Chapter 7

This was bullshit.

He had finally had an in. He'd had the perfect timing to make something happen between himself and the girl he'd been pining (Ponyboy called it that word, at least) after, and it worked.

And then it all went to hell in a handbasket.

Two-Bit's original plan for the summer was bumming around, which he was accomplishing, but now it was accompanied with too many thoughts he couldn't distract himself from, taking away the usual fun of it all. He couldn't stop thinking about that kiss, which, Jesus, it was good, even if the memory of it was bookended by doing a shot, making a girl mad, and then having said girl's blood staining his best shirt.

Remembering the kiss always led to memories of the fight and driving Virginia to the hospital. It sparked flashes of only having stray napkins to hold her together with and of Dally muttering "shit" over and over again until Two-Bit could still hear those words on replay when he was left alone. It had been over two months and he still couldn't shake the feeling that it was all his fault she was lying there in those crispy, white sheets. She had looked absolutely pitiful, not that he'd have told her that, with a big welt on the side of her forehead and swimming in that ugly gown.

It had been over two months since he last saw her, and he personally thought she deserved to look better than that in his most recent memory.

He had tried to make that happen. Throughout July he loitered his fair share outside of the Campbell's store after her normal business hours to no avail. He drove through their usual spots, to the Dairy Queen and around Archer Park. Through a friend of a friend of a friend, he even managed to get ahold of Barbara Schreiber's phone number to ask around about Virginia, but there was no luck. She also hadn't heard from the girl since she got back and, when she had stopped by to physically check on her, got told she was too sick for visitors.

That was the only thing Two-Bit hadn't done at this point; show up on her front porch step. He knew if he did, it'd probably get him shot.

Edward Campbell had made it perfectly clear that day that there would be hell to pay if he ever laid eyes on Two-Bit again. To be honest, the feeling was mutual.

Two-Bit still couldn't believe at two in the morning, or whatever time it had been that he'd left the hospital that night, that that old man was stomping after him to continue their screaming match in the poorly lit parking lot.

"Hey!" was being hollered behind him. "Hey! C'mere!"

Mr. Campbell's nice shoes were tapping their way across the asphalt until they reached Two-Bit near the middle.

"You miss me already?" Two-Bit had let out, sarcasm evident.

That was all it took to set the man off.

Two-Bit received every insult in the book. He was allegedly a "fucking idiot," "poor, white trash," an "alcholic punk," and a "pervert preying on young girls." He could accept a couple of those, but the others set his jaw hard until he found the perfect openings to spit out what he really thought about Mr. Campbell so far. A "fink," a "money grubber," a "deadbeat;" it wasn't his best material but it didn't need to be when times like this were all about the decibel at which you said things until the other guy backed down.

Anytime other than in the heat of the moment, Two-Bit thought yelling and screaming was stupid. That's all his parents used to do from as early back as he could remember. The last thing he wanted to do was something that reminded him of his dad, but when he found himself in the right situation the words just poured out his mouth, driving up the volume louder and louder until his fists took over without a second thought.

In a fair fight, Two-Bit could have had Mr. Campbell laid out flat in less than a minute. Maybe that was cocky thinking, but it was true. Most of the weight Two-Bit had was muscle, unlike this guy, who was past his prime and currently all bark with no bite.

In that moment though, Two-Bit was suddenly thinking things through. Shocking, he knew, as he could easily admit that it wasn't a strong suit of his and that he hardly found it a fault. If you weren't supposed to follow your gut, you wouldn't get those feelings in the first place. This whole situation revolved around Virginia though, which made him take a second. She just had to go and make things more complicated for him, didn't she?

She was pretty worth it, though.

The option of cozying up to this guy was long gone before this shouting match even started (not that, he assumed, Virginia would even want that). He could be the bigger man, just this once, and keep things from getting any worse.

He managed to reign himself in, as much as he wanted to clock this guy. Knocking the lights out of a middle-aged man was a quick way to end up in the cooler, or worse, if it really came down to it. Sporting goods stores equaled hunting rifles. Two-Bit knew there was something hiding beneath the main register; there was no way this guy didn't have a piece or two back home as well.

He forced himself to shut it down. If the old man wanted the last word, so be it.

Two-Bit turned on his heels and started walking down to the sidewalk, not offering so much as a glance when Mr. Campbell's "Get back here"'s turned into "That's right, keep walking, you punk!" He did keep walking, dragging on a cigarette to calm his nerves all the way down to the bus station to see if any routes were still running back to his side of town at this time of night. If not, hopefully some of the boys were still awake. He was itching to run a fist through the next easy target he saw and really could have used the company.

