Disclaimer: I don't own 'The Outsiders'

Chapter 6:


"...And so, of course, I was like - Jane? Jane, are you even listening?"

My eyes shifted from the window to Amy's face. "Huh?"

She gave me a look - one I had been receiving all day from her. "Are you listening to me?"

"Sure," I answered.

"What did I just say?"

I sighed. "Something about your sister?"

"My ex-boyfriend's sister!" Amy said dramatically, rolling her eyes at me.

I rolled my eyes back, feeling exhausted from the prolonged conversation as I shifted in my seat. "Well, I don't know."

"She's been callin' me a whore."

My brows furrowed at her. "Okay?"

Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped. "Do you think I am one?"

"No!" I defended myself, not understanding where she was getting that from.

She smiled. "Good. 'Cause I'm not." She sighed, flipping her hair over her shoulder and glanced out the window of the Dingo at all the boys out front. "Jimmy Tate is out there. We kind of have a thing."

"Cool."

"Can I ask you a question? And give me an honest answer."

"Uh-huh," I said, just sipping my milkshake.

She looked out at the unimpressive Jimmy, smiling at him. "You think he'd leave girlfriend for me?"

I looked out at Jimmy, confused as to why anyone would want to be his girlfriend, let alone Amy. From what I heard, he was in love with his girl. "No."

"What?"

I looked back at Amy, who looked shocked. "What?"

Her face turned angry. "You callin' me ugly?"

I squinted my eyes at her. Was she for real? "What?"

She wrapped her slim fingers around her coke and tossed the drink at me, drenching me in it. "Bitch!"

I gasped and by the time I opened my eyes, she was gone. I wiped my eyes, the burning fading slowly the more I blinked. I grabbed a lot of napkins, wiping my face.

"Whoa."

I looked up at Curly, Tim and Pony. "How was I to know that when someone tells you to give them an honest answer, you're actually supposed to lie?"

Tim chuckled, grabbing a napkin and taking my chin roughly, wiping the rest of my face. "Everyone knows that."

I looked up at Pony, careful not to move my face. "Does everyone know that?"

Pony shrugged, like he was trying to soften the blow. "Not every -"

"Everyone," Curly said, grinning at me. "Or at least any guy whose had a girlfriend or any girl who's had a any friend ever."

I smacked Tim's hand away, glaring lightly. "My only friends growing up were my brothers, and they were too ugly to get any girls. Paul was, anyway."

Tim scrunched the napkin in his hand, tossing it aside. "Well, you learned your damn lesson. We were gonna eat. Want somethin'?"

I sighed, shaking my head. "No, I better get home." I subconsciously reached for my wet hair as I stood.

"You look fine," Pony reassured me.

I smiled lightly, leaning forward and kissing his cheek. "Thank you."

Curly stuck his face out, leaning his cheek toward me, earning a slap on the back of the head from Tim.

I just laughed, waving good by and bouncing out. I was walking down the street, hands in my pockets, when the laces on one of my shoes came untied.

"Damnit," I cursed to myself, getting tired of the repeated annoyance.

"It sure is a view from here."

I tensed, turning around to see the Tiber Street Tigers, all of them with the exception of Ray. "Ray let you guys off of your leashes?"

Brent, the biggest one, the second-in-command snarled, stepping closer to me. "You're lucky you're off limits, King. For now, at least."

I sighed, already bored. "What are you talking about?"

He smirked an ugly and evil smirk. "Ray wants his turf back."

"It wasn't his to begin with," I snapped.

"It always was and now he wants it back. We were just headed over to your place to tell your brother."

"Tell him what?"

"Rumble. River Kings versus Tiber Street Tigers."

My breath got caught it my throat. "Skins?"

He continued to smirk and his dark eyes glowered on me. "We'll see."

I shook my head. "It's stupid."

"You're stupid."

"Nice comeback."

"What'd you say, bitch?" Brent pushed my shoulders.

