I apologize for the wait! I'm going to start my last year of school next week, so I had a ton of things to do. Updates will be slower when school starts again, with college and financial aid applications and exams that I absolutely cannot afford to fail. But here is the new chapter, and it's the longest that I've written so far :3 I'm really excited to write the next few chapters, and I guarantee that the wait for them will be worth it! :D Thanks again for the reviews, follows and favorites, I always smile when I see the emails (:
I do not own The Outsiders.

"What do you boys want to see?" I asked, slinging my arm around Pony's shoulders as he snaked his around my waist. There were a lot of people lining up for tickets, all chatting excitedly, shoving each other, laughing or calling out to friends or girls around them. The typical scene that you'd find outside a movie theater basically. "There's one of those beach movies playin', how does that sound?"

"Whatever you want," Johnny shrugged, but his cheeks darkened and I giggled, knowing what he was thinking.

"I don't think Annette Funicello is in it," I said, standing on my tiptoes to look at the movie posters. "Neither is Frankie Avalon for that matter." I was kind of disappointed, he was great in Beach Blanket Bingo.

"That's alright," he grinned. "What else is playing?"

"The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming," Ponyboy read, craning his neck up to see the movie titles, "and Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolff? I kinda wanted to see that."

"Ain't there a book with that title?" I asked. "It sounds familiar."

"A play," he corrected. "I didn't read it but I heard its real good."

"You want to see it?"

"Not if it bothers you guys..."

"Johnnycake, what do you want to see?"

"I don't care," he answered, shrugging. "Whatever suits y'all."

"Heads or tails baby?" I asked my brother, reaching into my purse for a penny and giving it to Johnny.

"Tails."

Johnny flipped the coin and caught it, then slapped it on his hand. "Heads. What does that mean?"

"You two ready for an hour and a half of bad singing and random girls prancing around in bikinis?"

"Sounds good," the boys laughed.

We waited another fifteen minutes in line, just talking about school and random people, like who was going out with who and who had recently gotten sent away or came back. I asked them about Jackie Evans, the boy from Tim's gang who walked me home the other day and it turned out that his sister was in Johnny's English class. I decided I didn't like her after Johnny hesitantly told me she thought that Tim was second to God, even when he added that he hardly acknowledged her existence. She was also one of Angela's girls, and Angela disliked the fact that her friend was trying to get into her brother's pants.

Johnny also told us that Jackie's family came from the slums of Chicago, and that he still kept contact with some of the gangs there. Drugs were common enough in his old neighborhood that they had begun to deal them. From what he knew, drugs brought in a lot of money, and he was trying to convince the Shepard gang to make deals with the River Kings so they could get drugs too and sell them. But Tim wouldn't agree to it, and Curly stood firmly behind him, mostly because he agreed with everything that his older brother said. It was five against three, and since Tim stood with the majority, they weren't going to deal. Evans also had a history of arrests, and spent the past six months in the state jail for armed robbery.

"Three tickets for The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini?" the guy behind the ticket counter asked. "Alright, that's going to be seventy five cents."

I reached into my purse to get the money, but Johnny slapped a fifty cent piece on the counter, and Pony a quarter.

"Johnny, I can't-"

"Aw, it's alright. It don't bother me none."

The guy behind the counter looked at us with a bemused grin, then handed us our tickets. "Enjoy the movie."

"Why don't y'all save some seats and I'll get the snacks?" I suggested as we walked into the theater. "Three Cokes and a large popcorn?"

"Sounds about right," Pony said, trying to imitate Two-Bit by grinning like a Chessy Cat and flipping me a fifty cent piece. "Darry's the one who gave me the money."

I rolled my eyes but went in line as the boys walked away into the theater. I spent a little time people watching as I waited for my turn to order the food. There was a mixed crowd that day, lots of Socs and greasers and everyone in between. The tension between the social classes was palpable, and a small group of greasers got escorted out after starting a fight with some Socs.

xXxXxX

"That was a weird movie," I said as we walked out of the theater. I should have expected it though, as all beach movies were the same: more than enough girls prancing around in bikinis, random singing and no plot. I looked back at the people waiting in line and noticed a couple, both with blond hair, and from the distance that I was at, could have sworn that it was Michael and Sandy. Then I remembered that Sandy was out on a double date with Steve and Evie, and Michael was supposed to be with the football team, perfecting their strategy for the upcoming game the next week. Anyway, the boy was wearing jeans and a leather jacket, and I'd never seen Michael wear either.

"It was alright," Pony said nonchalantly, and Johnny agreed.

I shook my head, but giggled. Typical of them to say that. "Y'all want to do anything before we head back?"

"How 'bout the arcade?"

"That okay with you Kat?" Pony asked.

