Around noon the next day, Dally was waiting on Johnny, Ponyboy, and I under the street sign at the corner that read Pickett and Sutton. "How you doin' Dal?" Pony asked, patting Dally on the shoulder as we reached the sign. "We're early man." Dally replied, taking a drag of his cigarette.
"So what're we doin'?" I asked, my thumbs hanging out of my pockets. "Nothing legal, girl. C'mon let's get outta here." Dally replied, walking ahead of us. We followed him down the sidewalk as we made our way to the Dingo.
We then made our way down the street to The Dingo. It was one of the many drive-in theaters in town. The socs go to The Way Out while the greasers go to The Dingo.
All the greasers we knew hung out there; it was a rough spot. We'd lean into cars or hop in the backseats. There'd be fights to the point of coming out; that was our cue to leave.
We then headed to the DX, the gas station that Soda and Steve work to hang around them for a little bit. Him and Steve were fixing up someone's car when we got there. They didn't seem to mind us bein' there and all.
"So what's this movie about anyway?" Johnny asked. Dally got him and Pony in a headlock for half a second before they shook him off. "I don't know man. One of those beach movies." Dally shrugged.
"Sounds riveting. They make a lot of those movies." I say, jogging backwards for a moment. "Damn right they do." Dally agreed with me.
After a while, the four of us make our way through an alleyway. When we turned a corner, we see a small group of kids that were no less than 6 or 7 years old playing with some cards. Dally didn't take too kindly to this.
"Hey, did I tell you that you guys could play cards on my grass?" Dally scowled, taking a step forward towards the kids while Pony, Johnny, and I stayed back and watched. The kids looked back at Dally and drop the cards they were messing around with.
"No." one of the kids said. "Well, then what are you doing here? Give me those cards." Dally scowled, holding his hand out. The kids did what they were told and Dally put the cards in his jacket pocket.
I took out a Kool cigarette and lit it up, taking a long drag of it. Then the kids said something that neither of us could understand. "What'd you say?" Dally said, "Hey, don't get wise."
He shakes his head in disbelief before looking at us. "Are you guys hearing this? They are getting wise on me." Dally said with a sly grin, "Man I don't like little kids. I don't like 'em." "Oh I am. What about you guys?" I scoff, looking at my brother and buddy with raised eyebrows, my thumb hanging out of my jeans. They nodded in agreement.
Dally then let the cards fly out of his hand. "Get out of here or I'll kill you!" Dally shouted as he started chasing the kids out of the alley. Ponyboy, Johnny, and I followed suit until we were in a field with the grass grown up to our knees.
"Get out of here, you little brats!" Pony yelled, slowing down his pace. "Yeah, go on, git!" I shouted, throwing a fist at them. We all stopped to catch our breath before Dally say, "It's getting dark. Let's go."
It was dark enough to sneak into the Night Double, which is the biggest one in town. It'd play two movies every night and four on the weekends. You could go all over town and still go to the Night Double.
Now we could've gotten in by paying for it since we did have enough money to get us in, a quarter if you weren't coming in a car. However, if you're with Dally, he liked getting in the illegal way.
He'd work his way around the law, not caring about it in the slightest. When we got in, the four of us walked down to a row of empty seats that was in front of the concession stand. Sitting in front of us were these two girls, who seemed to be the only ones there. I sat in between Pony and Dally.
Dally was eyeing them up and down carefully before walking up to them and sat behind them. Pony and I glanced at each other, both of us thinking that Dally would be doing his usual tricks when it comes to other girls. He's even tried it with me once before but my brothers made sure that he didn't do anything rash with me.
I looked over to where Dally was, and we were right. He was talking to them loud enough for them to hear. This blonde haired greaser could sure talk dirty when he wanted to and looks like that's what he was gonna do now.
Pony and I sat there completely dumbfounded. "Hey, Bex. I'm gonna grab a coke. You want anything?" Pony asks me. "A small popcorn." I answer, turning my head around to look at him. He gives me a nod before going to the concession stand.
The girls in front of us were socs; I could tell because of what they were wearing. If they were greasers like me, it wouldn't have been so damn embarrassing. Even though I'm a girl, I must admit that they were really good-looking.
