"No, you can not!...No comment, leave us alone!"
"Who was that, Dar?" Pony asked as Darry entered the living room, his gaze still boring into the television screen. The rest of the gang was there, sprawled on the floor or on a couch, all staring with the same bored expression at the set.
"Some stupid reporter, asking to talk to you." Darry sat down with a sigh.
Pony finally looked up from the TV. He looked to be struggling with something but didn't quite know how to express it. "Dar?" he asked after a while. "Do you believe what that man said?"
"What man?"
"The man that called you to tell you about Dal."
"Oh, yeah that man. What about him?"
"Do you believe what he said this morning...about Dallas fitting in?"
Darrel shrugged his shoulders. "Why wouldn't I believe it?"
Pony glanced at him as if it was obvious. "Dal's a greaser, a hood. And he's fitting in with socs?"
Dar just shook his head. "Aw, Ponyboy, you're making a big deal out of nothing."
"Nothing?! What if Dal is fitting in, what if he actually likes the socs!...What-what if he wants to stay there?"
Darry had had enough. "Look, he's not going to stay there. It's only for one more week. Then he'll be here. He even called us. He's coming back." He stated the plain hard facts, and then he switched the topic to order Pony about.
"Now, you get on in your room and start on your homework. I didn't meet with all your teachers and figure out what you missed for you not do any of it."
After a couple of complaints, Pony obediently left for his bedroom. After he was gone, Steve turned to Darry.
"What if he's right? What if Dallas doesn't come back?"
"Oh, not you too." Darry sighed. "Steve, he's coming back."
"But what if he doesn't?"
"You think he wants to stay there, with the socs? Come on." Soda rolled his eyes.
"But you heard what that Mathews guy said on the phone. Dal's fitting right in."
"He has to! He has to keep up the charade! Otherwise the fuzz would be all over him."
"But what if he is fitting in?" Steve pressed.
Darrel struggled for a second. "If he's fitting in, then the fuzz isn't near him."
"So you think he is fitting in?"
Darrel thought for a second. "I don't know," he said finally.
Steve turned his attention back to the TV. When the gang had thought Dallas was gone for good, Steve had been the one most severely affected. And the one most relieved when they had found out he was alive. After a few seconds of silence Steve turned back to Darrel.
"So what happens if he does decide to stay there?"
Darrel opened his mouth to answer. Closed it. He searched his brain, and then he insisted, "Dallas'll come back. He's gonna come back." But the dead certainty of a few minutes ago was gone, replaced with a hint of doubt.
"Dallas, you're doing pretty well." Lisa complimented as she watched him finish ringing up a customer. "Keep this up and I'll want to hire you on permanent."
Dallas rolled his eyes unbelievingly as Lisa left to finish stacking several items that a customer's kid had accidentally knocked over, fortunately with little damage done.
Because of her back being turned, Lisa didn't see the door open and a man enter. Dallas did, but he didn't say anything. The man gazed around the room, and when he spotted her, a smile appeared. The man walked carefully over to her. When he was right behind her his hand, quick as lightning, covered her eyes.
"Guess who?" the deep voice asked.
Lisa thought and thought. "Michael? John? No? Oh, I know, it's my cute young boyfriend Max."
"Very, very funny," Brian said as he turned her around. Lisa smiled and gave him a quick kiss.
"Or it could be my husband whom I love and adore."
"That's better." Brian pulled his other hand from behind his back and presented her with a little box.
"What's this?" Lisa took the box, and slowly opened it, heightening the anticipation. Inside were two movie tickets. "What are these?"
"These are tickets to the movie you wanted to see on Saturday night."
"But you work on Saturday, we can't go."
Brian shook his head, not able to conceal his grin any longer. "Nope. I have next Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off."
"Off? Why?"
"I requested it. And since I didn't have Sunday off yesterday, they let me go with little fuss."
"Why'd you request it?" Lisa was still puzzled.
Brian took Lisa's hands. "Because I've finally realized what a jerk I've been. I've put too much into my work, and it's time I take a break and realize where my priorities really are." His sincere words made Lisa blink back her tears of joy. The two of them leaned closer and shared a sweet kiss. Then they smiled and talked quietly to each other for a while.
Dallas, watching all this transpire from the register, turned and averted his gaze. Some things needed their privacy, and even Dallas could recognize one when he saw one.