"It's alright," I said. "I could use another Coke."

We walked the half a dozen blocks to the arcade, talking about the movie and other stuff. I went to the small bar in the arcade while the boys went straight to the pinball machines. There were several small groups of guys, some younger and others older, and I couldn't help but feel they were mentally undressing me as I paid for our drinks. It was obvious that I was one of the nicer looking girls there, so I just ignored the looks, and took Michael's ring out so that they would see that I wasn't available. Some of the boys gave me looks that plainly said that they'd be available if I was going to be single, but others just smirked and straightened up, putting their hands in their pockets.

"Hey sweetheart," a guy with dirty blond hair piled high in a pompadour called out to me, obviously the leader of his small group of friends. "Don't think you can hang 'round here lookin' like that without lettin' me take you home for a fuck."

"Oh goodness." I buried my face in my hands, not wanting to show how red my face was becoming.

"Hey man, don't say that to her," Johnny said, looking up from my brother's game of pinball and glaring at the guy.

"What, you gonna try an' stop me ya little punk?" He jeered as his friends laughed, and Johnny's cheeks darkened.

"Girls shouldn't hear that kinda stuff," he muttered, putting his hands in his pockets. "It ain't right."

"It ain't nothing that I've never heard Johnny," I said, hoping I wasn't as red as I felt, as I took a sip of my Coke. "It's alright."

He muttered something that I didn't catch, and I continued my people watching. As long as the boys kept their distance, it would be alright.

xXxXxX

"Hey baby," I looked behind me and saw the same guy from earlier. Up close, I saw that he was actually really good looking, his hair looked really soft and his full lips were curved into a half smile. If I'd seen him during the summer I probably would have gone with him. "What are you doing tonight?"

"My boyfriend's taking me out," I lied smoothly, leaning against the pinball machine. Pony and Johnny were by my side, looking as cool as ever, both smoking but ready to defend me if needed.

"An' this guy is your boy?" He asked, nodding over to Johnny and reaching over, fingering my ring for a moment before I slapped his hand away with a glare, trying to push the feeling of uneasiness that was building up in the pit of my stomach. "Not such a hot date idea, bringin' your girl to the arcade. I can give you a good time sweetheart, come back with me to my place."

"He's not my boyfriend, and no thank you," I told him coolly. "Come on guys, let's go home." I nodded over to the boys, hoping that we could leave without a fight.

"You ain't goin' nowhere." The guy grabbed me by the wrist, stopping me, and I gasped at the contact. He held onto me tightly, the corners of his mouth twitching with a smirk, as he refused to let me go. I genuinely thought he could do worse to me than the Socs ever could, and the glint in his menacing dark eyes confirmed my thoughts.

There was the familiar sound of swishing blades and someone pulled me away, pushing me behind him. When I saw the familiar mass of wheat blond hair I almost gasped and stumbled into Johnny.

"Get your hands off my sister Greene," Soda snarled, his usually dancing dark brown eyes hard with fury. "She's taken."

"This babe's your sister?" The guy tried to cover up his surprise after asking the question, but smirked again and nodded. "Who's she goin' steady with? Maybe I can talk to 'im and convince 'im to let me-"

"The guy she's going with is one that can easily beat the shit out of you if you so much as lay another finger on her."

Greene held his hands up in defense, the smirk, which I was beginning to find annoying, still playing on his lips, and I knew that I would have to watch out for him. "Alright, I'll leave 'er alone man, no need to get so hacked off about it."

We watched him go back to his friends, Soda staring daggers at him. "Come on, let's go," he muttered, dragging me out of the arcade by my hand, Pony and Johnny following us.

"Aren't you supposed to be out with Sandy?" Pony asked after we walked in silence for about a block.

"She's sick."

Something about the way he said that made me stop and stare at him. I was still mad at him for what he said about Michael, so we didn't talk much since the previous night. Soda and I usually got along really well, so silence between us was rare.

"What?" he snapped, turning on his heel to face me. That was something else that I'd hardly seen: an angry Sodapop. His hair wasn't greased, instead it was tousled like Pony's often was after running a race. Oil stains covered his arms and face and I realized, after I sniffed, that the smell of cigarettes wasn't coming from Ponyboy or Johnny... it was coming from Soda. I immediately narrowed my eyes, Soda hardly smoked unless he was upset or wanted to look tough. He wouldn't act like that just because Sandy was sick.

"Did you and Sandy get into a fight?"

"No, her mom wouldn't let me see her because she was asleep. And I don't want to see that creep around you anymore, he's trouble. He flirts with girls left and right, can bed up to five of them at one party, and apparently he's the father of at least two kids."

