Title- The Return of Jess

Chapter Title- Attack of the Chair

Disclaimer- I do not own The Outsiders

Steve was trying to tell me not to hurt Lisa when our dad poked his head into the room. I hadn't seen him since the first morning, and he had been drunk then.

"Steve, I have some friends comin' over. Get the hell outta here," he said and Steve left. My dad looked over to me.

"Yer back now? Ya gotta go to, and don't come back both of ya, tell Steve," he shouted as I got up following Steve. I knew where he was heading, I wasn't dumb. I followed him, because that's where I would go. I'd only go 'cause I have no other friends. My only friends are a bunch of boys. Maybe at work I can make some new friends, but not with Lisa or Chris, definitely not with Lisa or Chris.

Steve opened the door.

"You want the couch?" I shook my head 'no' and lay down on the floor, as comfortably as possible. I let out a sigh and close my eyes.

I woke up to everybody talking, loudly.

"Does anybody know if she is working today?" I got up and looked at the time. 7:50, I still had a good 3 hours before work.

"Bye," Steve said and soon Soda, Steve, and Darry were out the door. I looked around. Ponyboy was still in bed, or he went out, and Two-Bit was drinking beer. I got off the floor and decided to go home; I needed a change of clothes.

I opened the door and heard my dad arguing with one of his friends. I tried to open the door un-noticed, but the one he was arguing with, saw me. He grabbed my wrist and I struggled to get away from him. I looked at my dad and noticed he was holding a chair. 'Great,' I thought. This man probably thought that he wouldn't hit his own daughter, how wrong he was. I ducked the first swing from the chair wondering what this guy did. The guy let go of me and bolted out the door. I turned around and watched him leave as the chair brushed against my head. I yelped in pain and ran to Steve's room. I got changed and climbed out the window.

I walked to the DX because I had about 2 hours left. I guess I looked really bad when I saw Soda standing near the pump because he just led me inside and told me to sit in the chair and left. I was shaking from shock and I felt the back of my head where I knew a bump would be forming. It felt wet and cold so I brought my hand to my face. Blood was on my hand, I didn't think it hurt that bad.

"Glory, what happened to you?" Steve said after he gave car keys to a lady. I sighed, should I tell them? Of course I would tell them.

"Uh, I went home to get clothes and this guy grabbed me. He probably was using' me as a shield 'cause dad had a chair. The guy probably thought dad wouldn't hit his own kid, but he was wrong. I moved in time, so I only got the edge of the chair, the wall got the whole thing. The guy got out okay," I said and stared at the ground. The other night, Steve said he never got hit by our dad. He just said really nasty things to him. Why would he hit me? Actually, most of the time he was drunk when he hit me and Steve knew better than to cross his path. This time it had been an accident, it was that man's fault.

Soda came back with a wet rag and started to clean up my head. I spent the rest of the time talking to Soda outside while he filled up tanks.

"Don't come to The Dingo for lunch today," I told him. I couldn't take Lisa staring at him.

"I wasn't goin' to, that girl kept talkin' bad 'bout you yesterday, I mean real bad." We kissed and I left for work.

I couldn't find my order pad; I figured Lisa had it so I found her. She told me she didn't have it, Chris however, called from the kitchen. I went to go see what he needed. Somebody found it funny to deep fry my order pad. I fished it out and looked straight at Lisa. I wanted to hit her really bad.

"Are your friends comin' back today?" she asked while snapping her gum.

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

"Well, you know your boyfriend was two-timin' you?" I laughed; Soda was too nice to do that. I found out about Sandy from Steve, so I knew he wouldn't. Lisa just wanted to get to me.

"Why are you laughin', you find that funny? Well, he works at DX, so I could tell him 'bout that thing you have with Chris," she said coldly. I flicked out the switchblade.

"You shut your fuckin' trap, Lisa," I said and she got scared. She backed into the wall.

"Shut your fuckin' trap, 'cause you don't know me or Soda." I put the switchblade away and turned around.