Disclaimer: I do not own the Outsiders or the song, Heartbreak Dawn.

A/N: Thank you all very much for the reviews! :) Part 1 of this story is almost over!

I like to think that I'm a pretty good kisser. I like to think I maybe broke a few hearts. But since I met you I'm a victim of disaster. I like to think I got it down to an art. So here's where the problem starts. You're shitting on my heart. Oh I can't take it again and again and again.

"Tell me all about Florida!"

School had started back. Spring break didn't seem long enough. Soda moved back in Sunday and so did Kathy. No one said anything that day but Darry took us all out to lunch and suggested that next Sunday we all go to church together. I haven't been to church since my parent's funeral.

Sarah and I were outside on the bleachers watching the boy's P.E. class do laps. Sarah told me all about her break and what she and Johnny did every day. Johnny was living with her now. His mother went to live with her brother in Oklahoma City. Word is she isn't doing so well and will probably die by the end of the summer. Johnny seemed to be doing ok and he and Pony had been hanging out more and he'd been over at the house more lately. All he could talk about was Sarah and she the same.

"Do you know who Peter Smith is?" I asked.

"No," she answered. "Why? Are you two going out? Did you meet him in Florida?"

I laughed and shook my head. "No, I'm not going out with him. Yes I met him in Florida. He's a student here."

"Never heard of him," she said, taking a bit of her turkey sandwich. "Do you like him?"

I shrugged, pulling my hair up into a ponytail because of the heat. The sun was directly on us and I wished I'd worn cooler clothing. "No. I just met him. I have next period with him."

Sarah grinned from ear to ear. Her cheeks where puffed up from the bread and meat still inside her mouth. "You should ask him to prom! What's he like? Is he cute?"

I told her all about meeting him and telling him about Dally. She informed me about how bad of an idea that was and couldn't believe I'd done it. I told her about him telling me he didn't care in the car and then how I talked to him right after Darry told us he was sick and how much better he made me feel. How no one had made me feel that good in a long time. Not even Dally.

"Like I said, ask him to prom!"

"I'm not going to prom," I told her again more sternly. I kicked back and crossed my arms over my chest while she finished up her lunch and I drank the rest of my soda. "Have you gotten your dress yet?"

She licked the salt off her fingers and moved on to her chips, popping the bag open. "I want you to come with me. I want to shop for dresses together." She lightly kicked me with her foot. "Please?"

"I don't really like to shop," I said, pressing my lips together and thinking of a way to get out of it. "I'm not going to prom either. I just told you that...again."

She just shook her head and leaned back on the bleachers beside me. "I bet you ten dollars you'll end up going."

"Deal."

"I'll ask Johnny to find someone for you," she begged again. "He's really made a lot of friends in youth group at church. That's where you can find a date! There are tons of good single guys at church!"

Sarah had pushed me to go to her church with her ever since I met her. Her grandmother was real religious and had crosses all over the house and she was always watching a religious program on T.V. or reading a devotional or the Bible itself. She'd gotten Johnny really into it and he'd take Pony a few times and I think he kinda liked it but I hadn't been to church since my parent's funeral.

"I don't really like church anymore," I said quietly. I dug at my nails. "I don't need a date either. I just don't want to go, Sarah. I might go next year. I really don't want to go. That's all."

"That's all?"

"That's all."

Mr. Parson's had been our teacher all semester. He was old and had been here for twenty years now. He told us this every day. Darry and Soda both had him and went on about how great of a guy he was. He was really big. His stomach stuck out over his pants but his legs were real slim and he always wore some sort of bow tie with every outfit. He had glasses too that were too big and sank down over his face when he wrote out problems on the chalk board.

He was a nice enough guy. He gave me a ton of extra credit after I failed his midterm last week and even agreed that if I tutored some younger students, he wouldn't send a note home to be signed.

Peter was across the room. I figured out where he sat. Mr. Parson's was still getting his stuff together so I figured out how new he really was. He was all the way across the room from me but I couldn't help but stare. Did he have that many freckles a few weeks ago? Can you grow freckles?

