Cherry couldn't sleep at all, especially knowing that at this very moment, both Dallas and her friends were in danger of getting hurt. Most likely though, she knew her friends were more likely to be hurt. They had it coming for them, she thought, they were the ones who wanted to fight Dally in the first place. Cherry tried to calm her nerves by flipping through some of the magazines she had laying around her house. Her parents weren't home, they had left earlier that afternoon on a flight to New York to visit her stepfather's family. With nothing to do and no one to talk to, it was awfully hard for Cherry not to think of what might have been happening at that exact moment in time. She was startled when she heard the sound of her door bell. Oh no, she worried. She knew that once she opened that door, she'd be hearing the news that one of the Soc's were hurt, or probably even killed. She could see it now as she slowly walked towards her door; seeing Mike standing there looking black and blue, telling horrible stories.

Cherry finally reached for the door, and when she opened it, she could not have been more shocked. There he stood, cigaret in hand, and the other hand pressed against the wall, Dallas Winston in all his charm. She immediately noticed the blood dripping from the side of his head, but then shortly after her attention was drawn to his glowing eyes; his eyes, they were staring right back into hers when she answered her door.

"Dallas!" Cherry finally gathered herself to speak, "Wha- What are you doing here?" Dallas dropped his cigaret on the floor and stepped on it. Looking down, he stated confidently with a raspy, broken voice, "I came to see you."

Cherry grabbed his arm lightly and pulled him inside. Then, she led him to her living room couch, which she sat him down upon as she walked over to the kitchen. "Can I get you anything? Water? A towel?" Cherry offered as she looked through her cabinets in a frantic manner.

Dallas remained on the couch, head hunched over his knees. He slowly sat up and said, "Jesus, relax baby. You're makin' me nervous with you running around like that. I feel like I'm at a fuckin' hospital." Cherry didn't care, she hated fights more than anything. She hated seeing people get hurt, and it upset her even more that the fight was mainly caused by her. If the Soc's were so upset at Cherry for seeing Dallas, she didn't understand why they couldn't just fight with her about it.

She ran a towel under some hot water, when suddenly she noticed that Dallas was up and walking around. His eyes wandered all over the room, like he had never seen anything like this before; probably because he hadn't seen anything like it before. Noticing this, she asked him, "Wanna see my room?". Dallas turned to look at Cherry unexpectedly, as if he forgot that she was even there, and said with a smile, "Sure. You can give me the grand ol' tour of Cherry's life at home."

Cherry smiled, removed the towel from the running water, and walked towards her room, with Dallas following close behind. She opened her door, and there Dallas finally saw, Cherry's room. Cherry led him to her bed, where she once again sat him down, and this time handed him the towel. She walked across to sit on one of her chairs, directly facing Dallas. She watched him react as he began to explore, while remaining seated on her bed.

Dallas thought he was in a little girl's castle. With lightly blue-colored walls, dark brown wooden shelves, white bed sheets, white curtains; it was fit for a Cherry. Dallas looked all over the room with his eyes, and finally looked at Cherry. He smiled and said, "Oh yeah. I can most definitely see you living here."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Cherry said as she smiled back. She noticed that Dallas wasn't even holding up the towel to his head. He just let it rest in his hand, looking like some lifeless object. She walked over and took the towel from him as she sat next to him on the bed.

"I don't know," he replied. "It just looks like you. So innocent and, and small. I mean don't get me wrong it's a huge ass room but I mean like the-"

"You think I'm innocent?" Cherry interrupted with a raised eyebrow.

"What, you think you're not?" he cleverly responded.

Cherry changed the subject. "Here," she said as she grabbed the towel, "you don't know how to use this properly, do you?"

She placed the towel against the right side of his head, which was right where the cement had punctured his skin. Dallas looked at Cherry as she did this. He had never been put into a position like this before. After all, he had been practically on his own all his life. No one had ever taken care of him like this. The silence between the two grew by the minute. Finally, after what seemed like a lifetime, Cherry had gotten her bandaid kit and placed it on the bed beside her. She removed the towel from Dallas' head, and Dallas just sat there, not knowing how to respond to the situation. As Cherry leaned closer towards Dallas to clean up the mess on the side of his head, just above the cheek bone, she softly said, "I'm sorry I caused all this. I never meant for anyone to get hurt."

Dallas looked down and replied, "Nah, quit apologizing."

Cherry was not expecting an answer like this from Dallas. In fact, she thought that the only reason for him coming over was only to confront her on what a mess she had gotten him into. What did Dallas want anyway? Cherry wondered why, out of all places, had he decided to stop by and see her?

"Ow!" Dallas screeched as Cherry dabbed his wound with a drop of alcohol. She found it sort of funny seeing Dallas in pain from something only a fragile girl like herself did, when in reality Dallas has put up with just about every type of pain one could think of in his life.

"Sorry," Cherry comforted him, "but this will only hurt for just a bit." After her warning, she pressed the entire alcohol-drenched cloth onto the wound. She began to feel Dallas become tense. Then, surprisingly, she felt his hand clasp onto her knee gently to ease the pain. She looked at Dallas, and he was looking straight ahead of him, squinting his eyes and nose in reaction to the sting. The weight of his hand on her knee made her smile. Finally, she removed the cloth, and placed a bandage to cover up part of the wound.

"Alright," she said as she finished, "Looking good."

Dallas stood up and look into the mirror above Cherry's desk. He checked himself out, stroking the side of his hurt cheek bone.

"How'd you even learn to do this?" he asked with a puzzled expression.

"I used to always do it for Bob. Greasers aren't the only ones who get hurt in fights, I'm sure you know that." Cherry responded as she glanced out towards the window.

