:3 Hello, all! I was going to submit this on Wednesday, but my laziness got the best of me...
I'm eternally grateful for your wonderful reviews! X'D Please help me see How Lucky We Are all the way to the end!
Dallas scowled. "Didn't I tell you to leave me alone?"
"For the time being, yes, but you didn't say I couldn't come back." Johnny took a bite out of his sandwich, curling up on top of one of the many crates set out by the cafeteria to be picked up with the weekly trash. The smell of raw hotdogs stuck faintly to the old wood, making Dallas's stomach turn. Johnny, whether he noticed it or not, didn't seem bothered.
The brunette eyed the cigarette the older teen had in hand suspiciously, stating, "Should you be smoking on an empty stomach? Are you even old enough to be smoking?"
"Eighteen and god-damn proud." Dallas's lip curled over his sharp-looking teeth. "And while I wouldn't advise it, in extreme situations like this, I rather smoke until my intestines implode than take my chances with the mystery-meat pizza."
Johnny took another bite, looking thoughtful as he chewed.
"Gross," he decided. "But the baloney's not bad. You want a taste?"
"Nup." Dallas closed his eyes, resting his head against the warm brick. The autumn sun beat down on his face, showing burnt orange behind his eyelids. He could just make out the silhouettes of pulsating veins. "Sides. I wouldn't want to eat after a shrimp like you. I might turn into a runt," he paused, considering, "like you."
Johnny nodded knowingly. "I see."
Dallas shifted uncomfortably beneath his gaze. The kid was cute - he'd give him that. Could be the very reason he kept him around. He smirked, mostly to himself. It'd been a while since he got that particular sort of action.
A raindrop interrupted his thoughts, shortly followed by a startled yelp. Johnny looked about saucer-eyed as the humidity turned to a biting wind and a plethora of water droplets began to spoil their lunch. After gathering his bearings, he gave an ecstatic giggle (yes, giggle. Dallas flinched).
"I know I've only been here a few days, but I don't think I'll ever get used to this weather."
Dally stood up, calmly taking it all in as he was soaked to the bone, the cigarette hanging from his lips beginning to fizzle. But then again, Johnny thought, he had a reason to be nonchalant. He probably went through this everyday, or at least something like it. The blonde boy gestured to him, beckoning him forward.
"C'mon." He paused to stretch, yawning in a suspiciously bored way. "Let's eat inside."
Johnny followed him obediently, sandwich forgotten and left to mildew.
-
Ponyboy Michael Curtis glanced about the cafeteria casually, making sure all was right in the world.
Bryon was just a chatter mouth today - by way of which he meant he was currently running his fingers through his girlfriend's hair, a sickening display of adoration on his face. The nerds were keeping to their respective tables, and the not-quite-dweebs-but-definitely-social-outcasts were laughing up a storm, making dirty jokes (even the girls! what was this world coming to?) and daring each other to eat odd mixtures of random foods. The preppies at the next table over were less than thrilled with their jubilance, giving them dirty looks and eating their normal food with disgruntled scowls. Yes, today all seemed to be in proper-
Mike could feel a shiver run down his back as liquid gray streaks began to pelt the large glass windows, the sky darkening and the cafeteria lights looking brighter by comparison.
But it wasn't the weather that brought forth such an ominous sense of foreboding, and sure enough, a few minutes later you-know-who burst through the double doors, followed by a slightly soggy but otherwise unharmed new kid.
The room fell silent, and even the undignified table seemed to sense a change in atmosphere, instead shifting about nervously and muttering amongst themselves about killjoys.
Dallas marched right up to one of the preppy boys, daring him to refuse as he put his cigarette (which had surprisingly survived the rain) out in his vanilla pudding, shocking the owner of the lunch and everyone close enough to see what he'd just done into an even greater stunned silence.
He then trotted to the back of the room, plopped himself down at an abandoned table, and looked disinterested as the cafeteria slowly sank back into an uneasy murmur of either confused or disapproving whispers. Johnny said something to Dallas, who nodded briefly, before nearly skipping up to the lunch line. Ponyboy got up after him, catching up to him just as he set an apple and three puddings onto his tray.
"I thought I told you to stay away from him?" he hissed. Johnny shrugged.