I never noticed how much he looked like Kathy. He had the baby face down but it looked different on him. With his body built, he could pass for nineteen if he really tried. He seemed taller now too. You can't grow that fast, right?

Kathy talked some about him to me last night. She told me about spending summers there back when his mother worked and she babysat him and his sister. She talked about what a handful he was and how one time he got out the paint and painted a smiley face on the toilet and it took her all day to get it off.

Looking at him now, I couldn't see how he would ever be so devious.

"You wanna be partners?"

I looked up to see him standing beside me, a bright friendly smile on his face. I lifted my head up, coming back to reality. "Uh, what?"

"Partners," he repeated. "Like the two of us, working on math, here, at school, where we are."

I rubbed my head and cleared a space for him to pull a desk up next to mine. He grinned and put his books down and got out his notebook where he'd written all the notes I missed out on taking.

"How's it going?" he asked as he flipped open his math book. "Kathy told me she moved back. That's great, isn't it? I knew she would. She loves your brother too much."

"Yeah," I said, tapping my pencil against my desk, not knowing what else to do because I had no idea where my math book was but I didn't want to tell him that. "How's it going with you?"

He scribbled out the first problem on a clean sheet of paper and put the book in the middle of us. "Good. You know what to do first on this one?"

It was trig. Mr. Parson's went over it in the last lesson. I paid attention to that one. "It's eighteen degrees. You have to find 'h' which is the opposite and you know the adjacent is one-hundred meters so you use tangent eighteen degrees equals 'h' over one-hundred."

"Then what?"

"Solve for 'h' which would be one-hundred tangent eighteen which is thirty-two point five meters."

He flashed me his teeth before he wrote out everything I had just said. "Good. So now on problem two. You-"

"How old are you?" I blurted out.

He gazed up at me, his smile gone now. He wrinkled up his nose in confusion. "Just turned sixteen."

I felt my face turn a little red. "Why are you in a junior class then?"

"It's an advanced class. I'm advanced."

I didn't say anything and we went on and he did the next three problems because I didn't know how to do them. I probably could have figured it out but my mind wasn't focusing on math right now. Peter was whizzing through each problem like they were simple addition problems and I just watched. He was the youngest one in this class.

"How come you didn't tell me you were younger than me?" I asked out of curiosity.

He shrugged and finished up the last problem. He sat his pencil down at looked up at me again, his eyes bright. "I'm not. You're sixteen, aren't you?"

"I'm a junior though. You're a sophomore."

"I'm in a junior class so am I not a junior?"

"I turn seventeen in May."

"You're still sixteen until then which means we're the same age, no?"

I opened my mouth to protest again when Mr. Parsons came over to check over our work. He picked up Peter's paper and skimmed it. His glasses dipped to the tip of his nose and when he was done, he used his thumb to push them up.

"All right." Mr. Parsons patted us both on the back and put two gold stars on the paper. "Nice job. You should have no problem doing the test tomorrow, right?"

"Right," Peter mimicked.

Mr. Parsons turned to me for my answer. "Ms. Curtis?"

"Yes."

Once he was out of sight, Peter started to giggle. He covered his mouth so it wouldn't be so loud. "Do you have any idea what you're doing? You were asleep the whole class. You sure you got this?"

"No," I admitted. Math wasn't my best subject. Pony and I had math together last semester with Sarah. The both of them were like Peter only better so between them, I made a perfect score in the class which was why I was in an advanced class this year only this time, I didn't have Pony or Sarah to let me copy.

"I could help you out," he said kindly. "My mom taught me how to do all this last year when I had geometry and it was supposed to include trig. She's really good at math."

I pressed my pencil against the deep dip in my desk. "Uh, sure."

Peter's face lit up again just as the bell rang and class was over. He gathered up his things and smiled real big. "Come on over to my place then? I can give you a ride."

"You have a car?"

"I'm sixteen, remember? Are we gonna have this fight again or are you coming?"

Peter's house was on the other side of town. It was only a few minutes away from the school. When we pulled up the first thing you could see was the pool in the back and the garden beside it. He told me it was his mother's because once he and his sister started school, she needed a new hobby.