I was confused, did it look like I wanted to hang around that guy again? And he's a father...? "But he doesn't look older than eigh-"

"Exactly." Soda sped up until he was jogging, eventually turning the corner and disappearing from our sight.

"There is no way that Sandy being sick made him like that," I said, staring after him. Maybe it was the guy that was flirting with me, maybe he's flirted with Sandy before or she's dated him before. "Have you boys seen the guy before?"

"I've seen him at the DX a couple of times, he's the leader of a pretty rough outfit downtown," Pony said, throwing his cigarette to the ground and hitching his thumbs through his belt loops. "I never really talked to him though."

We walked in silence until we got home, where we parted ways with Johnny and promised to come pick him up the next morning. The house was quiet when we entered, and I tentatively called out Soda's name, but he didn't answer.

"I don't think he's home," Pony told me when he went to check in their bedroom. "Maybe he's gone out to see if Sandy was awake."

I nodded. It could be a possibility. One time when she was sick, he went to her house and made her soup, stayed by her side talking to her, and only left when night came and her parents made him leave. But he snuck out of our house and went into hers to watch over her. The only reason he got caught was because Sandy's mother came in to check on her to make sure she was okay.

As I laid down on the couch after turning on the television, I decided that when Soda came back, I would talk to him and forgive him.

xXxXxX

"Pony, Soda still isn't home," I said, glancing up at the kitchen clock, feeling worried. It was past dinner, Darry had called about forty minutes to tell us that his boss offered him an extra shift, and that he wouldn't be home until after ten. "Do you think we ought to call Sandy and ask if he's there? It might get him in trouble but I'm startin' to get real worried."

Pony sighed, drying the last plate and putting it in the cabinet. "He mighta gone to the DX or Steve's house. And it's probably not only his fight with Sandy that's got him mad, he looked real hacked off at that guy at the arcade."

"He wouldn't still be mad about that, would he?"

Oh, what if he was? I still remember one time he beat up this guy who pushed me against the lockers in the seventh grade and tried to kiss me. He was so mad after and wouldn't talk to anyone until the next day. Even when he slept it over, he was still mad.

I plopped down in a chair, putting my face in my hands. "What if something happened to him? What if some Socs got hold of him and... And-"

"I'll call Sandy and ask if he's there." My younger brother could tell that I was getting hysterical, and I swallowed, nodding and wiping at my eyes. He gave me a comforting hug, then picked up the phone, taking a deep breath. He was always nervous when it came to talking on the phone, especially if he was calling someone he didn't speak to much.

"Hi, this is Ponyboy Curtis, Soda's brother." He leaned against the wall as he spoke into the phone, talking to who I presumed to be Sandy's father or mother. "I'm good, thanks, and you? I was wonderin' if my brother was there, he hasn't been - What? Really? But he said..." He listened intently to the other person, his face screwed up in concentration, though confusion was also evident. "Oh, okay... Thanks a lot, sorry for botherin' you, good night."

He hung up and stared out the window above the sink. You couldn't see much, since it was after dark, but I knew that he wasn't looking out to see the stars.

"Who answered?"

"Sandy..." He looked at me, cocking his head to the side slightly, a sure sign that he was confused. "She ain't sick. She said that she and Soda got into a fight and she hasn't seen him since..."

"Why would he lie to us about that?" I was feeling equally confused and my anger towards my twin was starting to come back. "There's nothing wrong about that."

"How 'bout you call Steve?" He asked, holding out the phone. "Maybe Soda's at his place for the night."

Out of the both of us, at that moment, I was the one who was on better terms with our brother's best friend, and I knew that it was only fair that since he called Sandy, I should call Steve.

I dialed his number and waited with bated breath, hoping that-

"Who's this?" a rough voice answered, and I almost recoiled when I heard it.

Oh no. Not his dad.

I haven't seen him since I was a kid, since his wife ran off with another man when Steve was thirteen. That's when his father started to drink and beat Steve. He began to sleep with countless women, and one time he almost got remarried, but Steve managed to stop the marriage by feeding lies to the woman about how his father was unfaithful. His dad beat him up bad after he found out who told her the lies, and kicked him out of the house for a month, but Steve was happy that he wasn't going to end up with a stepmother.

"Hey, if you ain't going to answer then you shouldn't have bothered call-"

"Mister Randle?" I asked with a squeak, hoping that he wouldn't start yelling at me over the phone.

"Who's this? If you're tryin' to sell me something then hang up, I ain't interested in your shit products."

"No sir, it-it's Katherine Curtis sir, I'm a friend of Steve's..."

"Well Miss Curtis, you're out of luck." He paused for a second, and I could hear him chugging down a bottle , then a loud curse as it dropped with a loud crash. "God fuckin' damnit, that was my last fuckin' bottle!" There was rustling on his side and a loud groan, and I closed my eyes, wishing that the conversation would finish. "Why do I have the phone? Who's callin'?"

