Disclaimer: I do not own The Outsiders
I was still laughing when I found Steve. He was back in the main bar, the girl he'd been dancing with was on his lap. I picked up another beer and joined them at their table. Lack of chairs was not why she was on his lap.
He looked up from kissing her neck, long enough to grunt, "What ya done to your hand?"
I looked at it in surprise, finding my palm scratched and bloody. I hadn't even felt it scrape on the wall. I poured a little beer over it, to clean it out and stretched back in the chair, smiling to myself.
"Seen that look before," a voice drawled, making me look up.
"What look?" I tried for an innocent face.
Two-Bit turned a chair round and straddled it. "Don't even bother! I came in the back way and there's a chick in there, tellin' everyone who'll listen what a stud you are!"
"So? Ain't like that's news..." I said in a bored voice, although I was smiling inside.
Steve reached out without looking and aimed a slap at the side of my head. I ducked it easily, because he was concentrating on the girl more than me. He wasn't really trying anyways, he's like Darry, he lets me annoy him.
Two-Bit snorted. "Jeez, you did, you dog! How long you been here?"
I shrugged, casual like. "Long enough, obviously, Two-Bit, long enough."
He laughed and drained his beer. "Want another?"
I nodded, chugging mine back. I was feeling buzzed now an' it felt real good, combined with the after effects of banging Lynn in the alley.
Two-Bit got distracted at the bar by a blonde chick. No surprise there. I didn't think she was that pretty and her hair was kinda bottle bleached. Another girl joined them and next thing I know, Two-Bit's got them coming back with him, as he balanced half a dozen beers and set them on the table. Steve came up for air long enough to take a drink.
"This is my new friend, Mary-Ann." Two-Bit beamed and the blonde giggled. God help her, I thought, if she thinks he's funny already. He waved the other one to the chair next to me, turning his own back around so he could sit down and pull Mary-Ann next to hm. She giggled again. He continued the introductions, with a wave at me. "Debbie, this is Sodapop."
She looked suspicious. "What's your real name?" Jeez, I sighed inside, again with the name thing?
I smiled at the dark haired girl and saw her cheeks flush a little. She had those heavy bangs the girls are wearing, with a hair band that matched her mini dress and it made her look kinda cute. What the hell, I thought, reaching for the beer nearest me, tonight was supposed to be fun, right? Nobody put a limit on how many equalled fun, did they?
I smiled at her again, and this time I really smiled, the smile I use when It needs to count. "That is my real name," I said softly, so she had to lean in a little to hear me. That gave me a better view down her top and that was worth it. And whaddya know, the alley hadn't taken me out of action.
She looked at me, still disbelieving, but wavering now.
"I could show you my driver's license, but I'd rather you trusted me." I gave her my most sincere eyes and put my arm along the back of her chair.
"Dear God," Steve muttered to his girl. "He's off again." I kicked his leg, but not as hard as I coulda, so Debbie didn't see.
I handed Debbie one of the bottles of beer. She wrinkled her nose when she drank. "I don't really drink much," she commented.
"Me neither," I said, like I was discovering something amazing we had in common.
Two-Bit caught my eye and winked, then turned his attention back to his blonde.
"You live round here?" I asked. Debbie shook her head and told me she was visiting her cousin, the blonde.
"I figured. I woulda remembered you." I smiled, stroking her arm with one finger. She smiled back, but this time there was something behind it and she leaned in close.
"I know what you're doing," she breathed in my ear.
I repeated her movement, closing in on her. "What am I doing?" I whispered back.
"Putting the moves on me."
"What?" I tried to sound shocked, but really I wanted to laugh.
She grinned and stroked my arm in a replica of what I'd done. "Didn't say I didn't like it...just letting ya know I'm wise t'ya."
Now I laughed. It ain't like a complete innocent would be in Buck's, in the first place, is it? I drank some more beer. "Busted." I smiled at her. "But you gotta give a guy a break for tryin', huh?"
