Disclaimer: I don't own the Outsiders or the song "People Who Died".

A/N: Thank you all SO much for the reviews!

There will be no update next week. I'm beach bound! Updates will on regular schedule the following week.

Teddy sniffing glue, he was 12 years old. Fell from the roof on East Two-nine. Cathy was 11 when she pulled the plug. On 26 reds and a bottle of wine. Bobby got leukemia, 14 years old. He looked like 65 when he died. He was a friend of mine. Those are people who died, died. They were all my friends, and they died.

I've been through this game Dale's playing. It starts out as only a Saturday night thing. Just something to clear your head and have fun with. Then you're nose starts to run and your stomach cramps. There's a voice in the back of your head that's always there. It's saying, 'just one more time' but it never is.

Rick gave me hell for skipping out on work the past few days. I've got better things to do than change some old chumps oil all day. I haven't been at home much - if you want to call it home. It's not. It's just another house in Tulsa. A bed to sleep.

I live by my own rules. Maybe that's why I've been from place to place. I bought a map yesterday and circled a few places that looked nice. Tulsa just isn't the same anymore. The old girl has grown. Maybe it's time for this cowboy to get out.

I walk down the street. The ring around the chain on my neck bounces back in forth when I walk.

There are scratches on the diamond part from her stupid shoe. I should have made her get down on all fours and clean it after she dropped it in the mud puddle. It'd been four months. Looks like she would have given it back sooner than that.

I got it back. That's all I care about. It'll look good around Carmen's slim, tasty neck.

I decide to go to the park and smoke a while. I'm supposed to be somewhere else, somewhere with Carmen, but I think I like it better here than in a stuffy old car with her half naked lying on top of me.

That's when I see it. He gives him a high five. They slap each other on the back and chat it up for a minute. He gives him a brown bag that's tightly holding something inside. He pushes it back and shakes his head. They laugh and chat and then one leaves and I go charging towards the one that's left.

"What are you doing around Dale?" I demand, breathing heavily down his neck, causing him to panic.

He holds his hands up and begins to stammer out. "I-I-I, nothing! We were just hanging out. Honest!"

I don't believe him. I grab him by his shirt, lifting him up and making him look at me. I've got him trapped so he can't go anywhere. He can only squirm. "Did you take anything from him? Tell me you didn't take anything from him!"

"D-Drugs?" he asks, shaking. "No! I swear, Dally! I swear!"

I let him go slowly, putting him back on the ground. It's hard not to believe a kid like Pony. The kid turns red and stutters when he has to lie about his homework. He's the worst liar I've ever seen. After all, this is the kid who told his sister he had sex for the first time.

I take out a cigarette and struggle to get my lighter to light it. "Stay away from him. Got me?"

"Yeah, sure," he says quietly. He looks over my shoulder. "You hang out with him though. I've seen you before."

I finally get my weed to light. I take a big whiff of it. "Have you ever heard the phrase, do as I say, not as I do? Stay away from him. I mean it. If I ever catch you with him again, I'll knock your teeth out."

He puts his hands in his pockets and looks down at the ground, defeated. "I won't go near him again if you answer one question."

I put my lighter back into my jean pocket. "Sure."

"Who paid for your lawyer and for your bail?"

I narrow my eyes at him. It's an out-of-the-blue question, especially for him to ask. I have to do a double take to make sure it's really him I'm looking at. "What do you care?"

He shrugs, still slouching. "It was just botherin' me. I thought maybe you were holdin' out on us."

I laugh and breathe out of my nose. I sit down on the bench and enjoy what's left of my fag. "Nah, kid. You don't see me with no sweater vests or shiny church shoes, do ya?"

He sits down next to me. It's his favorite part of the day right when the sun starts to go down in the valley. "You know Carmen?" he asks. "I saw you with her the other day."

"Yeah, I know 'er."

"She's pretty, huh?"

"More than pretty, kid."

He nods, still staring out at the sun. "I've talked to her some. Think she may like me. What do you think?"

I stare blankly at him. My mouth falls open a little. "You're kidding, right?"

"No?"

I could really picture this pair. Now that I think about it, Carmen has mentioned him to me a couple of times. She asked questions but I never would have put this together. This is worse than two years ago when Angela came after him.

"Stay away from her too," I say sternly, waving around a finger like a grown man. "She's bad news."

"Why?" This time he stands his ground a little. "What's wrong with her?"

I roll my eyes and I need another cigarette. "'Cause she's mine." I light the stick as it dangles from my mouth. "What do you want with that broad anyway? You dated a Soc for Christ's sake!"

"Yeah and look where that go me."

There's a loud purr from an engine behind us. We both turn around and stare as dumb, dumb, and dumber stumble out of the little black Oldsmobile. One's got a dipper bag, the other's got the important package and they're heading this way.