"Katherine Curtis sir, I'm-"

"Right, Steven's friend. Hate to tell you this, but-" He let out a loud belch, and I cringed. Ponyboy gave me a questioning look, but I waved him off, biting my lip. "I kicked the kid out. Thinks he can talk back to me the way he does. Bastard, just like his whore of a mother. He ain't here if you're lookin' for him, and he's never going to come back, so don't call again."

He hung up, and I held the phone to my ear for a few more seconds, listening to the dial tone. "He ain't at Steve's..." I hung the phone back on the hook, sinking down to the ground and looking up at my brother. "Pony, I'm real worried! What it he isn't ba-"

A loud crash silenced me, followed by a curse, and I quickly scrambled to my feet, my heart pounding.

"Jesus Christ, I told ya you shouldn't have drank all that!"

"Steve?" I called out tentatively, walking carefully into the hallway. He was at the end, coming in through the back door and supporting what seemed to be a very drunk Sodapop. He looked at me like a deer caught in headlights and started to stutter, trying to explain the situation. "Soda!"

"Kat, what's-"

"Stay there," I interrupted my brother, who poked his head through the doorway. I didn't want him to see Soda the way that he was. "Just... Stay there until I sort this out."

He nodded without a word, and I ran to Soda and Steve, almost falling flat on my face on the hardwood floors. "What happened?" I hissed at Steve, putting my arm around Soda's waist as he groaned, although I already had an idea, both of them smelled like cheap alcohol. Steve didn't look in such great shape either, he had a swollen lip and a black eye, but he didn't seem as blitzed as my brother.

"I'll explain later, can we get him-"

"H-hey, Kat?" my brother said, trying to lift his head up. I saw traces of puke around his mouth and cringed, but brushed his damp hair out of his eyes.

"Yeah Pepsi?" I asked softly.

"Dar ain't home, right?"

"No baby, he isn't... Come on, let's get you to bed."

Steve and I half dragged, half carried my drunk brother to my bedroom, ignoring his incessant muttered ramblings about God knows what. I left the room to get a towel and a bucket, in case he needed to empty his stomach again, as Steve stripped him down.

As I wiped his sweaty face clean, he started to cry, apologizing for drinking and for fighting with Sandy. He repeated 'I love you' and 'please don't leave me', over and over again, so that told me that he was pretty delirious.

"Shut up Soda," I told him, trying to fight against the tears that were beginning to form. My brother always prided himself about not drinking, but the times when he did, it wasn't pretty. Like myself, he had a low tolerance for alcohol, but once he started he would never stop until someone dragged him away from the drinks. "You're drunk, you don't know what you're talkin' about. Just go to sleep."

I pulled up my chair from my desk and sat by his side, holding his hand, whispering soothingly to him and wiping his face with the towel, until he fell asleep. Steve was leaning against the wall, smoking and looking somewhat sheepish.

"I shoulda kept a better eye on him, sorry about that..." He told me as I shut the door to my bedroom.

"How's Soda?" Pony asked, looking worried when we came into the kitchen. "He's alright, right?"

"He just... Had too much to drink," I answered softly, squeezing his hand. "You'll be sleepin' alone tonight, unless it's alright with Darry that I sleep on your floor."

"You can have the sofa if you want kid," Steve told me, running a hand through his hair with a sigh. "I can sleep on his floor if that's better."

I was quiet for a moment, thinking about it. A brother and sister sleeping in the same room was seen as socially unacceptable after they reached a certain age, but I knew that Steve and Pony didn't get along well, and the former was putting my comfort in front of his. And sleeping in my parents' room was out of the question; I hadn't been in there since their deaths, and had no intention of going in again for a while.

"We'll see what Darry says," I said, looking at the front door and wondering what we were going to say to him. "Say, Pony, go read or watch TV or somethin', I need to talk to Steve."

"Is it about Soda?"

"Baby, please..."

He gave me a somewhat hurt look, but went out of the kitchen, returning a few moments later with a thick book to go lie down on the couch. I grabbed the radio that was on the shelf above the sink and turned it on, just for some background noise. Eddie Cochran's Nervous Breakdown was playing, and I couldn't help a soft sigh from escaping through my lips. I loved him so much. He came to Tulsa once, the year before he died, but we couldn't spare the money to get tickets for Soda, Darry, Papa and me. I had a poster of him in my bedroom, and when I was younger I would dream that we would meet in the streets, he would fall in love with me and we would get married.

Some dreams.