She shrugged, sipping her own beer. "Maybe."
I could handle 'maybe'. There was always room to work with 'maybe'.
She winced sympathetically, taking my hand as I put the bottle down, turning the palm over to the light. "What did you do to your hand?"
"Industrial accident," I said, without hesitating. "Steve here nearly died under a falling car and I hadda lift it up to save him."
Steve turned his head slowly in my direction, his eyes telling a whole story of their own. "Yeah," he drawled, sarcastically. "He's my hero."
Steve's girl - Becky, was it? – stood up and pulled on his arm, asking him to go dance some more. He looked like he was gonna turn her down, dancing ain't really his bag, but then he looked at me and smiled. That smile generally means trouble.
"Why don't we all go back and dance?" he said loudly, turning the smile all innocent on Debbie and the blonde. She was up and pulling on Two-Bit, pleading with him to come dance. Debbie joined them. They looked back at me, expectantly.
Turning so they couldn't see me, I mouthed a detailed but silent curse at Steve, before standing up and grabbing my beer. I had a feeling I might need it. I knew what he was hoping for. If Lynn gave Debbie a mouthful, I'd blown the rest of the night with her.
The back room was just as crowded. And the girls from before were still there. The funny thing was though, and I admit I was kinda worried until it happened, it wasn't Lynn giving me the death stare, it was the blonde chick with the rack. I guess losing ten dollars wasn't her idea of a good night.
Lynn was dancing with another guy. She blew me a kiss. He looked kinda pissed about that, but she cozied up to him and that seemed to distract him.
"Fuck!" Steve complained, his plan to drop me in it blown sky high. "How is that fair?" he appealed to Two-Bit.
"Man, you just gotta bow down to the Curtis magic." Two-Bit shook his head, before he was dragged into a dance with Mary-whatever.
"What's the deal?" Debbie wanted to know. "That girl somethin' to ya?" She'd seen Lynn blowing the kiss at me and now she was looking at me suspiciously. I shrugged.
"Nothin' at all." I started dancing with her, real slow. She smelled really good.
"How come you have a name like Sodapop?" Debbie murmured, winding her arms around my neck.
I smiled. "I think my dad was kiddin' around an' my mom called his bluff."
"Guess people don't forget you in a hurry."
She was bumping up against me and I held her tighter. "Guess not." Glory, she was getting me hot. Again.
We spent a good while dancing, even though it was kinda crammed in there. I could razz Steve and Two-Bit easy, since we were all so close. They had plenty to say back. Between the jokin' an' the beer buzz and the feel of Debbie against me, it was about as perfect as an evening could get.
No one was real interested in fast music by that point. So whoever was changing the records kept 'em slow enough that we could stay all wrapped up in each other. After a while we stopped yakking between couples and left each other to it. Two-Bit was practically eating Mary-whatever, they weren't even pretending to dance anymore.
When I started kissing Debbie it was real gentle, like an experiment or something. Like I needed to find out about her. It was sexy as hell, which was weird because Lynn had been full on Frenching more quickly.
After a while though, I was wantin' to ramp it up. The fact that she was wearing a dress was starting to bug me, 'cause I couldn't get to any skin. I asked her if she wanted to go somewhere quieter and she whispered, "Yeah, let's do that." Right in my ear. It was all I could do not to groan aloud.
"Did ya come in a car?" I asked. She shook her head. Damn.
"Two-Bit?" I hadda ask him a coupla times before he heard me. "You got your car?" He shook his head. Shit. I didn't really wanna visit the alley twice in one night, but...
Two-Bit's elbow hit me hard, while he was still kissing the blonde. He put his hand in his back pocket and held out a couple of keys. I'd never had the key to one of the rooms upstairs myself, but I'd been up there with Dally a coupla times, when he was crashing here, so I knew what they looked like. They all had little red tags with numbers on.
