A/N: Hey people! I'm back...finally. Okay I know its been forever, and I'm
not even going to do the "I'll try to do better thing" to you
again...obviously its not working for me...so yeah. My excuse this time is that
I went on vacation for two weeks, had a bad week when I got back and then
wrote a 9-page chapter for you guys. I want you to know this in one of the
hardest things I have ever written, which should also account for how long
it took...if you don't believe me after reading it, go and ask Tensleep or
Keira. They can tell you all about my endeavors on this one.
Also...a few other very important things that need to be mentioned...in this chapter Soda gets drunk. I know it's not him to get drunk...but this is one very rare time when he does. Its hard not to when you are out parting with friends and two drinks can get you down. Once he's having fun he keeps drinking because that's what you do when you are drunk...sometimes. In any case, there was no way around it, so I'm sorry if it offends anyone.
I think that's it...except that since I kind of wrote this on the fly, there are things that are probably inaccurate. I did a little research, asked a few people about it, got some opinions. But I figured you would want an update, so I think it's fairly accurate; I'm not saying it is, however.
Now...the dedication of this chapter:
See, this is a hard one. Soo many people helped me on this one, and they know who they are. A special thanks to Tens and Kiks who put up with me through this and helped me out on it. A thanks to my father who told me all about Ed Powers Rd. (Yes, it is a real street that they would go over to to drag race on because it was out of town and a nice straight.) and drag racing and all that fun jazz (and he would know). He inspired me. Also a hand goes out to Steve who helped me out not only on the story itself, but also to de-stress me after writing segments of it so I could go on. Yes, it was that hard to write, so you better thanks him for that one. I think that's it...long huh? Well, a lot went into this chapter, so a lot came out. A lot of people got involved too.
WARNING: THERE IS ABUSE IN THIS CHAPTER! IT ISNT PRETTY...IF THAT WILL OFFEND YOU, DON NOT READ ON. I have warned you all.
Chapter 5 Steve's POV
We found the best bar with an open pool table and had Two-Bit order a round of beers seeing as he was the only one who legally could. Then we started placing more bets on each other. Whoever lost the round had to pay for the drinks, luckily we had to be in teams for this, so no one person had to pay up. Luckily for me, we beat out Two-bit and Dally clean on the game. Okay, okay...more like just barely. Two-Bit is too much of a goof off to help Dally enough to beat us.
After a few more rounds of pool and finishing off our beers, we al left to go cruise the streets. I was right in saying it was going to be great. It was wild that night, the atmosphere was just great. Sometimes it wasn't that good, but a full moon made a big difference to some people. Before long we were chatting with a few buds from school and showing off our new tattoos. The guys weren't exactly our friends, but things change in this part of town. Everyone became friends if you were there, no soc's hung out there, and everyone there had something in common. It all worked out one way or the other.
Coincidentally, that's about the time that Tim Shepard showed up. He was soused already, the moon barely showing, but then again, so were we. We got to talking with him, I mean, none of us minded and Dal sure had fun with Tim.
"What's goin on tonight?" I asked Tim in a split second of silence. He always knew where all the action was, so if you wanted action, you asked Tim about it.
"Over at Powers road there's a drag race later tonight. Its supposed to be big, a run for money. Over at Bratton way some kids started vandalizing and slashing tires for the soc's, no fuzz in that area. Then there's the usual. Get drunk and party...you guys seen Curly? He went off with some pretty ass, haven't seen him since. Hope he's robbing a liquor store for us!" Tim laughed crazily, joyed at just the thought of his brother doing such a thing.
I tuned out the rest of the conversation, figuring I had already heard it or didn't want to. I could care less what Tim thought about this or that or what trouble his best gang scum had gotten into the week before to land him in the cooler. It wasn't worth my time, and apparently Soda didn't think so either. We looked at each other, realized neither of us was interested past the drag race, and instinctively left the circle at the same time and headed in the same direction.
When we were about ten feet away we both stopped and looked around. Soda glanced at me lighting up and took a swig of his nearly empty beer. Neither of us liked to drink a lot, we had more fun when we knew what was going on, but every once in a while it was refreshing. Not to mention that we could both hold our alcohol just fine, it took a lot to get us down.
"So, you up for the drag race tonight?" he asked casually, "Sounds fun to me. Bet Pete will be there too, maybe this time we can beat his sorry ass; I heard he demolished his beater car, we have a chance if it's true."
Pete was a guy that worked at the DX with us for the first few months we were there. He was a cool guy, to big for his shirt, but cool. It didn't surprise anyone when he got a job at the big shots garage on our side of the tracks. Since then he had been too big for the likes of us, or so he thought. Really, his job wasn't much better than ours, and sure as hell not as easy going. We saw him every once in a while out on the streets, and in Two-Bits junker, we never could beat him in a race. He liked more than anything to rub it in our face, but we took all the chances we could get to try and win him just once; obviously it had never happened.
"Hah." I grunted, "I'm sure if he ran that one off the road he has a bigger better smoker to show it up. Always does" I paused and thought for a minute. As much as I didn't care to race Pete that night, it sounded fun. I needed action and speed, lights and the squealing of out of control tires. "But I'm game. I need action, man."
By that time, Dally and Two-Bit were done talking to Tim and came over to hear just my last phrase.