The front of the house was brick and had a big porch with a swing on it and more flowers below it. Peter expressed to me just how much his mom and sister liked flowers and that they were all over the place. He warned me not to bring them up because his mother would go on and on about them until dark.

He took me inside, showing me the living room and the kitchen. I sat down at the little table in the middle while he got food and drinks out of the little pink fridge. It even smelled like flowers on the inside. He was defiantly right about living in a houseful of girls. I remembered him telling me his dad wasn't home much. I could see that by the looks of the inside.

"Do you like Pepsi?" he asked, his hands full of chips and cookies. "You're not one of those people who only drinks coke, are you?"

"No," I said, still looking around. Everything was spotless. It looked like one of those houses you see a little old couple living in only cuter and it smelled nicer.

"Who's this?" A tall dark haired woman with gloves on came through the front door. She smiled at me the way Peter always did and took her gloves off and wiped her forehead with them. "Hello."

"Hi," I said politely.

Peter looked at her from over his shoulder. "This is Danni. You know, her brother's dating Kathy. Darry."

"Oh, really?" she exclaimed, her whole body beaming. She reached her hand out to me. "It's nice to finally meet you. I've met your brother before. He told us lots about you and your other two brothers."

I never knew Darry met any of Kathy's family. He already knew her parents from high school but since they lived in Florida, they didn't come up much. Darry always talked bad about them because they never came up to see Kathy no matter how much she begged them too. No even on holidays. He didn't think they liked them together.

"Nice to meet you," I said, shaking her manicured hand. Her skin was soft and I could smell the flower scented lotion on them from here. "You've got a nice house."

She looked over at Peter who was still gathering up food. "Thank you. Did Peter show you the pool? We're opening it up soon. You should come over and try it out when we do."

"Ok," I agreed, staring at Peter too, wishing he'd hurry.

"Honey," she whined, going to him. "Do you think you have enough food?"

Peter shut the door to the fridge with his foot and balanced the stack with the bottom of his chin. "Yeah, Mom. I'm good. Danni, you wanna go up to my room?"

I hopped up and followed him up the stairs as his mother yelled us, telling Peter to keep the door open. He quickly turned red and hid his face from me, just yelling back ok.

He kicked his bedroom door open and threw everything on the bed and quickly gathered up dirty clothes and underwear, turning red again as he did.

His room looked just like Pony and Soda's. There were pictures of cars on the walls along with sports teams I've never heard of and there was a big poster of The Who over his bed. "I like your room."

"Thanks," he mumbled as he cleared everything off the bed so we could sit down. He handed me a Pepsi and calmed down a little. "Here. Sorry about my mom. She's a little too friendly for her own good."

I popped the can open and sucked on the foam. "She's sweet. She reminded me of you. You're a little too friendly yourself, you know."

He smiled and turned away and got out his book and some paper. "So, how are you?"

"You asked me that before," I stated, grabbing the bag of chips and popping them open. "How are you?"

He grinned and grabbed a handful of sour-cream chips. "Time's past. I figured you'd be feeling different. You haven't talked about...you know."

I stuffed a handful of chips into my mouth and sipped on my soda. "Dally?"

"When does he get out?"

I shrugged even though I knew exactly the date and time. "It's on my calendar. A few days I guess. I'm supposed to pick him up. That was the plan before anyway. I doubt it is anymore."

He made a face as if to tell me what I already knew. "Are you gonna do it?"

"I don't know."

"Hey," he said, interrupting the rest of the conversation. "We don't got to talk about it. Who cares, right? You're trying to move on, I forgot. So, what are you doing tomorrow night?"

I gazed up at him from behind my book. "Nothing I don't think."

His lips curled up and he lightened up once more. He slyly smiled. "We're goin' to a party."

The friend he was talking about was named Dale. Peter introduced me to him once we got inside. Peter said he was always having parties but he'd only been to a few. Some of them got pretty crazy.

I recognized a lot of the people here. I'd seen them at school and some I'd seen at Buck's back before I stopped going. Tim's car was out front so I imagined he'd be in here somewhere. I kept my head down just in case. I hadn't talked to him since that night I called him out. I did wonder if he ever asked Dally.

