning into my mom and Dallas..."
"Are you...?"
"I've lost everything. I don't know who I'm suppose to be..."
I turned her to face me.
"You're suppose to be Georgie. Not Dallas, not your mom."
"But who is she?"
"We can find her. We can find Georgie, but you've got to let me help."
"Do you know who she is...?"
"You know who you are... You know it..."
"Maybe I'm not the same person, anymore..."
I touched her face.
"Sometimes, people change, but changing doesn't mean completely losing yourself. You're still you. You're not your mom, you're not Dallas, and if you ever start to think that come to one of us and we'll help you see that you could never be like them. You care too much about everything to ever be like them. Do you hear me?"
She nodded.
"I'm sorry..."
"There's plenty of time for that. I know you're uncomfortable in those clothes."
She smiled.
"See? You're still you. Go change and come back out here. I need to see you. You're stuff is where it's always been."
She nodded and went to change. When she came back out, I could tell she had lost a lot of weight.
"Getting a little thin, aren't we?"
She looked guilty. I walked up to her.
"Hey, what is it?"
"No more secrets..."
The first thing she did was lift up her sleeves.
"Oh, Georgie..."
She had cuts going all the way up to her elbows. She rolled her sleeves back down.
"I'm sick..."
"What do you mean?"
"Have you ever heard of bulimia?"
I nodded. A girl I knew in middle school had it. She got real bad.
"I've had that since I was sixteen..."
My eyes got wide.
"I can't stop... I've tried to, but holding down any food hurts too much..."
I wrapped my arms around her. She really had gotten thin.
"We're gonna fix this. We're gonna get you better. Don't you know I loved you with meat on your bones?"
She sighed.
"I can't keep anything from you anymore. It only makes things worse..."
"I'd say that's a good first step to recovery..."
She looked up at me. I leaned down and kissed her. She was shocked for a minute.
"I didn't think you'd want me back..."
"You forgave me when I made a mistake. It's my turn to forgive you."
"I didn't forgive you this fast..."
"I told you that you were the only one for me... But, you should know that I did some things when I was mad..."
She shook was her head.
"Don't. I went on some dates. It's fine. I don't wanna know details. I just wanna know that you're mine, again."
I kissed her again. Later that night, we sat down with Darry and I told him what was going on.
Darry POV
After showing me her arms and telling me about her bulimia, I decided we needed to go to the hospital right then. Georgie tried to get me to wait until after Christmas, but I wasn't taking any chances. We were all in her room with her when Dr. Matthews came and asked me to step into the hall.
"She's a handful... I don't know how you do it."
I smiled a sad smile.
"It's honestly pretty normal considering, though. Being molested, bullied, her brother's death. I don't have much choice, Darrel."
He sighed. I started to panic.
"She needs to go to rehab."
"Rehab?"
"Yes. They've got new programs for eating disorders and self harm. They're fairly new on the scene. Can you afford it?"
Ponyboy spoke from behind me and startled me.
"Her Aunt Carol can. And I guarantee she'll pay for it. I'll give you her number."
He gave the number and Dr. Matthews said she'd call her Aunt in the morning because it was around 2:00 in the morning right now. I looked at Ponyboy. He was pale.
"We're gonna lose her for good if we don't do something about it now... Right?"
He was trying to figure out if he did the right thing. I pulled him into a hug.
"Right. This is the right thing to do..."
We didn't tell her that night. Dr. Matthews told me her Aunt agreed to it, and we told Georgie and Sodapop the next morning. She was being sent that afternoon. She cried a lot. We all did. She hadn't even been back 24 hours.
After she had been sent, we all went back to the house. We were going to be able to go see her twice a week since she was still in Tulsa. A little while after we got home the phone rang.
"Hello?"
"Darrel? This is Carol..."
Oh, no. She's about to yell at me.
"Hello, Mrs. Folley."
"I can't believe I never noticed..."
"... What...?"
"She lived here for two months and I didn't notice she was cutting herself or that she had an eating disorder. I'm such a bad person..."
"No, you're not. I knew about the cutting, but I never would've thought she had an eating disorder..."
We talked for a few minutes and then hung up. About that time, Soda walked in. His eyes were red.
"Darry?"
I grabbed him and he started bawling.
"She begged me not make her go, Darry. She didn't want to go... Oh gosh, I hope this was the right thing to do..."
"Me, too, little buddy... Me, too..."
Author's note: Some of this is based on real events for me. So was Fate. It's part personal experience with a fictional twist for more drama. Although some of it is complete fiction. I hope you guys like it, it's really close to my heart. Please review.
