A/N: Hey there! So my semester started on Monday, boo. However, I have been write a bit in my free time. I'm putting some editing touches on the next chapter, so that I can prepare it for posting, and I'm finishing up chapter 8 and moving into chapter 9. I'm loving all of the reviews! It's funny though, because I've got so much typed already, I always have to go back and read the chapter after I start getting reviews so I know what's going on in the chapter. I'm gonna try to continue to update regularly, twice a week or once a week, depending on what I have typed and the free time that I have. But continue to review and enjoy this chapter.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own The Outsiders.

Jacquelyn lay down on her bed and sighed. Her dark hair fanning out over her navy pillow and closed her hazel eyes. She folded her arms across her chest and exhaled again. It had been a long three weeks. Penny's, the record shop that she worked in, had been unusually busy. Teens had been coming to the store in packed cars to buy records and just to hang out. The store was packed from about two hours after they opened until the time that they closed.

The only thing that kept her going were her weekly meetings with a certain Mr. Darrel Curtis. She'd been hesitant that he would agree, but her worries were put to rest when he appeared in front of her. When he got there they talked. They talked about any and everything. The weather, friends, family, anything. Well, not quite anything. The one topic that they skirted around was the past that they shared together. Whenever it was brought up, they would somehow manage to get around it and back to safer conversation.

In order to pull herself out of the thoughts of Darrel Curtis, she reached over on to her nightstand and picked up the copy of Sense and Sensibility. The spine was worn from reading it so many times and the pages weren't in the best condition either. She thumbed though he pages of the novel, stopping from time to time to read a page that was doggie eared. As she thumbed through the book, she stopped a photo between one of the pages. Curious, she turned back and plucked it from the book.

"Dare, sit still will, ya'?" she scolded playfully. She leaned against the wall beside the mirror in his bedroom and waited for him to stop moving around. He looked over at her. He ran his fingers though his hair and sighed as he walked out of the bedroom and down the hall. The brunette sighed and tailed him down the hall. When she finally reached him he was sitting in the chair in the kitchen. "Are you ready now?" she questioned holding the bow tie between her index finger and thumb.

"Yeah," he nodded.

Jacquelyn sighed as she knelt down in front of him. She flicked the collar of his white shirt up and tossed the fabric over his head. After making sure that the left side was a bit longer than the right, she flawlessly and effortlessly tied the tie. She then reached over his shoulders and started to lay the collar of his shirt down, her fingers brushing against the skin on his neck sending chills down his spine. She walked around him until she was standing behind him with her chin on his shoulder. She was just about to speak when her name rang out in the house.

"Jacquelyn!" his mother's voice called to him.

"Kitchen, Mrs. Curtis," she called back. She tugged at Darry's bow tie attempting to straighten it.

"Jacquelyn, I-"his mother's voice trailed off when she stumbled upon the couple in the kitchen. "Oh! Stay there, just like that." Darry and Jacquelyn exchanged confused looks. When his mother appeared in the doorway, she was holding a camera. Darry rolled his eyes.

"Mom, I don't think that-"

"Hush, Darrel," his mother told him. She knelt down eye level to Darry, for a long moment he sat there and watched unblinkingly. However, the unblinking stare broke and he chuckled at his mother. "Smile!"

Jacquelyn tugged on his bow tie, as she looked over at him, encouraging him to smile. So he did. His mother snapped the photo of them. Her chin on his shoulder with her fingers on his bow tie, and a smile on her full lips. Him wearing his black blazer and a toothy smile.

Jacquelyn sat the photo down on her bedside table. She then reached in to the drawer and pulled out a small photo album. She brushed as stray strand of hair from her eyes as she flicked open the cover. The album was pull of pictures from high school. Photos of her with her friends at every event that they had ever been too. Photos of her and her friends with blue and gold face paint on as they cheered on the football team on Friday nights. Photos of her in Darry's blue and gold letterman jacket. A smile played on her lips as he flipped through the pages. She stopped again as she picked another photo out of the album.

"Dare?" she questioned through a yawn.

They were laying on the sofa in his living room. Her head lay comfortably in his lap as she lay on her back. He arm rest on the arm of the sofa, cradling in a textbook in his hand. His blue-green eyes stopped scanning over the pages of the textbook as he closed it on his thumb and looked down at her. Her hazel eyes were closed and tapped her forehead with the spine of the book causing her hazel eyes to snap open.

"Hmm?"

"What time is it?" she questioned as she closed her light eyes again.

"Five minutes later than it was when you asked me the last time, Jacquelyn," he told her. She groaned and covered her eyes with her arms. "How are you reading, if your book is closed and so are your eyes?"

A smile played on her lips. "Well, clearly I'm not."

Darry rolled his eyes, and opened his book again. He picked up reading where he'd left off. As some point, the brunette with her head in his lap must have fallen asleep. He looked down at her, her chest rising and falling slowly. The muscles in her face relaxed; a look of complete relaxation and contentment on her face. He let his arm fall from the back of the sofa and down to run his fingers through her dark hair, she stirred a bit rolling over on to her side. He then turned the page of the book and continued to read, deciding that she needed the catnap that she was taking.

