CHAPTER TWO
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1966
Sylvia Jones stood still, her back pressed against a stall in the second floor girls' bathroom. Evie and Kathy were both with her, but they were in front of the mirrors touching up their makeup. The two girls were giggling about something while Sylvia picked at her chipping red nail polish.
"See!" Evie's shout echoed through the tiny bathroom. Sylvia picked her head up and pouted her lips. "It took two days for you to go crawling back." Kathy sucked her teeth and shoved Evie with her shoulder.
"Shut up," She growled. "I was not crawling back; we aren't even together again yet." Kathy defended herself.
"You're going on a date with him, Kath – odds are you're gonna be by the end of Friday night."
"It's a double date, so it ain't like it's a serious thing." Kathy replied, pushing her lipstick tube back into her bag.
"Who's it with?" Sylvia spoke up.
"Two-Bit," Evie stated in an obvious tone.
"No shit, Sherlock," Sylvia rolled her eyes and turned to Kathy. "I mean, who's the other couple you're going with?"
Kathy instantly lit up. "Lisa is going with Jason McCoy!" She cooed just as the late bell to third hour rang, but none of the girls moved an inch.
"Lisa Carter?" Sylvia tilted her head in surprise, "...as in Danny Carter's kid sister?"
Kathy nodded. "She told me this morning; I sorta feel bad for the girl though because she says she don't really like him like that."
Evie laughed. "I cannot believe he even had the guts to ask her out, she says he's been eyeing her since the beginning of the year."
"Well what's the point in her goin' with him if she don't like him back?" Sylvia asked. She never imagined Lisa as the type to have a boyfriend, especially because of how intimating her brother could be. She figured Jason must be easy to read if Lisa could tell he liked her, Danny might like that but she knew Lisa didn't.
"I guess she's just giving it a try." Kathy shrugged.
"Wait, what about you Syl?" Evie questioned. Sylvia shook her head, hinting that she had no idea what Evie was getting at. "You and Dal, you guys together again?" Instead of frowning, like any other normal girl would do, she smirked.
"Not yet, but there's no way Dally's gonna wait much longer, the ass can't live without me forever."
"Ladies," A new feminine voice appeared. The three teenagers turned toward the door and saw a teacher giving them all a very fake smile. "Shouldn't we be in class right about now?"
Sylvia mimicked the look on the teacher's face and nodded harshly. "Yes, we should." Evie and Kathy stifled their giggles until they got out of the bathroom. "Wow, what a shitface." Sylvia muttered swinging her bag along her shoulder. She couldn't wait to be out of that school for good.
XxX
Tim Shepard was going to kill Dally. He knew he was the one who scratched his fuckin' car and he wanted him dead. Lighting up a cigarette Tim kicked at the tires of his ugly-ass-maroon-colored-hybrid-truck and cursed.
He took a drag then hopped up in the driver's seat and turned on the engine. Tim assumed that Dally would be having a drink at Buck Merril's place because there's nothing better to do in this town anyway.
He was right. As soon as he pushed his way through the doors rage filled him all over again. Dallas was leaning over the counter grabbing at a beer that Buck wasn't letting him at. "I told you, asshat, you're not getting a drink until you pay me for the last free one I gave you." Dally grumbled loudly and leaned back in his seat.
"That was a week ago, Buck, loosen up!" Dally prodded.
"You've already got my wallet loosened up enough ya animal!"
"More like road kill," Tim entered the conversation, walking further into Buck's. "- Which is what Winston here is gonna be when I get a shot at him."
"Shepard!" Dally's smile was so wide Tim wanted to smack it off. "I've waited almost two days already." He knew what Dal was getting at and that pissed him off even more.
"You little fucker!" Tim shouted, ready to lunge at the other hood.
"Hey!" Buck yelled out from behind the bar. "If yer all are gonna fight then take it outside! I don't need any cops on my case!"
"Yeah, Timmyboy, let's take it outside." Dally said, calmly.
Tim grabbed at Dally's collar and threw him out the door in a second. Dallas stumbled down the steps and almost fell face first into the dirt. Tim raced up to him and swirled him around, punching him right in the jaw. "I wanna kill you, Dallas!"
