me & the greasers (a dally love story)

chapter 20

BEVERLY'S POV

The rest of the weekend was boring, I mostly studied and did homework. I'm not gonna lie, the gang picked on me for being a nerd and so did Dally, but I didn't mind. I enjoyed being the smartest out of all of them, especially since I was a girl. Being the smartest in the group in a gang of all guys was like an honor. This week was actually Thanksgiving so that was another thing I had to prepare for. Darry and Soda helped a lot with the cooking and stuff and it was always a lot of fun. Once Monday morning rolled around I nearly forgot about Pony's fight with Tim as his bruises were faded and his cuts almost healed but when I saw Tim in the hallway the memories filled my head. Johnny was right, the other guys had gotten it worse, without a doubt. It wasn't only Tim either, his friends looked pretty bad too.

Before I knew it, it was Wednesday morning. As I ate breakfast at the table with Darry, and only Darry, the perfect opportunity to ask him about his date presented itself.

"So Darry, how was your Friday night?"

"It was actually a lot of fun. Thank you Bev, for doing that for me."

"Of course Dar, I'm just glad you've found someone you really like."

"She's real great and I even think you two would get along well."

"Why don't you invite April to dinner? I think it would be a lot of fun and it will be the perfect opportunity for her to meet everyone." I sensed a shift in Darry's light-hearted ness demeanor to a now more uneasy feeling.

"I don't know Bev, isn't it a little to soon?" he asked sounding unsure.

"I don't think so, if you like her a lot we're all gonna end up meeting her anyway. It doesn't need to be too serious, especially if she doesn't have anyone else to spend the holiday with it'll be a nice gesture is all."

He smiled now and it seemed like a weight had been lifted off of him, "Thanks."

"Anything to help," I smiled and left the table to get ready for school.

I wore a grey knit cap, matching with a grey knit scarf and gloves along with a tan jacket and tight black pants. Dallas always complimented my outfits, especially my tight black pants. He loved leather a lot, it was weird. It was pretty cold out and I wasn't liking it. There wasn't much to do in cold weather if anything. I hoped it would snow soon so I could sled, it was my favorite.

Finally Thursday came, I woke up extra early to start cooking. I specifically told all of the guys to not come until later in the day because I knew they'd just cause a distraction and the last thing I needed was a Thanksgiving day disaster. Everything went really smooth and the food came out pretty much perfect just as people began to arrive. I hurried to get ready before Dally got here. I usually didn't care how I looked around him, but tonight I did and I'm not sure why. He would probably be late, he always was. I was stressed because I was pretty sure I had nothing to wear when I stumbled across an old purple dress my mother used to wear. It was kinda plain but my mom always managed to look gorgeous in it. I slipped into the dress and immediately fell in love. It looked on me just as it did on her, except slightly shorter since I was always a little bit taller than her. Me and all my brothers were, she was short and I guess we got that from our dad. I started to tear up at the memory of them. I cleaned myself up as I heard a knock at my door.

"Bev," Pony called, "it's time for dinner, you ready?"

"Yeah I'll be right there." I left my room and he greeted me with a smile, "you clean up just fine."

"Same to you," Pony laughed.

We walked out to the kitchen table and I felt like a kid on Christmas morning at the sight of my best friends, the closest thing I had to family, all gathered around just being themselves around each other. I don't think any of them noticed me standing there at first but I noticed that something was missing. But what was it? I counted off of my fingers Steve, Two, Johnny, Dally, they were all here. April. April wasn't here even though Darry invited her. I looked to him and I noticed he did look kinda bummed. But then I heard a knock at the door. Darry hopped up and ran to get it. I was hoping it was April. As Darry walked passed me in a hurry all of the boy's eyes watched him and then they saw me. Most of them complimented me and my outfit making my cheeks turn bright red. Dally came up to me and placed his hands on my hips, he didn't care that the gang was probably watching. He pulled me in and kissed me on my cheeks, making me blush harder than I was before.

"You look gorgeous Beverly," he whispered in my ear, so only I could hear.

"Get a room," Pony nudged me on the shoulder, I laughed at that along with everyone else. As Dally and I took our seats we all watched as Darry and April entered the room. She wore a dress like me, but hers was yellow and it complemented her dark brown hair so perfectly. Most of the guys looked confused and fascinated by her presence.

"Guys, this is April," Darry introduced her.

"Hi everyone, it's so nice to finally meet you all." Everyone replied in a variety of "Hi April" as her and Darry sat down.

The Thanksgiving dinner we had was the best one I had in a while, and I don't mean because of the food. Dally sat next to me and occasionally we held hands under the table, like little kids would. We all were having such a good time and April even fit right in with us. She was pretty quiet but she didn't mind all the chatting the guys did. Steve and Soda had a pie eating contest and it was the funniest thing I ever seen. I had tears rolling down my face by the end of it. Without a doubt definitely a perfectly good waste of two pies. After we were done eating we gathered around the living room to play cards. We played rummy and poker and if someone didn't know how to play (mostly Two Bit) we taught them. By the end of the night I was pretty sure this was the most fun Thanksgiving we all had.