A Girl in New York (Pre/Sequel to The Outsiders: A Girl in the Gang)

Capter 17- Illegal Stuff

By the time I found a place that looked like it would be easy to steal food from for my lunch, it was around noon and everyone else was out getting their midday meal too, so I resolved to buy some rather than risk getting caught.

I had quite a bit of money left, having only bought one meal and paid to wash my clothes, but I hoped my money would last a while yet, though now that I had a mode of transportation I had to pay for gas. It was awfully hard to steal that without getting caught, and since I was on the run so I didn't get thrown in jail, I wasn't going to be stupid and risk getting thrown in jail for something else instead.

I paid for a sandwich from a deli along with a Pepsi, and then went to the gas station right across the street to fill up on gas. Surprisingly enough, no one gave a second glance to the girl with a motorcycle, but I suppose I could make myself go unnoticed if I wanted to.

For some reason, back in New York, I had been extremely good at blending in and being inconspicuous. It wasn't quite the same story when I came to Tulsa, partly because I was a tomboy and definitely not afraid of a fight, but mostly because my brother was, oh, I don't know, the infamous Dallas Winston.

Everyone knew everything about everybody in Tulsa, and my brother's mile-long record was no secret with the way he bragged about it. So when Tulsa's bad-boy suddenly has a mysterious little sister show up, people are going to talk, and they're going to notice me. Now that I was in Fort Smith though, I was back to being invisible, and I liked it.

Seeing as how I had no obligations whatsoever in Arkansas, I just drove my bike around town for the rest of the afternoon. I found a half-empty can of spray paint and tried my best to decorate the side of a building in an alley with a skull and crossbones, but seeing as how I only had one color it didn't work out so well. At least it was entertaining.

As the sun set, I busted out some windows in an old abandoned clothing factory and climbed in instead of going through the boarded up door, and then I managed to wrench open one of the big loading dock doors just enough to drive my motorcycle inside and prevent it from being stolen again tonight. I never knew how much I would like having a motorbike, but it was almost as good as a car, not to mention probably cheaper to keep up.

And then, since I was bored out of my mind and not tired at all, not to mention kind of hungry once again-it seems like all I did while on the run was illegal stuff and getting food, albeit also illegally-I walked across the street to the drive-in to watch a movie.

Apparently Arkansas wasn't that different from Oklahoma, they both had drive-in theaters playing sometimes lame and sometimes decent movies, and they had double-features every night with double-double-features on the weekends. Today was only Thursday though.

I hopped the low fence surrounding the drive-in theater easily, although in Tulsa there was a hole under it instead of it being low enough to go over. Either way I was still getting in illegally, but I paid for my fair share of popcorn and a coke seeing as how that was my supper.

When the two movies were over I wandered around town for a while, seeing as how I was usually a night person more than a day one, and I wasn't the least bit tired at ten at night. Pretty soon I got bored of that too, and I headed back to the old factory to hole up for the night, deciding tomorrow that I would just get out of Fort Smith for something to do.

I had thought last night when I drove into the town, or small city was more like it, I would have enough to do to keep me entertained for a couple days, but apparently I was wrong about that. I seemed to be wrong about my own instincts and judging myself a lot more recently now that I wasn't on familiar turf. Well, so long as I didn't get killed or jumped or run over by a reckless driver or a train or something, I don't think it mattered how often I was wrong. Either way I soon fell asleep in the moldy, dusty smelling, dirty, empty, echoey factory, oblivious to the nagging at the back of my head reminding me how lonely I was.

I didn't need anyone else, I could take care of myself, but for a brief second I really missed the gang, especially Pony and Dally.