"What are you game for? I want some action!" Two-Bit asked a bit too excited, or drunk, most likely both.
"We're going out to Powers tonight. Got a rep to prove!" Soda spat excitedly. He sure was verging on drunk that night. We all were. I don't know what brought it on, why we all wanted it that night, but it just seemed fit. We were due for a little partying, I guess. It had been a rough few days, days that felt like nothing less than months.
Dally looked a bit annoyed at that. I thought he would be happy to go out racing, he usually loved it.
"Right, and who's car you taking? We walked, you drunken hobos." He pointed out the one thing none of us had wanted to think about yet. That was a first, for Dally to point out something logical.
I knew right off that we couldn't take the Curtis' truck, Darry never allowed that, at least when he was home to stop it. He was home that night, so that option was out.
"Well, we cant take mine, its in the shop" Otherwise known as Two-Bits lawn. He never took his car into the shop when it broke down, he just waited for it to fix itself, meaning that Soda and I had to fix it for him, the bum.
I sighed, maybe the drag racing wouldn't happen that night.
Soda and everyone else all looked to me.
"What?"
"What about your car?" Soda asked, we usually took mine to drag races, it was the best for it anyway, not to mention that between Soda and me it was the only one we could use without getting skinned. The problem was that the carburetor had bee acting up, so I had it in shambles. There was no way that baby was going anyway tonight.
"I'm fixing the carburetor, remember? It's in pieces still, that baby ain't going to make it out of the fucking driveway, let alone win a race for us."
"Damn, I guess that's out then." Two-Bit was disappointed. I was too, and I could see that soda sure was, but there wasn't nothing we could do about it.
But then an idea hit me upside the head. I did have a car, my dads. It wasn't too fast, but we could make it run good with a few special touches and an experienced driver. I wanted to drag race, my dad would be home drunk by now so he wouldn't be using it and I could hot wire it for the night and fix it when we were through. It was perfect. I was looking for trouble, just a little, no harm done, fun trouble...and here it was. Right in my face.
"Hey guys. Lets go on over to my place and take my dads car. It's easy to hot wire and with a few tricks we can have the baby spiting fire up Pete's ass tonight." I said, suddenly excited.
Soda looked at me, seemingly a bit worried, "Are you crazy, Steve? Your dads gonna kill ya!"
I grinned wildly, "He ain't gonna find out and if he did it wouldn't matter much anyhow. He beats me anyway, so I might as well get beat for doing something, not nothing. C'mon, he ain't gonna find out if you all keep your fucking mouths shut! Got it?"
I knew then that Dally and Two-Bit were instantly game, Soda considered it for a few minutes, but seemed to finally agree with my point of view and grinned. We were all wild drunk, and it was great...at the time.
By the time we got over to Powers Street, the night was heating up. There were about seven cars there already and races were running. Everyone seemed drunk, but races had a way of doing that to people. I was excited for the action and we pulled up to the line of cars that extended two back on each side of the road, seeing as it was only a two lane. We were third in line and could hardly wait for our turn to smoke the crowd.
We all knew we had to prove ourselves in at least two races before we could challenge Pete. It was an unspoken rule on the road. Everyone, even Pete had to prove themselves before they could challenge a winner, until then you were just another car pulling up to the line with some Joe next to you.
The first run went well, I was just getting the feel for the car, but the dude next to us had no idea how to race. He was young from what I saw, and obviously a newbie at this if not a first timer. I laughed all the way through the run and took another swig of beer at the victory line. It was odd, I wanted to drink more, and it was good then. I normally hated it, but the more I drank the more I wanted.
The second race went great to. It was even better, really. It was a fair win, square as it gets. The guy was another Joe like us, and he knew how to handle his car just fine, but luckily for me, I was better with mine. We crossed the line a foot ahead of him, just barely winning, but the win felt even better. It was great. I felt free for the first time in days. I never knew it to be so sweet before in my life.
We whooped and hollered our victory and did the circle around for the next race. I wanted to race Pete then, fresh out of a victory, so I declared my request and got it ten minutes later.
Of course we were all hyped as we sat on the start line, marked by a few burning weeds in the dark and a small chalk mark you could hardly see; they had to re-establish the line before each run, but at least you could see it. We wanted to beat Pete and being drunk, we thought we could.
"Drive like a maniac and freak him out!" Two-Bit told me in slurred words, "Some guy told me that he was afraid of getting in a accident, so you could freak him out."
I grinned, it wasn't like I wasn't already planning that. You had to drive like a maniac to get anything done out here, and I planned to do just that.
"That ain't gonna get him," Dally shot back, "He's better than that. Just drive damn fast, got it?"
"Yeah, I ain't stupid." I retorted. The longer we had to wait the more insane I was going to go with these two in the car. But I was having fun and felt hyped anyway.
The kid at the line put out his hand to signal the rev up phase as I called it. Part of the race was to see who had the loudest engine, it didn't mean anything, but it was the best sound in the world and added to the excitement.
The kid threw his arm up and we were off, zero to sixty in fifteen seconds or under. It was great. As much as I had hated that car in the past, I loved it right then.
We got up to about eighty miles per hour and we were rockin, I couldn't get it to go much faster, but I was pushing it harder and harder. All of the sudden Pete swerved in our direction, Dally started screaming at me and I swerved hard in the opposite direction, all at the exact same moment. I avoided a collision with Pete, thank goodness, but I didn't avoid the accident all together.