They looked to be about 17 years old. One had dark short hair while the other had long red hair that went passed her shoulders. The redhead was starting to get upset with Dally's antics and she sat up sharply.
The dark haired chick tried not paying attention to what Dally was doing. He was getting aggravated. He propped both of his feet atop her chair, winked at Pony and I, who had returned with our stuff.
Dally leaned forward and whispered in the red head's ear, "Are you a real red head? How can I find out if it is real?" The red headed girl was starting to become uncomfortable. "Hey, cut it out, Dal." Ponyboy said, but Dal didn't listen.
The red headed chick turned around and stared at him hard. "Get your feet off my chair and shut your trap." she snapped at him. I looked over at my brother, he was blushing madly.
He thought that she was good-looking, which she is. And we both know that she goes to the same school as us; only she's a cheerleader there. Dally didn't take his feet off the chair, "Who's gonna make me? That boyfriend of yours?" "C'mon, Dal. Leave her be." I said.
"You'd better leave us alone," the red head growled, "I'll call the cops if you don't." "Oh, my, my, you've got me real scared now. You oughta see my record. This girl's makin' me shake." Dally slyly said, "Guess what I've been in for?"
"Leave us alone. Be nice and leave us alone?" the red head said, looking at him. "I'm never nice. Want a coke?" Dally impishly said. "Get lost, hood!" she snapped at him, clearly fed up with what he was doing. Can't say that I blame her.
"I didn't know you had an issue with yelling in my face." Dally shrugged before walking off. The girl looks back at Ponyboy and I. The way she looked at my brother kinda scared me a little but I kept that stifled.
"Are either of you gonna start in on us?" she asked. Ponyboy's eyes widened a bit and he shook his head, "No." "You don't gotta worry about us." I say, "Especially me."
The girl smiled at us, getting Ponyboy to blush again. "Well, you don't look the type. What're your names?" the girl asked us. Pony usually hated telling people what his first name was in fear of him getting made fun of for it.
"Ponyboy Curtis." he said. "Bexley Curtis. I'm his sister." I say. Surprisingly, she didn't make a crack about our names. "Wow, those are original names. You two twins or something?" she asked us, seeing how Ponyboy and I look so much alike.
"Yeah. We're twins. Except, he's a couple of minutes older than me." I admit, eating a couple of pieces of popcorn. "Yeah, by a couple of minutes. You finally admit it." Pony teases. "Oh hardy har. Don't rub it in." I sputter my lips, rolling my eyes.
"What's the history of y'all's names?" the redhead asked. "Our dad was an original person. We got an older brother named Sodapop." Ponyboy says. "Yeah, it says so on his birth certificate." I add.
"My name's Sherri, but people call me Cherry because of my hair." she said. "Yeah, we've heard. You're a cheerleader at our school. We've seen you around." Pony says. "You two don't look old enough to be going to high school." the dark haired chick said.
"Well, since we're both really good in school, we got bumped up a grade." I answer, cracking a smile. Cherry looked at Pony and I, "What's a nice boy and girl running around with trash like that for?"
I suck in a deep breath, knowing she was talking about Dally. "Dally's our buddy. Bex and I are greasers too." Pony said, looking stiffened. "We're all friends." I tell her, adjusting myself in my seat."Wow, sorry Ponyboy." Cherry said, "Your brother Sodapop, he works at the DX gasoline station, right?"
"Yeah." Pony replied, drinking his coke. "Man, your brother's a doll. Should've guessed that he's y'all's brother. Both of you look like him." Cherry said. That wasn't entirely true.
Pony and I look identical because we're twins. As for Soda, we didn't look like him at all. But it was rather flattering we hear a Soc calling our brother a doll. "How come he isn't in school anymore? He's working full time because your parents died, right?" Marcia, Cherry's friend, asked.
"He's a drop out." Pony said roughly. "He did that so he could hold his job." I add, squeezing on my popcorn a bit. The word "Dropout" seemed to refer to some dumb hoodlum walking aimlessly on the street; it wouldn't fit our happy-go-lucky brother. If anything, it'd fit Dally perfectly.