"Dallas, hurry up!" Carly impatiently waited for Dal to finish paying the cashier while she stood near the door. When he finally got his change and headed her way, Carly raced out of the store, Dallas following.
Lori had gone off to pick up Carly from school a few minutes before Brian had come to the store. Jason had had to stay at the school for baseball practice before the game.
Carly had immediately wanted a snack, and since Dallas hadn't had his break yet, he was naturally voted the one to go. Naturally. But it was almost over. They had payed for the snack, Dallas had withstood all of Carly's commentary about her day at school, and the exciting game tonight, and he hadn't said one thing rude or sarcastic. He was getting better.
"Dallas, I took Tex to school."
"Oh," Dallas had perfected that oh.
"Yeah, and all the kids loved it. Sarah wanted to trade her pet turtle for him, but I said 'no.' Aren't you proud of me Dallas?" She looked up at him, her hazel eyes shining.
"Definitely." Dallas murmured. He was getting better, but it was still hard sometimes.
"Look, Dallas! Aren't those your friends?" Carly excitedly pointed toward a group of boys huddled across the street. Sure enough, Cliff and Nathan were there, along with a lot of the hoods Dallas had hung out with only a few nights ago.
"Come on, let's go see them!" Carly surged forward, excited at the prospect of meeting Dal's 'friends.'
"Whoa! Wait a minute!" Dallas ran and caught up with Carly. He grabbed her hand and jerked her back. "We are not going over there."
"But I want to meet them!" Carly tried to wriggle her hand out of Dallas's, but he kept too firm of a grip on hers.
"No. Carly, they'll meet you later, okay?" he lied, trying to divert Carly's attention. One thing was for sure, he wasn't going to let a little girl anywhere near that group of hoods. He was a hood and he knew what happened in groups such as those. Especially since he had been a part of that group only a couple nights. Now he just had to give Carly a reason for not meeting them.
"See, I already asked them to come see you."
"Really! When?"
"Uhh, next Sunday." He should be gone by then. Perfect.
"Oh." Carly thought for a second. "Okay."
"Good." Dallas straightened up and took a direction far from where the hoods were standing, doing whatever they were doing. Dallas had walked for a couple of blocks before he realized that Carly's hand was still in his. Quickly he pried his fingers loose and walked a little bit faster. They had almost reached the store.
"Go Jason go!" Lori screamed at the top of her lungs. Jason had gotten up to bat and had hit a deep ball into centerfield. He was rounding the bases as the other team desperately relayed the ball in. Jason passed second and headed for third. The ball was fired to third, the third basemen caught it and swept his glove over to tag Jason. But too late, Jason had already slid in.
"Yes!!!! Way to go!" This was Brian screaming now.
Dallas simply shook his head. The kid was good. He was a good shortstop, pretty quick but no match for Ponyboy in speed, and an extremely good batter. It looked as if Lisa hadn't been exaggerating when she had bragged about her baby boy.
He watched as the pitcher pitched to the next batter. A couple seconds later, the ball was bouncing through the grass, snatched up by the outfielder and fired home, the ball reaching home three seconds after Jason stepped across the plate. The stands came alive; they were now up 3-2. Dallas allowed himself to clap a couple of times before he quit. Jason had done pretty good, though. He clapped his hands a couple more times.
"Good game, Jason." Brian called as they walked over to the dugouts. The game was over and the boys were packing up their things. Jason's team had won 7-4. Even Dallas had to admit it hadn't been that boring.
"Thanks Dad," Jason grinned.
Dallas stood next to the family. But a couple of voices behind him made him swivel around. Two boys were walking off, their backs to Dallas. But he could still make out what they were saying. And it wasn't very nice. Dal slipped away from the family and followed the boys.
After checking to make sure nobody was around or watching Dallas walked up behind the two boys. He grabbed them by their shirt collars and pushed them under the bleachers.
"Hey what do you think you're doing?" One of the boys demanded after getting over his shock of being pushed by Dal.
In response Dallas grabbed a fistful of the boy's shirt and pushed the boy against a pole. "Apologize," he hissed.
"What?" the boy asked his voice shaking a bit. The friend was just staring, too frightened and startled to say or do anything.
"Apologize about what you said about Jason Mathews and his family." Dallas had heard their little jokes. He knew that they had probably been supporting the other team and they were just upset over their loss, but he wasn't going to let this go unpunished.
"Hey man, it was just a joke. I didn't mean anything by it," the guy protested.