He's gotten huge. He's got a bottle in his hands and he sucks on the nipple. He's not trying to get anything out of the bottle because he doesn't tip it up. He's just sucking on it. Taking after his uncle already. I laugh at the thought.

"Well looky looky at Mr. Daddy-o."

Tim lays the kid down on the ground, looking up and letting out a growl. "Up yours, Winston."

You rarely see Jake anymore. Not since his real daddy came to town and decide to stay a while. You can't call the little twerp a bastard anymore. No one mentions the other daddy around Tim. He still isn't quite used to the idea of sharing. He's never been all for the idea anyway. Who would have guessed he would fall for someone still in dippers?

It's Tiffany who's became the new mommy. She's the one pushing the stroller and it's her you see in the grocery stories with Jake. She makes the doctor appointments and changes the dippers. She never seemed like the type to me.

"Come here kid." I hold out my hands and let him walk to me. He started doing it a few months ago. It drives Tim crazier than Jac does. It's a real sight to him running around the park, chasing after him.

I sit him on my knee. He's got a handful of grass that he's trying to stuff into his mouth. "Stop it!" Tim reaches out and smacks it out of Jake's hand, getting a whimpering face back at him.

"Let the kid eat grass if he wants to," I say, bouncing my knee up and down so I won't have to deal or hear the crying that's soon to come. "You did it."

"Thought you didn't like kids, Dally," Curly says, sitting down beside Ponyboy. He fits well on the end. He's lost about twenty pounds and shot up about six inches. Curly Shepard was no baby face kid anymore.

Jake will be two next month, and he already weighs twenty pounds. My knee is almost numb from the weight. He must take after Curly that way. Ang wasn't a size two either. "Me and ankle bitter here are friends, right, kid? What's my name?"

"Dally!"

"Who's a stupid big fat turd?"

"Tim!"

Tim huffs and takes the kid back. "Goddamnit Dally. Don't teach him that shit."

"Smarter than you are," I say, watching Jake squirm out of Tim's tight grasp and go beside the bench and over to the flowers. He pulls them out one by one and throws them across the lot.

Tim leans on the side of the bench and lights a cigarette. The kid has always stressed him out, now in the terrible twos especially. I've seen him put away a pack in a few hours when it's his turn to go out and play.

"What are ya'll up to anyway? Come to perv out on the kiddies?"

"Pony and I here were just havin' a chat. Kid thinks Carmen likes him."

Tim and Curly both do the signature Shepard eyebrow raise. "Carmen Mayfield? The one who's been up your ass since you and Curtis called it quits?"

"The very one."

Curly busts out in laughter. He has to grab his side to keep his ribs in place. Pony shoots him a glare. "Shut up!"

"That's rich! That's real rich!" Curly controls himself enough to speak clearly. He wipes the tears from his eyes. "What do you think she wants with you? To copy your homework maybe."

Pony rolls his eyes and pouts a little. "That's not it. You don't know anything, Curly."

"Tell 'em who your new friend is then."

He cross his arms over his chest and slouches down. He may be almost seventeen, and have the looks of a twenty year old, but he still acts like a kid. "Dale."

Tim's eyes get a little big as well as Curly's. Tim takes the fag out of his mouth. "You're kidding. Damnit kid, are you that goddamn stupid or something? Your big bro is gonna bust your ass, kid if he finds out. Cancer or not I'm sure he's still big enough to crush you."

"Dally already promised to do it himself."

Tim swears under his breath and shakes his head. He looks at Jake and then at Curly. "Don't get any bright ideas yourself." He waves the cigarette around. "I'll beat the living shit out of you if I catch you with that guy."

Curly holds his hands up. Curly wouldn't get involved in Dale. That wasn't Curly's area.

"I don't see what's so bad about the guy," Pony says. "Him and his friends are just like us. Hell, Tim, they're like you and your boys. I don't see-"

"They ain't nothin' like me and they ain't nothin' like ya'll so watch your mouth kid before I bust it open."

Tim's had his fair share of run in's with Dale. He knows who he is, that's for sure. He'd heard the rumors, sure. We'd all heard the rumors. It wasn't until two years ago when Tim met Dale at a drive in showing of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

Angie was the one that caught Dale's eye. 2moro had always been Dale's girl since grade school. 2moro and Angie had their fights and that's why when Dale asked her to the movies, she jumped at the opportunity.

Angie was a smart broad. I never said she wasn't. She was sneaky and she knew what she could and couldn't get away with. She told Tim she was going to the movies with some friends. He didn't think anything of it. After all, he had plans for night as well and the thought of having his kid sister out of his hair was just an extra plus.

