Kaleidoscope- a Cherry Valance fanfic

Drive-in

TW: mentions of abuse

We snuck under a hole in the fence that went around the theatre and found our seats. We got there before the movie started.

"Hey, what's the movie about?" I asked Dallas, nudging his arm.

"I don't know, one of those beach movies. They put out a whole bunch of 'em," he responded.

Great, I thought. It's not that I don't enjoy beach movies, but they make it blatantly obvious I'm into women as well. That's not something you want people you don't trust to find out. I had just found my brother again, I wasn't looking to be chased out of town.

Soon after, the movie started. Unfortunately, it was a beach movie. It was impossible to keep from staring at the girls on screen. They were all so beautiful and their figures were perfect. My eyes travelled from one girl to another and I hoped no one would notice.

"Quit starin' would ya? You just got here. I don't need them to run you outta town with pitchforks and torches just yet," Dallas whispered in my ear, earning him an elbow to the bicep.

Two girls walked in and sat right in front of us. They were both pretty but the one sitting in front of Dallas caught my eye. She had beautiful red hair and her face was basically perfect.

"Are you sure you wanna do this?" the other one asked her.

"I came here to see a movie and I'm gonna see a movie," she responded.

Dallas pulled a cigarette out of his pocket and reached over into the redheads' bag, pulling out a lighter and lighting it. The two girls giggled as he returned the lighter and took a drag.

"Some cute redhead, huh?" he said.

I turned my focus back to the movie considering I didn't want to listen to my brother flirt with her. My attention was brought back when I heard a thud. I looked over and saw that Dallas had fallen out of his chair and onto the ground. We all started laughing as he pulled himself off the ground. He leaned close to her ear and continued flirting.

"How can I find out if this is your real red hair, if this is the same red hair that you have on your uhh..." he started. I rolled my eyes.

"...these eyebrows," he finished, leaning back in his seat.

He put his feet on her chair and went to flick his cigarette ashes onto her hair.

"Get your feet off my chair and shut your trap," she snapped. I admired her confidence.

This was followed by some arguing between them. Johnny, Pony and I tried to interfere and tell him to stop but it's as if we weren't there at all. Dallas went to the concession stand once the redhead had yelled at him to get lost.

"Are you gonna start in on us now, too?" she questioned, rather harshly.

"No," Ponyboy answered.

"You don't look the part, anyways." she said.

This sparked a conversation between the two. From it, I learnt that her name was Cherry Valance and that she was a cheerleader. I had also learnt that Ponyboy's parents had died. Their conversation was interrupted when Dallas returned. He handed a coke to the other girl, and then one to Cherry.

"Here, I thought this might cool you off," he said as he sat down next to her.

This clearly pissed Cherry off. She threw her coke on Dallas before speaking again.

"Maybe that'll cool you off, greaser. When you learn to talk and act right I might cool off too." she yelled.

Greaser? I thought.

"Fiery, huh? Just the way I like 'em," he said leaning closer and closer to her face.

Cherry continued to lean away and protest, clearly getting uncomfortable.

"Dallas, get off of her!" I yelled.

"Yeah. leave her alone, Dal." Johnny added.

"What did you say?" he said, looking between us, "what did you say, you little shits?"

"C'mon Dal," Johnny said.

"Fine, I know when I'm not wanted," he said before getting up and walking away.

I debated staying, but decided it was best to follow him.

"I'm really sorry," I said to Cherry, before getting up and leaving.

I ran after Dallas, calling his name. I finally caught up to him and grabbed his arm.

"What's your problem?" I asked him.

He turned around and looked at me with disbelief,

"Whats my problem?" he began, pointing at himself, "You just show up out of nowhere after 3 years and start trying to control me."

"Control you? That's rich. I'm sorry I didn't want you harrassing some poor girl. If it was me in her position, you would've beat the man sensless. Ohh and I'm so sorry I came to find you, I should've just stayed in New York," I yelled. I could tell he knew I was right, but Dallas was angry and he wouldn't back down.

"Yeah, you should've. I didn't ask for you to come here. I was doing just fine without you," he shouted.

Those words really hurt, even if he didn't fully mean them. Tears brimmed my eyes, but I wasn't going to cry.

"You are such an asshole! But, no. You're right, I should've stayed. I'm sure dad misses his punching bag. Ever since you left, everything got worse for me. First, he blames mom leaving on me. Then, you leave New York. Who's fault is that? Mine. Oh, here's the cherry on top. He caught me with a girl one day. But of course, you'd rather I get beat half to death every week than not get one girl." I snapped.

Before he could say anything else, I ran the other way. In attempts to cool off and pull myself together, I walked around the streets of Tulsa, no destination in mind.