Dallas tightened his grip on the guy's shirt, and lifted his other arm, his fist curled and ready to strike. That and the evil stare Dallas gave was enough to give any man second thoughts.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry! I didn't mean it," the kid put his hands up to block the blow.
Dallas switched his death glare over to the friend.
"I-I'm sorry too," he hastily added to his friend's statement.
Dallas didn't let go of the guy. The two were clearly socs, and Dal knew what an opportunity he had. He hadn't beaten up a soc in so long. Well, there had been the night with Cliff's gang, but this was different. These guys had insulted the Mathews family, and now he had them all alone. But, the reasonable part of Dallas whispered, there are too many people around that would see the guys all beat up and figure it out. And they would talk. No, he had to let them go, no matter how painful it was. Oh, but he so wanted to punch these guys' lights out.
With a sigh he loosened his grip on the soc's shirt. Quickly the two of them got away. Dallas was pleased to see that even though he hadn't hit either of them, they still scurried off like frightened rabbits. He smiled slightly and walked out of the bleachers and headed back to join the Mathews.
"Hello, young man. And how are you?" It was the preacher. Great.
"Fine," Dallas replied, carefully concealing his smile from a few seconds before. He shifted uncomfortably as he quickened his pace, hoping the preacher would get the hint.
The preacher walked beside Dal. "That was a great game wasn't it? I really enjoyed it." Dallas grunted unintelligibly.
"Reverend, you made it." Officer Roberts stepped forward and shook hands heartily with the preacher. He was there with his son, Will who was talking to Jason about the game.
Dallas quickly moved to the side of the preacher and Roberts. He was only too happy to get away from the preacher. He watched silently as the church man greeted the group.
"Did you ever think I would miss a game like this? Will, you pitched great. You got a couple of guys so bad I thought they would die of embarrassment."
"Thank you, sir," Will replied, slightly embarrassed.
The reverend turned to Jason. "And Jason, you had some pretty big hits this game. Congratulations."
Jason grinned. "Thank you."
"Yeah, that's my boy," Brian proudly stated. He put his hand affectionately on Jason's shoulder.
Johnny's father grabbed him by the shoulder and hurled him out the door.
"You piece of filth!"
Johnny hit the steps and collapsed on the ground.
The man picked up a two by four. The pipe went down and down, hitting everywhere, joined by the occasional kick. Johnny fell down once and his father grabbed his shoulder and propped him back up. The blows rained down, but Johnny never cried out.
A blow to the face, one to the back, a kick to the legs, five blows to the back, a slap on the face, all the while insults being hurled at Johnny. The yells and the cracks of the pipe echoed disgustingly down the street.
Brian squeezed Jason's shoulder warmly. "Good game, son," he said simply.
Dallas took a step back, startled, confused.
A few minutes later the families picked up their stuff and walked out to the parking lot together. There they all went their separate ways, calling goodbyes over their shoulders. Brian put Jason's stuff in the back and walked back to get in the driver's seat. He stopped when he saw Dallas who was just standing there, staring into nothing.
"You all right Dallas?" he put out a hand as he asked the question.
Dallas jerked back, keeping Brian from making contact with him. "Yes, I'm fine," he quickly dismissed the question, and got in the car. Brian watched him get in, shrugged, and opened up his own door. He started the car, and they left the lot.
Dal stared out the window the entire drive back. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get the images out of his head. He didn't hear the lively conversation going on in the car. He didn't feel the leather armrest that he gripped so tightly. He didn't see the beautiful scenery he was staring out at. No, he couldn't get those images out of his head. They were still there, and no matter how hard he tried otherwise, they stayed there. He couldn't get them out of his head. He couldn't understand why it bothered him so. And that scared him.
Okay, another chapter up! And I have a wonderful announcement to make! Last chapter all the reviews for this story passed the ONE HUNDRED mark! On the Run has a total of 114 reviews so far. Thank you thank you! Thank you! Wow, that is so cool!
And sorry I have to put all those bars in, but fanfiction won't let me do anything else. Hope it doesn't confuse anybody.
ERMonkey, Burner of Cookies- That is ironic! What are the odds of that? Well, I wonder if this one is on a holiday. Well, it's on a Sunday, so you are out of school. Let's count it. Wow, three in a row! )
Malara- Thank you very much. Yes, I know what you mean. He's still the bad hood, but he's still human. Well, it wasn't exactly right away, but I updated. Thanks for all your reviews and encouragement! And if I'm not mistaken, I think you were my one hundredth reviewer. Thanks so much! Really, thanks!
