A Place For Us

Chapter Six

Author's note: I do not own West Side Story or any aspect of it.

CHAPTER 6

Darcy shut the door to her bedroom and fell against the wood, breathless.

"You home, Darce?" she heard her dad call from the other room.

"Yeah!" she cringed, hoping he wouldn't want to talk about the evening in detail.

"Any trouble?" he called.

"Don't think so!"

When he didn't respond, she relaxed and walked over to her bed, falling on the mattress and feeling the fabric of her dress bunch up behind her.

How could she have been so stupid? Not only had she gone and danced with Riff, she'd enjoyed it. And now, Krupke had seen her talking to him. She exhaled into her pillow. She'd enjoyed it more than she ever thought she could. When he had grabbed her hand, she felt it all throughout her body. She figured he had too from the way he looked at her, but she knew that couldn't be right. He'd only wanted to dance with her to see if he could, she told herself.

But now he knew who her dad was. There were two likely scenarios now. One being that it would freak him out enough to leave her alone forever. The other being that he would be angry and try and harass her to get back at her father for all the bad blood between them. She wanted neither scenario to be true.

She rolled onto her back and brought her hands to her face, thinking about how they had danced together. Every time he had smiled, turned to face her, or brushed past her in his movement, it felt like an electric shock.

"Stop," she muttered to herself.

She looked over at her wrist where her watch dangled. He had given it back to her. Surely if he was as bad as everyone said, he wouldn't have bothered.

She wanted to wish that she hadn't gone to the dance at all. She willed herself to regret going. Yet, she couldn't bring herself to. It was the most fun she'd had in months.

Tired and heavy with thought, she forced herself to sit up and bring her bed covers up to her chin. She would think of her next plan of action tomorrow. For now, she could sleep and dream of dancing.

Riff walked down the street and kicked the sidewalk as he went. His face was etched in a frown, buried in thought. Behind him he heard Mouthpiece chatting away about the fight down at the gym. They'd been held at the station a couple of hours but they knew they couldn't hold the gang for that long since they couldn't prove who'd started the fight. After all, Krupke had been too distracted checking drinks and irritating people to even see it kick off.

"We sure showed them, huh Riff?" he babbled. "They'll think twice before coming on our side again for sure."

"Yeah, good job tonight," Riff replied absentmindedly. He looked up and realised they'd walked further down than usual. He recognised the street somewhat and a thought crossed his mind. "Hey, doesn't Shrank live 'round here somewhere?"

Mouthpiece glanced around and furrowed his brow. "Uh, yeah. Just down on the corner, I think."

Riff looked ahead and pointed down the street. "Down here?"

"Yeah."

He jogged ahead, hearing Mouthpiece keep pace behind him. When he reached the corner, he looked up at the apartment building.

"This one?"

"I dunno," Mouthpiece shrugged. "I only saw him walk down here once. How come you wanna know?"