I felt the back end of the car come around as the car spun, and suddenly it hit. We were propelled up fast, then slammed to the ground hard. The window next to me shattered as metal bent loudly, then we were off again, flying. It was amazing, the way things looked. Glass shattering, Dally's face with an excited and tough expression, the stars swirling through my view, more glass. The noise was tremendous, crunching metal, glass hitting and breaking, people screaming. I had never seen anything so cool, or heard anything so loud. I loved it, but part of me was saying it want right. This wasn't normal, and it shouldn't be happening.
Then it went almost silent as the world turned and turned. I knew it should be loud, but it wasn't, it was almost peaceful, the way things turned and went in ad out of my blurry vision. Then it stopped, and no one moved.
I was grateful by then that Soda had insisted on us wearing seatbelts. Most cars didn't have them, and it wasn't tough to wear them, so we all hated them, but soda wouldn't let it go. I remembered refuting him, telling him it was stupid, but he begged, said he would leave and walk home if we didn't. We all knew why, so we did it. Drunk or not, that was a place you didn't go with Sodapop Curtis.
I sat there for ten seconds not being able to breathe. I no doubt had knocked the wind out of myself against the steering wheel, which I still found myself leaning on. I hear rustling, Two-Bit was groaning, Dally was cussing under his breath, but I hadn't heard a sound from Soda yet.
Finally I could gasp, it felt good at first, but then the pain hit. It hurt to breathe and my chest was tight. I pushed back for the steering column, feeling a little relieved but not much. I was going to have a huge bruise from that, I was sure.
I groaned then, not only from pain, but also from an overwhelming thought; this was my dad's car; he was going to kill me. He might be lazy, but he liked his cars nice, we might not be that great off, but he had nice cars, no matter what.
Finally Soda spoke up and broke me out of my thoughts. He was crying then, a drunken cry that only a drunk shook up kid could pull off. He started yelling out, to me to Two-bit and Dally, he was freaking out.
"Steve? Dally? Oh my god...Two-Bit...You guys okay? Oh god..." he sobbed shortly, "Answer me!" he wasn't giving us much time to answer.
I wheezed deeply and turned a little, because he was in the back, to look at him. Slowly he was sitting up more and looking around, panicked. I couldn't see Two-Bit, but I could hear him, he was right behind me, and dally was next to me. From where I was sitting I could everyone but Two-Bit and they seemed fine through my now slightly blurry vision.
"Relax, Sodapop. We're all fine, calm down." Dally grunted a bit impatiently to Soda. He hadn't moved, but he didn't seem to be hurt to bad.
"Soda? You all right? Two-Bit all right?" I asked then. I didn't mean to be abrupt, but it was the only thing that made any sense to do at the time.
"Oh god...you sure? Oh god...God, Two-Bit? Are you okay?" he choked out, nervous as all hell. Two-Bit only groaned, a bit louder than before, but not by much.
I saw Soda lean over to Two-Bit out of the corner of my eye, then Dally commented, "He's bleeding like a stuck pig from his head. Probably hit it pretty hard."
"God..." I groaned to myself out loud. I was so in trouble for this one. Yeah, I was in for it.
I could hear people moving in closer to the car by then. A lot of them were saying ooh and aw and oh man that sucks. I knew the car had to look real bad then, I knew before, but now I really knew.
Dally started moving around then. He undid his seatbelt and turned to get a better look at Two-Bit. He sighed and got out of the car slowly, biting his lip and groaning. I didn't even want to try to move, but I knew that Dally was coming around to this side to get Two-Bit out, so I made my way out too. I didn't get to standing up before I was back on the ground however. The world just spun when I tried to stand...it wasn't worth it.
By that time, Dally was over to my side of the car and saw me fall. He came over to help me getup. Without thinking I took his hand; before I got an inch off the ground, however, he was winching and cussing, and letting me fall back on the ground.
I grunted, there wasn't any outside damage to Dally, but he sure was in pain, that was unmistakable by his face. Luckily, he didn't like to let the pain get to him, ever. Just then Tim came over, pushing Dal out of the way and pull me up. He helped me out of the way, so I was out of the ditch my side of the car had ended up in and about ten feet away.
I was grateful for his assistance, but I sure felt useless. I knew I was drunk, I could hold a lot of beer, but not that much apparently. Dally was holding it good, not great, but he was better than the rest of us. Soda was as drunk as I had ever seen him, and Two-Bit was as wild as ever too. He had been drunk when we started, but he really was now.
Pretty soon Two-Bit was out of the car, some people having helped him, and Soda too. Soda was sitting next to me in the field, as shook up as before. He was still crying, even though we were all fine. Dally sat on the other side of me commenting on how crazy that ride was and how beat up the car was. I wanted to slug him, but I couldn't. Two-Bit lying next to Dally, still groaning out of pain, and holding someone's worthless, dirty t-shirt to his head to get the bleeding to stop.
A few minutes later we got a ride home from Tim. He took everyone where they wanted to go to. He knew we were all too drunk to walk, and we had been in an accident, so he played nice for once. He even walked everyone to the door, just so they made it. I'm sure he had plenty of fun with Mrs. Mathews, and Darry. Tim handled it just fine; he didn't ever gripe...that I remember.
