SE Hinton owns the Outsiders

Female Lead

Nine-

Honey goes as far as the porch and sits down on the rail facing towards the window of the house. She wiggles her fingers at Ponyboy, beckoning his cigarette. He sighs in annoyance. Johnny gives his to her.

"Thank you," she says, and then to her little brother, "Love you too."

"What's Dal up to?" Johnny asks. His voice is hopeful- he wants to know that Dally is out doing something amazing.

"Fighting with Sylvia," Honey tells him. It is, after all, the most plausible story. "They got into it, and I told him to take me home. Didn't feel like listening to them."

Ponyboy snorts a laugh. Johnny nods with approval, although Honey doesn't know if it's her or Dally he approves of.

Ponyboy asks, "Are those your clothes?"

Honey had forgotten about that. She is wearing a skirt and red sweater that belong to Sylvia. Sylvia is barely five-two with her hair teased up, which makes her skirt very short on Honey.

"No, I borrowed these from Dal," she says.

In the half-light, she can see Ponyboy grin.

The sound of the phone ringing from inside the house jars the three of them.

Honey mumbles fuck me and hands Johnny back his cigarette. Both of the boys look at her, confused. She is already heading towards the screen door.
She can hear Darry saying, "No, she's not here," and she thinks about leaving it and letting him tell Tim that she isn't home. She thinks better of it and goes inside.

"I'm right here, Darry," she says.

Darry shrugs and holds the receiver out to her. He's frowning, probably wondering why Tim is calling their house and asking for Honey.

"Safe and sound," she says to Tim.

"Did you make that drive as painfully long for Dally as you possibly could?"

"Not nearly. He's says he's coming back when y'all are done. I want you to be with him."

"Great minds think alike. That's what I was planning to do."

"You and me ain't thinking nearly the same on this, Shepard. Don't fool yourself."

Two-Bit, who has lighted on the floor in front of the television, looks up when she says Shepard.

"Two-Bit, say hi to Tim," Honey says. Two-Bit growls.

On his end of the line, Tim chuckles.

"He's there, too? Thanks for tipping me off. I'm sure he's itching to get back at me for the other night."

Honey says nothing. She hangs up without another word. She looks at Two-Bit and mouths the word Don't and heads towards her room.

Once she's there, she sits down on the bed and waits. It doesn't take long before Two-Bit is hovering in the doorway, reaching over his head to hang against the door frame like an ape. He tells her:

"It should mean something to you that it was me and not him who came looking for you after you took off in the dark in the middle of downtown."

"It means something that you did. It has nothing to do with him."

Two-Bit takes a quick look behind him to make sure no one is watching and then sits down on the bed next to Honey. She smiles to herself. They aren't fifteen anymore and her parents are gone, but some part of Two-Bit still has some sense of propriety or is still afraid of her father.

Two-Bit looks around the tiny, half-lit room and begins to grin.

"Remember this? Skipping school and coming back when your mama wasn't home?"

Honey laughs in spite of herself.

"Remember the time when my mom did come home?" She reminds him.

"Jesus Lord, I thought I was going to have to stay here forever. What'd you go out and tell her- that you'd got sent home sick?"

"I don't know. Told her something. Not sure she ever believed me."

They look at each other and Honey shakes her head.

Two-Bit's face becomes serious. He says:

"So, are you going to tell me?"

"Tell you what? About the salvage yard?"

"That, and are you going to tell me about when you left?"

Honey knows what he's digging at. She knows what everyone thinks. She was gone for a very conspicuous eight months. Everyone- at least in their neighborhood- who gives a damn must assume that she left because she was pregnant. Either she had a baby and gave it away or she found someone to help her out with getting rid of it. And everyone who gives a damn, Two-Bit included, most likely assumes that the supposed baby was Two-Bit's. If it wasn't, she was screwing around on him. She isn't ready to give that story up quite yet. She tries to move the conversation in the other direction.

"That guy- the one I was talking to when you pulled up, he said he knew my dad. He told me to go look at the car. Said it was going to look like it was rear-ended before it was hit from the side."

"Like someone pushed them onto the tracks? Honey, that's nuts. It's mean. It's a mean thing to say to you. Maybe he does know your dad. Maybe he knows him, and he knows you're going to feel guilty about not being here. He knows you're ripe for seizing on some crazy theory."

"Who says I have anything to feel guilty about?"

She glares across the room at the dresses hanging from the opposite wall. A kid would wear those dresses- a girl like the Soc, Corrine. Not a girl like Honey, who knows the score.

"You know you scared the hell out of me, Honey," Two-Bit says, "When I figured it all out, or I think I did- you damn-near broke my heart. And then I got mad. Everybody figured they knew, and I looked like a damn fool. Seems like you're always up and leaving me. One of these days, I ain't going to come looking for you."

Honey closes her eyes. Two-Bit is drumming his fingers on his thigh. She put her hand over his to make him stop. He squeezes her fingers between his.

Out in the front room, the screen door opens and closes. Honey can hear Dally's voice, but she can't make out what he's saying. Tim is there too. She hears Darry greet him with, "Shepard," and Tim asking him, "where's your sister?" She moves to stand up, but Two-Bit keeps a hold of her hand.

He pulls her back and kisses her, and it's so familiar that she goes with it almost out of habit. This is the way it's supposed to be because it was this way for so long. Dally's voice in the hallway jars them both.

"Honey, Shepard wants proof of life. Get out here, will you, so we can move on to the important shit."

Honey asks Two-Bit, "Do you know about this? Do you know what this so-called important shit is? Because if you do…"

"Not a clue," he replies and stands up. He offers her his hand to pull her up. When she's standing, he tells her, "I ain't the one who followed Timmy clear across town tonight."

The two of them walk into the living room together, and this seems to amuse Tim.

"Alive and well, I see," he says. "Still keeping her out of harm's way, Mathews?"

Before Two-Bit can answer, Honey tells Tim, "Shepard, quit talking shit and tell my brother about the little powwow y'all had at Buck's tonight with the River Kings."

"Wasn't much of a powwow," Tim says and then rolls his eyes, realizing that none of them would know. "The Tiber Street fucks want to move in on the River Kings turf to sell dope. The Kings came to me because they want us to back them up- to hold the Tigers back."

"Because the River Kings are such a saintly bunch?" Darry says.

Honey smiles. Tim Shepard can bully a lot of people, and he can get guys like Dally on board just by stirring up shit and making it sound exciting, but he can't fool Darry.

Tim gets this too.

"That's a bit of a stretch," he says. "They just want to know we'll back them in a rumble. Otherwise, we stay out of their way and they stay clear of us."

"A real rumble or a hypothetical rumble?" Darry asks.

"A hypothetical one."

Two-Bit elbows Honey. He whispers:

"What's that mean?"

She whispers back, "A rumble that could happen, but there's no definite plan."

Two-Bit makes a silent but exaggerated ooooh! expression and gives her a thumbs up.

Darry tells Tim, "I don't like it."

"Neither do I," Tim says. "But I don't like heroin much either. I mean, not that I know from experience, but I don't like the idea of it."

"Hypothetical heroin," Two-Bit whispers to Honey.

"I want to talk to them," Darry says. Sensing Dally fidgeting on the other side of the room, he adds "Just me and Shepard. And whoever their leadership is these days."

Tim nods. "His name's Irish."

"Like O'Brian? Or McPherson or something?" Two-Bit asks.

'No, Irish is his last name."

Honey wonders if this is the guy who was giving her a hard time at Buck's, but then running his mouth like that doesn't seem like a gang leader to her. The gang leaders she knows are more like Darry and Tim- quiet, watchful and always simmering. Whoever this Irish guy is, he was there at Buck's, letting his underling raze Honey and Sylvia, and watching Tim and Dally's reactions.

"I'll set it up," Tim says to Darry. He turns to Honey. "Why don't you give me a ride home, sunshine."

"I don't have a car."

Tim nods in Two-Bit's direction.

"He seems to be at your beck and call. Borrow his car."

"How about I just give you a ride?" Two-Bit says.

"Do you want an encore of the other night at The Encore? I don't think either one of us wants that." Tim isn't smiling, but his voice says he's enjoying annoying Two-Bit. "Give Curtis the keys, will you?"

"Just give me the keys, Two-Bit," Honey says. "I'll put gas in. Better yet, Shepard will put gas in."

Tim shoots Honey an irritated look, and then mumbles, "Whatever, sis".

"Two-Bit," Honey says.

Two-Bit digs his keys out of his pocket.

"Fine," he says. "But I'm waiting here until you get back."

"Well, yeah," Tim tells him. "Because she has your car."