"Why should I take orders from you? We barely know each other." He moved up, digging in his pocket as the girl in front came up to the cashier. He had plenty of time to retrieve his money and new student ID, as she still seemed to be fishing in her purse. The cashier looked exasperated and thoroughly put-upon.
Pony scowled "Then how come you talked my ear off yesterday like we were old buddies?" Was it all to hear about that scumbag? was the unasked question.
Johnny handed his money and ID to the grateful cashier as the girl finally sashayed away. At least someone had the mind to get it all out in advance.
"Dally's a really cool guy when you get to know him."
Mike tried to talk him out of his seating arrangement and even invited him over (hey! it was for his own good), but Johnny would hear none of it.
Mike noticed, though, that on his way back to his and Dallas's table, Johnny dropped a fresh vanilla pudding off for the preppy whose the delinquent had ruined before. Despite himself, MP shook his head, smirking.
Johnny Cade, he thought, you are really something else.
-
Johnny was bug-eyed like a coyote staring down a hunk of raw meat. "So what'd you do then?"
Dallas grinned, feeling haughty. It was so easy to reel this kid in. "I slapped her like the bitch she is and said, 'Cunt! You better watch your mouth!' And she did, the little coward."
Dallas seemed to find this hilarious, slapping one knee at his own triumph, but Johnny only managed a few uneasy "heh"s. It'd been amusing for a the first few minutes to hear the intrusive details of the older boy's fight with his girlfriend, mostly because Johnny had never heard of such dysfunction before. But now...
If there was one thing Johnny Cade would never appreciate, it was the c-word.
Dallas eased up a bit once he recognized the look on the other boy's face. He'd seen that look many times since they started hanging out, and already he'd grown accustomed to it. It was one of utmost discomfort.
Dally had the oddest urge to take it back - to say it was just a macho story for their amusement. But Dallas, never being one for affection (or tact, for that matter) reached out to tousle Johnny's hair with a wry smirk.
"Chill, kid. If she had been hurt, she wouldn't have come back, crawling on all fours."
"Yeah," Johnny said miserably, "but it was only because you scared her into it."
Dallas pulled away, miffed that the kid was so bent on morals. This was his best stuff here!
"C'mon, kid! Ain't like I'm beating her or nothing."
"Maybe not physically, but you said some awful stuff, and that counts for verbal." He pointed out, "And you still slapped her."
Dallas rolled his eyes at the outright corniness of it all. Still, the skeptical behavior was becoming a bit of a ruse; all his bad-mouthing hadn't stunted his curiosity.
"So, whaddya propose I do?"
"Apologize." Johnny said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. And to him it might have been. "Ridicule yourself, if you have to."
"Huh?" Dallas grunted, balancing a cig between his teeth in an uncivilized manner.
"Put yourself down. You know - you must see it in movies all the time! - 'baby, I was plain dumb.'"
The end of his whittled-down cigarette glowed red in the oncoming twilight. Dally squinted at Johnny's use of his deep imitation voice. "That supposed t'be me?"
"You get the idea," Johnny said with a sigh, and when Dally didn't say much else, went back to cloud-gazing.
After a long time Dally was still kind of quiet, yet there was turmoil behind those icy hard eyes; Johnny hoped for the best and that his speech had gotten to him.
"It's getting dark. I'll see you tomorrow?"
Dallas chuckled a bit as he watched the raven-haired kid leap down the street, thinking of his innocent advice. What would a kid like him know? He was probably - no, definitely - a virgin anyway, and judging by that attitude and the kiddish looks he'd stay that way for a while, too. Dallas wasn't looking for a relationship in this girl. He never had been.
But despite the ribbing he gave Johnny for a while after, Dally actually tried out his words-of-wisdom the next time he saw her - and it worked. At least, in the sense Johnny had meant it to.
He felt like telling her she was a sucker and damn easy because it was obvious he was lying to her, and at the same time he wanted to tell Johnny he'd been right all along. But instead of doing any of that, he kept it between the three of them - her, him, and the bed. No, they didn't have sex, but they laid on it all the same almost all night at her place, her crying all over him. In short, she was moved; this was the first time Dally had a girl cry on him for a reason that wasn't his own stupid mouth. Or hands.
And he hadn't kicked her off in blind annoyance because he was wondering about that, too.
:'D Short chapter. The next one's very, very long. By my standards, anyway. Which aren't very high. Unless you want them to be.