Disclaimer-Don't own the outsiders, so don't bother me about it. PLEASE. I do own Corey, Nakia, uhhhh… And any others that weren't in the book that was made up in this story.

Chapter 9

I felt so confused about Dallas. I was in a state of shock. I know I had a crush on him, but did I really like him like that? I knew then that I had never really liked Chris, I was more excited about having a boy friend. I know that sounds mean, and that I should never have gone out with him just because he was cute and seemed nice, but I couldn't help what I chose now. It is all in the past, I had to just deal. But then there was Johnny. Dallas and Johnny. Polar opposites. May look the same, hard faces, along with beat up clothes and grimaces, but at heart they were so different. Sweet and caring Johnny, then tough and hard Dallas. Dallas was really sweet deep below the one I saw, I think. He did care, at least about one person. Johnny. And then Dallas had to go and kiss me. Not that I was mad about it but… he was 17, I just about to turn 14. And he made a big deal about me and Chris. I wanted to say that to him so badly. But I never got the chance.

Now this is all I was thinking while walking to the lot with Johnny and Ponyboy. They had started to walk with the two Socs, Cherry and Marcia, but the girls' boyfriends had come and took them away before Two-bit was able to get to his car. The boys had looked pretty mad at Johnny, Ponyboy, and Two-bit. And they had been drinking, I think. They seemed that way.

I watched as Ponyboy and Johnny stretched out on their backs. I was still standing. Ponyboy patted the spot between him and Johnny, and I sat there. We were quiet for a couple minutes.

"It's because we're greasers," Johnny said suddenly. I had no clue what he was talking about. "We could have hurt her reputation."

"I reckon…" Ponyboy trailed off. He looked like he wanted to say something.

"Man, that was a tuff car. Mustangs… they're tuff." Johnny told us, but not looking at us.

"Will you guys stop changing the subject!" I asked them, yawning. They ignored me, like I expected them to do. But I wasn't about to let them ramble on about nothing.

"Big time Socs, all right," Ponyboy told the sky. His eyes seemed to reflect the stars, and something else. I have no idea what it was, but I think I spent too much time watching people's eyes. But I loved watching for any emotion. It is just part of me.

"I can't take it much more," Johnny broke the silence. "I'll, I'll kill myself or somethin'."

"Don't," Ponyboy and I said together. I looked over at him.

"You can't kill your self Johnny," Ponyboy said to him.

"Well, I won't. But I gotta do something. It seems like there's gotta be some place without greasers or Socs, with just people. Just plain, ordinary people."

"Out of the big towns, in the country," Ponyboy said lying back. He closed his eyes, and started to smile. He seemed to drift off to sleep. I laid my head down on Johnny's shoulder. He was staring off in space.

"Johnny? Can I tell you something?" I asked him. I thought about Dallas. He nodded his head sleepily.

"I, uhhh… nevermind…" I trailed off.

………………

I woke up and it was freezing out. Johnny was still asleep, and so was Ponyboy. I shook Johnny.

"Johnny, wake up, man." I shook him a little more. He nodded his head, and opened his eyes.

"I'm awake. We should get Pony up. Glory, what time is it?" he asked. I shrugged, but stopped Johnny from waking him up.

"Uhhh, I want to tell you something…" Johnny stared at me, showing I should go on. "Yea, you see, uhhhhh, I should just spit it out… Dallas kissed me!" I looked over Johnny's shoulder. I could see he was looking down. He started to say something.

"Yea, before you say anything, I didn't kiss him. I dunno, I kind of like him but… you see…. ummm… I kind of like this other guy, too," I looked over at a spot on his shirt. "And, ummm…… this is awkward but, what should I do?"

He looked at me, and looked down again. I hugged my knees. He was quiet for a little bit.

"Who's the other guy you like?" he asked, looking straight into my eyes. I couldn't, no, didn't want to tear myself away from them. But yet, I did.

"I better get home. You should wake up Pony. It must be really late." He sighed, and started to shake Ponyboy.

"Hey, Pony, wake up man."

"I'm awake," Ponyboy grumbled. "Damn, what time is it?"

"I dunno, but Pony, we better get to our houses. Darry'll be mad if he finds out you're still gone," I told him. He looked at me and stood up. I followed him. I looked down at Johnny, and he was just staring at the ground.

"I'm gonna spend the night out here guys," he said. I smiled weakly and followed Ponyboy out of the lot.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Ponyboy," I said as we got to the front of my house. I started to open the gate but stopped. I looked over at him.