"Can you tell me what happened?" I asked as the song came to an end, and Buddy Holly's Maybe Baby came on. "I mean he shows up out of nowhere, pissed off, when he was supposed to be with you, Evie and Sandy. And then, when I asked if something happened between him and Sandy, he just runs off. Turns out she wasn't sick like he told us, but they got into a fight?"

"Well me and Evie went to my car 'cause I forgot somethin'." I raised my eyebrow and he huffed, rolling his eyes. "Fine, we just wanted to have some alone time. Necking in front of your best friend and his gal ain't exactly polite."

"Skip over the gory details," I said, half teasingly and half seriously, putting my chin in my hands.

"Alright, well when we got back to the stables, we was over at the one by the edge of town 'cause Sandy felt like riding today, they were yelling at each other and they just kind of stormed off in their own directions. I tried to talk some sense into Soda while Evie went with Sandy, but it didn't really work out, and Evie was cryin' when I came back, so of course I had to comfort her. Drove her home, went to find Soda after, I think it was right after he found y'all because he started ranting about Greene-"

"You know him too?" I asked, surprised.

"Yeah, just some guy that comes to the DX sometimes tryin' to cause trouble. It's nice to get revenge when he comes it to keep his car fixed, we charge him extra, he just don't know it. Won't admit that I'm the best damn mechanic in town either," he scoffed, and looked at his fingernails. "Soda decided he wanted a drink, tried to talk him out of it," he quickly added to my expression, "so we went to Buck's and well, you know how he is when it comes to drinks..."

"That's just great," I said sarcastically, picking up a knife from the counter and running my fingers over the edges. "What the fuck are we going to tell Darry?"

"We?"

"You're the one who took him to that place, not me!"

"He's lax with Soda, ain't he?" He asked as I nodded. "And this is the first time this happened since... Well, you know what I'm talkin' 'bout. I'm sure that he won't be too hacked off about it."

xXxXxX

I didn't admit it to Steve, but he was right. We explained what happened (well, Steve did) as Darry listened, his face free from any emotion. He didn't say anything when Steve finished repeating his story, but went over to my room to check on our brother and stayed there for almost an hour. And then he yelled at me and Pony to get to bed because it was getting late.

I ended up sleeping on the couch and got woken up by Two-Bit as he burst through the front door, nearly knocking it off its hinges. Needless to say, it wasn't a very enjoyable way to wake up.

Two-Bit drove me and Pony to school, picked up Johnny, Kathy and Evie on the way, while Steve stayed at home to look after Soda. Sandy approached me in the hall and asked me of Soda was okay. I have to admit, I answered kind of coolly, but it wasn't hard to tell that she felt bad about what happened. She asked me if it was alright to see Soda, and I kind of made the mistake of saying 'I don't know if he wants to see you'.

In short, it wasn't the best day ever. But on the bright side, no Socs bothered me, and Michael told me that he had something special planned for me that evening.

xXxXxX

A tall, slender girl with platinum blond hair and dark roots entered the restaurant, walking with an air that said she thought that she was better than anyone else on the whole street. Sylvia White, Dally's girl. I haven't seen her in a while, she doesn't go to the same school as me, and she prefers the company of the rougher girls downtown.

"What can I get for you?" I asked, flipping out my notepad to write down her order.

"Oh, I'm not here for food!" She said in a high pitched voice that really annoyed me, leaning against the counter. Well, that's one thing that I didn't miss about her. "I hear that you're dating a Soc!"

"That's not new," I said, rolling my eyes. "If you ain't here for food, what are you here for?"

She scanned the restaurant, and caught Kathy's eye, who was chatting with Evie by the window. "Say we go sit with them?"

I glanced up at the clock behind me, and saw that I only had half an hour left until Michael picked me up. The restaurant wasn't very full, and I figured that since Evie wasn't doing her job, I could afford not to do mine either, but I wasn't about to take any chances. "Peggy!" The redhead turned around and smiled, swaying her hips as she walked over to me. The greasers at the table she was at made no effort to hide the fact that they were staring at her behind, and when she reached me, she turned around and flashed them a wink and a smile.

"What do you need Miss Curtis?"

"I was wonderin' if you could be a real sweetheart and cover for me, I've got half an hour left," I gave her the classic Curtis grin and she smiled back.

"Of course, but you'll owe me."

"Thanks hun," I said, taking off my apron and kissing her cheek. She kissed me back and went to the boys again as I followed Sylvia to my friends' table.

"Hi Sylvia," Kathy greeted warmly enough, but with a slight hint of confusion, "it's been a while."

"Oh, I've been busy, got a lot of free time now that I dropped out."

"You dropped out?" Evie looked really surprised, her bright green eyes wide in disbelief. Sylvia wasn't the smartest girl out there, but we never thought she'd really drop out. "Why?"