Peter had a hold of my hand, leading me through the house and laughing and slapping hands with everyone he knew.

He got me a beer and took me to meet more of his friends that I've never seen before. They were friends with Dale too. Peter explained to me that they all were good friends and hung out a lot.

They looked rougher than most guys in this neighborhood but I didn't say anything when I shook hands with them. Peter wasn't the type to hang out with dangerous people so I let it go and went on.

"Who's that guy you're with?" Tim elbowed me as soon as Peter went to the bathroom. We were standing in the middle of the living room and he was with his old crew and Tiffany. I didn't look at them.

"A friend," I answer timidly. Tim never did pay me for the snap the other night and I was waiting for it.

He scratched his chin and took a drink from his bottle. "Seemed more like a friend when he was dragging you through here like a rag doll."

"Have you talked to Dally?"

"You didn't answer my question."

I sipped on the edge of my beer bottle. "He's Kathy's cousin. My brother's girlfriend, remember?"

He nodded but kept staring the direction that Peter went. "No. He's getting out in three days."

"I know."

Tim began to sneer as he took another strong sip of his drink. "What's the twerp's name? He's awful small. You sure you're up for that? He ain't nothin' like Dallas."

"Peter," I answered. "I don't want him to be like Dallas."

"So you do like him?"

"No."

"You do."

"No."

Tim looked behind him at Tiffany. He gently smiled at her. "Whatever you say, Curtis. Have fun with your twerp." He turned on his heel and faced Tiffany. "You owe me five bucks."

I watched the two of them go upstairs, holding hands. I scowled. What was that supposed to mean?

Peter returned a few minutes later, luckily not running into Tim. He took me into the kitchen where we stayed and listened to the music that was being played and watching everyone drink. Time was wearing down and things in this house were slowly turning worse.

"Hey!" Peter shouted as a guy ran into us, causing his drink to spill all over. "Watch it!"

"Maybe we should go somewhere more private!" I suggested.

Upstairs every down was closed but one which we took. As I walked down the halls I could hear moans and groans coming from the cracks underneath the doors. I recognized Tiffany's loud screech and Tim's moaning.

"It's getting wild down there," Peter said, closing the door behind us. "I'm sorry. I didn't know it'd get this crazy."

"I've experienced worse," I told him.

It was quiet the rest of the time we spent upstairs. Peter talked about Dale and how they became friends. He talked about how Dale had this gang he started up and how the original gang came from New York and how cool it was that they stared such a strong one down here too.

"Dally's from New York," I said quietly. "I wonder if they know him."

Peter grew quiet, as if I upset him. I'd forgotten the rule of not bringing up past boyfriends with other guys. I pressed my lips together and looked out the window at how dark it was outside.

"You really loved him," Peter said softly. "It still hurts you to talk about him, doesn't it?"

I leaned on the edge of the window. "It gets better. It's getting better."

"He treated you so bad though." He stood up and stood behind me, looking out too. "Look at how he left you. He left you with nothing. Not even an explanation. Why is he in jail? You said it was a funny story."

"It's a long one," I informed him lightly. "Look, I don't really want to talk about it. Sure Dally treated me bad. I know."

Peter's stomach touched my back. He placed his hand on top of mine and breathed out. "So why are you still talking about him? You deserve better than that. A lot better."

I turned around, his nose touching mine as I did. He stared at me directly in the eyes. I looked up at him and stared back. "Why do you care?"

His lips brushed against mine. I barely felt them at first until they came back again, staying a little longer. My hand twitched, asking to go up and touch him but something pulled me back and I stood there, feeling his lips on mine as seconds past. It felt like eternity in this one spot. Enough time for me to decide to kiss him back.

I pushed back, letting him know I was there and it was ok for him to continue. I barely got to taste the butterscotch on his lips before he parted.

"I should probably take you home," he breathed into my mouth.

My eyes slowly opened back up. I put my thumb up to my lips to feel how numb they had become. I could feel my body turn red and all I could do was nod.

When you wink at me. What's the lord think of me For being so fucking weak, I find it hard for me to breathe. So here's where my story ends. I got to make amends. I let me down. Again and again and again and again.