An Unlikely Allie

Chapter 29

Darry's POV

Once I made sure the twins were in bed and Soda and Steve were doing whatever they were doing, I gathered up Two-Bit, Shepard and Dally. I had set up a meeting with Bryon Douglas and Brody Paulsen.

We headed down to Buck's. I told Buck I wanted the room downstairs for a bit. He agreed, no questions asked.

We each grabbed a beer and headed downstairs, "don't ya think Phaedra should be apart of this?" Two-Bit asked seriously.

"No," I shook my head. I understood why he asked, "I don't think Phae could handle another meeting about her. Pony said she didn't handle the last one well."

"Really," Dal asked, "she seemed fine to me."

I ignored him. It wasn't his decision anyway. I'm the gang leader AND her legal guardian.

"Darrel Curtis," I recognize Brody right away. He looked exactly as I remembered him, tall, fit, brown hair and eyes. He extended his hand, "what's it been? 4 years?"

"Somethin' like that," I shook his hand and clapped him on his shoulder.

"Heard the Ropers are goin' to State."

I couldn't help but grin, "yeah, they are. They got a good team this year."

"They got one hell of a pitcher too," Two-Bit jumped in.

"Brody, you remember Dallas Winston and Two-Bit Matthews." The three shook hands. "This is Tim Shepard."

Tim eyes him coolly and lit up a smoke. Shepard wasn't entirely thrilled that we pulled another person into this, but since we got nowhere with Delaney's, we had to look elsewhere. Brody just happened to be that person.

"How's Phaedra doing?" Brody asked me when we sat down after introducing Bryon to Brody.

"She's hanging in there," I didn't want to tell them that Phaedra had nightmares every night.

"Darry," Brody stopped me, "if I'm going to get my dad to help; I'm gonna need a little more than she's hanging in there."

"Whaddya want me to say?" I demanded, "Pony's sleeping in her room now, but there were times that I wake up with her in my bed, Soda's room, or curled up in my armchair while Johnny sleeps on the couch!" I clenched my fists, "or how she wakes up crying almost every night? How she will probably never fully smile again? How she has to relearn how to eat and drink? How she struggles to talk at times? Or how she can't even kiss her boyfriend?" I kicked my chair back, "or do ya wanna talk about the stares, the comments from other kids, people pointing at her!" I slammed my fist against the wall, "or do ya wanna talk about how my kid sister, one that would never back down from a fight, one that was so confident in who she was and could take a hit and keep fighting; is terrified of her own shadow! She hides unless she's with one of us. She has to know where everyone is at all times. She is always on edge! Is that what you wanna hear?"

"I'm sorry," Brody said softly, "I don't wanna hear it, but I need too. Now tell me about the guys involved."

Dally lit a smoke, "main guy is Ryan Wallace. I knew him back in New York. He formed the Cobras. I'm betting two of the other guys are Alec Kingsley an' Nathan Bartlet."

"Yup," Bryon confirmed, "then ya got Frank Miller, George Conway, Luke Russell, Bill Nichols, and Peter Thorp. They're running drugs."

Brody rubbed his temples, "ok, but why attack Annmarie and Phaedra."

Dally let out a dark laugh, "Annmarie was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Wallace tried to scare Phae into telling him where I was. She refused, he cut her." Dally put his hands on the table and leaned close to Brody, "he wants me, Shepard, Darry, Jensen, and the Brumley's. He wants to run drugs outta the east side. He knows if he can get each leader to go with him, the rest will follow."

Brody looked skeptical, "that sounds like a lot of work. What's the motive?"

"Money..." I simply stated, "Wallace would be bringing in more money than any of us have ever seen."

Brody closed his notepad, "I'll see what I can do." He headed upstairs.

I followed after, "you think your dad will help?"

"I don't know. It'd be easy if you just wanted to go after Wallace." Brody paused for second, "has it always been this bad?"

I shrugged, "it's always be hard, but it's gotten worse within the last two years."

Brody stared at the ground, "I had no idea. Ya know? I always thought greasers had it easy."

"Easy?" I scoffed, "yeah...most kids here are already in gangs. Most of us are dropouts, most of us have been jailed...most of us ain't gettin' outta here. You had it easy, Brody. You just don't realize it yet."