"That's a good one," Mrs. Curtis said after snapped the photo. Darry glowered at her over the top of his book. "I just needed to take one more to complete the roll," she said with a smile.

Jacquelyn placed the photo back in the album and then continued to flip through it.

Darrel Curtis all but collapsed on his bed after he walked into his bedroom. He exhaled loudly into the pillow on his bed before folding his arms under his head. He closed his blue-green eyes and sighed again. He inhaled and exhaled slowly as he stretched from his position attempting to relax his muscles. The man then rolled over on to his back and looked up at the ceiling. His eyes fell to the calendar on the wall. It was Wednesday. Another hefty sigh passed his lips, as he rolled his eyes. It was only Wednesday. Two days closer to Friday, but still two days away.

Over the past three weeks, Friday had quickly become his favorite day, not that he would ever say that to anyone. On Fridays he get to see her. It was kind of a treat at the end of a long work week. When he clocked out of work, he couldn't wait to get to the diner were the met and sit across from her. When he was with her, he didn't feel like big brother playing the parent role. He just felt like Darrel Curtis Junior, an average twenty year old sitting across from a beautiful woman. When they were together all they did was talk. They sat across from one another and just talked. They just talked about whatever they wanted to.

Darry reached over and pulled open the drawer on his bed side table. After a few seconds of pushing things around, he picked up a picture frame that had been overturned in his drawer for the past few months. With an exhale, he blew the dust off of the glass.

Her hazel eyes were aglow as they walked through the fair. His arm settled on her hip, his thumb finding its way through the belt loop on her white shorts. In her hand was a cone of pink cotton candy that she seemed to be enjoying thoroughly. Whenever he would reach over in an attempt to snag a piece, she would quickly swat his hand away. Her long brown hair was loose and curly. On the occasion, Darry would gently pull the end of one of her curls straight and watch it spring back to its curl.

The night was coming to an end, and when he asked what she wanted to do last, her answer came without any hesitation. "The Merry-Go-Round," she'd replied. He'd expected no less. When they got into the line, they saw another couple that went to school with them. Jacquelyn was the first to speak to them, calling their names in her bubbly voice, James and Dona if he remember correctly. The two couples talked until they got to the man taking the tickets.

Once in the railings that surround the carousel, Jacquelyn took off like a child towards the horses. When he found her, she was climbing on top of a white stallion that had stopped at the highest point that it could go. Darry walked over to her and lifted her enough so that she could get her foot in the stirrup. After that she was able to swing her leg over the horse without a problem. Darry swung his leg on to the brown horse next to her and the carousel started to move.

Her laughter was enough to let him know that she was enjoying it. Maybe more so than anything that they had done all night. It was then that the guy from the couple, James, came round taking pictures. He snapped several of Jacquelyn laughing on the stallion. When he attempted to leave, she called out to him and reached over in an attempted to pull on Darry's arm. Darry let go of the pole and hopped off the brown stallion. The brunette scooted forward on the horse's saddle, letting Darry know what she wanted him to do.

"Pretty sure that's against the rules, Jacquelyn," he told her.

"What do it matter," she said through her laughter. "Come on!"

Darry hesitated before swinging his leg over the horse when it was low enough. He slipped one of his arms around her waist, and the other held the pole. Once he was securely on the saddle, Jacquelyn leaned back into him, her laughter vibrating in his chest. She was like Sodapop with her laughter. Her laughter was so contagious. He inhaled the citrus scent of her dark brown hair as a breeze tousled it. He then pressed his lips to the top of her head. The boy that she'd called back snapped a picture just then.

His lips pressed to the top of her head and his arm securely around her waist. Her back pressed against his chest and her head turned to the side as she looked at him through her peripherals. One of her smaller hands covering the one that was holding her waist. Her laughter was forever caught in that photo. Her dimples and the way her hazel eyes crinkled all frozen in time.

She'd approached him the next day at the end of school, saying that she had a surprise for him. He wasn't quite sure what to expect, but he knew that he wasn't expecting two photos. One of them was just of her on the white stallion laughing. The other was of the both of them.

"Darry?" a voice called to him from the doorway.

"Hmm?" he replied placing the picture face up on the bedside table. He looked over and saw Soda standing in the doorway.

"You alright?" Soda asked as he leaned against the door frame. Darry nodded. "Whatcha' got there?" Soda questioned again, pointing to the picture frame.

Darry looked over at the picture and then picked it up showing it to Soda. "A picture of Jacquelyn and me."

"She's always been really pretty," Soda told his brother as he took the picture frame from his hands. Darry nodded in agreement. "Damn good at poker too."

Last Thursday, Jacquelyn had come over to play poker with the boys. They were more than excited to see her. Even Ponyboy put on a little smile when he saw her walk through the door. Of course, no of them were expecting her to come in and kick their asses. A bitter Two-Bit had told her that she wasn't' allowed to play with them anymore, while a sour Steve was determined to prove that she had been cheating.

"Yeah," Darry replied as he took the photo from his brother and sat it upright in the bedside table.

"So," Soda probed.

"So?"

