Chapter Five
"Well, come on Pony. What are you waiting for?" Dally said.
I walked over to the chair and sat down. "Hey Dally," I said.
"Hey," He said. "We only have five minutes, so I'm going to tell you this as quick as I can. OK?"
"Tell me what?" I asked.
Dally sighed. "You know that ring that Aurora wanted me to have when she died?"
I nodded.
"There's a story behind that, and I think you should know it," Dally said. "She was your best friend."
"When Aurora was in seventh grade, we were both really considering dual suicide," Dally said. "We both thought that life wasn't worth it. Back then, she didn't see you as her boyfriend. I had that honor. We would talk a lot when you were at track meets, and that was when we came up with our suicide idea. We couldn't just go off and kill ourselves at any random moment; we needed a signal…"
"The ring?" I asked.
"Yeah," Dally said. "Aurora and I were talking when you were at a track meet…"
Dally's voice trailed off. I thought he was going to cry for a second, but then he started the story again.
"I really loved her for a while. I was kind of drunk, and I asked her if she'd marry me. She said that when she gave me a ring, I would probably die pretty soon. That was when we came up with the signal. When Aurora gave me her ring, it meant that she was ready to die. If I put it on, it meant that I was too."
I looked at Dally's hand and noticed that he was wearing the ring. That was when everything was clear to me. I knew everything that Dally was going to say.
"Aurora was ready to die when she did. That's why she gave the ring to me. Ever since I put the ring on, I've been looking for ways to die. I decided that just shooting or stabbing myself wasn't good enough. I needed something better." Dally continued. "One night, I was walking around looking for trouble; and that was when I saw the cop. I saw that as my chance; I jumped him and started throwing punches. I didn't mean to beat him up, Pony. I meant to kill him. That along with all my other crimes would have gotten me several years."
Dally stopped to catch his breath. We only had two minutes.
"I was going to be a total asshole in prison, and I was hoping I would get killed there." Dally said. "But I messed up somehow. I picked the wrong cop, didn't fight hard enough or something. I'm only going for a year and a half. I don't know if that's long enough. I may or may not see you again. It depends on how well my plan works."
Dally sighed. "So, that's about all there is to it."
I didn't answer.
"You been smoking pot?" Dally asked.
"I can't sleep," I said. "I keep having nightmares about Aurora."
Then Dally said something that surprised me, "You too?"
Then I noticed that Dally's eyes were also red with dark circles under them. His skin was pale and his face looked tight and drawn. A nerve next to his eye was twitching.
Then everything happened really fast. The cop said that my time was up. I said bye to Dally and he said that he might see me in a year. The cop was closing the door when Dally yelled, "They get worse!"
The cop turned around and yelled at Dally and then the cop led me down the dark cement hallway. I felt like the hall was closing in on me. I couldn't breathe. I felt myself stumble a few times. I saw the door at the end of the hallway and we were getting closer to it. The cop opened the door and I walked out. I was only two steps into the room. Everything was fuzzy, but I could see Darry running toward me. It seemed like he was moving in slow motion, and the ground was getting closer to me. I hit the floor, hard, and then everything was black.