It was now the last night before school started up again, and instead of sending the summer off with a bang, Two-Bit was cooped up at home to make sure his baby sister went to bed at a reasonable time. She was asleep at nine, so he responsibly waited until ten to pilfer through the fridge for a drink.

He plopped back down to stare at the television set a little longer and hoped it would burn his eyes enough to send himself to sleep soon, since the past four hours of TV watching hadn't done it. He had laughed at Stiller and Meara on the Ed Sullivan rerun, caught up on Bonanza, had to keep quiet through What's My Line?, and was now bored out of his skull staring at Strangers When We Met. Almost all of the programs were offered in color, but that wouldn't be happening anytime soon at the Mathews' household.

Only half paying attention to the movie, all Two-Bit was really getting out of it was that the character Kim Novak was playing didn't hold a candle to Virginia Campbell.

Yeah, maybe he was obsessing a little bit. He didn't know why it was happening to him, but it was. He'd never had someone that he thought about every single day before, or someone that he looked forward to seeing as much as he had with her. Two-Bit was usually the "out of sight, out of mind" type. He couldn't believe, after an entire summer vacation passed without a word from her, she was still occupying his thoughts.

Maybe it was as simple as missing a friend. He'd never even had a friend who was a girl before. Girlfriends, yeah, obviously, but this was different.

It felt strange with Virginia, if he was being honest. Not a bad strange, he figured, just different. No one ever brought girls around the house (the Curtis house he meant; a girl would run at the sight of his own, so he'd never tried). If Sandy had ever visited, it was on a rare occasion when Sodapop had the place all to himself. Evie and Steve went to the Strip and football games. When he and Kathy were together, they were almost as bad as Tropical Storm Dallas and Sylvia. They'd only go out together when somebody was feeling frisky or fights were starting between the other greaser girls about stealing somebody's man. How exhausting was that?

He could have a great time doing nothing with Virginia. If they just sat in the car and talked all day, it was a good day. Just like when they spent the day shooting the shit, walking through the department store on South Main. She'd told him, "Hell, Two, if you don't put us out of business the Brown-Dunkin sure will." Or, just as good was the one time she fixed a real, proper dinner for him and the gang. The portions were small to stretch it between everyone, but each bite was an honor to eat. Hell, if she was with him now, flipping channels and watching lousy commercials, it'd be twice as nice rather than going to some party and getting rip-roaring drunk.

He must have been going soft in his old age. He had to talk himself out of even thinking any thoughts that involved the phrase "settling down."

Settling down was one of those normal things people did that scared him. It was probably something Virginia wanted to do one day like all girls did, a thought that kept him awake every once and a while. It told him he should probably leave her well enough alone before he got in too deep.

Not that that was even something he should be worrying about at this point. He was a loser, always would be, so how long would it be before she was moving on? Or maybe she already was. Was she avoiding him for the rest of summer after the blessing and curse that was his birthday?

He'd never thought this hard about one person in his whole life and he was getting sick of it. Pulling another Coors out of the refrigerator didn't stop his thoughts from drifting to the negatives like he planned for it to.

It sounded stupid and cliché, but Virginia really was too good for someone like him. Hell, he'd said that to her face more or less a few months ago.

Senior year was about to start, something he'd secretly been dreading. In another ten months, he'd probably be giving it his second go around and Ginny would be running off to work her way through college anywhere but Tulsa. They'd never talked that far ahead, even in passing, because frankly it scared the hell out of him. It scared him enough that he chugged the rest of the beer in one go, whether he knew the correlation or not.

What she saw in a screw-up like him, he'd never know, but it wasn't right to "go steady" or "be sweet on" (or whatever words everyone was using nowadays) a girl who would be planning her life without him in less than a year.

Now he wanted to hit himself upside the head with the empty bottle. He couldn't believe one girl had him feeling like this, running around in circles in his own head.

Golly, he was crazy about her.

Yuck.

He must have been crazy if she had him saying things like golly, even if it was to himself.

Two-Bit flipped the television set off and retreated to his room. He climbed into the twin bed (claiming it was a twin was generous), and pulled the single, untucked sheet over himself. Here in a minute he'd drift off to sleep and in the morning the sun would hopefully be the thing to wake him up, not his mom repeatedly clinking the rim of a mug against the spout of the coffee pot within the next four hours.

He'd just have to play it cool tomorrow. He'd make himself scarce, stick with the gang, and if she came to him first, great. He wouldn't push it. Maybe over the break she had changed her mind, lost her feelings, and this could be her out.

For as much as he repeated those plans and that reasoning to himself, everything became so much more difficult when Two-Bit saw Virginia on the first day of school, opening up her locker and wearing her hair down.

New year, new chapter. A short one or two and then we'll be back into the thick of it. Thanks for reading and reviews welcome! :)