"Not if Darry kills me. I've never been this late before. Well hopefully see you tomorrow." He walked up to his porch. The light was on, and through the window you could see Darry reading the paper. Ponyboy sighed and went through the door. I stayed at the front of my gate. I really didn't want to go in, because I didn't want to see my dad. Not that my father would care that I was out. I doubted that he even was awake waiting for me like Darry was waiting for Ponyboy.

I heard yelling at the Curtis house so I started to walk to their front gate. I wasn't really trying to be nosy but I couldn't help it.

"Do you know what time it is? Well it's 2 o'clock in the mornin' kiddo. Another hour and I woulda called the police. Where were you Ponyboy? Where in the almighty universe were you?" I heard Ponyboy whisper a few words. "You what?" Darry shouted.

I closed my eyes and turned away for a little bit. I shouldn't have been listening I thought. So I started to walk back to my gate, but Darry's voice stopped me before I could open it.

"I didn't mean to! I didn't think! I forgot! That's all I ever hear out of you! Can't you think of anything?" I heard Sopapop say 'Darry' and Darry must have turned on to him too.

"You keep your trap shut! I'm sick and tired of hearin' you stick up for him!"

"You don't yell at him!" Ponyboy shouted at Darry. I heard something hard hit their table and it was all quiet. I could see two figures in the window standing completely still. The next thing I saw was Ponyboy dashing out of the door and through the gate. When he passed me he pushed me to the side, knocking me down. He stopped, looked down at me with teary eyes, and helped me up.

"Come on, Corey," he said urgently to me, backing up and running away from his house. I turned to look up at the door, silently realizing what had happened. I looked and saw Darry standing next to Soda. Soda said something to me while I quickly backed up also and turned around in one motion. I didn't even hear what it was.

I followed Ponyboy to wherever he was running, never catching what Soda said to me. Ponyboy was much faster then me, and by the time I got to the lot I could see him and Johnny running to the other exit. I ran after them, but had to stop every few blocks to catch my breath. I couldn't see them anymore, so I started to walk. I figured that they would either be at Ponyboy's house, the lot again, or the park. Since the park was the closest one to me, I decided to go there first.

I saw Ponyboy and Johnny standing next to what looked like a see saw. They were just standing there, not doing anything. Not talking, but looking straight ahead. Then I saw why. A blue mustang was parked right there on the grass, and the teenage Socs from earlier were there too. I jogged up to in back of Johnny, but he didn't even notice. At least I didn't know he noticed until he made a motion for me to leave with his hand. Or that could have been him flicking his cigarette behind him casually. I like to think it was the former.

"Hey, what do you know? Here's the little greasers who picked up our women. Hey greasers," said what looked like the leader.

"You're outta your territory, you'd better watch it," Johnny bravely warned.

"No, pal, you watch it. Next time you want a woman, pick up your own kind… dirt," said another Soc. With that all the Socs started to go around us in a small circle, and I knew I should have run when I had the chance. We all should have. I finally recognized the Socs. They went to our school.

"You know what a greaser is?" The one I recognized as Bob Sheldon asked. "White trash with long hair."

"You know what a Soc is?" Ponyboy said in a shaking voice. "White trash with mustangs and madras." Then he stupidly spit at him.

"Get them!" yelled Randy.

When he said that all hell broke lose. I could see Ponyboy being dragged off to the fountain, and Johnny being kicked in the ribs. I felt some one wrap their arms around my waist and start to drag me of towards the blue car. I started screaming and Ponyboy and I started yelling for Johnny at the same time. The guy threw me into the front seat which had its door open and I hit my head on the steering wheel. I felt tears start to rise to my eyes, but they melted away quickly. The Soc that had me was trying to press his lips against mine, but I kept turning away. I could smell the expensive whiskey on his breath. I shoved him off me and scrambled out of the mustang.

Johnny was running towards Ponyboy, who was being pushed into the water fountain.

"Oh my God, they're drowning him," was the last thing I said before the Soc who had gotten me into the car hit me on the side of the head, knocking me out.

………………

I woke up and I saw Johnny out in front of me, elbow on his knee, rocking back and forth.

"Johnny I think I'm going to be sick," Ponyboy told him. Johnny whispered something, that only Ponyboy could hear because he was sitting right next to him. Then Ponyboy stood up, and headed over to a trash barrel, and threw up. I looked around and saw the lifeless body of Bob laying on the ground. I looked back at Johnny wide eyed, and saw he had out his switch blade which was soaked in dark red blood.