Beth- No, they aren't having very serious problems. It's just a little glitch in an otherwise perfect marriage. I think a lot of doctors and law enforcement workers do have this problem of working too late and hard. It creates a couple of problems, but the family can work around it and still be a family without having to divorce or any of that stuff. It just requires more effort. Yes, Dallas is very mature on some issues, and on other issues he just doesn't understand. Aww yes, I love fluff stuff. In Star Wars, Mara Jade and Luke Skywalker fluff I adore. Maybe it's because in the books there isn't enough of it. But I always grin when I read stuff like that too. Thanks for saying so!
nighttime writer- Thank you. Peace out? That's cool, I haven't heard that in a while. ) I'm delighted you're hooked, and I hope you enjoy this chapter.
cinderbrat- Oh, it's okay if you don't want to log in. I understand. I hope you like cute, since you say it is cute. Because if you don't like cute, well, then you probably hate this story. Yes, you are right, something needs to happen. And yes, I am leading up to something. Some more things happened in this chapter, and I think a couple more chapters be building a little bit more, and then I think something big will happen. After all, Dallas only has two weeks with these people. It's getting awful close. Ohh, you're sick? I'm sorry, I hope you're all better! I hate being sick myself, the only good thing is you get to relax and everybody else works to make you feel better. But only if you're really sick, darn it. )
CiCi- Really nasty? I'm thinking more emotional, I hope you don't think gory. I don't think I would be able to do the gory real well. I do read and watch lots of action movies, but Dallas in this story is more on an emotional level. But don't worry, I'll be twisting Dal's emotions this way and that very nastily. Thanks for the review!
Beth- Thank you so much! Yeah, it is huge. I never thought I would get that many. Thanks for the congrats!
Jessie 13- Yes, you're right, Darry is very hard. The reason I think Dal is a little hard is because most stories have him cussing all the time. And I know in real life that's probably what hoods do, but you don't need the cussing to convey the character. In The Outsiders, SE Hinton never needed to tell us the cuss words, she did imply he said them, but she didn't need them to get us hooked on Dal's character. But reading fanfiction makes you think that you have to have that or else Dallas is not in character. So that's what I thought made him a bit of a challenge. How to get him in character and people thinking he's in character, without having to resort to cussing. I meant no offense if you read or write stories with cussing, it's just what I thought. But you're right, Darrel is pretty hard. He's different than all the others.
MissLKid- That's okay. Your teachers are going on strike? Why? Well hey, a holiday, I'm all for it! Good luck! )
Tensleep- Thanks, I wanted people to laugh. Well thank you very much, I appreciate that. Thank you for all your reviews. You've really contributed to getting this story up to a hundred reviews. Thank you so much!
Joker is Poker with a J- Oh, nothing needs to be forgiven. That's okay, I do that all the time too. But thank you for putting me on author alert! That was really sweet!
Oblivious Misconception- Thanks a lot! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I tried to make that part natural, even though Dallas isn't very natural at helping people with their problems. He has enough of his own, right? Yeah, the eyes are the key for Dallas. He uses them to say everything he needs to say. Oh no problem, it's fun to think that a prison rodeo actually exists. Can you imagine? The McAlester prison is very different from all the other prisons. )
Scarlett7- Thank you so much! You helped me though. How's your cat? Is he perfectly fine? I hope so. And I know how crazy life can get, so don't even worry about it. Thanks for reviewing!
blackshe-wolf- I love writing that name. It sounds so cool and feisty. You're a wolf. You're a she-wolf. You're a blackshe-wolf. I love wolves and black ones are pretty. Well, I'm glad you caught up on the story! Thanks for the compliment, it means a lot!
stevesgirl- Oh, don't worry about it! I understand completely. It's hard to review every chapter, and I'm amazed that you've done so many already! Wow, thanks! I hope you have better luck with your computer! Talk to ya later!
Lintucuiel- Thanks for the review! Hey, two words are better than no words at all! Interesting pen name, how do you pronounce it? Lint, oo, sue, e, el? Sorry if I got it wrong. But anyway, thanks for your review!
Well, now you've read so please review! Thank you again for all the reviews. They mean so much to me. It's unbelievable. Thank you so much!!! Have a fabulous day!