"I got bored of the place," she shrugged, taking a sugar packet from the small tin and opening it, taking care not to chip her bright red, perfectly painted nails. "Lots of the stuff they taught was useless anyway, I don't need it for my current job."

I had to stop myself from asking if she secured a job at the local whorehouse, and fake coughed to prevent it from escaping.

"Wow, where are you working?"

"Some clothing place downtown, it's great! Pretty good discounts on the clothes too..."

Kathy glanced at me, and the look in her eyes plainly asked she's shoplifting, isn't she?

"But I'm not here for that, I just wanted to talk to Katherine about her new boyfriend and figured that since y'all are so close, she wouldn't mind talkin' with everyone."

"Oh, just get to it Sylvia, I need to change and do my makeup before Michael gets here."

She raised a perfectly trimmed eyebrow, biting her bottom lip. "No need to be so impatient Katherine, I'm getting there." She flipped her dyed hair behind her shoulder and wet the tip of her finger, dipped it in the sugar packet, and then put it back in her mouth with a smile playing on her bright red lips. "So I was walking downtown when I happened to come across mister Timothy Shepard and a few of his friends, and we talked for a while-"

"Cut the shit," I said impatiently, rolling my eyes, "who'd you sleep with? Shepard? Walsh? Evans?"

"Aw, it's no fun when you put it that way," she pouted, crossing her arms.

"I'm leaving." I got up and grabbed my book bag that had my dress for the date, but Sylvia held on to my hand, keeping me back.

"Fine, I'll get to the point, just don't leave."

I sat back down, biting the inside of my cheek, and Sylvia grinned in triumph. "To answer your question, it was Walsh, I know how much Ti- okay, fine," she muttered to my glare. "He told me that Tim's younger brother saw your boyfriend in the River Kings' territory, and Tim and him were looking into to it to see if it's true. Turns out, it is! He isn't so clean as people think he-"

"Shut up!" My heart was pounding, and I could feel myself trembling. My breath was starting to become ragged, and Kathy immediately reached over for my hand, but I pulled it away, shaking my head. "That's not true! Michael doesn't do anything that he's not supposed to!"

"Just because someone says that they don't do something, doesn't mean that it's true," she said, shrugging. "I mean, Dallas says that he doesn't sleep with other girls, but I know that's a big fat lie."

"Yeah, but Michael isn't a liar!" I grabbed my book bag again and started to head toward the bathrooms, not wanting to hear any more of what Sylvia had to say.

"Oh, come on, don't you want to know what he's doing?" She asked, running to catch up with me.

"No!" I spun around to face her, my breathing shallow. "Whatever Jimmy or Shepard told you about Michael doing drugs are lies, because he would never do them. Now leave me alone!"

"Sylvia, I think you should go..." Evie said, putting her hand on Sylvia's shoulder. She rolled her eyes, smacking her gum loudly, and studied me.

"You know, I'd rather catch you in bed with Dallas than see you get hurt by that Soc."

I was about to tell her off again, but the phrase shocked me. She'd rather see me in bed with Dally?

I tried to say something comprehensible, but couldn't, all that was coming out of my mouth were detached words and phrases that had no connection to each other.

She was smiling, but there was a hint of pity in her light brown eyes. "Don't say I didn't warn you." She walked away, but turned around after a few steps. "By the way, they think that he's doing weed and acid, just thought I'd tell you at least that."

xXxXxX

"It was probably Shepard she slept with!" I angrily tore off my dress, throwing it into a heap on the less than clean bathroom floor, and grabbing a clean one from my book bag. "He's probably making everything up 'cause he thinks that I'll go crawling back to him. Ha!" Kathy and Evie jumped when I pushed open the stall door with a bang. I ignored them and quickly searched through my bag for my makeup. "Well, that's not going to work 'cause I don't need him anymore. Michael doesn't do drugs." I capped my lipstick and turned around to Evie and Kathy, who exchanged looks. "He doesn't!"

"Just promise us you'll be careful," said Kathy quietly. "Please," she added when I started to say something.

I didn't answer and put my things away, then pushed the bathroom door to go outside. All my angry feelings disappeared when I saw Michael in the parking lot, attempting to talk to Steve. Michael's eyes lit up when he saw me, and he quickly scooped me up into his arms, spinning me around before kissing me.

"How was work?"

"Not terribly exciting. And practice?"

"Real great, we think we have a big chance of winning this Sunday. Hi ladies."

"Hi Michael," they replied, and Kathy gave me another warning look that I dismissed.

"Where's Sandy?"

"With Soda," Steve answered stiffly, looking like he wanted nothing more than to leave Michael's company.