Johnny came back down and sat next to Pony. He gave a shy, "Hi" to Cherry and Marcia and tried watching the movie. I could tell that he was anxious given that he's so weary around strangers.
Cherry gave him a soft smile. Not long after, Dally came back but with more cokes. He handed one to each girl.
"Here, this might cool you off." he said, sitting back down next to Cherry. She threw her coke into Dally's face. "That oughta cool you off, hood. Learn how to talk decent and I might consider cooling off." Cherry scowled.
Dally used his sleeve to wipe his face and smiled sinisterly. Pony and I knew what that smile meant and I felt my heart pound against my ribcage. "Fiery, huh? Just the way I like 'em." he said, taking a hold of her arms.
Ponyboy, Johnny, I all gave each other nervous expressions as Cherry was fighting him off.
Then, Johnny reached over and stopped him. "Leave her be, Dally." he said. Dally snapped his head up, looking off guard. He looked at Johnny in disbelief.
Johnny usually never had the guts to speak up like this. He went pale and said, "You heard what I said. Leave her alone." Dally scoffed for a second, "What'd you say to me? Huh? You wise ass."
If it was any of us, we would've been flattened down within a second. One thing you shouldn't ever do, don't ever tell him what to do. Johnny was the gang's pet, mostly Dally's pet. There's no way he'd be able to hit Johnny.
All Dally did was storm off, fists wedged in his jacket pockets. This time, he didn't return. Cherry let out a sigh of relief.
"Thanks. He had me scared to death." she said. "You sure didn't show it. Nobody talks to Dally like that." Johnny replied, managing an admiring grin. "But you did it." she smiled.
Pony and I were staring at him, my eyes a bit widened. It had taken real guts to say that to Dally considering Johnny walked the ground Dally walked on. This is the first time that Johnny had ever back-talked someone.
Marcia grinned at us; I could see that she was smaller than Cherry. Honestly, I couldn't help but blush when she did that. "Why don't you guys sit up here with us?" Cherry offered. It surprised me fiercely that she was including me.
"You can even protect your sister there." Cherry said, referring to me. "Ah, from Dally? I don't need protection from him." I said, cracking a smile. "Sometimes you do, Bex. You know how Dally can be. He tried picking you up once before, 'member?" Johnny said.
"Yeah, yeah. He doesn't scare me none, Johnnycake." I say, still not fond of the idea of being Dally's date. "So do you guys wanna sit up here with us?" Cherry asked again. Johnny grinned and his eyebrows bounced up.
The three of us had picked up some soc girls; that meant I did as well considering I'm a girl. Pony, Johnny, and I sat down next to them. I sat next to my brother. "So how old are you guys?" Marcia asked.
"Fourteen." Pony and I say. "Sixteen." Johnny said. "Really? I thought you three were all..." Marcia started. "Sixteen. Especially you, Bex." Cherry said.
She wasn't wrong about that. I did look like I was older than fourteen; both Pony and I do. As for Johnny, he looked younger than sixteen and it bugged him fiercely.
"How come y'all ain't scared of us like you are of Dally?" Johnny grinned, "You tough like Bex?" "Like I said before, Dally don't scare me, okay?" I say, scooting up a bit. "You three are too sweet looking to scare anyone. Besides, I've heard about Dallas Winston. Looked as hard as nails and twice as tough. You three don't look mean." Cherry sighed.
"You're not just saying this because I'm a girl, right?" I asked, cracking a smile. "Not just that, we're young and innocent." Pony said tiredly. "No, not innocent. You two have seen so much to be innocent." Cherry slowly said.
"Dally's alright." Johnny said, getting Pony and I to nod in agreement, "He's tough and all." When you're in a gang, you're loyal to your buds, treat them like family.
As I said before, I'm one of the few greasers that is a girl. The gang is my family outside of Pony, Soda, Darry. We wouldn't be a gang if we were constantly bickering like the socs or like the wolves in NYC.
"He'd leave you alone if he knew you." Pony said, telling it true. "Yeah, he don't know about you being a soc." I added. It reminded me of when Steve's cousin came down from Kansas, Dally was somewhat decent around her. The guys try to be nice to girls other than me.
