I guess you could say this is a late birthday present to myself.
I do not own The Outsiders.
Dallas watched as Andy briefly explained something to her aunt before the older women continued her conversation with Two-Bit.
He wasn't sure how Andy had managed it, but somehow she'd convinced her aunt to give them all a chance. And so far, she'd done that. After an awkward second visit, everyone involved had managed to calm down some.
And, it turned out that Aunt Marge had a sense of humor which Two-Bit found interesting.
Dallas glanced over in Andy's direction to see her doing her homework. Every once in a while, she would take part in a conversation, but mostly she just worked. She glanced up a moment later and caught sight of him looking at her. He raised an eyebrow as if to question 'her' attention, and she smiled before she looked down again. He huffed before he looked away. In the last couple days, she'd gone back to treating him normally. All her flirting, and roundabout ways of asking him out had stopped. That wasn't to say that her feelings for him stopped showing, those were still completely obvious.
As he thought about it, he frowned.
All things considered, he should have been glad she stopped flirting with him. He should have been relieved that he didn't have to keep turning her down. Instead, he felt frustrated.
He shouldn't have missed those interactions, but somehow, he almost did.
And that wasn't the only thing that was bothering him. There was no doubting someone had it out for Andy. There had been too many strange coincidences and accidents that had been happening recently. Naturally, she managed to come up with excuses for all of them, some better than others, but he knew they weren't the truth.
And he knew he had something to do with it.
She'd denied it every time he'd ask, but he'd managed to hear snippets of conversations to the contrary. During one in particular, she'd had a whispered argument with Soda over how she had to tell 'him' about something he couldn't quite make out.
Unfortunately for him, he'd been spotted and the pair of them had made a bullshit excuse and claimed he'd misheard them.
Dallas eyed Andy more carefully, but her face remained calm. His frustration rose again as he thought about how he hated being kept in the dark.
Andy stretched a moment later, then put her papers away before she turned to the main group. Her aunt glanced over and called, "Finished already?" Andy shrugged as she replied, "As much as I could get done." She looked faintly irritated and her aunt called back, "I'll help you with that when we get back." Andy thanked her, of course, and smiled. A creak of a chair brought Dallas' attention over to Darry who said, "I've been wondering why you're so much kinder than your sister?"
Aunt Marge looked confused for half a second before she replied, "Oh. Andromeda's aunt Christina is on her mother's side, like most of her family, and I'm on her fathers side. In any case, she has the same problem most of our families have. She wasn't raised to be a 'good' person, and I doubt she would have been even if she was raised to be kinder."
Darry nodded and Two-Bit abruptly asked, "Hey, you know any funny stories about A.C. from when she was a kid?"
Aunt Marge's eyes glinted to her niece's apparent displeasure and said, "Well, there was this one time when Andromeda was about five and at the time her eyesight wasn't great." Andy crossed her arms as she insisted, "Aunty, I think you're the only one amused by that story." Aunt Marge wasn't dissuaded by her nieces lack of enthusiasm and continued, "The problem wasn't a large one, but her parents insisted that she should be able to see perfectly, so they got her glasses to wear. They worked too, if you could get her to actually wear them."
The group chuckled, and Aunt Marge smiled as she said, "One of the days I was watching her at the park, I had to step away for a minute to answer a call about some overblown problem at the office. When I stepped back, Andromeda was playing in the sand without her glasses."
Aunt Marge paused to make sure she had their full attention, which she did, then said, "So I asked her, 'Where are your glasses?' and she patted the mound of sand in front of her as she said, 'They were being naughty, so I put them in a timeout."
The situation got a bunch of laughter from the gang to Andy's chargin, and Dallas smirked at the thought of a little Andy burying her glasses.
"I managed to unbury them," Aunt Marge continued, "But they were scratched to the point of being unusable, and she wouldn't wear another pair since."
Andromeda sighed and explained, "I'm technically nearsighted, but it's not that much of a problem." She then mumbled, "Besides, Mom and Dad were making a show of being 'good parents'. Just like they always did." The words were almost inaudible, but Dallas could tell her aunt could here them. Before her aunt could say something, Two-Bit asked, "Do you have any pictures of that?"
A sly smile appeared on Aunt Marge's face, and she pulled out a miniature photo album stuffed with pictures.
Dallas hauled himself out of his seat, and jammed his hands into his pockets as he walked over to look over the older woman's shoulder.
For the most part, the pictures moved to fast to be seen. He'd catch a glimpse of Andy at various stages of childhood, and another girl who's face he could never quite catch, a childhood friend no doubt. Aunt Marge stopped on one after a minute, then made an uneasy noise. A glance up showed that the woman suddenly looked regretful, and Two-Bit suddenly asked, "Hey Andy? Who's your double?"
Dallas looked down to see Andy in glasses next to an identical blonde-haired, violet eyed girl who also had on glasses.
All eyes landed on Andy who crossed her arms in front of herself. It was a defensive gesture, one she hadn't done in a long time. She focused on her knees as she mumbled, "Well ... It's a bit ... I, I don't want to talk about it." The rest of the gang exchanged looks, and Dallas demanded, "Why not?"
Andy looked up finally to reveal a pale face and a pained expression. She shook her head as she whispered, "I'm sorry."
Dallas opened his mouth to object when Aunt Marge interrupted, "Andromeda dear, I think I left my phone at home, and I need to make an important call soon, could you retrieve it for me?" Andy's head snapped in her aunt's direction, and she nodded before she mumbled another, "I'm sorry." and left.
For a minute, the group was dumbstruck. Then Steve finally asked, "What the hell was that about?" Aunt Marge sighed, then said, "I'm sorry, that was my fault."
She looked regretful as she said, "If I'd remembered Persephone was in those pictures ..." she winced when the name came out as she continued, "Please forgive Andromeda. Her parents spent years making her stay silent about her ... about Persephone, they made her try to repress all her emotions regarding what happened, and that sort of conditioning doesn't just go away overnight."
Aunt Marge hauled herself out of her chair as she said, "I'm sure if she takes a minute to gather herself together, she'd explain what happened ten years ago." She hesitated, then added, "I'll see how she's doing."
She glanced at the group for a second, then left after her niece.
The rest of the gang began talking about what had happened, but Dallas didn't join in. Instead, he frowned at the door. He knew just as well as the others that something must of happened in Andy's past. Her nightmares and her behavior when she first arrived were proof of it. He'd thought she'd gotten over whatever it was, but apparently she hadn't.
The idea brought a frown to his face. He really hated being kept in the dark.
Sorry, I'm sure you were expecting a happier chapter, but it seemed right that something about Andy's past would slip out during her Aunt's visit, and given how her family reacts to her talking about her sister, I thought it would be hard for her to open up. That said, she will tell the group some things in the next chapter.