"Oh, how is he?" I asked, wrapping my arm around Michael's.

"Didn't get up 'til noon, had a massive headache and just kind of moped around the house until Sandy came over. I stayed around a bit before I was sure that they wouldn't get into another fight."

I let go of Michael and hugged Steve.

"Jesus Christ kid, wha-"

"Thanks for looking over him."

"I... Damn, it was nothin', he's my best friend." He hugged me back briefly then let go, the ghost of a smile on his lips. "Go have fun. And Darry called the station and told me to tell you that he doesn't want you back after ten thirty."

"That's more than enough time," Michael grinned. "See you at school."

I waved at my friends as Michael opened the door of his Corvette for me. He turned the key in the ignition, bringing the car to life with a rumble, and the radio turned on, the announcer telling the listener that the Beatles' All You Need Is Love was next.

"They're great," he said, kind of absently as he rolled off the parking lot onto the street.

"What?"

"The Beatles," he nodded at the radio. "I saw them last year. They played their last show in San Francisco at the end of August, it's a shame that school already started, otherwise I probably would have gotten a plane ticket to see them." He sighed, tapping his fingers on the wheel to the beat of the song. "Yeah, it was crazy, but man, can they play a song."

I didn't make any comment and stared out the window. Despite it being a school night, plenty of people were out on the streets, getting out of cars to only get into another one a minute later, lining up outside movie theaters, making out on the hoods of cars. Shouting and screaming and fighting, but having the time of their lives. Me and the girls would drive around the Ribbon aimlessly, leaving whoever's car we had in a parking lot and getting into five other cars over the course of the evening. Sometimes we would all pile into Steve or Two-Bit's car, sitting on each other's laps because there wasn't enough space for all of us to sit down, and we would disperse into various groups to get back together when it was time to go home.

"So I thought we could go grab a bite at Jay's before I show you your surprise," he said, flashing me a grin.

"I thought you knew I don't like surprises!" I exclaimed, though I couldn't keep myself from smiling.

"You'll love it, I promise." He leaned over and kissed my nose, then wrapped an arm around me. I laid my head on his shoulder, gently nuzzling my face in the crook of his neck.

xXxXxX

After Jay's (which was jack full of Socs), Michael asked me to tie a bandana around my head and to keep it on until he said so. We drove for about twenty minutes, with Michael asking me questions about my life to distract me from asking him about where we were going, though I was still surprised when the car finally came to a stop.

"No, keep that on!" He laughed, swatting my hands away from the bandana. "Just a minute more, I promise." The door opened a couple of seconds later, and Michael took my hand in his. "Careful now, the ground isn't exactly even."

I could tell that we were no longer in the city when I stepped outside; it was quiet and there was the faint sound of crickets. "Where are we?" I asked as Michael led me away from the car. He hushed me, but I could hear the laughter behind it.

"Couple more steps... are you steady?" He let go of my hand and less than two breaths later, I felt his hands against my cheeks, and he took off the bandana. I momentarily forgot to breathe as I took in the sight before me. We were on a hill, just on the outskirts of Tulsa, and from where we were, we could see everything. The lights from streetlights and houses and cars flickered merrily in the darkness, and there was one part near the middle that split the city in half that shone brightly: the Ribbon. It was more or less a straight line that divided the East from the West, but it was the greasers who had control over the street.

"It's so beautiful!" I sighed, turning around to face him. "This is the surprise?"

"It's nothing big," he said with a sheepish grin, "I just thought that you'd like it. And," he added, moving behind me and wrapping his arms around my waist, "it's nothing compared to you."

I was glad for the darkness because I was blushing something bad, and I turned my head slightly, pressing my lips to his. "Thank you."

"You want to sit down?" He nodded at the ground, where he'd spread out a blanket. I giggled and curled my legs under me as I sat down. There was the warm, end of summer feel in the air that told me that fall was coming. And the beginning of fall meant that it was going to be mine and Soda's birthday. "So, I kind of wanted to talk to you about something..."

"What?" I tried not to sound too shocked or surprised, but my heart was beginning to beat at a rate that warned me of trouble.

"It's nothing bad, don't worry sweetheart," he said softly, brushing my hair out of my eyes. "Just about a couple of things that I've heard..." He sighed, looking up at the stars that twinkled above us. "You and Shepard-"

"There was never anything going on between us," I interrupted, talking a bit too quickly. "I promise. I mean... I was messed up after my parents died, I just wanted to feel somewhat loved, and he was the person that I went to. But I never... never did it with him. I did some things, but never..."

"Okay," he sounded relieved, and wrapped his arm tightly around my shoulders. "I just heard some things and I wanted to hear it from you. So there was never anything going on with you two?"