Yeah, Ang was smart. She had it all figured out. She didn't count on the fact that Tim's date had whined his ear off that night about seeing the very same movie Angie was at.

Tim had seen plenty of make-out sessions his sister held. Hey, she didn't get her reputation by just playing around. So when Tim walked by a lit car and saw her thick curly black hair, he just sorta laughed it off.

If only Dale hadn't broken the kiss to pop in an M&M.

Tim acted fast. He knew the face just as well as he did the rumors. Tim's a strong guy. I'll always give him that. So when he pulled Dale out of the car, it wasn't much of a hassle on his part. He thought he had the upper hand in all this.

That's where he made his mistake.

He stayed in the hospital for just a night. He had a couple bruised ribs and a badly broken nose that resulted in a deviated septum. To this day when he breathes, he's left with the reminder of who Dale really is. The guy with no last name.

Dale does this on purpose. He wanted Tim to know who he was and what he was capable of. He wanted him to remember.

I stand up and wipe off the dirt ankle bitter left on me. "Ah, don't get your panties in a bunch, Timmy. Pony here knows to stay away now, don't ya kid?"

"Yeah, and you're still setting a prime example."

I stare, waiting for him to pull back from what he said but he doesn't. "Fuck off, Shepard."

"I'm just saying," he says casually with a shrug. "You seem buddy buddy with the guy all of a sudden. Maybe the kid's following suit. What makes you so goddamn special that you get to be butt buddies with the guy and he doesn't?"

My hands go into fists. I don't even think about it. It just happens. "You don't know shit."

He cocks up an eyebrow. "Oh, I think I do."

We stare. My hands are sweating and I can feel my heart beat out of my chest. He knows I wouldn't do anything in such a crowded place with a kid around and that's why he's suddenly more confident. It eats at me...slow, slow, slowly.

He's the one to break the stare, looking out at the one thing he's supposed to be watching instead of me. I feel like I win even though it's clear he got the last word in. I won the stare down, that's all that matters to me.

His eyes narrow as Jake makes eye contact with him. He's up on the hill behind us by the big oak tree. He's slowly backing away, sending a clear message of what he's about to do.

"You better not do it," Tim warns, giving the evil eye to the kid. "One...Two..."

Jake eases further away with each passing second. Once Tim reaches three, he's running for it.

His tiny chubby legs don't get him very far. Tim reaches him and jerks him upward. He lands four solid swats to the dipper covered behind. The tears come streaming and he goes limp in Tim's arms.

"You gonna do it again?"

"No!"

All three of us watch as Tim cradles the screaming child and walks back over to us. He lets him cry on his shoulder while he rubs his back and tells him to stop crying and to 'be a man about it'. The child clings to his neck and remains limp and his legs dangle. Tim brings him back over to us, sitting down and rubbing the child's back.

You got to remember, this is uncle and nephew. They're barely blood and he's acting like super Dad. They're family but this is how they do things. It's how the Curtis' do things.

It's weird to me. Too weird.

When I was nine my friend Billy died. I was at school and they called me into the office. There was a big fat lady sitting in Principle Grisom's office. I'd been in that office a time or twenty but this woman was different.

She made me sit beside her and I gave her a look. She tried to hold my hands but there was no way I was going to let that happen, not unless she dropped about thirty pounds. I had a thing with people touching me back then anyway. That's a whole different story though.

She told me about the accident. She had one of those 800 number voices. She talked down to me and told me about Billy's dad shooting his mother and then getting Billy in his car and running it into the Harbor. After she told me all this, and I didn't say anything, she tried to hug me. I denied her and that's when she called Pops to come.

Ronnie was with him. It was one of those weird days when Pops didn't have work. Ronnie was only five and not in school yet. He walked in with his thumb in his mouth and sat beside me while Pops talked to the lady.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Shove it, nerd."

Pops came back a few minutes later and put an arm around my shoulder. He walked me out to the truck and we drove down the road. It was snowing and the roads were slick like ice.

He took us to McDonald's. Ronnie got a happy meal and he got a Big Mac. I didn't eat my happy meal. I couldn't get over everyone being nice to me like the world collapsed because some fucker went crazy and killed one of my friends.

"You want ice cream or something?"

"No."

"I do!"

Pops pulled out a couple of dimes and came back later with not one cone, but two. I was sick of it. I wanted to shoot myself. What made this day so goddamn special? He'd never taken me to McDonald's before. He never got me a fucking happy meal in all my life.

I took the cone, and shoved it in his face.

He then proceeded to drag me into the bathroom. Ronnie cried as he listened to Dad beat my ass through the door.

Jake's asleep on Tim's shoulder now. His face is damp from the tears but he's gone. Tim's leaning back on the bench, peacefully resting like he's got a playboy model on his shoulder instead of a kid. I swear he's smiling. I've never seen him look like this before. He's almost rocking back and forth.

