Dallas Winston Has A Sister? (Outsiders Fanfic)

We're Not Little Kids

        "What's that?" Two-Bit asked curiously, gesturing to my...T'shirt?

        "What's what?" I asked him, confused.

        "That," he insisted, pointing more directly at the thin leather cord that was barely visible above the collar of my T-shirt.

        "Why are you asking?" I asked him, almost suspiciously.  Why would he all the sudden notice that though I had been wearing the necklace for almost a week?

        "Cause I can," he smarted off, answering with a smug smirk.

        "You can also jump off a bridge.  Are you gonna go do that?" I inquired, making a point that 'Cause I can' was not a viable answer.  But Two-Bit actually might jump off a bridge if everyone else did...

        He paused for a moment, a bit stumped by my reply, before his face lit up and he said just as smugly, "Cause I feel like it."

        "You also feel like killing people all the time, or so you say, but you've never done that," I quipped.  Or at least I don't think he'd killed someone.

        Two-Bit gave me a 'seriously?' look before asking,"How about cause I want to?"

        "You may also want a million bucks, but you won't go rob a bank," I replied logically.

        He opened his mouth to try and come up with an answer for that but then sighed, shoulders slumping, visibly defeated.  I loved winning arguments.

        "Just tell us what it is already," dally commanded, clearly annoyed with our banter, and then he pulled it out from where it was tucked under my shirt.  The flattened penny, with the hole I had punched in it, was threaded on the narrow black leather cord and tied around my neck.

        "Where'd you get this?" Dally demanded accusingly, like I'd stolen it from somewhere.

        "We went down to the railroad tracks," I answered nonchalantly, pulling the string away from where it was pinched between Dally's fingers and dropping it back under my collar.

        "We?  When?" my brother asked, glaring at Ponyboy who seemed to shrink away from his pale ice-blue eyes.

        "About a week ago," Pony answered sheepishly.  I forgot how easily everyone else was scared by Dally's threats and tough demeanor.

        "Aren't you two smart enough to know to not mess around by the railroad tracks?  A couple months ago a little kid was killed by a train," Darry criticized, butting in, because apparently he was as mad at Pony about being down by the tracks as Dally was about Pony supposedly taking me down there.

        "If you haven't noticed, we're not little kids," I pointed out to the concerned older brothers.

        "Come on Darry, leave them alone.  It's not like they jumped on the tracks to try and get run over," Soda said, defending me and Ponyboy.

        But at that comment, though I kept my face impassive, Pony gave it away by deliberately and conspicuously not meeting anyone's gaze. Damn it, I cursed in my mind, because both Darry and Dally noticed and pinned him with an interrogating glare.

        "Did you two try that stupid trick of staying on the tracks till the train is about to run you over?" Darry asked Pony accusingly, his voice hard.

        "No," Pony muttered, only half-lying, because he hadn't gone on the tracks.  I had, and realizing they were going to get nothing more out of Pony, Dally turned to me.

        "Did you?"

        I stared stubbornly back for a while, knowing no amount of lying could get me out of this.  For a split second I was mad at Pony for not knowing how to keep a straight face and tell a convincing lie, but I suppose it was just as much my fault for trying it in the first place as it was his.

        "Yeah, I did," I answered defiantly, knowing Dally was about to blow up at me and spew angry words like an exploding volcano.

        "Why the hell would you try a damn stunt like that that could get you killed?" Dally demanded, yelling loudly.

        "I would have been fine if Pony hadn't tackled me to the ground," I answered calmly, like it wasn't a big deal.

        Pony gave me a disbelieving look, obviously not agreeing with me.

        "Thanks for saving my crazy sister's life," Dally told Pony sarcastically, "But you shouldn't even have gone down there in the first place," he directed at both of us, but that, too, had been my fault.

        "I'm pretty sure I'm old enough to do what I want and keep myself alive at the same time," I pointed out smugly.

        Dally heard me but ignored it and instead demanded of Pony, "And you could have at least stopped her."

        We all knew no one could get me to change my mind, but I said, "I don't need my boyfriend or my brother to babysit me either," rather than point the more obvious fact out.

        "Really?  It seems to me like both of you need a babysitter, and I"m sure Darry would agree with me, so that's what's going to happen," Dally said angrily, decisively determined.

        "What?" Pony and I demanded at the same time, and I saw a look of shock cross Two-Bit, Soda, Steve, and Johnny's faces who had been listening quietly to our whole conversation, or more like argument.

        "You heard him.  You two are not going anyplace alone anymore unless one of the rest of us is with you," Darry agreed.

        Wow, they must really hate the idea of Pony and I being together, I thought sarcastically to myself, but knowing better than to say it out loud.

        "But-but you can't do that!" Pony blundered, shouting.

        I let out a huff and muttered, "They already did," but I was wondering just how easy it'd be to get around it.  Normally I wouldn't care if one of the rest of the gang was with us, but recently I had noticed that I enjoyed it being just the two of us, and I wasn't about to give it up that easily.