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Chapter Thirty Eight

October 1968

Clearly Rose and Angela differed about what they considered a 'good' date to be, because getting pawed at by Ricky Stuart in a booth at the Dingo was not her idea of fun.

As much as she had complained about going on the date, she had actually been looking forward to it. That was until Ricky sat down across from her, and then all she felt was fury at Angela for organising the whole thing and keeping the very important detail of her date's identity from her.

It hadn't been too bad at first. Sure, he wasn't exactly hiding the fact he was staring at her chest, but at least she got to eat her burger in relative peace. Then he decided to join her side of the booth, which was annoying but not a travesty. It was when he tried to slip his hand up her skirt that she finally had enough.

"Get off of me!" She snapped, pushing his hand away.

"C'mon, baby," he drawled in her ear. "I just want to have some fun."

"No." She said, shoving his chest.

She had failed to push him out of the booth, and had only succeeded in making him mad. But before she could come up with a plan, probably involving smacking him with her plate, a hand grabbed his shoulder.

Never in her life had she been more glad to see Curly Shepard.

"Everything good here?"

"No." Rose quickly said. "He needs to leave."

"You heard her." Curly said. "Get."

Ricky made to protest, but Curly grabbed him by the jacket, throwing him down to the floor. A fight surely would've ensued had the rest of Curly's buddies not rushed over, forming a threatening posse. Ricky might've been a jerk, but he wasn't stupid. He merely huffed, giving her a derisive glare before storming off.

"Thanks." Rose muttered.

"Don't mention it." Curly shrugged, taking the seat opposite her. Ordinarily she would've protested that he had not been invited to join her, but that seemed a bit rude considering what he'd just done for her. "Whatta you doing here with him anyway?"

"It was a date." She said. "Your sister's doing."

"You trusted Angela to set you up on a date?" Curly chuckled. "Why?"

"God only knows." Rose said. "She thought it be good for me. My first date in months and of course it turns to shit."

"You haven't been on a date in months?" Curly asked. "Shit, you've really gone cold turkey."

"I've been focusing on school." Rose said. "An example you might benefit to follow."

"No fun in that." Curly replied. "I'd rather go on dates."

With a few well-placed jokes, Curly had been able to lighten the mood enough she almost forget about Ricky. Almost. She still wanted to chew Angela out for setting them up, she must've known what Ricky was like. There was no way he came on the date for anything other than sex.

"Can you not tell anyone about what happened?" Rose asked.

"You mean don't tell Tim." Curly replied, giving her a small smirk. "Thought you'd want him to beat up Ricky?"

"I don't want to be the cause of anything." She explained. "Besides, it'd just be a stupid excuse to start a fight."

Ricky deserved to have some sense knocked into him but she didn't need Tim to do it. If he acted as her knight in shining armour anymore often it'd develop into a habit, and she didn't think Tim and a hero complex would mesh well together.

"You two are too damn confusing." Curly groaned. "D'you like him or not?"

"It's not that simple."

"Like hell it ain't." He said. "What's the problem now? Cause you two've been pussyfooting around each other for years. And Tim's never given that much of a shit about a chick before."

"Maybe I'm just different."

"Or just a really good lay."

"Well that's really none of your business." She said, indignantly.

Curly smirked at her. "So you two've had sex."

"I didn't say that."

"You kinda did." He replied. "What's the big deal? What, you two been secretly having sex the whole time."

"No." She said. "It was only one time. And it was three years ago."

"Shit." Curly said. "You must be a good lay."

"Considering it was only the second time I had sex, I highly doubt that."

"Alright, now I'm even more confused." He said, leaning forward.

"You and me both."

Confusing was exactly how to define her relationship with Tim. Complicated and maddening also worked.

"Anyway," she said. "I better get home."

"You drive here?"

"Yeah." Rose asked as she stood up, frowning at him with suspicion. "Why?"

"Can I bum a ride?" Curly asked, grinning up at her

"Your friends are still here." She said. "Aren't you gonna stay with them?"

"Nah, I gotta get home." Curly shook his head. "C'mon, otherwise I gotta walk home, and who knows what might happen,"

"Fine." She groaned. "If it shuts you up."

"You're a doll." Curly told her, standing up next to her. "A true life-saver."

"Whatever." She rolled her eyes, leaning down to grab her bag only to see Curly's friends wagging their eyebrows at him.

Letting out a sigh, she glared at them. "He ain't getting laid." She called out. "So get your filthy minds out of the gutter."

Curly didn't seem too miffed at the rejection. In fact he was laughing heartily at her. When he playfully attempted to put his arm around her she shoved him away, but that only seemed to entertain him more.

"Get in the damn car." Rose grunted.

"Yes Ma'am."

Rose shook her head at him in bemusement. Curly was always good for a laugh, and she wasn't nearly as annoyed by his antics as she was pretending to be.

"So, how you been?" She asked, as she pulled out of the parking lot. "Enjoying senior year."

"Yeah." He said. "Principal Miller's such an ass though. He's making me go to to tutoring or I won't graduate."

"Who's tutoring you?"