"We never went steady or anything if that's what you're wondering." I felt so uncomfortable talking about Tim with Michael. He was the last person I wanted to think about, nevertheless talk about.

"I thought you still had feelings for him," he said, looking away. "I heard he pushed you out of the way when there was that fight at the Dingo and that he saved you a couple times from getting jumped, and I just thought-"

"I'm not going to leave you for him," I whispered, putting my hand on his cheek and making him look at me. Despite the fact that there was hardly any light, his eyes still shone, and a smile was playing on his lips.

"I like you a lot Katherine," he said quietly, "a whole lot."

"I like you a lot too..." I flicked my eyes over to his lips and before I could look at him again, his lips were on mine, his hands firmly on my hips. I smiled softly, tilting my head, and wrapped my arms around his shoulders, bringing our bodies closer together.

He pulled away before the kiss could get too heated, and reached inside his varsity jacket, taking out a silver cigarette case.

"Do you mind?" he asked, just as he was about to open the case. I shook my head, still with the feeling of his lips on mine. He opened the case, took out a cigarette and a lighter, and offered one to me. "This isn't your usual cigarette, it's all natural, you can only get these in San Francisco. No risk of lung cancer or anything."

I declined and he shrugged, sticking the sweet between his lips and lighting it. I immediately noticed that it didn't smell like the cigarettes I was used to, the smell was much nearer to something like... burning sage, or something like that. We would always throw some in our New Year's bonfire, to ward off the evil of the past year and start the new one afresh.

"Is that sage?"

Michael stiffened for a second, but quickly relaxed as he blew the smoke out. As he did so I also noticed that it was thicker than regular cigarette smoke. "Not quite sure... My friends would get me these, all they told me was that they're better than the cigarettes you buy in stores."

"They don't sell those?" I was shocked. If those were all natural and didn't pose any risk of cancer, why didn't they sell them?

He shook his head, laughing at my reaction. "Nope, you have to make these yourself. It's pretty easy anyway, all my friends had to do was go to the woods an hour away and they'd have everything they need to roll these. Are you sure you don't want a puff?"

"Oh, fine." I took the cigarette from him and inhaled, coughing slightly as I blew the smoke out. It was definitely a lot stronger than regular cigarettes, but it also tasted better, though there was still a slight hint of tobacco. I took another puff, trying to keep the smoke in longer, and giggled as I exhaled. "It tastes good."

"Told you," he grinned, taking it from me. "You want your own?"

xXxXxX

I don't know if it was the fact that I was alone with Michael for the first time, or if there was something in my cigarette, but I felt so much lighter after smoking a second cigarette. It was like I was floating, and I would laugh at the smallest things. Michael was more open than he ever was, and was definitely getting more touchy than before, but I didn't push him away. Everything felt a lot slower, but my sense of touch was magnified, and every time he kissed me, ran his fingers through my hair, I wanted more, I wanted everything that he had to offer to me.

Michael ran his fingers through my hair, bringing my face closer to his. My breathing was ragged as we kissed, and I ground my hips against his lightly, pressing my chest against his. Deep down, I knew that what I was doing was wrong, because we'd only been going steady for a short time, but I craved his touch, and at the moment I would have been perfectly content with staying there the rest of my life with him and never leaving.

He moved his hands out of my hair, and traced light patterns down my back before reaching the top of my ass and squeezing it, bucking his hips up.

"Michael!" I pulled away, shocked and slightly embarrassed by what he did. But I had to admit, need surged through my body as he did that, and my center was starting to throb slightly.

"I'm sorry," he muttered, kissing me again. "But you're just so... I fucking want you..."

Heat coursed through me as he cursed, and I bit the inside of my cheek, blushing. Keeping his eyes on mine, he moved his hand up my thigh, a smile playing on his lips. As he pushed the material of my dress up, I blinked and shook my head, the reality of the situation hitting me. All we had done so far was make out; I didn't want to move too fast for fear that he would leave me.

"Michael, we shouldn't... We've only... This is-"

"But we're going steady," he whispered, kissing my neck and moving his hand slightly higher. "This is what couples are supposed to do."

"But-"

My center was throbbing, and I closed my eyes tightly, clenching my thighs together, but he pushed them apart, biting down on my neck.

"You like me, don't you Kat?" His voice was soft, but I could hear the need and the lust, and I knew then that he wouldn't take no as an answer.

"I do, I really do," I answered, slightly desperately, "but I don't think-"

"Please," he said quietly, "you know we both want this."

He was at my panties and was playing with the soft material, pressing his fingers against me. I lowered my head, moaning softly as feelings of pleasure began to build up inside of me. With his free hand, Michael lifted my head and pressed his lips to mine, and I nervously let him slip his fingers inside of me.