Dallas paused, then looked at Cherry. He noticed that he may have brought something up that he shouldn't have.

"Oh, uh yeah, right" he said. He walked back over to the bed and sat down next to Cherry.

For some reason, Cherry felt completely reckless. Dallas was sitting on her bed, right at this moment. Her parents were gone, her friends were no where to be found, it felt perfect. She wasn't sure why she had been thinking this way, and it sort of bothered her. But the way he looked tonight, it made her want to scream, and she didn't want anyone to hear her.

"Dallas, do you really look at me that way? Innocent?" she turned to ask him.

Dallas looked around her room, "C'mon," he said, "I mean I know you're tough Cherry but, you ain't nothin' short of innocent."

Cherry thought about this for a minute. He was right. She hated that he was right, too.

She sighed, "You're right, I am. You wanna know a secret though?"

Dallas tilted his head, "Yeah? What?"

"I hate it!" she replied while rolling her eyes. Dallas chuckled his short, sharp laugh. "You're killing me, Red. You're somethin' else." he smiled as he shook his head.

Cherry couldn't take the waiting anymore. She really didn't like how indecisive she was about what she had wanted. Last night she just wanted to talk with Dallas, and nothing but talk. Now, tonight? She's been using every muscle in her body to prevent herself from touching him. It didn't make sense to her. But she didn't want to even try to make sense out of it. She loosened up.

Cherry grabbed the back of Dallas' neck and pulled him in for a kiss. Once he let her in, he reached his hand over and cradled her back, pulling her in closer. I'm ready for him now, I'm ready for Dallas she thought to herself, as her kisses became harder and his grip grew stronger. They went on and off, kissing for about three full minutes at this point. But, unlike their other nights in the past, it wasn't going to end here. Cherry, with her small and fragile hands, untucked Dallas' shirt from his jeans, and then pulled it off above his head. Seeing this as an invitation, Dallas elevated himself onto his knees while on her bed, laying her down in front of him. He hovered over her, as she allowed her soft hands to caress his chest from top to bottom. His necklace, that he wore every day since the first day she had met him, dangled over her and rested on top of her, just below her neck. He continued to kiss her, first on the lips, then on her cheek, and lastly, her neck.

Cherry let him slowly feel up her shirt with his larger hands, until he managed to navigate her bra. She felt him unhook it, and it made her heart flutter. She sat up, and she began to kiss Dallas' neck right back. He ran her fingers through his soft hair, and there was still blood on his neck from the fight, but she no longer cared. Finally, sitting on Dallas' lap while facing him, he slowly took of Cherry's shirt. All that was left between Dallas' chest and hers was a single unhooked bra. After a slight pause, and a moment of breathing, Cherry leaned in once more to kiss Dallas' warm and soft neck, as she felt him slip off the one boundary separating her bare from him.

Once again, Cherry's indecisiveness remained an obstacle as she began to realize that she was becoming nervous once again. Perhaps it was how cold she became, once she was stripped bare naked above the waist, or maybe it was because she was afraid. Yes, that was what it was. Cherry was still afraid of Dallas. She did not know what he was capable of, or maybe she did, but she still had no idea of what his intentions were. She stopped, looked down, and could not look back up at him. Dallas noticed this immediately once he felt her body grow tense. Dallas stared at her, watching her as she avoided eye contact. She began to look at his chest, and then at his necklace. And then, Dallas finally said it.

"You're scared," he spoke softly in her ear as he rubbed her back gently. As of right now, she was completely wrapped up in his arms, topless, and she did not like that. She felt as if he could see right through her, and she didn't feel that that was alright because she couldn't see through him.

"I am," Cherry finally said, "I'm sorry. I'm not always like this."

"I told you before to quit apologizing, Cherry."

Cherry finally looked up at him, only to see that he was staring right at her. He leaned his head forward and kissed her on her forehead. He let his lips stay, pressed against her face, breathing, waiting. He finally murmured, "I'm scared too."

Cherry could not help but feel extremely surprised. The word "scared" was not ever to be found in Dallas' vocabulary, at least when referring to himself.

"You? What could you possibly be scared of?" she asked with complete surprise.

"I'm afraid I might hurt you." he replied. After a short pause, he continued, " Look, I know you're nervous, and I know you're scared of me. I could tell ever since the first day we met. But there's really no reason you should be scared of me now, you got that?"

Cherry felt somewhat better after he had said this. Dallas unwrapped his hands around her and reached them behind his neck. She had a puzzled look on her face, until she had realized that he was taking his necklace off. This made Cherry more nervous. Great, she thought, now he's really about to get rowdy. But much to Cherry's surprise, that was not what Dallas was removing his necklace for.

"Here," he lowered the volume of his voice as he lowered and placed the necklace onto Cherry's neck, "Wear this."

Cherry, with a slight grin slowly appearing on her face, looked up at Dallas as if she were asking what was going on.

"Maybe it'll make you brave, like me." he said with a smirk. Cherry grabbed the small pendant-like object around her neck, and looked down at it. Then she looked up at Dallas, only to see that he had a slight grin. She leaned in and gave Dallas a hug, as he continued to wrap his arms around her, brushing his lips against her ear.

And as they embraced she heard him softly whisper, "I'll never write you off, baby girl."

Cherry's smile grew bigger and bigger, and finally, she leaned over to her lamp, and switched the light off.

And in complete darkness, the sounds of delicate kisses became softer, and Cherry grew braver and braver as Dallas, one by one, stripped her of everything but that necklace.

Don't worry, there's more coming! Please review so far, and let me know if you enjoy :] Thanks!