"Oh, what did you do, Johnny?" I asked before closing my eyes. Johnny came over to me and started to cradle me in his arms. I was breathing hard but I wasn't crying. I started to get a pounding headache, and I couldn't stop shaking. Johnny killed that boy, and then he was going to jail for that.

"Johnny, people go to jail for this. You're going to jail! Then they're not gonna let you out! This ain't fair! Johnny, we ain't never gonna see you again-" I started to scream at him. He just let me go on and on. Then Ponyboy asked what we were going to do.

"Dally. He'll know what to do."

………………

We stood outside of Buck's door for what seemed like an eternity before some one answered. But it was more like 30 seconds probably.

"What do you kids want?" Buck asked, music blasting in the back. I stared around him, and saw people attached to each other all around. I felt myself go a little paler.

"Dally, we're here to see Dally," Johnny said quickly. It took a few seconds for Buck to answer.

"Dally's busy."

"Well, tell him it's Johnny and Ponyboy. And Corey. He'll come, just tell him!" Johnny said, his voice becoming higher and more strained.

Buck scratched himself, and closed the door on us. I thought that he wasn't going to do anything. Johnny and Ponyboy ran to the window. I stayed back, and stepped off in front of the bushes off to the side. Johnny and Ponyboy ran back to the front of the door as the door started to open. It was a shirtless Dally, and he looked down at the two of them.

"What's the problem?" he asked while yawning. Ponyboy and Johnny both broke into stories at the same time. "Whoa, whoa, one at a time."

"Johnny killed a Soc!" Ponyboy squeaked. He sounded such like a child.

"Johnny killed a Soc? Well, good for you, man. Now you guys better get inside… wait, where's Corey?" he asked all of a sudden. Johnny looked around frantically, as if I too might be dead, and sighed with relief when he saw me.

"What are you doing over there Core?" He said with a shaky smile. I shrugged. "Well, come on." They started walking inside, and Dallas waited for me as I slowly made my way up the steps. I slouched so hard my neck was hurting. I was wishing that Dallas hadn't waited, way to make a girl uncomfortable. We hadn't even talked after he kissed me. I shuddered, and looked around. I tried to breathe in, but a weird smell came into my nostrils. It was like cigarette smoke, but not the type the gang smoked. I couldn't tell what it was then. A few guys whistled at me as I made my way through, but I saw Dallas give them an evil stare. I ran up to be by Johnny's side. I felt really comfortable next to him. Dallas pushed us all up some stairs.

"So, what you guys need? And, Pony, get that shirt off. Here's one of Buck's, it may be too big, but it's warm," Dallas said to us.

"Dal, what are we gonna do?" Johnny asked after a few seconds, starting to get more and more frightened. Dallas motioned for us to get in closer to him. I stood over Ponyboy while they all leaned their heads in.

"Ok, I'm gonna give you 50 bucks, that's all I have right now, and I want you to take the 3 AM freighter to Windrixville. It'll be the first stop, maybe a two or three hour ride. There's an adandoned church up on Jaye Mountain, it makes the perfect hide away. There's a water pump in the back. Johnny, first thing you do after you get to the church is go to the store and buy a weeks worth of food, before the paper gets out. Got that? And after that, don't so much as go stickin' your noses out that door until I come. I'll come up after I think things have cooled down enough. Man, and I thought New York was the only place I could get mixed up in a murder rap…" Dallas said. Johnny made a little sound in his throat when he said 'murder' and I backed up to against the door. It hadn't been closed all the way, so it banged shut when my weight pressed against it. They all snapped their heads up to me.

"Ok, you better get going before you miss the train, it's 2:40 right now… I'll come up to the church as soon as I can." He said the last part mainly to me, I could tell. He shooed us out the door, and pointed us in the right direction of the train. He stopped me and had Ponyboy and Johnny go ahead. He told them I could catch up, and Johnny gave him a look. Ponyboy just shrugged, and walked off with Johnny.

"Corey, about earlier," he started. I looked down. I knew what was coming. 'It was a mistake' or 'I didn't mean to.' I sighed and crossed my arms.

"Ok, Dallas, I better be going, before they leave without me," I said and started to back away from him.

"Wait! I just… I just wanted you to know I didn't mean what I said about you shouldn't be allowed to date people three years older then you. I mean, you are almost 14," he said. I raised an eyebrow.

"I hope I see you soon," I said, catching up with Johnny and Ponyboy.

………………

AN- Ok there's that, I'm sorry I haven't updated, but review please! (Ok, insert some weird comment that I would normally say, but I cant think of one right now.) REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVIEW.