By the time the second movie was over, Dally and I had been interrupted twice. Once by Two-Bit who was looking for action in all the wrong places and another by a couple of Socs who thought Dally had slashed their tires. When he had it all straightened out that it wasn't him we silently drove off. Dally pulled the car into my driveway and turned to me without a word.
"I had a really great time tonight, Dal." I said before he could get a word out.
"Yeah, me too, Jilly. It was real nice." He grinned slightly. I reached for the handle and swept my legs outside. I shut the door and made my way to the front porch.
"Hey, wait!" Dally called after me, "If this is gonna be a real date, I at least haveta walk you to the door!" I smiled and waited for him to catch up. He scooped my hand into his and took off running.
"What was that about?!" I asked breathlessly at the door.
He shrugged, "Just wanted to take your breath away on this date."
"You did not just say that! That is so cheesy!" I hit his shoulder.
He was clearly impressed with the line he just pulled, "Yeah, whatever." With that he put his hand on my waist and yanked me close to him. His other hand made its way to my hair and was tangled in the curls. His face was centimeters away from mine when the porch light flicked on and Darry came out, feigning some excuse about needing to air out the house.
"Oh hey, guys! You just comin' back from your date?" He acted surprised. We both turned to glare at him.
"You know darn well that we were coming back from our date." I growled at him.
Dally chuckled, "This is my cue to leave." He turned back to me and placed a soft kiss on my forehead, "I'll see ya later, Jill." I quickly smiled at him.
Once he was back into the car, I turned to Darry. "Why did you do that? You knew full well what was happening!"
"Exactly! I knew what was happening, and I didn't want it to, so I stopped it!" He held back a grin.
"Why? It's not like that would've been our first kiss!"
The hint of a grin was wiped of his face. "What do you mean?" His big brother tone was coming out, great.
I huffed and walked passed him into the living room. Soda and Steve were sitting on the couch and Steve was stuffing his face with cake.
"Hey, guys." I waved to them as I went to the kitchen to get a glass of water.
Darry came in a second later, "Why don't you enlighten me on what you mean when you say it wouldn't have been your first kiss?"
"It's exactly what it sounds like." I shrugged and sipped my water.
Darry looked to me in disbelief. "Soda!" He yelled without breaking eye contact with me.
Soda came through the doorway with a suspicious look in his eye, "What's goin' on?"
Darry recapped the previous conversation. Soda looked at me, and back at Darry, "That doesn't surprise me one bit."
Darry's eyes grew ever wider, "She's just a kid! What makes you say that?"
"Dude, it's Dally we're talkin' about here. And with how long this kid has had a crush on him, I wouldn't be surprised if she was the one to make the first move!" Soda winked at me.
"It's true! I saw 'em makin' out at the Nightly Double just before I dropped Evie off and came here." Steve came in, grabbed a beer from the fridge, and went back to the TV.
Darry stared down at me and I saw a vein popping out of his forehead. "The Nightly Double?! Goddammit, Jill. I thought you were better than to act like a whore on your first date, especially with that horn dog!"
I could feel the tears forming in my eyes and my throat tightening from trying to hold them back.
"Whoa, whoa, man. Calm down! She ain't no whore! She just kissed the guy! And Dally knows how much is at stake with goin' out with her, he sure isn't gonna mess it up on the first date!" Soda yelled back.
Darry took a deep breath in preparation for more yelling. "Stop! Both of you just stop!" I yelled before they had the chance. "You," I pointed to Darry, "You don't even know what happened on that date so just stop jumping to conclusions! You know me better than to assume I was having sex in the back of Dally's car at the drive-in, that's just disgusting. And you," I pointed to Soda and my voice softened, "Thanks for always sticking up for me, but I don't want you to if it's gonna make you guys fight more than absolutely necessary."
"You're right, Jelly." Darry said, looking at his shoes. He didn't want to admit that he was acting ridiculous. Soda looked at me and gave a half-hearted smile. I put one hand on each of them and pulled them into a hug.
"I'm not letting go 'till you guys hug each other. I'm prepared to be here all night." I smiled into their chests.
I heard Steve's footsteps coming from the living room again, "I don't hear anymore yelling. Who did you kill-" He cut off his question at the sight of us all hugging it out. "Aww! Group hug!" He yelled before joining in, wrapping his arms around all three of us.
Darry jerked away from his embrace, "Get off me, man!" Steve started to untangle himself but I stopped him.
"Do not let go until those two hug each other." I ordered him. Darry shot me an evil look, but hugged Soda anyway.
