A/N: Aw, thanks for the nice reviews, guys. I really appreciate it. And, a very special shout-out to Hahukum Konn and Rainia NyteWolf for the fastest reviews I have gotten ever. (Seriously, two reviews in under twenty minutes really made my day. Well, night, considering it was, like two in the morning. BTW, Rainia, I really hope that you continue your D/T fic. It is teh awesome.) You guys rock! And, the moment y'all have been waiting for… THE TIM/DALLY CONFRONTATION, ZOMG!

"Alicia, why couldn't you have stayed calm for once? You didn't have to drag that conversation with Winston out forever!" Angela whined. "He just wanted to see Tim, you know that. I don't see what your problem is!"

Alicia shrugged. "I just don't see why he's too much of a pussy to talk to Tim face-to-face."

Angela rolled her eyes. "He's not, stupid. Why do you think he asked where Tim was? Not just out of curiosity, that's for damn sure. I'll bet Dallas feels real bad about the whole deal."

Alicia snorted. "And I'll bet Tim doesn't give a flying fuck about it. He's been with three other people since their fall out."

"Three people and then some," Angela muttered. "But Tim's being such a jackass about it. I almost feel sorry for Dallas." When Alicia stared at her, Angela repeated, "almost."

Johnny and Dallas made their way down the street, going nowhere in particular. Dally was venting to Johnny, who was listening quietly, occasionally interjected a 'no way,' and 'shit!' "And I guess Tim's havin' a ball with everyone with legs. Or at least that's what his sister said."

Johnny patted Dally's arm, comfortingly. "You know the Shepards. They're all full of shit."

Dally sighed and let his head hang down. After so much pent-up emotion, it felt good to talk to Johnny. Johnny was nice and understood him. "Yeah, I know. It's just so fucking true. That's something Tim would do."

Smiling sympathetically, Johnny said, "have you talked to him, yet?"

"What, are you fuckin' insane? I've got a reputation, Johnnycake. I ain't gonna go and spoil it 'cause a fucking Tim Shepard. What do ya expect me to do, buy him some flowers and say, 'take me back, please'?"

Johnny almost grinned, but covered it. "It couldn't hurt."

"C'mon, Johnny, Tim's not some stupid chick." Dally was getting worked up. His pale face was going red, and he looked close to tears.

"Aw, c'mon, Dal. Here, let's go in here and warm up a bit. I'll even buy ya a Coke." Johnny stopped walking in front of a café. He'd never been inside, and had always wanted to. Dally was too miserable to refuse, and allowed Johnny to lead him inside.

They sidled into a booth, and a moment later, a waitress glided up to them. Dally didn't even look up. But Johnny did, and he suddenly, deeply regretted taking Dally inside. "Hey, welcome to Max's and blah, blah, blah. My name's Nini and I'll be your server, what can I getcha?"

Now Dally's head snapped up, and he glared at Nini, as if it were her fault about what was happening. Nini looked surprised and a little angry. Johnny decided to order, before the scene got ugly. "Uh, we'll have two Cokes, please," he said.

Nini half-smiled at him. "Is that all?"

Johnny nodded, hurriedly. "Yeah, thanks."

When Nini turned away, Dally looked like he wanted to simultaneously throw up and cry. He began to stand. "Sorry, Johnny, but I've gotta go. I'm… I'm gonna go to Buck's."

Johnny grabbed Dally's arm. "Siddown, Dal. I'm buyin' you a Coke." It wasn't like Johnny to be so forceful, and Dally was sort of amazed, but he sat down and waited with him.

"What the fuck's wrong with you, Johnny?"

"I… I just don't want to see you drink yourself into next week just 'cause of Tim."

Dally smiled, sadly. "Thanks, Johnny. I mean it. You're a pretty cool kid."

Tim stared at the ceiling. He half wanted it to just drop onto his fucking head and hopefully kill him. Or at least put him in critical condition. Tar Baby was curled up next to his head and purring. "This is bullshit," he said. "Total bullshit." The cat meowed quietly, and Tim smiled half-heartedly at her, before running his hands through his hair.

Sitting up, he looked at the clock on his wall. It read 7:35. His date with Nini was in twenty-five minutes. That still gave him time to shower and possibly change into some clean clothes.

Fifteen minutes later, Tim was staring at himself in the mirror, trying to do something with his hair. There was a giant knot in it, and he couldn't find his fucking comb. After desperately trying to rip the pieces of hair apart, he opted to use Curly's comb instead.

