Curly

"Give it up, Shepard!"

"Ha! Yeah right!"

"I'll tackle you!" I knew that voice; and I knew he'd do it, too. So I picked up my pace, and ran faster. I knew I wasn't in a good position. Tim was going to kill me; well, he'd kill me as long as Dallas didn't get to me first. "Dallas is going to kill you, Curly. I'm not going to help him do it, but that don't mean I have to take it easy on you." NO! I thought; you really think that Dallas isn't going to kick my ass? Ponyboy came into my peripheral vision, running parallel to me. "You know, we're good friends and all, but I'm closer with my buddies, and I have to take their side."

"What are you saying? That you're going to let me go?"

"You catch on fast, Shepard. Get out of here. Fast. When I say stop, do it. Go down the alley. Dakota will help you out on the other side."

"Ain't Dallas gonna kill her, too?"

"You bet he will, but he cares about beating the shit out of you more right now. Stop." I took off down the alley, and Ponyboy flew by. Shouts quickly followed, and I jumped the fence as Pony's gang rounded the corner.

I managed to get out into the street, and then someone grabbed me and pulled me along faster.

"What the hell?" I yelped as I began to trip. I looked up into the eyes of the person who was still dragging me along, and my mouth dropped open. "Koty?!"

"Get moving , Shepard. I'm not going to let Dallas get to you. God, do you have two left feet or something? We hafta move now!" Instantly I found my balance again, and we took off.

We ran as far as downtown, then shot down another alley and managed to climb up the fire escape to the roof of a small coffee house.

"You are one gutsy chick," I said, catching my breath. "You probably shouldn't have done it. Dally'll kick your ass harder."

"You let me worry about Dallas." She never called him Dally or Dal. She had told me that it decreased his character or some such shit. "Meanwhile, what in hell did you do to make them so pissed off at you and apparently me?"

"Let's just say we didn't know it, but we got caught, and someone spilled it to the guys."

"Oh," her cheeks erupted with color. "How did Tim take it?"

"He doesn't know; yet. Dal will probably tell him though, and if Dallas doesn't finish me off, Tim will."

She didn't reply as she stared off into the evening sun. I admired her without her notice. She had strawberry-blonde hair, searing blue eyes, and a heart shaped, tanned face. It was sometimes hard to believe she was Dallas's sister. They acted nothing alike. Apart from sometimes sneaking out to meet me somewhere, and the occasional stay over at my house, she was a proper little broad. She didn't swear unless she was pissed as hell, or scared shitless.

Even though she was Dally's sister, she wasn't at all bad at loving me. When he found out we had been dating for two months with out his knowledge, he flipped. I was still healing from the beating he gave me. Grant it, I gave him some things to complain about, but he's treated me with more respect ever since then. And the weird thing was, she didn't care that Dallas told her not to see me. She was as loyal as a dog to him, but she didn't give a damn what he said when it came to me. I didn't get it.

"You should go," she whispered softly.

"What?"

"Dallas is coming. You should go. He won't hurt me as much as you, but he'll pound us both if you don't leave."

"How do you know he's coming?" She turned to me and met my gaze full on. She smiled widely revealing perfect teeth.

"You can't hear him cussing?" I listened real hard, and realized she was right. I smiled back.

"What do you propose we do about it?" She stood up and pulled me to my feet.

"Oh, I dunno. . . ." She trailed off, taking a step towards me. "You could run, and I can stay…." Again her words faded, and I was surprised at her boldness. My breath caught in my throat as she laid her lips against mine. I tried to pull away, but instead I fell deeper into her kiss.

However, the happiness I felt was short lived. The door leading to the roof top slammed open. Both of our heads snapped in that direction.

"What the fucking hell are you doing?" Dally started towards us, and I felt my heart beat speed up.

"Get out of here. Now." I wanted desperately to thank her but she shoved me away, and I ran off, feeling slightly disappointed. I could hear Dallas coming after me, but I jumped from roof to roof in record time, and he went back to Dakota. His yelling reached me, and right pissed me off.

I finally reached the end of town, and was thankful it was the north side. I wasn't quite in the mood to be jumped twice in one afternoon. Of course it wasn't much better than going home, because I wasn't in the mood to deal with Tim, either, and he was probably going to kick my head in. Dallas would already have told him and I wasn't happy about it.

I got lucky. A couple buddies of mine happened to pick me up and we ended up at the drive in.

We got drunk. It felt good to feel the alcohol burning in my throat. Besides that, it gave me attitude that I wouldn't have minded letting loose; especially on Dallas or Tim.

Surprisingly, I got my wish; even though it wasn't Dally, and it wasn't Tim, I banged out some steam on some stupid ass Socs.

The knew it was stupid the moment they threw the first punch; it wasn't smart to tangle with me, let alone when I'm drunk. I can't say I took it easy on them, even though they were pretty much decent guys. They all went home in their tricked up mustang with either a black eye, split lip, or both.

Eventually, I stumbled inside our shit-hole of a house.

"Where the hell have you been?" For some reason, as Tim said that, I suddenly thought those words were the funniest words in the world, and I cracked.

"Nice to see you too, Tim," I giggled out.

"What the hell do you think is so funny?"

"I dunno, man. I'm going to bed." I could tell my speech was slurred, and Tim went ballistic.

"Where the hell have you been, and what were you doing?"

"I dunno, around?" I said, deciding to ignore the second question.

"Damn it, Curly. What the hell is wrong with you lately? Dallas came here looking for you. You're damn lucky I didn't know where you were. Don't expect me to help you when he finally gets his hands on you."

"What's got your knife in a twist?" he was starting to piss me off. Who gives a damn what Dallas wanted to do to me? I'd deal with it when it happened.

"You really think you'd get away with what you did to his sister?"

"I didn't do anything to her. Besides, it was mostly her."

"Okay, what you did with his sister. You've seen what I did to Ray last week when I saw him with Angel. You think Dallas will let you just brush it off?"

"Since when do you care if what I do is acceptable?"

"Since it means dealing with Dallas Winston. I could let him beat the shit out of you. But I ain't gonna let him do it."

"Why?"

"I ain't gonna answer that. Get to bed. You have school in the morning."

"I ain't going."

"Why the hell not?"

"Why the hell do you care?"

"Why aren't you going to school?"

"I'm gonna have a hangover. Big deal."

"You're going. Take some aspirin, whatever, but you're going."

"Why the hell do you care?"

"It don't matter. Get to bed 'fore I kick your ass."

He was really pissing me off. Why the hell did he pretend to care? He's let them Brumly kids and all sorts of gangs beat the shit out of me without a shit, but he wants me to got to school? What's the sense in that? No matter, I stripped off my shirt, climbed into bed, and fell into a restless sleep.