Dally laughed, and took a swing at Tim's nose, then elbowed him on his temple. "Oh! I'm so scared! You only call me Dallas when you're angry." He cried in a shrill sarcastic voice.
"You better be scared you piece of shit!" Tim jumped forward and tackled Dally to the ground and got some good hits at his ribs. It hurt like hell but Dally had waited so long for some action and he was finally getting it, even if he was gonna have a few broken ribs in the end.
XxX
"Hey, Pony," Johnny Cade whispered loud enough to get his friend's attention, but not the rest of their buddies who were sitting around them at Jay's. "You think I can spend a few nights at your place?"
Pony sipped at the last of his Pepsi and turned to Johnny. "Of course," He told him after throwing it in the garbage. "You never gotta ask, the answer is always gonna be yes." He reminded him.
Johnny nodded and turned his attention back to the group's conversation.
"No way, man," Danny shook his head in disapproval at what Two-Bit was saying. "Dally ain't that stupid."
"Yes way, man," Two-Bit laughed. "He's been that stupid before, what makes you think he's changed?"
"What'd Dally do this time?" Johnny wondered, picking at the fries that the boys have placed in the middle of the table.
Steve turned to the sixteen-year-old across from him and told him about how Dally scratched Tim's car and now he was sporting cracked ribs and a sprained wrist. Johnny winced a little. That hurt like hell and he knew Dally was probably cursing himself right at that very moment.
"He was probably just itching for a fight." Johnny guessed. Everyone nodded because it seemed like a reasonable explanation. Tim and Dally usually blew off their steam on each other so it was a usual occurrence for them to always be fighting and tearing each other apart.
"So, Two-Bit," Pony began, starting to change the subject. He didn't like talking about Dally a lot because it got him thinking too much. "What's this I hear about you and Kathy this Friday?"
"Oh, don't forget 'bout Lisa and Jason." Two-Bit was grinning ear to ear and shoving his elbow in Danny's side.
"Cut it out, Ass-Bit." Danny elbowed him back and positioned himself more comfortably in the chair he was sitting in. "It's just one night, don't get too excited."
Ponyboy cocked his head to the side like a puppy would. "What does that mean?"
"Yeah, Dan, what – you think Jason's gonna stop at one date with your sister?" Steve accused with wide eyes.
"Yeah…" Danny said, like it should've been obvious to everyone. "He doesn't like her like that; he just agreed to take her because Two-Bit needed him to."
Two-Bit and Steve broke into a fresh batch of laughter. "Aw, man, Dannyboy," Two-Bit cried out. "Don't you need a wakeup call."
Danny's face turned all kinds of reds and he leaned forward. "What?" Now he was worried. "Wait – you think McCoy actually what, has a crush on Lisa?"
Two-Bit shook his head. "We don't think, we know."
Danny scrunched up his face and scoffed. "You're joshin' me right now."
"We ain't." Steve assured him.
"Well then hell with Friday night!"
"What do you mean 'hell with Friday night'? Dude, Lisa's fifteen, I think you need to loosen up your leash on her." Steve said.
"Yeah, Stevie's right, she ain't a little girl anymore." Two-Bit added, trying to sound as nice as possible.
Danny covered his face with his hands and groaned. "What the fuck, man?"
"Um guys, I hate to interrupt your conversation but lunch hour is over in ten minutes." Ponyboy announced.
"Yeah, we oughta get goin'." Johnny agreed, standing up from his chair.
"Sorry, Danny," Two-Bit apologized.
"Damn, this is your entire fault."
"Yeah, guess it is." But Two-Bit didn't mind, he was doing Lisa a favor; because the day she'd ever be able to convince her brother herself that she was old enough to date would be the day hell freezes over.
XxX
Joey Carter was about to rip his math homework to shreds. "Mom!" he called out loudly. No answer. "Dad!" …still there's no answer. Grumbling loudly, he stomped out of his room and raced down the steps. Lisa was at the stove, stirring something in a big pot.
