Dallas and I have been dating for about a week and it's been the greatest week ever. People did question my taste in guys, but what they were really saying was, "Why in the world are you dating Dallas Winston?" I didn't care though, I liked Dallas and he liked me, so that was all that really mattered.
"So you and Dallas are like a thing now." Two-Bit asked, while we were waiting for everyone else at lunch.
"Yeah, why are you jealous?" I joked.
"No I'm not jealous, besides I've got my own girl. Her name is Cindy." Two-Bit said. I knew he meant it when he said he wasn't jealous. Everyone else came over and when Dallas did, he kissed me. Then Soda came over with Sandy at his side. Sandy kissed Soda after seeing Dallas kiss me. I rolled my eyes and ignored her. I had a nice lunch ignoring Sandy but not talking to Soda was hard for me. Near the end of lunch, Soda pulled me to the side and said he wanted to talk.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"I wanna talk about Sandy." He started.
"I don't." I was being smart with him.
"Come on, Typhani, you and Sandy were best friends for a week and then you just stopped. What happened between the two of you?" Soda asked.
"I got mad at her because she agreed to go out with you." I was embarrassed to say that because it brought back the memory of the time Soda found out I liked him.
"Oh, look, Typhani I didn't ask her out to hurt you. I just really like her too." Soda said.
"Wait, too? What do you mean you really like her too?" But Soda left before he could answer my question. What did he mean he really likes her too? Who else did he like besides Sandy? It was just another unanswered question floating around in my head. I walked back to the table. Soda wasn't there when I got back; he probably left for work. Sandy left too, thank goodness.
At the end of school I waited for Dallas. He was going to walk me home and then we were just going to hang out at my house until my dad got home. Ever since we started dating, Dallas has been staying out of trouble. I was fine with it and was actually happy that he was being good because of me. Dallas was like a picture, all you can say about him is 'amazing' or 'beautiful' but then there's another thousand words that describe him but you just can't say. He really changed, he's become more of a gentlemen. It was hard to get used to for the first couple of days but then it became routine.
Every time he saw me he would kiss me, not that I minded. We started our walk home and watched people stare at us, pick fights with the other gangs, and friends meet up with one another. There was one fight going on between a Soc and a Greaser but I wasn't sure what it was about. Dallas wanted to join in but I wouldn't let him.
We got to my house and nobody was home, that was a good thing. We went right to my room to do homework, well my homework at least. I encouraged Dallas to at least try to do his homework but he couldn't even figure out the simple grade school math problems. It was driving me crazy because he wouldn't even try, he would just yell out numbers. So I gave up on him and just did my homework. Since he wasn't going to do his homework, I did it for him.
When I finished all the homework, we just talked. I guess we were so caught up in conversion, I didn't even realize what time it was. He kissed me again and when we parted my dad was standing in the doorway.
"What're you two doing? Typhani, I thought I told you none of friends were allowed in your room?" My dad was gonna kill me.
"Dad we were just talking." I said; which we really were and he only kissed me once.
"Yes, you guys were just talking. Are you guys dating now?" Something really bad was going to happen, I could just tell.
"Yeah, we've been dating for the past week." I explained.
"Break up with her right now." Dad demanded.
"Dad, you can't make him do that!" I shouted.
"Typhani, it's okay, I'll just go." Dallas walked toward the window.
"Go out the door boy!" Dad jerked his thumb toward the door.
"Bye." Dallas kissed my cheek.
"Stay away from my daughter." I sat back on my bed and began to cry. "What are thinking going out with Dallas Winston?"
"Maybe I was thinking I liked him." I said.
"Typhani, I've told you a thousand times not to be their friend and as long as you live under my roof, you will follow my rules. So when you live in your own house, you can make and follow your own rules." Dad said sternly.
"Fine, that's what I'll do then. I'll live in my own house and make my own rules because living here ain't making me any happier." I argued.
"If that's what you want, that's what you get. I'll tell your mother and we can find you a new home." Dad wasn't even joking about me moving, he was dead serious. After a while, it was beginning to hit me that I was moving out of my parent's house at age sixteen.
"What am I doing? I can't live on my own." I said to myself.