I stumbled on my laces, only making me angrier. The spit moved around my mouth and I debated it for a long second before I spat in his face and started to run. Brent's yelling only encouraged me further and I ran as fast as I could.

And then I tripped on my untied laces.

I hit the ground hard, grunting, and I writhed for a second too long.

Brent's hand grabbed my arm, flipping me onto my back and his fist connected with my face. "You want a taste, huh, King?"

I reached out to fight him back, but the gleam of a blade made me stop.

It came down on my cheek, making a large cut against it.

I screamed loudly, hitting him anywhere and as hard as I could. "Stop!" I hit him again and again until he wasn't there. I opened my eyes and looked around, catching the Tigers running away. My head hit the dirt again and I sighed.

My face hurt.

I tried not to pay attention to my throbbing jaw and instead turned my attention to the blood coming from the cut. I wiped it on the sleeve on my jacket and stood. I continued my way home, wiping more and more blood away everyone once in a while.

When I got home, I noticed the absence of David's truck. "Did he already go?" I asked as I walked through the doorway, but Paul wasn't on the couch. "Paul?" I called through the house, not getting a response. I moved through the kitchen. "Ma?"

No one was home.

I went right to the bathroom, trying my best to clean myself up.


Night rolled around and still no sign of any of my family, and so I was off. I swung by the Curtis's to picky up Pony and then we were on our way to Bucks. In that moment, I couldn't have been more thankful for the awful, red and dim lighting of Bucks to hide my face.

I walked inside, sitting down at the bar with Pony and looking around for Curly. "You see 'im?"

"No."

My eyes landed on one person I was a little surprised to see and I pushed myself off the counter, glancing at Pony. "I'll be right back." I walked across the red room, over to the couch and stopped in front of him. "Have you been here all day?"

Paul looked up at me, not smiling or laughing. "Pretty much."

I nodded toward the corner. "Come here."

He stood, walking over to the corner of the room where it was quieter. "What?"

"Did Ray find you?"

Paul sighed. "Yeah."

"What'd he say?"

"Wait, how'd you know?" He squinted his eyes, really studying my face in the darkness. "Jesus, Jane." He grabbed my chin, pulling my face both ways, looking at the bruises and the cut. "Those assholes."

I pushed his hand away. "What did Ray and his gang say to you?"

Paul glanced around and leaned in close. "He wants to rumble in three weeks."

"Skins?" Paul glanced around nervously and I hit his arm. "Paul!"

"He wanted weapons and I didn't wanna look like a pans, alright?" Paul said angrily to me.

I sighed, rubbing my face. "Well, is it single gangs?"

"No, we can team up."

"Who you choosin'?"

Paul then started to smile. "That Curtis gang and the Shepard gang owe me big time."

The two gangs that I might've actually wanted to sit this one out.

"Did you ask 'em?" I said eagerly.

Paul nodded. "Daryl Curtis is in, and Tim said he'd do it."

My brows furrowed at him, crossing my arms. "When did you ask?"

"I asked Curtis earlier today and Shep just now."

"Tim is here?"

"Yeah, right over -"

I followed Paul's finger, seeing Tim through the doorway, arm around a pretty blonde and her arms around him. The girl was pulling his face toward her and kissing him every couple of seconds and they were making out soon after. When they broke apart, the girl laughed and moved away from Tim to play some pool.

Amy.

"Jane? You alright?" Paul looked where I was looking, seeing not what I had seen - just Tim with a beer in his hand, laughing at something with his buddies. He looked back at me and grabbed my arms. "Hey, what's wrong?"

I looked him in the eyes, only now noticing that he was blurry. I blinked, quickly wiping the tears that fell over my eyes, very embarrassed. "Nothing." I pushed him away, making a second of eye contact with Pony before walking out of Bucks.

"Jane!" Pony ran up beside a couple of seconds after I left. "What happened?"

"Janey!" Paul did the same, grabbing my arm. "What the hell happened?"

"I don't know!" I yelled, just frustrated. "I don't know, I just - Tim was -"

"What did he do?" Paul asked, hand still wrapped around my arm.

