Cherry continued walking down the sidewalk, praying to God that he would just leave her alone and drive off.
As always, Dallas didn't give Cherry what she wanted. He continued to drive next to her, waiting for a response.
"Will you please just talk for a minute?" he snapped.
Cherry quickly whipped her head around to shoot Dallas a look, "So now it wants to talk?" she yelled. Dallas hated the way her tone was, and if it were anyone else, male or female, he would have been pounding their face in at this very moment. But not Cherry, he hated her too much; he liked her too much. Becoming annoyed with having to drive at a steady pace, Dallas parked his car where it sat. He got out and started walking down the hill to catch up to her.
"Hey, will you quit runnin' off?" he snapped again. At this point, he made it side by side with her, although she was still walking at a fast pace, eyes looking straight ahead. Her eyes had anger running all the way through them. Cherry finally gave in and stopped in her tracks.
She still continued to look straight ahead, refusing to make eye contact with the rude greaser whom she, at one point, thought was capable of respecting others once in a while.
"Talk." she said.
"Listen, sweetheart, I really don't get why you've been hating my guts" he said calmly, as if she were the only one upset.
"I don't think it'll make much of a difference if I told you," she mocked, "...sweetheart."
Dallas hated going soft on people, because it was something he never did, ever. In fact, Cherry was probably the single person he had ever acted this way with.
"Look, Cherry," he finally said, which caught Cherry's attention only because she still was not used to hearing her name coming from Dallas' mouth. "I don't apologize for nobody. You got that? Ever since I was young, and ever since now, I don't do it. Now if you go and expect me to change into this wise guy Soc with a mouth full of compliments and this n' that, then forget about it."
Cherry took about a minute to breathe and think about what Dallas had just said. Finally, she looked up at him and spoke.
"Dallas, I never wanted you to be someone you weren't. I just now know that we never could, and never will, be us together."
Hearing this caused Dallas to feel awfully strange, and he wasn't sure why. Not only was he upset, but he was also somewhat disappointed. He didn't like when things felt unfamiliar, and that was just what was happening right about now.
Meanwhile, Cherry had suddenly realized something that she hadn't noticed beforehand; Dallas was trying. Even though he may speak with a tone, stand with a sense of carelessness, and give off the notion that he's annoyed... he's still there. It would not be normal for a guy like Dallas to chase down a girl who had just talked back to him in his own car; it was no way near Dallas' right mind to stop and talk to Cherry like this.
With this in sight, Cherry continued speaking.
"You know, it's really too bad. I know what it's like to hide behind a reputation, too, you know."
"And what the hell's that supposed to mean?" Dallas replied, defensively.
Cherry didn't respond. She could already tell that things would only get worse if she continued.
"And how come you didn't bring a coat? You're an insane broad. It's freezing out. The very least you can do is sit in the car and talk to me." he told her.
Cherry shook her head, "I'm not going into any car with you."
Dallas sighed in annoyance as he began to take off his own coat. He walked towards Cherry and wrapped it around her, then backed a few steps away. Cherry looked at the ground, and continued to stare off as she held on to the warm jacket that was now attached to her. Even though she was managing to hide every emotion she felt at this time, the warmth did make her feel a lot better.
Cherry had nothing else to say at this point. She didn't understand Dallas, he was split into two different personalities. How could she know which one to expect when talking to him? Dallas was starting to feel annoyed. He began to look around, hands in his pockets, and rolled his eyes as he tilted his head up while releasing a fierce groan, "Aaaaaaghhh."
Dallas wanted to get another chance with this girl, because obviously she had something triggering him that no one could ever have triggered before. He wanted to explain himself, anything, just something about himself, but he didn't know what. He didn't like exposing himself to her, or anybody for that matter.
"Don't..." Dallas muttered softly while looking into another direction, "Just don't write me off yet, okay?".
Cherry couldn't quite understand what she was hearing. Was Dallas asking for a chance? A favor?
She could tell that he was beginning to speak from the heart, because he began to talk more softly, like as if he wanted no one to hear a word of what he was about to mention next.
"Look, I wish I could tell you some things," he added, "but I uh…I don't even know what I'de wanna say. Just don't give up on me."
Cherry nodded, and she understood. She didn't know how, but she did. As a truce, she walked toward Dallas and hugged him. He remained stiff, with his arms out toward his side, as if he were frozen just as he was about to hug her back. This caught him completely by surprise; he never hugged people. Not unless it were a friendly hug, as in between two guys, or two brothers. Never like this, however.
As Cherry's arms were wrapped around him, she whispered in his ear, "Even if I wanted to, I couldn't."
Dallas smiled and finally wrapped his arms around her in return. Cherry pulled back from the hug, and on the way, she planted a soft kiss on his cheek. She started to walk back in the opposite direction, toward Dallas' car. He followed behind her. But just before she walked towards the door, Dallas cut in front and opened it for her. Cherry sat inside, she felt warm. Dallas shut the door and soon came in through the other side to sit down.
He immediately started up the car. "So, where to?" he asked Cherry. Cherry thought for a second about what she wanted. Finally she said, "Home, I guess."
Cherry directed Dallas towards her house, which resided in what looked to be a Soc Central. Beautiful, large suburban homes, and they all looked exactly alike. Dallas drove down each street with his eyes wide, muttering, "Jesus, you really have it nice over here, dontcha' Red?" For some reason this comment didn't settle well with Cherry. She really appreciated being who she was, but she was also tired of always being depicted as some sort of rich, innocent pearl that couldn't be tampered with. The car slowly came to a stop, as Cherry instructed, "This is it, right here." Dallas pulled over. The two sat in silence for about ten seconds. Then, Cherry finally said what was on her mind.
"Don't look at me like that," she stated, "You know I play on both teams in this town."
Dallas smirked and replied, "Yeah, I know. You do know who you're talking to?"
Cherry knew that the others probably thought she was crazy for hanging around Dallas, hanging around a greaser. What would any Soc want to be doing with a hoodlum like that? She loved it, though.
"I guess I'de better be going." Cherry finally replied.
"Yeah," Dallas said, as he took his hand and ran it through a lock of her hair. She got up, opened the door, and stepped out of Dallas' car.
"Ay, what are you doing?" he said to her. Cherry turned around to look back at him, confused.
"You expecting me to freeze out here now or what?" he continued. Cherry paused, and then looked down to realize that he was referring to his jacket that was wrapped around her small frame. She let out a small, "Oh," and laughed as she walked back over to his window, taking the jacket off. As she handed it to him, he slid over to the passenger's seat and, while holding on to the jacket, stuck his head out the window and gave her one last hard kiss on the lips. This completely took Cherry by surprise, but she did not pull away. After about five seconds, Dallas pulled back and simply said, "I'll see you around, Cherry."
As he drove off, Cherry stood in her front yard, completely puzzled, wondering what Dallas had wanted exactly. She couldn't quite read him as well as she had wanted to. But as she watched that boy drive away, she immediately wished that she could have said something out of her element. She wanted to say, "Why don't you come inside?" Or even, "I'm not as innocent as I may seem, Dallas." But there he was, disappearing into the night as if a dream were only ending, or fading away.