"Curly!" he barked. "Curly! I need to use your fucking comb! Where is it?"

There was no answer. Tim tried again. "Curly! I need your comb! Where the hell are you?"

He barged out of the bathroom, wearing a black T-shirt, jeans and boots and furiously trying to pull his hair apart. He knew that Curly was home with his new girlfriend because he heard them open the front door when he was in the shower.

Curly's bedroom door was closed, and he could hear Curly's laugh and a girl's voice from inside. Tim decided he would risk knocking, hoping that his brother and girlfriend weren't having sex inside. Curly's laughter stopped abruptly and he shouted, "what?"

"I need your comb! Where is it?"

He heard Curly groan a little bit and then the door opened. Curly was fully dressed and didn't even look flushed. His pale girlfriend was sitting cross-legged on his bed with her elbows resting on her knees, palms pressed together. She half-smiled at Tim. It looked like they'd been talking. Tim was surprised. He didn't think Curly even talked to his girlfriends.

"What do you want?" Curly asked.

"Your comb, for the fourth time. Where the fuck is it?"

Curly looked taken aback. "Uh, it's in me and the girls' bathroom. We don't share a bathroom anymore, remember?"

Tim faltered. "Oh. Can I use it?"

"Yes."

"Thanks," Tim mumbled, and began to walk away, feeling stupid. He kept forgetting that he had his own bathroom and that he didn't have to share with Curly. After a moment of tearing Curly's comb through his hair, the knot was finally gone, and he grabbed his leather jacket and left.

Curly liked how long and straight Summer's hair was and how it looked so nice against her pale skin and red lips. She looked like Snow White. He liked how easy she was to talk to, even if she did tend to ramble off on a subject. He rarely listened to what she said; he just liked to hear her voice. It was so soft and breathy compared to Alicia's screechy, shrill one and Angela's husky, croaky one.

"So how's your brother?" Summer asked.

"Tim? Same. Why?"

"What about him and Dallas?"

"Winston? I don't know. Why?"

She pursed her thin lips together. "Alicia told be about their… affair. How's Tim feel about it? I don't mean to pry," she added quickly. "But maybe that's why he's so quick to yell nowadays and why he's gone so often and why he doesn't talk very much anymore and why he sleeps so much."

Curly stared at her. It was obvious that he hadn't been paying attention to anything she'd been saying. "Uh… I have no fucking idea." He reached out and took her hand, liking how smooth and pale it was between his rough, dark ones.

She jerked it out of his grasp quickly. "Seriously, Curly, this is your brother, not some random person living with you. Don't you even care about him?"

Curly shrugged. "I guess. I mean, he is acting weird. And…" he searched for the right words, hopefully big ones that would make her satisfied. "I guess his recent behavior disturbs me."

Summer laughed a little, and Curly sensed that she was dropping the subject and took her hand. She didn't pull it away.

A curl fell onto his forehead, and she reached up with her free hand and brushed it away. He caught her other hand and their eyes met. He liked how dark and mysterious her eyes were, and she liked how open and blue his were. A small smile played across her lips, and a half-grin ghosted his.

Alicia couldn't feel her fingers or ears when they reached the theater. Angela couldn't feel her legs. "This is all your fault," she grumbled. "If you wouldn't have wanted to see Winston, we could've been warm. But I can't feel my fucking lower body."

"Aw, dry up, Angel. At least we're here in one piece," Alicia said good-naturedly. "And we aren't frostbitten."

Angela rolled her eyes and rubbed her thighs a little. "I still can't feel my fucking legs."

But Alicia wasn't paying attention to Angela's whines. Instead she was staring straight ahead at four small Socs standing a few feet away. They were laughing at something one of them said and didn't notice the two girls. She could see bulging wallets in their back pockets and her eyes lit up like a tiger's. "Shh, shh, Ang! Shut up!"

Angela glared at her sister. "What?"

"Look at them. Think we can knock 'em out and take their money?"

"Barehanded? Are you an idiot? No. Even if I wasn't half-frozen we couldn't do it."

Alicia licked her thin lips. "I think I could. I mean, I'm about a big as them."

"Yeah, but there's four of them and one of you. And, before you even ask, no, I am not gonna be used as bait this time. Sorry, but that's just stupid. Like something Curly would do."

"Fuck you, I'll do it," Alicia snapped and began to creep forward. Quickly, she pulled her long hair back and knotted it, before latching her arms firmly around one of the Soc's necks. Trying to remember what Tim had taught her, she pulled his head back, quickly. In doing so, the back of his head slammed into her nose.

