As always, SE Hinton owns The Outsiders and Tim Shepard.

Female Lead

Ten-

Tim doesn't say a word other than, "Cheyenne," for several blocks. Honey drives downtown towards Cheyenne Avenue, assuming he meant the street because she knows that's not what he is. Tim fights the window down a couple of inches to tap the ashes from his cigarette out of. He offers Honey a drag and she shakes her head. She hears him mumble, "Christ," under his breath and click his tongue. After that, he continues smoking in silence.

Finally, she asks, "South Cheyenne, right? By the tracks."

"End of North Cheyenne, actually. Pull off here a minute…"

Honey frowns and turns right on to a side street. Tim motions her to go forward. The curb is lined with parked cars. There is nowhere to parallel park. This, however, is not Tim's intention.

"Right here. Pull up next to that Buick. Mathews got a hose in the trunk?"

Honey rolls her eyes.

Tim chuckles.

"What?" He asks her. "You didn't actually think I was going to pay to put gas in Two-Bit's car, did you?"

"Please remember that I'm the one driving if the cops come."

"I'll be quick," Tim says and forces the door open.

Honey lays her head back against the seat. She listens while Tim pops the truck and then rummages around cursing and looking for the piece of hose that he knows Two-Bit must have in there somewhere. He must find it, Honey figures, when he says, "Praise be to Billy Sunday." He closes the trunk quietly and walks around in between the cars.

Tim keeps his promise- he is quick about it, although not entirely accurate. He spits a couple of times before he gets back in the car. Once in, he tosses the hose in the back and says to Honey:

"Let's go get a Coke, sis. I swallowed some."

"How about a cigarette?" Honey offers.

"You can go right to hell. You will be if I light up now, girl."

He's grinning now. Honey can see him smiling in the reflection in the passenger side window. He stretches as much as he can, makes like he's going to put his arm around her and then jerks it away. Honey laughs and shakes her head.

Tim says, "Alright, Honey-girl, what do you want me to tell you about this so-called alliance with the River Kings?"

"Nothing. As far as I'm concerned, nothing's in play until Darry says it is, and Darry won't bullshit me when I ask him about it. That's not what I want to know about."

The smile disappears from Tim's face. Whether she's offended him or he's just curious, Honey doesn't know. She sees the light from a Pepsi machine on a street corner and pulls over to it. She nods at it, and Tim pushes against the door.

"You want one?" He asks her. It isn't really a question. It's him telling her that he's getting her one. Once back in the car, Tim hands her a bottle, raises his own, and says, "its-adita," and then clarifies, "we drink".

"Can you speak it?" Honey asks him.

"I just did, didn't I?"

He fidgets and buys some time swishing a mouthful of Pepsi around before he swallows it. He makes a face, takes another mouthful, and then opens the door in spite of the car being in motion. He spits out onto the street, then shuts the door again.

Honey waits in silence, sensing that she may have overstepped. Tim tells her:

"I do when I forget myself. They'd beat the shit out of us for it at school. Never did me any good, so I just try to forget. My ma, though, she still does when her old man ain't around to give her shit about it."

Honey nods. The admission that he does, from time to time, forget himself makes her smile. Everything Tim does seems so calculated, like he's staked out every situation and watched for hours before he makes his move. She figures she's jarred him by telling him that she wants to talk about something other than the River Kings.

Tim isn't going to ask her, though, so Honey gets to it:

"The other night, when I walked out on you and Two-Bit at the Encore…"

"Yeah, that was a cute little trick. Christ, girl…"

"Whatever. A guy pulled up next to me while I was walking…"

Tim interrupts her again, "yeah, no shit."

"He said he knew my daddy. He started talking about how they died, and like it didn't happen the way we'd been told. Do you know anything about that?"

"Why would I know anything about it?"

"Because you know stuff, Tim. It's what you do. Did you hear anything?"

Tim frowns and takes another drink of his Pepsi. Out of habit he takes his cigarettes out of his pocket, then thinks better of it and puts them back.

"What was that- January?"

"February. Valentine's Day. Or night."

"Yeah, I was locked up then. Yeah, I know, it's a recurring theme. I was locked up in Tahlequah, so I wasn't here."