I only let Tim take me to the doorstep despite the fact that I couldn't hardly stand upright any longer. My dad was home; I could hear him yelling about me being gone to my mother already. I was in for it.
Tim had left me there on the porch and drove off, luckily before my dad came out.
"Where the hell's my car?" he screamed. He was going to wake up the neighbors at this rate, I thought. Great, just what I need, fuzz over here tonight too. I could go to reform for taking my dads car.
I knew lying to him wouldn't do me any good, he knew I had taken it; I was the only one who would anyway. I figured the quicker I told him, the better off I would be. So I spilt it.
"Not here."
"Where is it? Are you drunk?"
"I took it racing." I walked into the house past him, trying to look less drunk than I was. I didn't take the energy to answer his stupid question. He was drunk too, so why did I care what he thought about it?
"What did you do to I, damn it! I want to know! There better not be a scratch on that beauty!"
"Yeah? Well, I rolled that beauty of yours! Its ready for the junk yard now!" I broke out. He made me mad; the only thing he cared about was his car, his things. He could give a shit if I was dead in the hospital right now.
My mom broke in before my dad could start up again, he still interrupted her, but I ignored it for a minute.
"Oh, honey! You were in an accident? Are you okay?" she crooned worried like. She really was, I knew that. My mom wasn't the best, but she was my mother.
"Ma, I'm fine. Really." I said tiredly. I was so ready to hit my bed and just go to sleep. I knew it wasn't going to happen before a beating.
My dad was cussing me out like I had never heard before, which is saying a lot. He kept going on about how it was his nice car and I had ruined it, and I was going to pay for it, and all this shit. It got to a point where I just lost track of where he was and what he was saying, that was about thirty seconds into it of course.
"Are you listening to me? Huh? You had better be, scum! You crashed my damn car! Fuck you! Why did you think I never let you drive it? Huh? I knew you would crash it, little piece of shit, no good --" He would have gone of swearing, but I cut him off before he could, heat rising to my head and my temper flaring. I, for the first time ever, had the guts to stand up to him.
"You would have crashed it yourself! I can't believe you didn't already, the way you drink." I said with all the contempt I could muster, the way I was feeling, "You would kill yourself and someone else too, damn it. Don't talk --"
A quick fist in the stomach cut me off. I doubled over, trying my hardest to not gasp visibly or loudly. It hurt like crazy. One thing I had come to learn was that my dad sure could pack a good punch, which was always bad for me.
He didn't stop there either. Not seconds after the first hit, there was another fist hitting my face with such force that it threw me to the floor. I could hear something in there break, and I sure felt it. I refused to show my pain, but it was there. Then it hit me that I was bleeding everywhere. The blood was blinding me. Luckily, it made it easier to not cower.
Then he left the house for a minute, still yelling. I knew what was coming, and I braced myself for it, I wasn't leaving that house until he was done with me, and it wasn't going to be for a while.
He came back, yelling louder and sporting a nice weathered but strong, pine two by four; and he made sure to tell me so. I knew it was going to be bad, but a two by four?
I could hear my mom in the background screaming and begging him to stop there, while my drunken father hollered louder at me and now to her too. I anticipated the blow that was sure to come soon, tightening all my muscles in preparation. The problem was that it wasn't coming. I couldn't look up to see what he was doing, that would show fear, so I sat there waiting. The longer I waited, the worse it got.
After, I don't know how long, I started to relax more and more, not being able to hold my muscles like that. Then it hit. That must've been what he was waiting for, because he took the opportunity, smacking right below my shoulder blades. I fell to my knees still hunching over. It smarted and burned, then it exploded. Sharp shooting pain filled what seemed like my whole body; my arms, back, chest, neck, head. It took all I had to not gasp for air or scream in agony, it hurt that badly.
The agony hadn't dissipated at all before another hit sent me sprawling to the floor. This one was on my lower back, I thought. It was hard to tell, all I knew was that the pain was more intense and my back was on fire. I didn't feel the pain for long, however.
My forehead smacked hard on the edge of the coffee table, and sparks started flying in my vision. I was vaguely aware of falling to the floor as my body smarted and my head screamed. I could still hear my drunk of a father yelling and setting up for another hit, but I was out before I knew it.
At least the pain was gone, was my last thought before I lost touch with all reality.
Well, that's it! I hope that everything made sense and that you all enjoyed this long chapter! See ya all later.
Now to Review responses which I decided to do at the end this one time:
His Royal Highness: Wow....i told it like it is? Sweeet....its kinda funny but I guess I got the vibe from you, stud. LOL. I mean, I aint never had a tat. I want one, but that's another topic. Anyway, you will be happy to find that Ponybrat as you call him wasn't even mentioned in the chapter. Be happy! See ya around....oh and be happy...Im out of my pissy mood, so you have to be too. Got it? See ya!
Erunyauve: Wow...I hate it when ffn munches reviews....that happens to me all the time. Anyway...Im happy that you agree and enjoyed the chapter. I think that the turn of events here might have surprised you, eh? LOL. Hope so. See ya round!
TeacherTam: Oh...did ya like? Did ya like? I sure hope so. I had to add my little twist of events. So I hope you enjoyed!
