RED [dallas winston]

six

"good! harley your a girl you can help." ponyboy announced the second harley entered the room.

"yeah it appears that i am. whats up?" harley said skeptically sitting down on the couch after shutting the door behind her.

"he wants relationship advice." sodapop teased.

"he's certainly asking the right person. remember harley last summer." steve joked earning himself a punch in the gut from sodapop.

"no. we don't remember that and we don't need to talk about it." harley said trying to put the focus back on ponyboy.

"damn i miss all the fun stuff when i'm locked up huh?" dally replied. harley hadn't seen him since their birthday. she turned to face him and he was already looking at her with a look telling her to continue. it hurt her more looking at him than she thought, it was somehow worse that he had no idea she liked him. well to her knowledge anyways.

     "i assure you nothing fun."

     "oh harley was having a lot of fun with her little soc boyfriend!" two-bit teased laughing at his own comments.

     "your what boyfriend?" dally asked in disbelief before laughing. "oh that's too good."

     "would you all shut up" the girl groaned falling further into her seat.

     "your taste in men is certainly something else." sodapop laughed quiet enough for only harley to hear.

     "it doesn't matter anyways." harley added, "he was just a dick with a savior complex that dumped me for some trust fund baby."

     suddenly the group took notice to harleys discomfort and dropped the topic but dally's eyes lingered on harley with a sympathetic gaze. it made her want to rip her hair out, she hated it so much. she hated that he could look at her like that and she could feel so much unreciprocated affection towards him. maybe it would never work out, she was aware of that, but it didn't make her want him any less.

     harley stood up and walked outside after conversation had picked up again. she needed a breather, she never talked about last summer, and she certainly didn't talk about her feelings towards dally, and everything in her head felt cloudy. she leaned her head against the side of the house sitting on the porch. she closed her eyes and listened to the sounds of cars clunking by and birds chirping. until she listened to the screen door open and a cigarette being lit. she opened her eyes and practically rolled them realizing who was on the porch with her. he noticed her gaze and sat down next to her offering her the cigarette, which she declined.

     "i'm gonna guess it's a sensitive subject?"

     "something like that." harley finally spoke making eye contact with him. she hated how good he looked. dallas winston wasn't even supposed to be attractive. he gave no effort to his looks and his personality was less than ideal. but to harley who could never seem to see anyone flaws over their strengths, he was perfect. "where'd you get that?"
harley asked pointing to a cut on dally's eyebrow.

     "pissed of some soc at our birthday, kissed his girlfriend." dally said shrugging.

      it pissed off harley how easily he talked about it. how he didn't care if harley knew. was he screaming to her 'i don't like you back'? but all she responded was "our birthday." with a small smile.

     "yes. maybe our party wasn't so bad." dally said nudging harley in the side causing her to laugh.

     "remember at the end of the summer, right when you got back and before i left, i fought in my first rumble." harley said looking back up at him. "it took so much convincing and all for me, harley 'everyone deserves a second chance' valentine to kick him in the nuts. that's not even a legal move i'm pretty sure."

      dally started laughing. "yeah well as far as rules go, rumbles have none as long as you don't pull a gun." he paused, "i never knew that was why you did it. kind of badass in my book."

     "i wasn't exactly proud."

     "you should be. i remember that rumble, we were all pretty proud of you. darry told me he didn't think you could do it, fighting people without knowing them or whatever, but you did good, there was hardly a scratch on you and you were practically glowing by the end of it."

     "you were watching me?"

     "nah, just looking out for you. believe it or not i look out for all of you, even darry who i'm sure would slap me if he knew that."

      harley just smiled. "that's what makes us different from the socs i'm pretty sure. i thought we were all the same at first but socs lack the loyalty of a greaser. they don't look out for each-other like we do, they don't look out for anyone."

     "that's fucked." dally said, his mood shifting, "don't tell me his name, anyone who could manage to destroy your perfect little optimistic outlook on life i'd probably kill."

     "you guys always said it was stupid."

     "maybe, but we all wished we could see the world you did, the way i hope you still do."

     "the world is weird dal."

     "i know."

a/n: AHHH DALLY+HARLEY HOUSE SCENE I LOVE THEM. also i realized i was talking about them so much on titkok but i haven't published a lot of their happy chapters lmao, those are coming soon!