"It doesn't matter. We're not together."

"Oh." Pony's disappointed tone made me think that he had seen what happened. "Are you talking about Tim making out with Amy?"

My heart quickened at the words and I shook Paul off of me. "Yes."

"That son of a bitch."

"Enough, Paul!" I screamed, stopped walking and turned to face them. "I just want to forget about this whole thing, alright? I want to pretend this night never happened." I sighed, stuffing my hands in my pockets. "You guys go back to Bucks and have a good time. I'm gonna head home." I put my head down, feeling my face heat up as my eyes felt wet again.

"Jane," Paul said softly, stepping closer to me.

I wrapped my arms around him, hugging him tightly and crying softly.

After getting jumped and watching the guy I liked way too much make out with a "friend" that threw a drink in my face, I decided that it wasn't my day and I was allowed to cry about it.

Paul rubbed my back and hugged me back just as tightly. "Hey, toughen up, sis. You don't need the guy." He grabbed my shoulders, pushing me away to look me in the eyes. "If you cry again, I'll beat you up."

I nodded, even smiling a little. "Okay."

Paul rubbed my hair and then looked at Pony. "Take my sister home, won't you?"

Pony nodded, walking toward me and walking alongside me. He put a comforting arm around me, softly saying, "It's gonna be okay, Jane."

I nodded, my head against his shoulder. "Okay."

Pony sighed. "You can cry in front of me."

I nodded again, a couple tears sliding down my cheeks.


I blew the smoke out of my mouth carefully, facing away from Pony laying down beside me.

The sun rose from last night and Pony and I had watched it. We had stayed up all night on my porch just because I didn't want to sleep. Pony eventually had succumbed to his tiredness and I was left to smoke a cigarette alone.

I hadn't smoke a cigarette in a long while and I damn well needed one then.

The cigarette was wonderful and the sunrise was beautiful, and Pony's snores beside me were surprisingly calming.

My head snapped the the alleyway when I heard footsteps and Ray emerged a second later. I glanced down at a deep-in-sleep Pony before getting off the porch and walking over to Ray. "What're you doin' here?"

Ray reached out, rubbing his thumb over my cheek. "Sorry 'bout that, baby."

I took a step back from his touch. "It's fine."

"I didn't order it."

"I know."

Ray looked at me in a way he never had and then he sighed. "Your brother home?"

"No."

"Want to invite me inside?"

"No."

"You still with Shepard?"

"No."

"You know how to say anything else?"

I glared. "No."

Ray laughed, shifting of his feet. "You always were pretty straight forward, Jane."

I looked him in the eyes, wondering how at one point I had found him to be the only thing I really cared about. "Uh-huh."

"You want to go out tomorrow?"

"No," I said surely.

"Why not?"

I gave him on obvious look. "You and my brother are gonna kill each other on Saturday and you think goin' out is a good idea?"

"Didn't bother you before." Ray smirked.

"You guys weren't fighting before, you just hated each other," I argued back.

"Oh, come on, Jane," Ray said sickeningly sweet, reaching out for my waist. "We were so good together. Why aren't you my chick?"

I moved away from him again. "I'm not that way anymore."

His grabby hand fell away from me. "You really like Shepard, don't you?" I didn't answer. "You love him?"

"It's none of your damn business how I feel about anyone."

"Did you ever love me?" Ray asked suddenly, staring at me with as much intensity I had ever seen him have. "Did you ever think that you wanted to be with me forever?"

I hesitated before nodding. "Yeah, I think I loved you for a minute there," I said honestly, looking up at him. "You were the best thing to ever happen to me for a little bit."

Ray didn't talk for a long second before he said, "And that can never happen again?"

"Never," I confirmed. Ray nodded, turning to walk away. "Wait," I called quietly, watching him turn. "You ever love me?"

Ray smirked. "If I did, I wouldn't tell you."

I shook my head. "If you did, you wouldn't want to hurt me."

Ray shrugged, backing away into the alley. "We hurt the people we love, Jane."