"You and Jacquelyn," Soda started slowly as he wiggled his eyebrows.

"Are friends, little buddy," Darry finished for him.

Where they really though? In all honesty, it had been so long since his been just friends with Jacquelyn, he wasn't even really sure that they could go back to being that way. However, it didn't seem that she wanted to go back to what they had either. So he supposed that they were just friends.

"Sure," Soda responded with a smirk. Darry launched a pillow at his younger brother, and Soda laughed as he walked out of the room. "I'm just saying."

"What are you saying?" Darry questioned.

"I've see the way that you two look at each other," Soda mused. Darry eyebrow arched. They way that they looked at each other. "Well the way that she looks at you." With that Soda turned on his heel and left the room.

They way that she looked at him? He lay back on his pillows and exhaled. How did she look at him? Her hazel eyes would glow and sparkle, but they did that for everyone right? Sometimes, he would catch her watching him from the corner of her eye and she'd quickly look down at her coffee with a pick tint in her cheeks. When he'd talk she'd lean on the table, her hands cradling her chin, with her hazel eyes focusing in on his blue-green ones. Her hazel eyes would glitter when she laughed, and when her eyes feel back on him, there was a look that he hadn't been able to name.

The man pushed himself off the bed and walked into the living room. Without thinking, because he knew if he thought about it he wouldn't do it, he dialed Jacquelyn's number.

"Hello," the brunette answered.

"Jacquelyn?" his voice questioned to her.

"Darry Curtis," she said, the smile on her lips was clear in her voice. "To what do I own this pleasure?"

The corners of his lips turned upward, "What are you doing?"

The brunette on the other end laughed at his question. "I'm not doing anything," she replied. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing," Darry replied. He paused as he wrapped the phone cord around his finger. He hadn't actually called because he wanted anything. In fact, he didn't know why he'd called her at all.

"Do you want to do something?" she questioned softly.

It hit him then. He'd called because he wanted to hear her voice, as strange as that sounded. "With you?" he questioned.

"Well, yeah. I just figured that you might want to do it with me, ya' know, since ya' called me," she stated.

The corners of his lips turned up a little more. "Yeah, I'd like to do something with you. If you wanna."

She laughed. "I'd love to."

The man unwrapped the cord from his finger, "Where ya' wanna go?"

"The park?" she questioned. After a moment of silence, she inhaled sharply realizing what she'd said. "I'm sorry, Dare-"

"Hey, hey. The park sounds good," he replied. He heard her sigh in relief glad that she hadn't said something wrong. "Meet you there?"

"You know where I'll be," she replied. "See ya' soon."

The hazel eyed brunette pushed herself on the swing. Her brown hair flowing behind her. Her hazel eyes were closed as she pushed the swing back and forth. The movement along with the cool Tulsa breeze chilled the skin on her face. She inhaled deeply, taking in the scents around her. The smell of summer filled her nose. A smile played on her lips as she pushed backwards again. Then forwards. Somewhere to her side she heard a twig snap. Her hazel eyes didn't open, nor did she stop swinging.

"Hey, there," she said.

"Hey, there," the voice of Darrel Curtis replied.

She drug her heels into the dirt under the swing as she brought it to a stop. She opened her hazel eyes and met his blue-green ones. "You found me."

A small smile played on his lips in the night. "You're not hiding very well."

The brunette shrugged as she rocked back and forth on her heels. The two settled into a silence as Darry sat down on the swing next to her. The brunette girl twisted in the swing, wrapping the chains around each other and then leaning back to let them unravel. Then repeating the process again, and again. After a few minutes of this, she leaned back and looked up at the full moon through the tree that hovered over the swing seat.

"Jacquelyn," he started quietly. She sat up and looked over at him. When she looked over at him, he lost his whole train of thought. The light from the moon reflected in her hazel eyes.

"Do you wanna push me?" she questioned in a quiet voice. His eyebrow lifted. "You know, push me in the swing?"

Darry pushed himself out of the swing and moved so he was standing behind her. He took the swing's metal chains in his hands and pulled the swing back gently, before releasing it and pushing on the small of her back. When the swing came back, he pushed on the small of her back again. He moved back as she went higher. Rocking back and forth on his feet he continued to push her smaller form on the swing. They seemed to do this for forever; him pushing her and her swinging. Suddenly, without reason, Darry reached out and grabbed the metal chains on the swing, pulling the brunette to a stop.

She looked over her shoulder and at the man behind her. His eyes focused somewhere above her head, and she sat patiently. Her slim fingers reached up the chains and brushed against his larger hand. His hands tensed momentarily, but then relaxed. She then placed her hands around his, letting the warmth circle from her hands to his, and from his to hers. Darry lifted his thumb, taking her index finger between his thumb and index finger. Absentmindedly, he started to run his thumb along her index finger. The hazel eyed girl leaned back against his chest. He smelled like tar, warm and oily, and his natural scent accompanied it. She inhaled, letting his scent overtake her.

They sat like this for a long while, longer than his pushed her on the swing. His cobalt eyes focused somewhere in the night sky. He never said anything, and neither did she. They were just there, soaking in one another's presence.