Blood began to drip from it, and she dropped the boy. Shit. The other three stared at Alicia, and she laughed a bit, before sprinting away. She could hear them chasing her and she kept running. A moment later, she heard Angela's voice shouting something. She made it out to be."Told you it was stupid!"

Tim ran a hand through his well-combed and grease-free hair before pushing open the door. The moment he saw who was inside, he had the fleeting desire to be back in bed, possibly with Angela's cat.

Luckily, Dallas had his back to him, but the little black-haired kid he hung out with so much looked up at him. Tim turned his head quickly. He looked at the clock. 7:54. He decided to go back outside and light up. As fast as he could, he turned around and began to head outside when he heard a loud voice behind him. "Tim! Hey, Tim! Come here!"

Tim froze, knowing that Dally heard Nini. He turned around slowly and smiled tightly at her. "Hey," he said.

Nini flung her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. "Hey," she breathed into his ear. Pulling away, she flashed him a dazzling smile and tossed back her hair. He noticed that she had already changed back into her blue sweater and jeans. "How are ya?" she asked.

Tim could feel Dally's eyes on the back of his head. He ran his hand through his hair again. "All right. You?"

She smiled again. Tim marveled at how pretty she was. "I'm fine."

"Ready?"

She nodded. "Let's get the fuck outta here."

"You gotta coat?" Tim asked.

She shook her head. "Nope, don't wear 'em"

Tim paused. "Don't you get cold though?"

Again, Nini shook her head. "No."

"Here, take mine," Tim said, taking off his leather jacket.

"No, really, it's okay," Nini laughed. "I don't need one, I swear."

"No, really, take it," he insisted and draped it over her shoulders. Pulling her hair out from under the collar, Tim smiled at Nini and totally forgot about Dallas sitting a few feet away. Nini returned the smile and slipped her hand into his.

He didn't pull away. Instead, Tim led Nini to the door and they walked out, hand-in-hand.

The color in Dally's face rose and for the second time taking, Johnny regretted taking him into the café. He should have known that when they saw Nini they should have gotten the hell out. "I'm so sorry, Dal. This was all my fault. It really was," Johnny began.

"No, kid, it was mine. I shouldn't have been so fucking stupid to get involved with Tim in the first place. You've gotta be a fool to even get involved with the Shepards. I mean, look at Angela. She fucking eats guys alive. And then Tim…" he trailed off, and Johnny could see both Dally's face and eyes getting red.

"C'mon, Dal, just finish your Coke, then we'll go," Johnny said, quietly.

But abruptly, Dally stood up. He nodded at Johnny and stormed out, almost knocking over Curly Shepard and his girlfriend who were entering. Dallas shot Curly a death-glare before barreling on.

"Hey Cade! What the fuck's up with Winston?" Curly asked. He took his hand from Summer's and sat down across from Johnny. Summer sat down next to him.

Johnny shrugged. He figured if Curly didn't know about Tim and Dallas, which he probably didn't, he wasn't going to tell him. "Dunno. He just left."

"We saw Tim leaving with Nini. Maybe they- Tim and Dally- had another… fall out," Summer said, to Curly. Then she turned to Johnny. "Did they?"

Johnny debated about telling them. It was obvious that Curly's girlfriend knew about -or had a very good idea about- Tim and Dallas. So it wouldn't be like he was telling her anything that would make Dallas have a total conniption. But if she didn't know, even though that was highly unlikely, he would be giving away terrible information about Dallas. "He saw Tim with Nini and got pissed," Johnny said.

"Why? I mean, it's a free country. Tim can go out with who ever he wants. Dallas can't do shit about it," said Summer.

"Because he's in love with Tim. That's what pissed him off." Realizing what he just said, Johnny clapped a hand over his mouth, stricken. "No, no, no, forget that I said anything! I didn't say anything."

Summer raised her eyebrows. "What? Slow down there, man. You did say something."

Johnny swallowed. "Look, Dallas told me that he and Tim were… you know?"

Summer nodded. "I know."

"And he basically told me that he was in love with Tim and then Tim came in, but Dally didn't see him, and then Nini came up and hugged him and Dallas saw and it turned out that they were going out and Tim gave her his jacket and they were holding hands and it's just a big mess."

As if he just got into the conversation, Curly said, "my brother's in love with fuckin' Dallas Winston?"

Summer nodded. "Yep. You knew it Curly, don't pretend that you didn't."