I couldn't be sure whether Two-Bit had lifted 'em or gotten them from Buck legit. I decided it didn't matter. I took one and thumped him gently as a thank you.
"Give it to Randle when you're done," he said over the blonde's head.
I glanced at Steve. He and Becky were gettin' heavy, so I thought Two-Bit was probably only being fair. I led Debbie from the room and up the stairs. I unlocked the right number door and then locked us in.
It looked just like Dally's old room, they were probably all the same. This one was not too shabby, I figured Two must've had the key all night, so no one else had used it yet.
"So, this is a nice set up y'all got goin'." Debbie grinned. I shrugged, I wasn't gonna tell her I never came up here like this before. Buck usually kept the keys for the older guys, people he owed favors to, that kind of deal. She kicked off her stilettos and she was about three inches shorter when I grabbed her for a kiss.
That dress was still gettin' in my way. It had a long zipper in the back and I pulled on it. She wriggled. "Hold on, you'll bust it," she said. And then she turned around, holding the top of the dress. "Try now." I didn't need telling twice.
Glory, I thought I was gonna have a heart attack when she turned back around and let that dress fall down. I made some kinda noise that wasn't even a proper word. She smiled.
"You like?"
Like? Jeez! She had on lacy black underwear that matched the bra I'd sneaked a peek at earlier. She looked like something outta one of Darry's magazines. My mouth went dry and I reached for her, pulling her back onto the bed.
She pulled my t shirt over my head and then we were all over each other again. It was mighty hot stuff for a while, an' I was really ready for more but I realised that she was wriggling away every time I tried to roll on top of her.
"What gives, baby?" I eventually asked.
"We ain't doin' the whole thing," she said, like it shoulda been obvious. "I don't do that."
I was, like, what the fuck? After all this, an' the lace underwear, now she puts the brakes on? My heart was thumping so hard I reckon you coulda seen it hitting my skin.
She laughed a little. "Poor baby," she teased. "You look so disappointed." She kissed me real slow, then she smiled and kept kissin', down my neck and my chest.
It was like everything I imagined and better, I wanted to yell with how good it felt. I can't be real sure that I didn't. It was like all the best bits of fightin' and racin' and bronc ridin', hitting all at once.
I was left lying there like all my bones had turned to mush.
"Not so disappointed now?" she said in that teasin' voice. I shook my head, not trusting myself to speak.
Suddenly, she looked at her watch and swore. "We gotta get goin', Mary-Ann's dad is gonna kill us."
Downstairs, there was no sign of Two-Bit. I palmed the key to Steve in passing. Debbie and I waited in the bar. Eventually, Two-Bit showed up with Mary-Ann and then the girls left, because they were supposed to be getting picked up somewhere. They wouldn't let us walk them, they said they weren't supposed to be seen with guys. I thought that was hilarious.
Two-Bit ordered us up a coupla shots and we leaned on the bar gettin' mellower, while he outlined his time upstairs with Mary-Ann. After what Debbie had done, for once I was inclined to believe him. Somebody bumped into me hard and I turned around to see a tall guy with a five o'clock shadow sneering at me.
"Watch it, pal!" he spat.
"Me? It's you can't walk straight, pal," I answered without thinkin'.
He narrowed his eyes at me. "What'cha say, you little prick?"
I felt Two-Bit straighten up next to me as the guy's friends turned around at the tone in his voice.
The guy stepped into my space. "You're the little bastard who was tryin' to score Lynn earlier," he slurred. Oh, that's who he was.
"Weren't no tryin' involved," I said, with a smirk. Two-Bit snickered.
"That right, pretty boy? Let's see how smart you talk with a busted lip..."
His mistake was to call me pretty boy. I hate that. I landed the first punch before he'd finished talking and the next as I launched myself at him. Two-Bit was right behind me as the guy's friends piled in.
A coupla chairs went flying as we crashed around, fists colliding with whoever we could reach. The barman started yelling at us to take it outside.
