Begin [Ponyboy Curtis]

Blood

POSSIBLE TRIGGER WARNINGS: Blood, Hospitals

Playlist: Blood on the Ground - Incubus

My body seemed to take over as I swung at Randy. I made impact with his jaw in slow-motion and the rumble jumped into action. Randy stumbled backward holding the side of his face as if he didn't expect it to hurt. It took all of my self-restraint not to cradle my aching fist. He chuckled before pouncing at me.

Randy is taller than me, stronger than me, hell he's probably smarter than me too, but he wasn't as angry as me. None of the socs felt the same passion as the greasers, I think that's what carried us through the fight.

I had the underhand, flat on my back in the grass. I managed to get my knee between us before he dropped on top of me. I pushed against his chest and threw him to the side. The ground is by far the worst place to be during a rumble and I wasted no time getting back to my feet. Randy took only a couple of seconds longer because one of his friends had been pushed on top of him.

I looked around, seeing that there were really no boundaries in this fight. Hit or be hit. I kicked Randy's leg from the side causing him to drop to his knees. He flung his head forward, butting me in the gut. I gasped and grabbed his hair.

"Randy!" a voice yelled from across the lot. Bob was getting his ass served to him on a platter by Johnny and Dallas. The sight made me smile through my watering eyes. Randy struck me across the face before running off to help his friend, I guess that's what I get for being distracted.

I spun around and saw Ponyboy, who was handling himself well with a Soc similar to his size until another one decided to attack him from behind. I sucked in a deep breath and charged at the other soc, throwing him off of Pony. He happened to be gripping Ponyboy's shoulder which pulled Pony down and tripped the other soc. The four of us struggled to get off the ground before our opponent.

"This ain't your place, girly," he taunted, "don't expect me to go easy on you."

I didn't waste my breath replying to him instead I kneed him in the gut. The only boundary, I assume, was no below the belt action. He doubled over and I swung both of my fists down on his back. He grabbed my legs and pulled, making me fall on my back again. It caught me off guard and I smacked my head against the ground. I bet if I had the chance to check there would've been a big dip in the ground the size of my dome.

Once I hit my head the procession of things became blurry. I know that I fought with that guy until Two-bit came over to help me. I know I fought with another soc, one closer to my size afterward. I know we won and the rich boys retreated to their comfy cars. I know I must've looked like hell.

"Dotty, you alright?" Ponyboy grabbed my shoulder.

"We won?"

"Yeah," He nodded.

His face was covered in blood, but I couldn't figure out where it was coming from, "I'm just fine."

The celebration was loud. Imagine 50 teenage boys screaming at the top of their lungs. Sodapop and Johnny started spinning Ponyboy around. I put my hand over my stomach and realized how damn hungry I was and left.

With a cigarette hanging from my lips and half of my hair almost fallen down I stumbled home, turning down the wrong street at least twice. The phone was ringing when I got there.

"Dorthy?" The other line asked as soon as I picked up.

"Yes?"

"She's home," the voice yelled with the phone pulled away from their face, "you scared the shit out of us, Dot."

"Sodapop?"

"Yeah, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine..." I trailed off, finally getting a good look at my living room, "there's blood on my sofa." The room was wrecked. The lights, all of them, were on. It occurred to me that the car was missing but the front door was unlocked, "Dad?" I called out into the house but got no response.

Sodapop grabbed my attention from the other line, "What?"

"The couch," I replied, "it's white and there's blood all over it."

"Dorthy, you don't sound so good."

"I gotta go, Soda."

"No, Dorthy-" I hung up on him before he could finish.

We kept the peroxide under the sink in the bathroom. I squinted at the bright lights and looked at myself in the mirror. I was bad off. I pulled out my elastics, letting my blonde and bloody hair fall over my shoulders. It relieved a little of the pain in my head and reminded me of the mess on the couch. Why was there blood on my couch? I washed my hands and lazily wiped off my face. Once I got the dirt and blood off I could see the forming of bruises and the cuts that weren't yet scabbed over. I grabbed the bottle of peroxide, a washcloth, and went back to the living room.

I doused the couch in peroxide, the blood bubbled up being dissolved by the chemicals but no matter how much peroxide I put on I couldn't get the copper stain off the cushion.

"Bleach," I mumbled to myself and left the bottle on the table. I went to the kitchen to find our cleaning bleach but was instantly distracted by the stove. The burner was still on and a pan of spaghetti sat next to it. I flicked the burner off and started eating the spaghetti out of the pan. It was already cold, so it's not like anyone would be missing it.

"Dorthy?" Darry walked into the kitchen followed by Sodapop and Ponyboy.

"Hey, guys. How'd you get in here?"

"You left the door wide open," Sodapop jutted his thumb backward. His voice reminded me, there's blood on my couch. I sat the spaghetti down and grabbed the bleach from one of the cabinets.

"There's blood on my couch."

Darry took the bleach from me, "yeah we saw. Are you bleeding?"

"It was like that when I got here."

"You already put peroxide on the couch, Dot. You can't start mixing bleach in," he grabbed my chin and inspected my eyes, "it looks like you've got a concussion. Do you want a ride to the hospital?"

"Yeah. That's probably where my dad is."

Looking back they were probably all confused, but it made sense to me. There was blood on my couch.

I fell asleep a couple of times on the ride to the hospital. Ponyboy would shake me awake and try to have a conversation with me but I'd get distracted by the street lights and then pass out again.

"Damnit, Pony," Sodapop would scold, "try and keep her up."

"She shouldn't have been at that fight."

"I watched her save your ass there, Pony."

They walked me to the front desk and my brain finally kicked into gear. There's blood on my couch.

"I'm looking for Stacey Annafellows," the nurse looked at me like I had sprouted two heads, "I'm her stepdaughter."

"Room 203," she said.

"203," I repeated it the whole way down the hallway, ignoring Darry as he begged me to slow down.

Dad was sitting on the floor outside her room, he looked at me the same way the nurse did, "Dorthy? What are you doing here?"

"There's blood on the couch."

My memory blanks out after that. I woke up in a hospital bed with Ponyboy by my side.

"What happened?"