"Typhani, this is what you really want? Honey, you're only sixteen." Mom interrupted my argument with myself.
"Well living here isn't making me any happier. I have to do something."
"One month, then tell me how it is living on your own." Mom made me promise.
"One month, then I'll let you know how I am." I promised her.
For the next three days my parents and I looked for a house I could live in. I chose a house closer to the north side of Tulsa but still technically on the south side. It was how things were supposed to be, Socs in the south and Greasers in the north and that was one rule everyone followed, including Dallas. But it was close enough to the border that it was typical for a Greaser to cross the line. I wasn't going to tell my friends about me moving until it was for sure and I had a house. So now was the time to tell them.
"Well about two weeks ago, I got in a fight with my dad about dating Dallas but long story short, I'm moving out of my parent's house."
"You're going to live by yourself?" Two-Bit asked.
"No, I was thinking I could ask Cherry Valance or Casey Linnhall if they wanted to live here. And no you can't live with me. My dad said if I was going to live with someone, it had to be a girl."
"Oh, now you decide to listen to your dad." Two-Bit complained.
"If I wanna live on my own, that's one rule I have to follow. You can come and visit me, though." I offered.
"Alright, because I'm gonna need to crash here when Hannah gets on my nerves." Two-Bit said.
"I don't care what you do, you just can't live there." I demanded.
"When do we get to see your new house?" Steve asked.
"You can see it right now but nothing's inside yet." I offered.
"Sure." They all agreed. I told them we could walk from here (here being Soda's house), so that's what we did. I was so excited to show them my new house, I had butterflies. We got to the house in about five minutes. I pulled the key from my pocket and let them all inside. I walked in after them and saw all my furniture inside.
"You don't look like you know why there's furniture in here." Two-Bit guessed from my facial expression.
"But I do." Someone said; I didn't know who.
"Ahhh!" We all screamed at once. "Dad?"
"I moved all your furniture in for you. It's the least I could do."
"Thank you, you can go now." I walked him to the door.
"My pleasure." He smirked.
"Bye Dad." I was about to close the door when he had one last thing to say, "Are you sure about this?"
"One hundred percent positive." I reassured him.
"That was kinda weird." Two-Bit said, relieved that my dad was gone. We all went to the living room to watch TV. Some sat on the couch, including me, and the others sat around the couch and on the floor. I got hungry, so I went to the kitchen to search for something to eat. Surprisingly, the fridge was filled with food. I don't know what my dad was trying to prove to me or trying to make things better but it wasn't gonna work. What he made Dallas do was wrong and his consequence was losing me. But it was okay because Dallas doesn't hate me, he understands.
It was getting late and all the guys were still at my house. I made them leave and they did without any questions. They were dragging their way to the door from lack of sleep. I didn't even bother to say good-bye because I knew I wouldn't get anything out of them. I just went right to bed.
The next morning was the best ever; I had it all to myself. The house was quiet and there was no one here to bug me. Since it was just so peaceful, I didn't even sleep in, just so I could enjoy the perfect morning. I was in the kitchen making breakfast and watching TV when Ponyboy came running in screaming my name.
"What do you want?" I groaned; my morning ruined. I came out to the living room to see what he wanted.
"Steve is getting beat up by some Soc. You got to stop him!" Pony said.
"Why can't you do it?" I complained since my morning had been ruined.
"He doesn't want to listen to a thirteen year old kid." I followed Pony to where ever Steve was.
"Hey! He—Ashton?" I was taken by surprise when I found out Ashton was the one that jumped Steve.
"Well Greaser, you're lucky your little friend came before any of mine did." Ashton said. "So, what are you doing later Typhani?" Ashton came toward me.
"Nothing with you that's for sure." I said. I heard a car drive by but it stopped where we were.
"Well, what's going on here? I got a call from someone saying there was a fight here. So I'm gonna have to take the four of you down to the station for questioning." I knew this officer. His name is Ron and he went to school with my dad and they joined the police academy together. He went to his car and radioed for back-up.
When back-up did arrive, we were split up. I was unfortunately lucky enough to ride with Ashton, ugh, and Pony and Steve were together. Ashton and I went in Ron's car and the other two went in the other car.