Keira -- the right way to spell my name: HAHA. Well, thanks for remembering to review. LOL. I still hate those names of Jhons...but yeah. At least that is settled...it really has been a long time since I updated. LOL. Well, did you know what was going to happen? I don't remember. Hope you liked...wait, I know you do! Talk to ya laters!
Also...a few other very important things that need to be mentioned...in this chapter Soda gets drunk. I know it's not him to get drunk...but this is one very rare time when he does. Its hard not to when you are out parting with friends and two drinks can get you down. Once he's having fun he keeps drinking because that's what you do when you are drunk...sometimes. In any case, there was no way around it, so I'm sorry if it offends anyone.
I think that's it...except that since I kind of wrote this on the fly, there are things that are probably inaccurate. I did a little research, asked a few people about it, got some opinions. But I figured you would want an update, so I think it's fairly accurate; I'm not saying it is, however.
Now...the dedication of this chapter:
See, this is a hard one. Soo many people helped me on this one, and they know who they are. A special thanks to Tens and Kiks who put up with me through this and helped me out on it. A thanks to my father who told me all about Ed Powers Rd. (Yes, it is a real street that they would go over to to drag race on because it was out of town and a nice straight.) and drag racing and all that fun jazz (and he would know). He inspired me. Also a hand goes out to Steve who helped me out not only on the story itself, but also to de-stress me after writing segments of it so I could go on. Yes, it was that hard to write, so you better thanks him for that one. I think that's it...long huh? Well, a lot went into this chapter, so a lot came out. A lot of people got involved too.
WARNING: THERE IS ABUSE IN THIS CHAPTER! IT ISNT PRETTY...IF THAT WILL OFFEND YOU, DON NOT READ ON. I have warned you all.
Chapter 5 Steve's POV
We found the best bar with an open pool table and had Two-Bit order a round of beers seeing as he was the only one who legally could. Then we started placing more bets on each other. Whoever lost the round had to pay for the drinks, luckily we had to be in teams for this, so no one person had to pay up. Luckily for me, we beat out Two-bit and Dally clean on the game. Okay, okay...more like just barely. Two-Bit is too much of a goof off to help Dally enough to beat us.
After a few more rounds of pool and finishing off our beers, we al left to go cruise the streets. I was right in saying it was going to be great. It was wild that night, the atmosphere was just great. Sometimes it wasn't that good, but a full moon made a big difference to some people. Before long we were chatting with a few buds from school and showing off our new tattoos. The guys weren't exactly our friends, but things change in this part of town. Everyone became friends if you were there, no soc's hung out there, and everyone there had something in common. It all worked out one way or the other.
Coincidentally, that's about the time that Tim Shepard showed up. He was soused already, the moon barely showing, but then again, so were we. We got to talking with him, I mean, none of us minded and Dal sure had fun with Tim.
"What's goin on tonight?" I asked Tim in a split second of silence. He always knew where all the action was, so if you wanted action, you asked Tim about it.
"Over at Powers road there's a drag race later tonight. Its supposed to be big, a run for money. Over at Bratton way some kids started vandalizing and slashing tires for the soc's, no fuzz in that area. Then there's the usual. Get drunk and party...you guys seen Curly? He went off with some pretty ass, haven't seen him since. Hope he's robbing a liquor store for us!" Tim laughed crazily, joyed at just the thought of his brother doing such a thing.
I tuned out the rest of the conversation, figuring I had already heard it or didn't want to. I could care less what Tim thought about this or that or what trouble his best gang scum had gotten into the week before to land him in the cooler. It wasn't worth my time, and apparently Soda didn't think so either. We looked at each other, realized neither of us was interested past the drag race, and instinctively left the circle at the same time and headed in the same direction.
When we were about ten feet away we both stopped and looked around. Soda glanced at me lighting up and took a swig of his nearly empty beer. Neither of us liked to drink a lot, we had more fun when we knew what was going on, but every once in a while it was refreshing. Not to mention that we could both hold our alcohol just fine, it took a lot to get us down.
"So, you up for the drag race tonight?" he asked casually, "Sounds fun to me. Bet Pete will be there too, maybe this time we can beat his sorry ass; I heard he demolished his beater car, we have a chance if it's true."
Pete was a guy that worked at the DX with us for the first few months we were there. He was a cool guy, to big for his shirt, but cool. It didn't surprise anyone when he got a job at the big shots garage on our side of the tracks. Since then he had been too big for the likes of us, or so he thought. Really, his job wasn't much better than ours, and sure as hell not as easy going. We saw him every once in a while out on the streets, and in Two-Bits junker, we never could beat him in a race. He liked more than anything to rub it in our face, but we took all the chances we could get to try and win him just once; obviously it had never happened.
"Hah." I grunted, "I'm sure if he ran that one off the road he has a bigger better smoker to show it up. Always does" I paused and thought for a minute. As much as I didn't care to race Pete that night, it sounded fun. I needed action and speed, lights and the squealing of out of control tires. "But I'm game. I need action, man."
By that time, Dally and Two-Bit were done talking to Tim and came over to hear just my last phrase.
"What are you game for? I want some action!" Two-Bit asked a bit too excited, or drunk, most likely both.
"We're going out to Powers tonight. Got a rep to prove!" Soda spat excitedly. He sure was verging on drunk that night. We all were. I don't know what brought it on, why we all wanted it that night, but it just seemed fit. We were due for a little partying, I guess. It had been a rough few days, days that felt like nothing less than months.