I just don't understand it. I don't think I ever will.

"Dally." Pony lightly slaps me on the arm. "You wanna get out of here?"

"Why?" I look where his eyes are glued. There are four boys crowded around a tree across from us. One of them, the one in the middle, has got sandy blonde hair. Once he turns around, I see a familiar back of the head.

Pony gets up. "Come on, let's go."

I get up to but not to leave. "No, no. Who is that?"

"We can go get a burger. I know you're starving."

"Is that who I think it is?"

"I'll buy!"

I push him to the side so I can get a better look. "Well, well, well."

"She's gonna kill me, Dally."

"Why are you scared of your sister?" I ask. "Man up, kid. What's his name again?"

Pony rolls his eyes, giving up. "Peter."

"Well it'd be rude not to say hello."

"Dally, please!"

I ignore his pleas and walk over across the lot where they are. It's a real crew he's got. All three of them have glasses and some sort of overbite or under-bite. They all laugh through their noses and snort when something's extremely funny.

I walk up to them, putting on a big friendly smile. "Hey, you hear the one about the chemists and the benzene ring with iron atoms replacing the carbon atoms?"

One of the nerds glows with glee and nods his head. "Duh! It's the oldest joke in the book. He called it a ferrous wheel."

The other two snicker and snort. Once they're done with the excitement, they make sure to push their glass back up on their face. "It's a good one, huh?"

"You're funny," Peter says. "You got a name, funny man?"

"Huston." I step in front of the kid, offering up my hand. "Name's Huston."

He takes it, using a pretty boy smile as he does. "Like Texas? I like it. Nice to meet you Huston. I haven't seen you around here before. You new or somethin'?"

"Yeah," I go along with it. "Just moved here. Ain't that right, Ponyboy?" I jab him in the side, getting him to play along. He only nods, putting on a fake smile and acting like he wants to be here because he knows how to play along right.

This guy doesn't fit in with the people he's with. He's a baby faced kid just like Sylvia said. He doesn't look old for his age in the face but his body looks mature like a twenty year old. He's got a sport body. The boys he's with have less growth on their faces than a baby does on his balls.

By the way he talks I can tell he's smart. Too smart maybe. "You're dating this guy's sister, huh?"

He beams. It's sickening the way he looks right now. It looks like the type of face a man wears in a sex scene in a movie. He's cocky too. "Yeah. I am. You know her?"

"Yeah."

I reach into my pocket and get out my pack of cigarettes I stole from Tim's baby dipper when he wasn't looking. I hand one off to Pony and then hold it out to the four guys. The one's in the back drift even more away at the sight. Peter takes one without hesitation. One of the strays looks for a minute and then takes on, only to stare at and play with though.

"Pretty big scar she's got on her thigh." I breathe in the smoke I just released. "Wouldn't you say?"

"I didn't know she had one," he says. He pauses a minute to think. He gives me a bit of a look. He puts his cigarette back up to his mouth and thinks about it again. "How do you know she had one?"

I shrug, playing it cool. "Just heard people talkin' 'bout it." I nudge Pony. "You've seen it. Pretty big huh?"

"Y-Yeah," he stammers. "Sure."

He still gives me a look with one eye as he enjoys the rest of his fag. He's seemed to have dropped it for a minute and goes on to talk about school and asking me little pointless questions. I feel like it's the first day of school again and the teacher is forcing me to share myself with the whole class.

"You seem like a cool cat, Peter." I put my stick out on my shoe and smile at him. "How's about we get to know each other a little better? I think we can become pals, don't ya think, Pone?"

Pony doesn't move. He's burning holes into me with that look the angel wears in all those cartoons. The little one that sits on your shoulder opposite of the devil and this is the look he gives when you're leaning towards the better side - evil.

Peter nods in agreement, giving me a slap on the hand. "I think we can too, Huston. You're an alright guy."

I wave as I back away, taking Pony along with me. "You too, Pete."

Pony doesn't say anything until we're out of sight. I can feel his worry and anger as we head back to the bench where Tim and Curly are but all he says is, "Why did you ask him about her scar, Dal?"

I pat him on the back. "You know where the thing is, don't ya? Just barely grazes her upper thigh." I give him a sly wink and grin to show him exactly what I'm talking about.

"Ew."

"Don't tell me you weren't a little curious."

"No! I don't wanna think about that stuff. I don't think about that stuff!"

"I noticed."

Mary took a dry dive from a hotel room. Bobby hung himself from a cell in the tombs. Judy jumped in front of a subway train. Eddie got slit in the jugular vein. And Eddie, I miss you more than all the others. And I salute you brother. Those are people who died, died. They were all my friends, and they died.