"Peggy Jones."

"Oh yeah." She said. "I saw you two together at the fair. You were looking pretty cozy together."

"Whatcha trying to say?"

"Nothing." She shrugged. "Tutoring's not too bad of a price to pay for graduating."

"Why would I care about graduating?" Curly asked. "That piece of paper don't mean anything to me."

Rose very much doubted that he didn't care about graduating, but she supposed he'd gotten used to acting like he didn't care about anything. It was one of the many ways he failed in his imitation of Tim. Curly was never very good at acting like he didn't care, he felt things too much to act like he didn't feel anything at all.

"Don't you wanna get outta Tulsa?" She asked.

"And go where?"

"I don't know." She said. "Just get out of here. Get in the car and drive to Texas."

"Texas?" Curly asked. "Nah, I ain't ever wanna go there. Last I heard that's where my old man split to after he left us."

"Oh." She said. "I'm sorry, I didn't know."

Curly shrugged. "It don't matter."

"Yeah it does." She told him. "Trust me, I know, it matters."

If there was any way to effectively kill a conversation it was talking about absentee fathers. Curly's usual easygoing manner could barely conceal his conflicted emotions, and she'd wished she'd never said anything at all. She never even wanted to go to Texas, it was just the first place she thought of.

"Can I ask you something?" She said as they pulled up outside his house. "And you have to promise not to say anything. Like swear on the bible, and if your break that promise I will bring the wrath of God onto. And I can do that because I'm a good Catholic, I go to church."

"Okay, okay," Curly said, holding his hands up in surrender. "What is it? Please don't ask me about Tim cause I don't know shit."

"It's not about Tim." Rose said. "It's about your friend, Jimmy."

"You want me to set you up with Jimmy?"

"No." She shook her head at him in exasperation. "Has he ever said anything about Beth?"

"Beth Cook?"

"Yeah. He ever mentioned her?"

"Don't think so," Curly said. "Want me to drop him some hints?"

"God no." Rose said. Curly was about as subtle as a bulldozer. "She'd kill me if she knew I said anything. She's over him anyway."

And with that she delivered a swift punch to his arm. It wasn't very hard, but it was enough to make him wince.

"What the hell was that for?" He snapped, looking at her like she'd gone mad.

"To make sure you keep your promise." She said, holding out a threatening finger towards him.

"Jesus. Guess I know why Tim likes you so much, you're kinda mean." Curly said, rubbing his arm. "Now I'm rethinking that crush I used to have on you."

"You had a crush on me?" Rose raised her eyebrows. "Cause of my decent rack?" She asked, earning herself a furrowed look from Curly. "Angela told me."

"Figures she'd rat me in." Curly said. "I used to think he hit me cause he was friends with Diego. But now I know it's cause he had a crush on you."

"I don't think the words crush and Tim go together, unless you're using it to describe him crushing someone." Rose pointed out. Her eyes scanned the yard, finding Tim's car parked in the driveway which got her thinking. "You didn't ask me to drop you home just to mess with Tim, did you?"

"Nah," Curly said. "I needed the ride. Messing with Tim's just a bonus."

"Sure." She nodded, not entirely believing him.

Curly got out of the car, and as she pulled away from the curb she couldn't help but shake her head at his antics.

After spending the afternoon shooting pool at Buck's with Charlie, and winning some cash while he was at it, he'd expected to spend a quiet night at home. What he hadn't expected was for Curly to burst into his room with a shit-eating grin on his face.

"What the fuck?" Tim demanded, but Curly wasn't perturbed in the slightest.

"Guess who just dropped me home from the Dingo?" Curly asked, not waiting for his response to continue. "Rose?"

"Why?" Tim asked.

"Cause I needed a ride, and I can be very charming." Curly explained. "You should learn from me."

"I don't need to learn anything from you." Tim scoffed. "Why was she at the Dingo?"

"Why you so interested?" Curly asked, as if they both didn't already know. "If you must know," he continued. "She was on a date."

"With who?" Tim asked, trying to sound like he didn't care but the fact he was even asking kind of betrayed that.

"Wouldn't you like to know."

"Curly." Tim practically growled, but it didn't have its usual effect.

"I promised her I wouldn't say anything to you." Curly protested. "I swore on a Bible."

"She has a Bible in her car?"

"No," Curly conceded. "But I still ain't saying shit."

"Why don't she want me to know?"

"Cause you'd probably beat him up." Curly said. "Ain't nobody gonna date her if you fuck up her dates."

After telling Curly to beat it, he was left alone to mull over the information. Since she'd dropped Curly home, he suspected that the date hadn't gone well, and he couldn't stop himself from being pleased with that. Still, he hadn't expected her to go on a date, not with everything going on between them. Though he knew well enough by now that her seeing other people didn't mean anything. It had never stopped her from coming back to him anymore than sleeping with other girls had stopped him from wanting her.

For a moment there he thought they were well and truly over, but for some reason she couldn't seem to quit him. He was sure there were plenty of moments where she wanted to be over him, wanted to be done with him, and he probably deserved it. But a part of her still wanted him, and that was enough for now.