Dally looked a bit annoyed at that. I thought he would be happy to go out racing, he usually loved it.
"Right, and who's car you taking? We walked, you drunken hobos." He pointed out the one thing none of us had wanted to think about yet. That was a first, for Dally to point out something logical.
I knew right off that we couldn't take the Curtis' truck, Darry never allowed that, at least when he was home to stop it. He was home that night, so that option was out.
"Well, we cant take mine, its in the shop" Otherwise known as Two-Bits lawn. He never took his car into the shop when it broke down, he just waited for it to fix itself, meaning that Soda and I had to fix it for him, the bum.
I sighed, maybe the drag racing wouldn't happen that night.
Soda and everyone else all looked to me.
"What?"
"What about your car?" Soda asked, we usually took mine to drag races, it was the best for it anyway, not to mention that between Soda and me it was the only one we could use without getting skinned. The problem was that the carburetor had bee acting up, so I had it in shambles. There was no way that baby was going anyway tonight.
"I'm fixing the carburetor, remember? It's in pieces still, that baby ain't going to make it out of the fucking driveway, let alone win a race for us."
"Damn, I guess that's out then." Two-Bit was disappointed. I was too, and I could see that soda sure was, but there wasn't nothing we could do about it.
But then an idea hit me upside the head. I did have a car, my dads. It wasn't too fast, but we could make it run good with a few special touches and an experienced driver. I wanted to drag race, my dad would be home drunk by now so he wouldn't be using it and I could hot wire it for the night and fix it when we were through. It was perfect. I was looking for trouble, just a little, no harm done, fun trouble...and here it was. Right in my face.
"Hey guys. Lets go on over to my place and take my dads car. It's easy to hot wire and with a few tricks we can have the baby spiting fire up Pete's ass tonight." I said, suddenly excited.
Soda looked at me, seemingly a bit worried, "Are you crazy, Steve? Your dads gonna kill ya!"
I grinned wildly, "He ain't gonna find out and if he did it wouldn't matter much anyhow. He beats me anyway, so I might as well get beat for doing something, not nothing. C'mon, he ain't gonna find out if you all keep your fucking mouths shut! Got it?"
I knew then that Dally and Two-Bit were instantly game, Soda considered it for a few minutes, but seemed to finally agree with my point of view and grinned. We were all wild drunk, and it was great...at the time.
By the time we got over to Powers Street, the night was heating up. There were about seven cars there already and races were running. Everyone seemed drunk, but races had a way of doing that to people. I was excited for the action and we pulled up to the line of cars that extended two back on each side of the road, seeing as it was only a two lane. We were third in line and could hardly wait for our turn to smoke the crowd.
We all knew we had to prove ourselves in at least two races before we could challenge Pete. It was an unspoken rule on the road. Everyone, even Pete had to prove themselves before they could challenge a winner, until then you were just another car pulling up to the line with some Joe next to you.
The first run went well, I was just getting the feel for the car, but the dude next to us had no idea how to race. He was young from what I saw, and obviously a newbie at this if not a first timer. I laughed all the way through the run and took another swig of beer at the victory line. It was odd, I wanted to drink more, and it was good then. I normally hated it, but the more I drank the more I wanted.
The second race went great to. It was even better, really. It was a fair win, square as it gets. The guy was another Joe like us, and he knew how to handle his car just fine, but luckily for me, I was better with mine. We crossed the line a foot ahead of him, just barely winning, but the win felt even better. It was great. I felt free for the first time in days. I never knew it to be so sweet before in my life.
We whooped and hollered our victory and did the circle around for the next race. I wanted to race Pete then, fresh out of a victory, so I declared my request and got it ten minutes later.
Of course we were all hyped as we sat on the start line, marked by a few burning weeds in the dark and a small chalk mark you could hardly see; they had to re-establish the line before each run, but at least you could see it. We wanted to beat Pete and being drunk, we thought we could.
"Drive like a maniac and freak him out!" Two-Bit told me in slurred words, "Some guy told me that he was afraid of getting in a accident, so you could freak him out."
I grinned, it wasn't like I wasn't already planning that. You had to drive like a maniac to get anything done out here, and I planned to do just that.
"That ain't gonna get him," Dally shot back, "He's better than that. Just drive damn fast, got it?"
"Yeah, I ain't stupid." I retorted. The longer we had to wait the more insane I was going to go with these two in the car. But I was having fun and felt hyped anyway.
The kid at the line put out his hand to signal the rev up phase as I called it. Part of the race was to see who had the loudest engine, it didn't mean anything, but it was the best sound in the world and added to the excitement.
The kid threw his arm up and we were off, zero to sixty in fifteen seconds or under. It was great. As much as I had hated that car in the past, I loved it right then.
We got up to about eighty miles per hour and we were rockin, I couldn't get it to go much faster, but I was pushing it harder and harder. All of the sudden Pete swerved in our direction, Dally started screaming at me and I swerved hard in the opposite direction, all at the exact same moment. I avoided a collision with Pete, thank goodness, but I didn't avoid the accident all together.
