RED [dallas winston]

five

"loving him is like trying to change your mind once you're already flying through the free fall,
like the colors in autumn, so bright just before they lose it all"

"no."

"yes. it will be so fun."

you see dallas winston and harley valentine shared the same birthday. they had never celebrated it together before because quite frankly dally never made a big deal of his birthday, but right now harley was trying her hardest to convince the boy to have a party with her.

"harley, how about this? you have a party, and i'll just attend it." he suggested.

the girl groaned. "i suppose." dally shot her a quick smile and pushed off of the wall he was leaning on, wandering off.

you see harley had a master plan. ever since the kiss she started trying to pinpoint why her head was filled with tornadoes of him. she figured it out pretty quick. she had a crush and something inside her told her that maybe he did too. i mean he for sure didn't hate her. so on the night of harley and dally's birthday despite the fact that her best friends had to work harley threw a party at bucks.

it was nothing crazy but she put on her best dress and she felt like that bitch. eighteen was her year she could feel it. or maybe she could feel the alcohol flooding her system.

    harley wandered the bar.  the more she drank the more she would see her reflection and think her dress hugged her perfectly and the more confident she became that dallas winston would agree. she did this all for him really. she needed an excuse to show up in the dress she spent an hour picking out that accentuated her body perfectly. and now she was going to tell him how she felt about him because she felt hot and confident and she wasn't scared any more.

    she stopped wandering and asked some random girl if she had seen dallas, the girl pointed in a general direction and harley smiled and said 'thank you' walking in that direction. her smile quickly faded as she got there. she looked around for a second not seeing him until she did. he was in a corner, but she couldn't see his face since it was blocked by some redhead he was swapping saliva with. harley wasn't even sure how she got to this party since by her outfit she appeared to be a soc. and maybe it was the alcohol or maybe it was because she really liked him but hot tears suddenly started falling down harleys cheeks as she quickly turned and ran in the opposite direction. she didn't stop until she arrived at the dx her mascara running down her face and her dress stained with tears. sodapop quickly noticed her and rushed to give her a hug and take her home. that's when she told him everything.

     she cried telling him about how she felt about dally and how dally felt about that redhead. she told him about everything. and at the end sodapop seemed more angry than anything.

     "it's not fair" he spoke releasing her from the hug they had been in.

    "what's not fair" harley sniffled.

    "you liking dallas winston even though you deserve better."

   steve joined them and they put in a movie but not too long after they started watching it the man of the hour came in holding a box. harley was wearing a pair of sodapops sweats and a t-shirt and had washed her makeup off. dallas furrowed his brows putting down the box and sitting next to her. "what's wrong you were so excited for the party? i had to track you down to give you this. it's nothing without the birthday girl" harley wanted to be mad but she knew deep down he didn't do anything wrong and she even smiled when he opened the box. it was her birthday cake, it read 'happy birthday harley' in icing. "i had to take it, people were trying to eat it before you could even blow out your candles." dally continued pulling out a lighter but she stopped him.

    "hold on." she said finding a toothpick and attempting to carve a '+dally' in the frosting. you couldn't really tell what it said but they knew.

    sodapop unclenched his fist he didn't realized was balled up and took the lighter from dally lighting the candles while starting to sing happy birthday. harley laughed hysterically as sodapop and steve sang happy birthday to them incredibly off key and dally just looked uncomfortable. nevertheless they both blew out the candles in the cake as steve cheered "make a wish!"

    harley didn't know what dally wished for but she hoped it was similar to hers. because her wish was to blow them out again with him on her next birthday. the moment ended quickly because as tradition goes steve shoved harley's face in her cake as a way to make up for his eighth birthday.

    dally left and sodapop studied harley closely. he understood why she didn't kick him out. he even understood why she felt that way about him. he saw something that night harley didn't see. he saw dallas winston enjoy his birthday for the first time since they had been friends and he watched as he never once took his eyes off of harley.

a/n: a part of me wanted to rewrite this as a sodapop, steve, and harley bestie chapter but it's an important plot point for the future so i guess i'll allow it.