"What'd you do?"

"Just got to be nosey, don't you? Moving booze in a dry county. And, yeah, I get the irony of my gettin' all high and mighty about keeping the pushers in check back here. I was just helping out one of my uncles. I wasn't here, though."

"You never heard anything about my dad? The guy in the car made it sound like someone pushed them onto the tracks."

Tim shrugs.

"Seems like you ought to be asking yourself a couple of things, sis. First, what have you heard about your old man? Anything that ever struck you as odd, but you brushed it off at the time? Any buddies that gave you the creeps? Any times he came home from somewhere and your mom lit him up?"

Honey nods.

"What else?"

"You'll want to know who this fucker in the car was, and what's his reason for telling you now. You never seen him before?"

"No, although I couldn't see him well. I think his car had out-of-state plates. I keep wondering how he found me that night."

Tim gestures towards her side of the car, and says, "Right here. Make a left down the alley."

Honey eases on the brakes and turns into an alley between two taverns that leads to the railroad tracks. She sees Tim's Chrysler parked at the bottom of a flight of wooden stairs. She puts the car in park but doesn't turn off the ignition. They're on flat ground now, and she figures she'll never get it started again on her own.

Tim makes no move to get out of the car. He's thinking. After a bit, he sits up straight and tells her, "Tomorrow morning, I got to turn my ass in. I got to sit for the County for three days. I'll put out some feelers, ask around. You got to do something for me, though, alright?"

"What's that?"

"Come down and see me. I'll tell you if I'm getting anywhere. Visiting hours is…"

"Tuesday afternoon from two to five-thirty. I used to go with Two-Bit. I know when visiting hours are."

"My condolences there. And, sis, you steer clear of the River Kings, ya hear? Just leave it alone. Let Darrel handle 'em. These ain't the kind of guys you want on your dance card."

"That's two things," Honey says.

"Smart ass," Tim grumbles. He turns to put his shoulder into the door, already knowing that it's going to take all his weight to force it open, but then he turns back. He puts his hand to Honey's chin and kisses her. She kisses him, too. She wonders if she's been waiting for him to do it. He works his fingers into her hair and she slides her hand around the back of his neck, pulling him closer. He pushes the collar of her coat away from her neck and kisses her where the curve of her shoulder begins.

"Christ, how long are you thinking you're going to be locked up?" She asks him.

"Three very long days," he says, smiling into her neck.

Tim drops his hand down to her hip and pulls that towards him as he leans into her, pushing her onto her back. She wraps her arms around his neck and kisses him again. He bends her leg at the knee and lets her skirt fall away. He runs his hand up the back of her thigh, and then slips it up her blouse instead.

"We should go upstairs," he says.

"You should go upstairs. I should go home."

"Come on. You think I'm going to tell Mathews on you?"

She exhales in exasperation at the mention of Two-Bit.

"Probably. You and him seem to look for reasons to tangle. You going to be able to keep your mouth shut?"

"I'd guess not, but since we've let it go this far…"

She raises her head and kisses him again, almost as if to remind him that if he'd just kept his mouth shut, they'd be doing a lot more than kissing. She tells him:

"Go home, Tim. Go sit your three days."

"Come upstairs with me, and I won't tell him."

"You fucker. Do whatever you want. I'm going home."

"Fine. I'm telling him."

"Go for it."

Tim pauses and tries to read her face. She's looking back at him, eyebrows raised, appearing cool, calm, and collected. Daring him.

"You don't give a goddamn about Two-Bit, do you?" He asks.

"Go ahead and do whatever you want, Tim. You're going to anyway."

She pushes against his chest and they both sit up. Tim pauses before he opens the door.

"He ain't going to knock you around, is he?"

"No." Honey is incredulous.

"Alright, then," Tim says. He grins and kisses her again, open mouthed, and then kisses her on the forehead. "Y'all drive careful, sis."

"Goodnight, Shepard," Honey says.

She puts the car in reverse before he's out and begins backing up as soon as he's shut the door. Tim stands in the alley until she's gone, but he doesn't watch her go. He's looking in the opposite direction and lighting a cigarette.