I felt the back end of the car come around as the car spun, and suddenly it hit. We were propelled up fast, then slammed to the ground hard. The window next to me shattered as metal bent loudly, then we were off again, flying. It was amazing, the way things looked. Glass shattering, Dally's face with an excited and tough expression, the stars swirling through my view, more glass. The noise was tremendous, crunching metal, glass hitting and breaking, people screaming. I had never seen anything so cool, or heard anything so loud. I loved it, but part of me was saying it want right. This wasn't normal, and it shouldn't be happening.
Then it went almost silent as the world turned and turned. I knew it should be loud, but it wasn't, it was almost peaceful, the way things turned and went in ad out of my blurry vision. Then it stopped, and no one moved.
I was grateful by then that Soda had insisted on us wearing seatbelts. Most cars didn't have them, and it wasn't tough to wear them, so we all hated them, but soda wouldn't let it go. I remembered refuting him, telling him it was stupid, but he begged, said he would leave and walk home if we didn't. We all knew why, so we did it. Drunk or not, that was a place you didn't go with Sodapop Curtis.
I sat there for ten seconds not being able to breathe. I no doubt had knocked the wind out of myself against the steering wheel, which I still found myself leaning on. I hear rustling, Two-Bit was groaning, Dally was cussing under his breath, but I hadn't heard a sound from Soda yet.
Finally I could gasp, it felt good at first, but then the pain hit. It hurt to breathe and my chest was tight. I pushed back for the steering column, feeling a little relieved but not much. I was going to have a huge bruise from that, I was sure.
I groaned then, not only from pain, but also from an overwhelming thought; this was my dad's car; he was going to kill me. He might be lazy, but he liked his cars nice, we might not be that great off, but he had nice cars, no matter what.
Finally Soda spoke up and broke me out of my thoughts. He was crying then, a drunken cry that only a drunk shook up kid could pull off. He started yelling out, to me to Two-bit and Dally, he was freaking out.
"Steve? Dally? Oh my god...Two-Bit...You guys okay? Oh god..." he sobbed shortly, "Answer me!" he wasn't giving us much time to answer.
I wheezed deeply and turned a little, because he was in the back, to look at him. Slowly he was sitting up more and looking around, panicked. I couldn't see Two-Bit, but I could hear him, he was right behind me, and dally was next to me. From where I was sitting I could everyone but Two-Bit and they seemed fine through my now slightly blurry vision.
"Relax, Sodapop. We're all fine, calm down." Dally grunted a bit impatiently to Soda. He hadn't moved, but he didn't seem to be hurt to bad.
"Soda? You all right? Two-Bit all right?" I asked then. I didn't mean to be abrupt, but it was the only thing that made any sense to do at the time.
"Oh god...you sure? Oh god...God, Two-Bit? Are you okay?" he choked out, nervous as all hell. Two-Bit only groaned, a bit louder than before, but not by much.
I saw Soda lean over to Two-Bit out of the corner of my eye, then Dally commented, "He's bleeding like a stuck pig from his head. Probably hit it pretty hard."
"God..." I groaned to myself out loud. I was so in trouble for this one. Yeah, I was in for it.
I could hear people moving in closer to the car by then. A lot of them were saying ooh and aw and oh man that sucks. I knew the car had to look real bad then, I knew before, but now I really knew.
Dally started moving around then. He undid his seatbelt and turned to get a better look at Two-Bit. He sighed and got out of the car slowly, biting his lip and groaning. I didn't even want to try to move, but I knew that Dally was coming around to this side to get Two-Bit out, so I made my way out too. I didn't get to standing up before I was back on the ground however. The world just spun when I tried to stand...it wasn't worth it.
By that time, Dally was over to my side of the car and saw me fall. He came over to help me getup. Without thinking I took his hand; before I got an inch off the ground, however, he was winching and cussing, and letting me fall back on the ground.
I grunted, there wasn't any outside damage to Dally, but he sure was in pain, that was unmistakable by his face. Luckily, he didn't like to let the pain get to him, ever. Just then Tim came over, pushing Dal out of the way and pull me up. He helped me out of the way, so I was out of the ditch my side of the car had ended up in and about ten feet away.
I was grateful for his assistance, but I sure felt useless. I knew I was drunk, I could hold a lot of beer, but not that much apparently. Dally was holding it good, not great, but he was better than the rest of us. Soda was as drunk as I had ever seen him, and Two-Bit was as wild as ever too. He had been drunk when we started, but he really was now.
Pretty soon Two-Bit was out of the car, some people having helped him, and Soda too. Soda was sitting next to me in the field, as shook up as before. He was still crying, even though we were all fine. Dally sat on the other side of me commenting on how crazy that ride was and how beat up the car was. I wanted to slug him, but I couldn't. Two-Bit lying next to Dally, still groaning out of pain, and holding someone's worthless, dirty t-shirt to his head to get the bleeding to stop.
A few minutes later we got a ride home from Tim. He took everyone where they wanted to go to. He knew we were all too drunk to walk, and we had been in an accident, so he played nice for once. He even walked everyone to the door, just so they made it. I'm sure he had plenty of fun with Mrs. Mathews, and Darry. Tim handled it just fine; he didn't ever gripe...that I remember.
I only let Tim take me to the doorstep despite the fact that I couldn't hardly stand upright any longer. My dad was home; I could hear him yelling about me being gone to my mother already. I was in for it.