"Well I didn't think this would be the place I'd see you again Miss Taylor." Ron said.
"Ron, I didn't do anything, you can't let my dad see me here." I begged.
"Sorry baby, I gotta let him know that I brought people in for questioning, but I believe you didn't do anything. But you, Ashton, have got to stop jumping people. I know you were and I'm not letting you slide today." Ron warned. I sighed and slumped against the seat.
We got to the station. I was regretting every decision I made this morning because when my dad finds me here, he was going to kill me. Ron lead the four of us into a room with one light, I figured it was the room for questioning.
"You will all get your turn to talk, so just keep your pants on." He was mainly speaking to Steve. "Ladies first, so gentlemen if you could leave the room and sit in those chairs out there. Have a seat right here and tell me what happened." Before I spoke my dad came in. "Ah, chief, um, I'm questioning a few kids about some suspicious activity."
"Go ahead, tell us what happen." Dad said.
"I was at home making breakfast and watching TV, when Ponyboy came running in and telling me that Steve was getting beat by some Soc, Ashton. I told Pony to get Ashton to tell him to stop himself but he only said that he wasn't going to listen to a thirteen-year-old kid. So I went with Ponyboy to stop Ashton. He did stop when I told him to. Then the fuzz came." Even as a girl I used the lingo the guys used.
"Alright, if I don't hear the same thing from the other boys you will be in a whole heap of trouble." Dad warned. Ron brought Pony in before I left so we wouldn't communicate with one another to get out of trouble. Once he was in, I was out. I took Pony's seat out by Steve and Ashton.
Hours went by before the debriefing was over. Everyone had their turn in the questioning room and when everyone was done, we all went in.
"Okay, the stories were roughly the same and everyone is clean but Mr. Carter who will serve time in jail for continuously jumping innocent civilians." He pointed to Steve to clarify the "innocent civilian."
"Innocent… yeah right." Ashton hissed under his breath. Dad escorted him out and Ron dismissed us three. Before leaving the station my dad came out to talk to me.
"Look, I never want to see you here again besides visiting me." Dad warned.
"Dad it wasn't my choice to come here and I didn't even do anything wrong." I complained.
"I know you didn't but I don't want to see you here under any circumstances."
"I promise I won't have a problem staying away from here even if it's visiting." I walked away with Steve and Pony. The station was in the middle of town and pretty far from where we lived. We went back inside to borrow the phone and give a call to someone to come and pick us up. It had to be someone other than Darry because he'd be mad if he found out about Ponyboy being hauled in. So we called Two-Bit who was on his lazy butt doing nothing but eating and watching TV.
It took him almost fifteen minutes to get down to the station when it should have only taken him about five minutes. That's Two-Bit for you, lazy and not willing to do anything for anyone. When he did arrive he took us back to his place once again too lazy to takes us anywhere else. It was fine though. Pony didn't want to deal with Darry, Steve needed somewhere to crash, and I that's where I ended up.
Steve and I raided their fridge and bugged Hannah, Two-Bit's sister, until she got so annoyed she had to leave. She just walked across the street to her friend's house. Close enough to walk, Pony, Steve, and I walked each other home. Steve was the first to go home and Pony and I just stayed at his house. Darry came home real late so Pony didn't have to deal with him tonight but tomorrow would be messy. I spent the night on the couch and woke up early for school. I finally realized that I had been wearing my pajamas this whole time, from the police station to the Curtis house. I borrowed one of Soda's shirts and jeans. Surprisingly the jeans fit perfectly but the shirt was a little big. I was used to dressing in jeans and a t-shirt and people I went to school with were used to it too. Soda didn't know I was borrowing his clothes because he left early for work.
Steve was taking us all to school today, illegally squeezing us all in his car. I was lucky enough to sit in the front with no one seated between Steve and me. Steve noticed I wasn't wearing my regular attire.
"Get dressed in the dark this morning?' Steve joked.
"I was in my pajamas all day yesterday and I slept over at Pony's house last night so I didn't have any other clothes." I explained.
Today for lunch we were going to Soda. We were meeting him at the local pizza parlor where we could get free pizza from the manager, Jill. She was good friends with Soda's parents.