I fell through the door to the back hallway, dragging the guy with me. He got in a good one to my face. As I was goin' down I saw Steve, who'd been half way up the stairs with Becky, spin around and realize it was me.
Steve jumped the bottom six steps in one leap and landed on the other guy, yankin' him up and off me, ramming him into the wall. I was up on my feet in time for the next one, as Two-Bit an' the last one joined us to make up the party. Things were goin' good.
Buck and some of his guys appeared, hauling us all apart and flinging me, Steve an' Two-Bit towards the nearest door.
"Git goin'!" Buck yelled. "You boys clear out home, ya hear?" But he was grinning. Behind him, I saw his bouncers haulin' the other guys out to the front door. Buck slammed the door on us, leaving us panting and laughing in the back street.
I looked at Two-Bit who was examining his knuckles and stretchin' his jaw carefully, then at Steve who was wiping his nose with the back of his hand. He looked at me, spittin' blood to one side.
"What the fuck was that about?" he asked.
I shrugged. "Guy was a fuckin' meathead." I felt around my eye experimentally, figurin' I had a black eye coming.
We started walking, telling each other how tuff we'd been, the descriptions getting wilder and wilder, until we was lyin' more than tellin', laughing and razzing each other, elbowing one another to try and make the other fall into the road.
We stopped for a while in the park, when Two-Bit brought out his hip flask and we finished off his god awful bourbon. We were less coordinated when we started heading home again.
"Shit!" Steve suddenly felt his pocket. "I still got the key."
We laughed. I felt kinda bad that he hadn't made it upstairs though.
"You got her number?" Two-Bit asked him. He nodded.
"If she ever wants to speak to me again, after I left her like that." He slapped me upside the head, to let me know it was my fault. It kinda was. That got them talking about my night.
"I don't get it," Steve was still complaining. "How can you be in the same room with two girls you picked up on the same night and it don't turn into a cat fight?"
"Three," I said absentmindedly, concentrating on walking in a straight line, following a crack on the sidewalk.
"Huh?" Steve and Two-Bit stopped in their tracks, wobbling slightly, and looked at me.
"Technically three, 'cause I banged that chick who was in there with Billy...Lisa something, you know..." I gestured. "...at that party that time, the chick with the really long hair." I looked at their incredulous faces. "What? Oh, don't she count 'cause it wasn't tonight?"
"No. She don't count," Steve said slowly.
"Fair enough. I guess the little redheaded one don't count either then," I said, in the spirit of fairness. "Patti? 'Cause that was only a hand job, not the full deal."
"Oh dear God." Two-Bit swayed slightly. "There were four broads in that room that you'd got with?"
"Yeah, but we're not countin' two...and I hadn't got with Debbie yet when we went in there, had I?" I protested, perfectly reasonably.
"You sonovabitch..." Steve blinked at me, then looked at Two-Bit. "He don't even hear himself, does he?"
"What?" I wasn't sure what their problem was, but it looked like they were winding up to something.
They started towards me and I tried to back away, but my feet got tangled up and then I was tripping over and grabbing onto Steve, bringing him down too. Two-Bit launched himself on top of both of us and it turned into a three way tussle.
Somebody yelled "Ow!" as they got knocked on a bruise from the fight. Might've been me. We ended up lying on the sidewalk, laughing like fools and looking at the night sky, getting our breath back.
"Wait." Something occurred to me. "Not Lisa, Lucy, that was her name, the chick with the long hair. Lucy, yeah...Lisa was her sister. Her hair was way shorter."
"Don't tell us, you did her too?" Two-Bit scoffed.
"Well, not at the same party!" I objected.
"You liar, you fuckin' liar. You never did her." Steve looked at me and I could tell he wasn't real sure if I was kidding them or not.
"Thing is, Randle." I got to my feet. "The only thing that really counts is..." and I started running as I yelled the last words. "I could if I wanted to!"