Tim had left me there on the porch and drove off, luckily before my dad came out.
"Where the hell's my car?" he screamed. He was going to wake up the neighbors at this rate, I thought. Great, just what I need, fuzz over here tonight too. I could go to reform for taking my dads car.
I knew lying to him wouldn't do me any good, he knew I had taken it; I was the only one who would anyway. I figured the quicker I told him, the better off I would be. So I spilt it.
"Not here."
"Where is it? Are you drunk?"
"I took it racing." I walked into the house past him, trying to look less drunk than I was. I didn't take the energy to answer his stupid question. He was drunk too, so why did I care what he thought about it?
"What did you do to I, damn it! I want to know! There better not be a scratch on that beauty!"
"Yeah? Well, I rolled that beauty of yours! Its ready for the junk yard now!" I broke out. He made me mad; the only thing he cared about was his car, his things. He could give a shit if I was dead in the hospital right now.
My mom broke in before my dad could start up again, he still interrupted her, but I ignored it for a minute.
"Oh, honey! You were in an accident? Are you okay?" she crooned worried like. She really was, I knew that. My mom wasn't the best, but she was my mother.
"Ma, I'm fine. Really." I said tiredly. I was so ready to hit my bed and just go to sleep. I knew it wasn't going to happen before a beating.
My dad was cussing me out like I had never heard before, which is saying a lot. He kept going on about how it was his nice car and I had ruined it, and I was going to pay for it, and all this shit. It got to a point where I just lost track of where he was and what he was saying, that was about thirty seconds into it of course.
"Are you listening to me? Huh? You had better be, scum! You crashed my damn car! Fuck you! Why did you think I never let you drive it? Huh? I knew you would crash it, little piece of shit, no good --" He would have gone of swearing, but I cut him off before he could, heat rising to my head and my temper flaring. I, for the first time ever, had the guts to stand up to him.
"You would have crashed it yourself! I can't believe you didn't already, the way you drink." I said with all the contempt I could muster, the way I was feeling, "You would kill yourself and someone else too, damn it. Don't talk --"
A quick fist in the stomach cut me off. I doubled over, trying my hardest to not gasp visibly or loudly. It hurt like crazy. One thing I had come to learn was that my dad sure could pack a good punch, which was always bad for me.
He didn't stop there either. Not seconds after the first hit, there was another fist hitting my face with such force that it threw me to the floor. I could hear something in there break, and I sure felt it. I refused to show my pain, but it was there. Then it hit me that I was bleeding everywhere. The blood was blinding me. Luckily, it made it easier to not cower.
Then he left the house for a minute, still yelling. I knew what was coming, and I braced myself for it, I wasn't leaving that house until he was done with me, and it wasn't going to be for a while.
He came back, yelling louder and sporting a nice weathered but strong, pine two by four; and he made sure to tell me so. I knew it was going to be bad, but a two by four?
I could hear my mom in the background screaming and begging him to stop there, while my drunken father hollered louder at me and now to her too. I anticipated the blow that was sure to come soon, tightening all my muscles in preparation. The problem was that it wasn't coming. I couldn't look up to see what he was doing, that would show fear, so I sat there waiting. The longer I waited, the worse it got.
After, I don't know how long, I started to relax more and more, not being able to hold my muscles like that. Then it hit. That must've been what he was waiting for, because he took the opportunity, smacking right below my shoulder blades. I fell to my knees still hunching over. It smarted and burned, then it exploded. Sharp shooting pain filled what seemed like my whole body; my arms, back, chest, neck, head. It took all I had to not gasp for air or scream in agony, it hurt that badly.
The agony hadn't dissipated at all before another hit sent me sprawling to the floor. This one was on my lower back, I thought. It was hard to tell, all I knew was that the pain was more intense and my back was on fire. I didn't feel the pain for long, however.
My forehead smacked hard on the edge of the coffee table, and sparks started flying in my vision. I was vaguely aware of falling to the floor as my body smarted and my head screamed. I could still hear my drunk of a father yelling and setting up for another hit, but I was out before I knew it.
At least the pain was gone, was my last thought before I lost touch with all reality.
Well, that's it! I hope that everything made sense and that you all enjoyed this long chapter! See ya all later.
Now to Review responses which I decided to do at the end this one time:
His Royal Highness: Wow....i told it like it is? Sweeet....its kinda funny but I guess I got the vibe from you, stud. LOL. I mean, I aint never had a tat. I want one, but that's another topic. Anyway, you will be happy to find that Ponybrat as you call him wasn't even mentioned in the chapter. Be happy! See ya around....oh and be happy...Im out of my pissy mood, so you have to be too. Got it? See ya!
Erunyauve: Wow...I hate it when ffn munches reviews....that happens to me all the time. Anyway...Im happy that you agree and enjoyed the chapter. I think that the turn of events here might have surprised you, eh? LOL. Hope so. See ya round!
TeacherTam: Oh...did ya like? Did ya like? I sure hope so. I had to add my little twist of events. So I hope you enjoyed!
Keira -- the right way to spell my name: HAHA. Well, thanks for remembering to review. LOL. I still hate those names of Jhons...but yeah. At least that is settled...it really has been a long time since I updated. LOL. Well, did you know what was going to happen? I don't remember. Hope you liked...wait, I know you do! Talk to ya laters!