Don't Mess With Dally

Property of S.E. Hinton! Enjoy!

'I'm bored,' was what I was thinking as I lay on the top bunk, throwing a ball up in the air at the ceiling of my cell. That was the worst part of jail, all the spare time with nothing to do but be bored and think. Sure, the people and the food isn't real great, but you didn't deal with that half as much as you dealt with the time. They didn't end up charging us with anything and let Tim go, but only because the guy we beat up confessed and didn't press charges. Smart man, he knows when we got out, we'd have killed his ass. The only reason I was still here, a week later, was because I insulted a police officer. I doubt there's actually a law that says that anyway, but I didn't know what else I'd be in for this time. I only had to do one more night before they were letting me go. This was easy, and boring.

I heard a loud clink as the metal cell door was unlocked and in came an unexpected cellmate. Curly Shepard of all people. He was shoved in before they locked the door back up behind him. He was spitting some choice words at the door, probably something he picked up from Tim. He didn't know I was in here. "Curly Shepard!" I shouted as I hopped down, making the kid pale until he turned around. His color only returned slightly when he saw it was me. 'Smart kid,' I thought, but then continued, "What the hell are you doing here, man? Your brother know you're here?" The color was lost again.

That reminded me of the first time I met Curly. It was shortly after I first came to Tulsa and met Tim. I liked Tim, he was a tuff hood and reminded me of myself. We'd hung out a few times before, but this time he wanted me to meet his gang, not that I had any interest in joining. They all seemed decent enough hoods, but dull. Tim introduced me to his brother, who was may have only been eleven. He wanted to look tough in front of his big brother so he playfully tried to tease me. Boy did he regret that! "Now listen good cause I'm only gonna say this once, ya hear? I don't know you. And since I don't know you, I don't like you. Since I don't like you, I'm tempted to beat the shit out of you. And since I'm tempted to beat the shit out of you, there's a chance I could lose my temper. And if I lose my temper, then I could kill you. So, since there's a chance I could kill you, you best start showing me some damn respect, ya dig?" I said it all very deadpan, expression carefully blank. Inside I was howling with laughter at the kid's expression. He had been terrified!

Curly just snorted like he didn't care, "If not yet, he will soon. Got caught slashing some Socs' tires." His chest swelled with pride and the color came back. It seemed like a dumb thing to go to jail over, but I let the kid have his moment.

"Good for you, kid. Tim say anything about me?" If Tim blamed me for his one night in jail, I'd rather know before he found me.

Curly flushed some. "Yeah," he mumbled. "And he told me if I saw you to give you something..." Then he swung and slugged me in the jaw, my head snapping to the side. Lights burst in my eyes with the pain and the red haze crept into my vision. I couldn't say I was surprised, Curly did anything his brother told him and Tim wasn't subtle. He couldn't just send a note or something saying he's pissed, he had to send someone to punch him. Of course, Tim was bright enough to send his own brother, someone I couldn't kill without Tim's killing me. Doesn't mean the kid wasn't gonna pay for that. Nobody gets away with that.

Curly was ashen and he knew he was gonna die. It was written all over his face. I grabbed his arm and pushed it behind his back, close to breaking it like a twig. He cried out and his face contorted as I pushed just a little harder. Then I banged his head against the metal frame of the bunk bed and let him collapse against the concrete wall. There was a gash bleeding freely from his forehead, running down his face. He was pale as a sheet and his eyes were glassy. I rolled me eyes at him as he weakly put a hand up to try and stanch the blood. "Curly, snap out of it. It's just a head wound. You're fine. Honestly, I thought Tim's brother would be tougher than that," I growled.

I didn't want the kid dying on me, that'd do wonders for Tim's friendship, so I started banging on the metal door until the metal slot opened and a guard irritably asked what I wanted. "Kid needs the infirmary or he's gonna bleed to death!" Curly made a choked sound in his throat. It almost made me feel bad, but I pushed that away. The door clicked open and a couple guards carried him out on a stretcher. Finally, I was alone again.

The next morning I was lucky not to have had my stay extended, but Curly was smart enough to not rat me out. He said he tripped. He got some stitches and was fine, minus the headache and minor shock. It didn't bother me at all because he deserved it. If he didn't want to get hurt, he wouldn't have done what Tim asked. Common sense tells you, 'Never mess with Dallas Winston.' So I was let out on time and walked back to the Curtis house. It took awhile, but it wasn't the first time I'd made that walk. I wasn't going to call and ask them for a lift, especially when they were probably all working.

I opened the door and walked right in as always. Two-Bit was sitting on the floor with some chocolate cake in his lap and a beer in his hand watching Mickey Mouse, again. Johnny was asleep on the couch and Pony must have still been sleeping because I didn't seem him anywhere. "Hey, hey, Dal!" shouted Two-Bit when he saw who it was. Johnny sat up, rubbed his eyes and stared blankly at me for a few moments. "Hey, Dally! You're out!"

I grinned at him as I walked over to smack Two-Bit in the back of the head for waking Johnny. "Hey!" he called. "Yeah, I'm out. Johnny, man, how ya been?"

Johnny grinned back, "Pretty good. Heard you turned Two-Bit on a cop!" They laughed.

I chuckled, "I sure did! Man, I couldn't just sit there and not say anything about how he was arresting the guy that went used to date his wife!" That got them howling with laughter, and me too, remembering the cop's stricken red face. I looked up and saw Pony standing in the hall, clutching his sides from laughter. Two-Bit sure knew how to wake a house, but it sure was a hell of a nice way to wake up.