Ch 3:

"I'm a cowboy. On a steel horse I ride. I'm wanted dead or alive. Wanted dead or alive."

~Bon Jovi (Dead or Alive)

Dally's P.O.V

Man I loved rodeos. It was exactly what I needed to get my mind off of everything. The second I got out of a borrowed car, the smell of manure and dirt enhanced me. Grinning to myself, I went to find the Curtis's. I was early for the first time in my life, and I knew they would be here this early too because Soda was so excited. I wandered through the stands preparing for the full fledge of people that were coming. I could smell funnel cakes, popcorn, and pizza. I would have to fill up on junk later though; right now I was on a mission.

I walked into the arena, hoping to find someone at least. All I saw were some important looking people talking amongst themselves. Then I saw the back of Ponyboy's bleached head.

"Curtis!" I yelled. Pony turned around and grinned when he saw me. I froze when I saw who he was talking to.

Cherry looked stunning, wearing crisp jeans and a belt with a silver buckle, a tight black button up shirt, and shining black boots. She looked sharp, not like I would admit it to her ever.

"Hey you." Cherry smiled as she walked over to where I stood, frozen in time. Just looking at her made memories flood back to my head way to fast, and for the first time since I was determined to get shot, I remembered Johnny.

I remembered the night I met Cherry Valance. How I was talking all dirty and trying to get her attention. I remember Johnny, even though it sent unbelievable pain through me, perfectly. I remember his big innocent black eyes, his long greasy black hair, and his slight build. I remembered how he had stood up to me, trying to get me to leave Cherry alone.

Another memory. This time it was when Pony, he and I were eating at a Dairy Queen. How Johnny had told me he was going to turn himself in. The cold, dark feeling of me imagining Johnny in jail. How I had yelled at him because I was so upset at the thought. How I had pleaded for him to understand. I wished I could tell him everything. I wished I could tell the kid that he meant more to me than any family member ever would. I wished I would just have turned around that damn car and saved him…

I snapped out of the memories, but both Cherry and Pony were already looking at me funny.

"I-I got to go." I stuttered. I hadn't stumbled over my words since I was a kid. I sprinted away from them, wishing I could run away from everything, but knowing inwardly that I never could.

Ponyboy's P.O.V.

"Is he okay?" Cherry looked after Dally in distress. Truth was, I didn't know. Dallas had just froze when he saw Cherry, then stood there staring at us with a look of blank horror on his face. Then he had run away. Cherry was still looking at me for an answer.

"I'm sure he's fine." I lied to comfort her. She looked me straight in the eye.

"What's wrong with him? He's not himself…" I pondered over my answer.

"He's been really beating himself up about Johnny." My throat clenched when I said his name. It was still hard to talk about him so casually. A look of understanding passed through Cherry's face.

"Oh." She breathed. I felt awkward, so I turned away from her. Luckily Soda and Darry saved me, as they loped over. Soda was bouncing on the balls of his feet, intentionally freaking out. He was acting drunk, even though I knew he wasn't.

"You seen Dally?" Darry asked, looking around. I nodded contently.

"He… left." Darry bit his lip.

What must have been minutes past. It all seemed like a blur until Cherry left my side to get ready for her barrel racing. Soda was grabbing my arms and showing me some horses, but I was mostly just looking for Dally. I hated how Soda didn't even seem to care about what Dallas was going through. I watched the barrel racing. Cherry did amazing; she got the best score, easily beating the others. She looked amazing up on her pure white horse, her red hair flying out behind her as she whipped around the barrels.

She beamed as she took her trophy and prize money, but the second she came back to me she didn't look so happy.

"Dallas isn't back yet?" I shook my head, not meeting her eye. Soda was up next after the team roping. I could tell he was itching to get back on a horse. He stroked a random horse's nose, real love in his eyes. When it was his turn he hopped on, and out in the arena he went.

He did amazing. The horse whipped him around, bucking like mad. Soda didn't care. He whooped and yelled, his hand never touching the horse once. He stayed on way past the buzzer, grinning. They practically had to pull him off. He never lost that longing in his eyes, even when he was up on the horse. The other contestants went, but I was too worried to look at their scores.

It wasn't until they announced Soda as the winner when I finally looked at him. He received five hundred dollars in cash, and I couldn't help but feel happy. Five hundred bucks was a lot of money. They gave him his trophy and he grinned, and came bouncing back to us. He smile faltered almost instantly.

"Where's Dallas? Bull ridings next." I bit my lip, shaking my head in wonder. The sponsors rode around the ring then they announced the first bull rider. Dally was next. The person finished quickly (he fell of his bull in the first few seconds), and then they were calling Dally's name.

"Dallas Winston?" No one answered. I felt like I was being suffocated. Dally had never missed out on a chance to ride. The judges said that they would skip him and let the other contestants go first.

"Damn they can't just skip me!" A voice gripped from behind me. I spun around.

"Dally!" And sure enough there he was. He looked perfectly fine to me. Yet again, he was good at hiding things.

"Sorry about that earlier, I remembered that I had to talk to someone." I could tell he was lying by the way his eyes shifted around.

"We'll talk later." I said quietly. He gave me a confused look and then walked over to bull he would be riding. I know he couldn't keep up this façade for long.

Cherry's P.O.V

I felt relieved when I saw Dallas finally emerge from the crowd. He looked like he always did, hard, bitter, uncaring. But there was something in his eyes that had changed. He and Ponyboy exchanged a few words before Dally walked up to the toughest looking bull there.

The second he got on the bull it was obvious who was going to win. The pitch black bull was huge, and it didn't help that it had enormous horns. But Dallas was tougher, somehow. That bull flung him around, but Dally stayed on. He looked… great up there on that bull. His white-blonde hair flopped into his eyes, a smile of triumphant on his face. After the buzzer he slid off and walked over to where I stood. His bright blue eyes were soft; despite his performance he looked utterly causal.