"They both work late tonight, Joey, remember? It's Wednesday." His older sister said, not missing a beat. With a loud sigh, Joey collapsed at the dinner table. "What's your problem?"
"Math is my dang problem."
Lisa smiled at her kid brother. Math had been her 'dang problem' when she was in seventh grade too. In fact, it still kind of is.
"Well sorry, kiddo," She replied sheepishly. "I ain't know shit about math so you're on your own for now."
"Lisa, watch your language." Danny scolded as he stepped through the front door.
"Sorry." She muttered, annoyed.
Turning off the heat on the stove she carefully carried the pot over to the table where Joey sat and placed it on top of a kitchen mat. Getting out three plates she put a few scoops of mac and cheese in each bowl and placed them in front of everyone. Quickly walking over to the drawers under the stove, she took out three forks and shoved them at her brothers, then sat down herself. Taking the scrunchie she had on her wrist, she tied her hair back into a ponytail and began to dig in.
"Oh, goodness," She gushed. "I'm so hungry."
"Me too, all of my math homework is so tiring." Joey complained.
Danny opened his mouth to say something just as the phone rang. Lisa jumped up so quick she got a little dizzy. Her brothers gave her a weird look but she ignored it and tried to walk to the phone and not run like she wanted to. She knew who was calling and it made her stomach fill with butterflies, but not necessarily the good ones.
"Hello?" She picked up, pretending she didn't know who it was.
"Hey, Leece, it's Jason."
Lisa wanted to scream. She could feel her cheeks get hot at how he called her by her nickname. "Oh, hey Jason," She replied as nonchalantly as she could. The thing was Lisa didn't really have that much of a crush on the kid, and she sort of felt weird and awkward talking to him. She had so much adrenaline in her and she just wanted to hang up the phone. For his sake though, she was going to try to be cool about it.
Danny's head whipped up from his bowl when he heard Jason's name and he could feel something stirring inside of him, and it wasn't the mac and cheese he just swallowed.
As Lisa giggled and acted like a little school girl on the phone, Danny realized that Two-Bit was right. She wasn't a little girl anymore, and that made Danny wanna gouge his eyes out. Putting down his fork, he pushed his bowl at his younger brother who would gladly accept seconds.
"You feel alright?" Joey asked, wondering why Danny had just given him half his dinner. Danny nodded and stared at Lisa's back as she talked to Jason on the phone.
"Yeah," he lied, getting up from the table. "- Just not all that hungry." He cursed Lisa under his breath, why'd she had to stress him out so much?
XxX
Angela Shepard rolled her eyes at her older brother, Tim, who lay motionless on the couch in front of the TV. He had refused to take the icepack she had just offered him for his nose but she could tell he wanted it.
"I don't get you," She squinted her eyes at Tim and he didn't even look over at her. All of his attention was focused at the ceiling. "Why do you get into fights over stuff like this?" Rolling his eyes and moaning Tim sat up from the couch and glared at his little sister.
"Why wouldn't I get into a fight over stuff like this." Tim wanted to slap her upside the head. "He messed with my damn car, Angel, I ain't just gonna let that slide."
"Yeah," Curly added, walking into the room, pulling on his old jacket. "Exactly like how he won't let it slide that I skipped school Monday."
Tim picked up a pillow and threw it hard at his kid brother. It hit him in the face, so he picked it up and kicked it back at Tim. "You're already doing a rat's ass job in all your classes, if you wanna graduate high school you can't just keep skipping."
"Whatever." Curly replied, opening the front door.
"Hey, wait a minute!" Tim yelled out. When Curly ignored him and walked out the door, Tim shot up. He stifled a shout at how bad his side hurt. "This fuckin' kid." He grumbled limping to the door.
"Ask him where he's going." Angela told him.
"No shit." Tim whispered, finally getting to the door. When he got it opened and looked out into the night, Curly was nowhere around. Dammit. He thought to himself. Walking back into the house he slammed the door shut, he didn't even bother looking at his sister because he knew she'd give him shit about being too slow. So instead, he trudged up the stairs and headed to bed.
Reviews would be nice :)