Curly shrugged. "I knew, I just didn't wanna believe it. But... shit."

Summer smiled, sympathetically and put her hand over his. "Don't worry about it, Curly. It's all right. Tim's not stupid; he won't announce it to all the world."

He snorted. "Yeah, right. I hope not."

Tim liked how Nini smelled. She smelled like a mix of smoke and soap. It was a lot better than most girls' fake, flowery scents that made him gag. He liked how she didn't wear lipstick that stuck to her teeth and his face and wherever else her mouth found when they kissed.

They stumbled into his bedroom and Nini shoved him on the bed. He liked how straightforward she was. Nini was blunt and honest and she didn't play games. She didn't just lay back and let his take over. She was aggressive and didn't make those mewling noises that drove Tim batshit insane. As she bit down on his left ear and he furiously tried to pull off his shirt, he decided that if he liked girls, he would definitely like Nini.

No, he thought. I do like girls. That thing with Dally was just a fling or something. Totally experimental.

His shirt fell to the ground about the same time Nini's sweater did and she captured his mouth in hers a second later. Tim had a fleeting memory back to Cassie, and he rememberedto call her later.

When Nini started to undo his belt buckle, Tim realized that this felt all wrong. He liked Nini, but this just didn't feel right. Gently, he pushed her hands away. "I-I can't do this," he muttered.

Nini looked surprised, and she brushed her hair out of her face. "What's wrong?"

Tim suddenly felt like laughing. "Nothing. Nothing's wrong. I'm just a fuckin' stupid asshole and I need to go fix something."

Nini glared at him. "So that's it, huh? You're just walkin' out on me?"

Tim shook his head. "No." He took Nini's hand, expecting her to yank it away. When she didn't, he gently squeezed it. "Look, I like you, Nini. A lot. It's just... there's someone else. Sort of. And, as much as I like you, I just can't do anything with you."

"Who's the other person?" she asked, sulkily.

Tim bit the inside of his lip. "I can't tell you. But, I swear to God, I wish I could." He ran his thumb over her knuckles, something he remembered Dally did. "I'm sorry," he whispered.

Now Nini pulled her hand away. "Ya know, I should stop spendin' my time with assholes like you," she snapped. Tossing back her mass of gold hair, she glared at Tim and let out a long string of curse words. Then she glared at him and said, "you know, I really liked you. And now I've realized that you're just another loser that I wasted my time with."

Tim simply grinned at her, lit a cigarette and said, "the feeling's mutual, Nini m'dear."

Tim sat on his bed for a while longer and smoked while running his speech for Dallas over and over in his head. He decided that he would just spit it all out and then beg for forgiveness. Hopefully that would work. And hopefully he would see Dallas before too long before he totally chickened out.

He got dressed and ran outside. It was snowing and he rubbed his upper arms in a vain attempt to keep warm before heading off to Buck's. Dallas was bound to be there.

Dallas was at Buck's and exiting just when Tim ran up to the front door. Tim took a deep breath and managed to quickly flash Dally a quick almost-smile before blurting out, "look, Dal, I gotta talk to you."

Dally looked particularly pissed off, so Tim decided to tread warily. "I need to talk to you," he repeated, softly.

The blonde raised his eyebrows. "What?"

"Just listen, okay? See, you know the whole war thing? And you know how I'm eighteen? See, I got drafted and I didn't know how to tell you so I-I panicked and Cassie told me to just break it off and I panicked and I just decided to do it and then Alicia keeps saying to get back with you and I panicked and now I'm here and…" Tim sighed.

Dally nodded. "Yeah." Then he laughed. And with one swift movement, he pulled his arm back and punched Tim in the face as hard as he could.

Tim staggered back as he felt his nose break under Dally's fist and then warm blood seeped over his face and into his mouth. He spat, a mixture of blood and saliva. "Shit. Jesus Christ. Fuck," he muttered.

Dally nodded a second time. "That's for everything," he said in a business-like manner before flipping up the collar of his leather jacket and walking away.

Wiping the blood off his face, Tim stared after him. The scarlet drops of blood dripped onto the snow, making little red spots in the whiteness. Tim felt tears prick at his eyes and he didn't know if it was the pain slowly spreading all over his face and body, or the fact that Dallas might never forgive him.

A/N: Woo, it's Christmas! And this is my gift to all of you! I hope you liked it. And, yes, I know that the Tim/Dallas confrontation was uber short, but there's one in the next chapter. Happy holidays, everyone! –Throws confetti-