"How's that bull riding for you?" His infamous smirk spread to his face, and I crossed my arms over my chest. I couldn't help but smile back.

"Not bad Winston." I tried to look bored, but I don't think he was buying it. I was still smiling without my teeth, which gave it all away.

"Since when do you call me Winston?" He brushed his hair out of his face. Something occurred to me… something strange. His eyes were red. Before I could respond to my observation, he looked away from me. I realized he was waiting for me to answer him.

"Since now." I looked around, wondering where the Curtis's ran off to. Sodapop probably dragged them somewhere, he was really hyper.

"Are you hungry?" He asked me. I did a double take.

"What?" He was acting strange, kicking the dirt at his feet and shifting his eyes around. He raised his eyes to meet mine, raising his eyebrows.

"You heard me." My heart started racing, and I wished it would shut its trap. I couldn't fall for Dallas Winston. I couldn't.

"Yeah I'm a little hungry." I was sweating bullets.

"Want to go get a hotdog from one of the stands or something?" He jerked his head backwards, stuffing his hands in his pockets. I nodded stiffly, and he smiled lightly.

I followed him outside. It was dark out; the stars were twinkling through the clear night air. We stood in a crowded line for the hotdog stand. People were staring at us, whispering in their friends ears. I didn't really care about what they were saying about me, I was just worried about what they were saying about Dally.

"How have you been?" I asked awkwardly, to break to heavy silence between us. He shrugged.

"Okay I guess. What about you?" I mimicked his actions, and he grinned at me.

"Okay I guess." I giggled. He had a nice smile. His teeth were white and perfectly straight, and his whole face lit up when he smiled like that. I wish he would grin like that more often. We got two hotdogs, and sat on the edge of a curb to eat them. I was starved, so I dug in. Dally nibbled on the end of his.

"You never seemed like a nibbler." I blurted. He turned his head toward me, his eyes boring into mine. Then he cracked a smile.

"What? That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard someone say." I pouted, sticking out my bottom lip. Dally simpered at me, and I looked down at my feet.

"I was just kidding. Don't be mad at me." He slung his arm over my shoulders, and the normal me would have pulled away. But instead I rested my head on his chest and sighed contently.

"You sure have changed a lot Cherry." My heart fluttered when he called me Cherry. He had always called me 'princess', or 'red head.' But never Cherry.

"How so?" What was that supposed to mean? I've changed? My head was buzzing with possibilities.

"Yeah, you've changed a lot." He was quiet for a moment before continuing. "You used to hate me more than anything. You used to be feisty and harsh. But now…" He trailed off. At first I was too surprised to say anything. I knew I was changing, because of Bob's death obviously. I never had thought that someone else would notice though. I finally thought of a comeback.

"You've changed too." I said, crossing my arms over my chest and pulled away from him. He grinned bitterly.

"I know." I had thought he would fight it. I admired him for accepting the fact, while I still couldn't get used to the idea. It was terrible how we could only change because someone important in our lives is gone, there had to be some other way.

"Why did we have to go through all this? I'm beginning to wonder if anyone else has any problems at all." Dally had a hard look on his face after I said this.

"Welcome to my life, honey." I didn't doubt it either. I knew Greasers thought that us Socs got all the breaks, just because we're rich. Things are rough for us too. Mostly just parent problems, not big problems that they had to deal with. But they still count.

"Surprised?" I laughed shakily.

"Actually, not one bit." He looked thoughtful for a moment before continuing. "I don't understand. The rest of the gang seems perfectly normal, when everything's not." I wanted to add on, but he changed the subject before I could. He was still touchy about what had happened, and I didn't want to push him.

"The guys are probably wondering where I am." I agreed, and we threw out our hot dog wrappers. Then we walked back together to the ring.

"Dal where did you go? We got your trophy." Sodapop said when Dally and I walked up to him.

"I won?" He asked, dumbfounded.

"Well der." Soda replied, grinning at him. He took the trophy and I stared at Soda. He was a doll; I hadn't been lying when I was talking to Pony about him. He had golden hair and warm brown eyes, and a great personality to top it off. He caught me ogling at him and the corners of his lips turned up. I felt my face get hot.

"Where's Pony and Darry?" Dally had seen my little exchange with Soda, and looked sullen.

"They ran off. I think Pony wanted to look at the stock." Dally nodded and traced the words engraved in the trophy.

"I'm going to head home. Me and Two-Bit wanted to drive out to Texas to see his cousin all day tomorrow, so I need rest." He and Soda exchanged a few words of goodbye, and then Soda strutted off to go find his brothers. Dally turned to me.

"I'll see ya later, Valance." I bit my lip. Now we were back to the name calling. It was like nothing had changed at all. Then he did something I never expected him to do. He leaned in and pecked me on the cheek. My cheek tingled where his lips had touched it, and I couldn't hear anything my heart was pounding so loud.

He looked at me with a gentle expression on his face. His lips were curved up into a soft smile, his eyes were shinning, and his hair was flopping into them. I stared back at him like I was in some sort of trance. Then, as quickly as it had come, his expression faded into his usual bitter look.

"Bye." He whispered before dashing off. I knew that he and I would never be able to love each other that way. But I was still trying, for some unfathomable reason; I kept going back to him. I knew that I had probably just had my first and last personal moment with Dallas Winston.

Hey guys! Thanks to those of you who have reviewed, added this story to your favorites, or even read my story! I don't know how to reply to reviews, so sorry if I don't reply to them. If someone could PM how to, that would be great! Any ideas, comments, concerns, or predictions? If you review I usually will check out your stories and review back. Thanks!

~Lots of love,

Alaina