"Well, I'm glad he doesn't know us." Marcia said finally. "I kinda admire him." Cherry said softly. I rested my arm on Pony's shoulder as we settled down to watch the movie.
We had learned they had come with their boyfriends, but they got into an argument so they left them. They told us that they were also drunk with the booze that they brought with them. That's what caused them to be alone.
"It's not my idea of coming to see a movie, watching them get drunk." Cherry said, sounding annoyed. I'm guessing her idea of a good idea is doing something that's expensive but they decided to come to see a movie instead. The movie we were watching was a beach type movie without a plot or anything like that, although it did have some good songs so that was a plus.
We were so caught up in the movie that we didn't hear another set of footsteps coming from behind us. "Okay, greasers, you're so dead." a deep voice said. Ponyboy and I felt strong hands on our shoulders.
"Jesus, Two-Bit!" I yelped, jumping out of my skin. Pony also jumped out of his skin as well. All Two-Bit did was grinning like a crazy person.
"You scared us to death!" Pony said, his eyes widened a bit. Johnny was as white as a sheet because Two-Bit was good at imitating a soc. Two-Bit seemed to forget that Johnny is still very shaken up by his encounter with those socs so Two-Bit knew better than to scare poor Johnny like that.
"Oh, sorry kid. I forgot." Two-Bit said, messing up Johnny's hair. The Mickey Mouse loving greaser leaned over Marcia and said, "Who're these fine ladies? Your great-grandmothers?"
It was hard to tell Two-Bit was drunk. He sometimes acts drunk even though he's sober. "Where'd you two ever get picked by a few hoods like Pony, Johnny, and Bex?" Two-Bit said, admiring Marcia.
Then, Two-Bit started telling Johnny to talk Arabian. I kinda tuned out the rest of their pity party argument. But from what I could hear, it was playful.
"Anyone seen Dally?" Pony asked. "Yeah, he bailed on us after he got told off." I add, looking at them. "Probably out fightin' somewhere. Does he got a blade? Tim Shepard said something about Dallas slashin' his tires." Two-Bit said cheerfully.
"Not that I know of." Pony shrugged. "Probably got a pipe because he busted his blade this morning." I added. "Good. Tim will fight Dally if he don't pull a blade on him." Two-Bit said.
The conversation between them got pretty cool. I saw that Two-Bit and Marcia dig each other. He offers us each a cigarette to which Pony, Johnny, and I reach for one. Cherry and Marcia shook their heads at it.
I take out my lighter and light my cigarette, helping Pony and Johnny with theirs. A smoke would help Johnny settle down but his hands were still shaking a bit. A cigarette always calmed our nerves.
"Ponyboy, Bex, will you guys come with me to get some popcorn?" Cherry asked. "Sure. Y'all want some?" Pony asked, jumping out of his seat. "I'll stay here with Johnnycake. You guys go on ahead. Bring me back a coke." I say, taking a puff of my lit cigarette, "You two kids play nice now."
My brother blushed in embarrassment when I said that, "Bex!" "I'm just messin' with ya, brother of mine." I chuckled, enjoying the look on his face. Marcia wanted one since she was finishing up the coke that Dally got for her earlier.
Two-Bit and Johnny wanted something too so Two-Bit gave them the money to pay for the food. I watched as Pony walked off with Cherry, taking a few puffs of my cigarette. It's not everyday that you see a greaser together with a soc.
Looking over at Johnny, I see his hands shaking still from when Two-Bit scared the hell out of him. It reminded me vividly of when we found him in the lot. Seeing him in that state almost made me cry.
It happened four months ago. Pony and I walked down to the DX station to get a couple of drinks and find Steve and Soda there. They'd always hook us up with a free coke.
Pony hated going on the weekends because it'd always be filled with girls flirting with Soda- mostly Socs though. Soda and I tell him that he'd grow out of that eventually; I know I have and so did Soda.
The sun was bright and high, warming the spring day. However, it was getting chilly and grew dark incredibly fast when we go home. Steve, Soda, Pony, and I were walking because Steve's car was in the shop.
