Happy Birthday Dallas Chapter 36
A/N: Hmm...I'm not sure I like how I write Soda and Steve. Let me know what you think, if you've got time.
P.S. Again, I'm sorry about the idiotic gang crimes.
xxxx
"Sodapop, you're such a fucking weeny."
"I'm not going to the party."
"Come ooooon, it's gonna be a helluva lotta fun."
"I'm not going to the party."
"You can't stay at home on a Saturday night, Soda."
"Beer, Soda. Beer."
"I'm not going to the party! I'm not going to the party!"
Dally exchanged a look with Two-Bit. They'd spent the past hour hanging around the gas station using every trick they knew to try and convince Soda to go to Buck's, but he wasn't having any.
"Fine." Dally glared at Soda. "Forget it, Two-Bit, he's too much of a pussy to go."
Soda ignored him.
"Mama's boy," Dally taunted.
Two-Bit yawned. "Alright, I give up." He winked at Dally and called over his shoulder into the garage. "Oh Stevie, could ya come here a second?"
Steve ambled slowly out of the garage. "No good, Two-Bit. That clunker's a goner. Dally, there ain't no smoking allowed in a gas station, you idiot."
Two-Bit swore. "Come on, don't kill my first love Stevie! She's been so good to me."
Dally put his cigarettes back into his pocket. "Alright, Steve, you're our last hope."
Two-Bit propped himself up on a filler station. "Soda here says he won't go to the party at Buck's, no way no how."
"I'm taking Sandy out. Buck's ain't a good place for a lady," Soda said stubbornly.
"Too bad you're such a lady," Two-Bit said.
"I'm not going to the party."
Steve looked at Soda carefully for a second, sizing him up, and wiped his hands on a rag. "Of course he don't want to go," he said slowly. "Sandy won't like it."
"Right!" Soda said triumphantly.
"Just cause Evie and Sylvia and Angela and Kathy and, hmm, pretty much all her friends like parties and are going to Buck's don't mean she'd like it right?"
Soda swallowed. "Um, well..."
"And, what with women's lib, she's the one making the rules these days, ain't that right Soda?"
"Wait a minute..."
"And I know you don't wanna upset mommy, Soda. Fifteen years old," Steve shook his head. "Back when I was that age, I didn't put a toe outta line." He smirked. "Wait, now that ain't right..."
"This ain't about my mom!"
"Of course not," Steve agreed. "It's your choice. And Sandy's. Heck you don't even like parties no more. Sandy's turning you into a regular ol' Soc."
"i ain't a Soc!" Soda yelled, his face red with effort.
Steve paused. "Yeah? You still like going to greaser parties?"
"Damn straight!"
"And, you know what, you never given your parents a day of trouble or asked them for nothing."
"No, I ain't!"
"And you don't have to tell your mom. It's not like you're doing anything outta the ordinary, anyway, Darry used to be wild when he was fifteen and she lived through that."
"Yeah, whatever Darry can do, I can do."
"And Sandy's getting a little demanding. Her and Evie. We work hard for our money, and take 'em out nice places, how come they can't just come out with us once in awhile and have some real fun, huh? You been working hard all day right?"
Soda nodded.
"Whose money you earning?"
"Mine."
"How you spend it?"
"Taking out Sandy."
"How do you WANT to spend it?"
"Having some fun!"
"What's more fun, a greaser party or some dumb Socy diner?"
"The party!"
Steve snapped his fingers. "You know what, you're right. It's our money, we oughtta have some fun if we're gonna spend it all on the girls. I'm gonna take Evie to the party. Won't hurt her none, hell, she'll like it so long as I buy her a drink or two. I'm gonna have some fun tonight with my buddies, ain't that right Soda?"
"Hell, yeah. Let's go to the party!"
Steve grinned. "Good boy."
xxxx
Tim made his way dizzily down the street to Buck's. He'd gotten as drunk as he could have and was feeling altogether much better about the situation he'd gotten himself into.
He staggered up to the front door and greeted Buck half-heartedly before moving towards his usual station.
"What's the deal, Shepard?"
Tim shrugged dropping into his seat. He couldn't tell who had spoken, or how many there were...was that Curly?
"You got a deal for us?"
He laughed. "How you boys feel about speed?"
"Drugs?" Definitely Curly. "Thought you weren't into that Tim."
"I'm not." He leaned back against the wall and helped himself to some peanuts.
"You call us here for a reason?" The voice was Donny's and it brought the room sharply back into focus. "I talked to Brumly and they said they ain't heard from you in awhile but they're cool with whatever you got going."
"Fucking Winston," Tim said carelessly. "Told me there was a car job out there that's been under for awhile now." He paused. Had someone mentioned Brumly?
"Are you drunk?" Curly's voice was right in his ear.
"Yes." No point in fucking around.
"Winston, eh? That who you been spending your time with?" Donny's eyes glittered like a fish's. Tim was hungry.
He blinked hard a few times, trying to clear his vision. Thoughts and sounds and faces were swimming in and out of his perception and he couldn't seem to keep anything straight.
"You told us there was a deal in Oklahoma City. What the fuck's going on Shepard. Is Winston hooking you up with that or what?"
Tim closed his eyes. Oklahoma City...what did he know about Oklahoma City? A long, long time ago...
Tim remembered - he had been maybe five or six. Curly had been too young and Angela had been a baby, but that summer he and his dad climbed into the truck and drove for what had then seemed like forever to get to the Oklahoma State Fair.
He remembered being so excited he could hardly sit still in the truck and it had pissed his pop off something awful. He had threatened to turn right around and go home if Tim didn't pipe down. Tim had been young enough that he'd taken his pop seriously.
It had been an uncommonly beautiful day with just the right amount of heat. Blue skies, bright sun, a gentle breeze... They'd laughed a lot, and Tim's dad had had a smile on his face the entire day, chasing Tim around the fair. It had been perfect. Hadn't it? Tim wasn't sure if he remembered it that way or if he'd made it up later on, but he liked the memory and didn't really care. Reality was what you made it.
He knew for sure he ate a corn-dog and cotton candy, and rode the ferris wheel for the first time in his life because he remembered the pink-colored puke and he still couldn't stand heights. He remembered wanting to play at the shooting booths, but his father had said no, that they were always a scam. But, he'd promised to show Tim how to fire a real one, when he was old enough.
He remembered sitting in the hazy sun, nestled beside his dad at the racetrack watching the horses run round and round until his eyelids drooped and he'd fallen asleep...
"Tim! Wake up!"
His eyes snapped open. "Racetrack," he said.
"What?" The room spun upside down and sideways and settled itself giving Tim a view of a dozen pairs of eyes staring him down.
"There is a racetrack in the Oklahoma State Fair in Oke City," Tim said calmly, quietly, deadpan. He wanted to scream. "A couple a days this summer they'll have races during the fair, and we're gonna fix them."
Silence.
"There are tons of folk going through that fair," Tim continued. He was aware that he was over-pronouncing every word but it was better to spit than to slur. "Make good money."
"Who you know on the inside?" Donny asked suspiciously.
"A rider."
"What rider?"
Tim allowed himself a smile. "Winston is a first class horseman," he said clearly. Tim knew Dally had told everyone he could that he was dynamite on a horse, and any chance he got to show them he would. "I was aiming at using one of them Brumly boys, but better a smart horseman than an idiot thug. Dallas ain't one of our outfit so the fuzz can't prove it was us if he gets caught."
He shook his head and rolled his eyes theatrically. "Took a hell of a lot of talking to convince that mother-fucker to help us out," he muttered, just loud enough to be heard.
"Dally going to want a cut? He won't cheat for free," Curly pointed out. "Against his morals."
Tim smiled ironically. "He don't have to know he's cheatin'." The day Curly was one step ahead of him, would be the day he'd shoot himself.
He could feel the tension in the room dissolve in every inch of his skin and it took all his self-control not to giggle out-loud. He wasn't done.
"I'm gonna need someone out there." He smiled broadly. "Pinter, you're my man."
Enemy down.
"Want you to talk to Buck later - we give him a cut and he'll lend us a quarter horse for Ol' Dally." It was an effort to stop himself from talking. His plans were getting scrambled - he'd save the actual organization for when he was clear-headed.
Tim stood, trying not to sway. "Just called you boys in to give the heads up on this deal. Won't happen for awhile." He grinned, breaking character. "Enjoy the party."
TIm left the room, weaving only a little. He felt damn good about himself.
xxxx
Curly watched his brother stagger drunkenly through the door. Donny gave him a look of incredulity and followed with the purposeful swagger that belonged on Tim. Curly swallowed and picked up a beer. Avoided the stares, the glares that were directed at him in his brother's absence. Someone coughed, someone else laughed. Words were exchanged in low tones that he couldn't make out.
Tim was fucked.