We make it to the lot, which is where the gang plays football or hang out. It was a huge vacant lot that is the usual spot for rumbles. We passed it and I kicked some loose rocks with my shoe.
Pony had finished his last bottle of Pepsi, when Steve's eye caught something. There was something laying on the ground. He picked it up and we saw that it was Johnny's jean jacket.
"He forgot his jacket." Steve says, slinging it over his shoulder so we could take it to Johnny's house. But he examined it more closely at the collar, there were small blood stains on it. I glanced down and saw more dried blood stains on the grass, making my face lose its color.
We all heard a low moan and saw a motionless lump laying on the other side of the lot. Soda was the first to reach him. Johnny was laying face first on the ground.
Soda turned him over as gently as he could and I almost started bawling. Pony looked like he was about to get sick. Someone had beaten the hell out of him.
Needless to say, we were all used to seeing Johnny with bruises because his own father ruthlessly abuses him. It all angered us with something fierce but we knew there wasn't anything that could be done about it. But seeing him like this was a whole different level.
His face was cut up, bruised, and swollen. There was a wide gash from his temple to his lower cheekbone. He'd have to carry that scar for the rest of his life. His t-shirt was covered in blood.
For a moment, I thought he might've been dead; I knew that nobody could survive being beaten like this. Steve shut his eyes for a moment before dropping to his knees next to Johnny and Soda.
As if the gang sensed it, Two-Bit was suddenly between Pony and I, his comical grin vanishing and his eyes becoming stormy. Darry saw us from our house porch and ran towards us.
Dally was the most angry out of all of us, swearing under his breath and turning away with a sickened expression. He's seen people killed in New York. So why did this have to be the thing to sicken him?
"Johnny?" Soda quietly says, carefully lifting him up and letting him lean against Soda's shoulder. I couldn't help but walk over and kneel down next to them. "Hey, Johnnycake? Can you hear us?" I say, my nurturing side coming out.
He didn't open his eyes. "Soda? Bex?" he softly said. "Yeah, it's us." Soda said. "It's gonna be alright, Johnny. We're here now. Everything's gonna be alright now." I add, feeling my heart break, taking his hand in mine.
"There was... a whole bunch of them. A blue Mustang full... I got so scared." Johnny said, starting to cry himself. He tried to control himself but it was unsuccessful. Not even his father's beatings could break him like the Socs did.
"It's okay, Johnnycake. They're gone now. It's okay." Soda assured, pushing the hair back from Johnny's eyes. With a sob, he started telling us what had happened.
He went hunting our football field to practise some kicks when a blue Mustang had pulled up right beside the lot. Four Socs got out and they had caught him. One Soc was wearing rings around his knuckles, which explains the cuts. He could take being beaten to all living hell but it was they had scared him.
Living under the conditions of an abusive household could've turned someone else rebellious and bitter; it was killing Johnny. Before that, he hadn't ever been a coward. He fought incredibly well in the rumbles and he was loyal to the gang while keeping quiet around the cops.
After that encounter with the Socs, he hadn't been the same since. His tough outer shell had simply vanished and he'd been jumpy ever since. Pony and I didn't think that he'd get over that.
He never walked alone after that and carried a six-inch switchblade in his back pocket and would use it if it was necessary. Pretty sure he'd kill someone if it happened. No one would ever beat him up like that again. Never.
Ponyboy and Cherry came back to our seats with our snacks. We watched the movie again and I saw that Two-Bit and Marcia were hitting it off pretty well. They had a common fact that they shared, they were both scatterbrained with a good sense of humor.
But Ponyboy, Johnny, I, and Cherry just watched the movie in silence. We quit worrying about everything and thought about how cool it is to sit next to a girl without hearing her cuss at us or beat her with a club. It was also nice to have another girl to speak to other than the gang.
Johnny, although he liked it, doesn't usually talk to girls much other than me. Two-Bit gave Pony the same lecture after he had picked up a couple of girls. I ended up getting one too after speaking with a few.
The Socs had their own issues to deal with and neither Pony or I could see what all the fuss is about with them- good grades, good cars, good girls, madras and Mustangs and Covairs. We knew better than to worry about all of that.
