Chapter Two: The Nightly Double

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The next day, I ended up tagging along with Johnny, Pony, and Dally to the drive-in. I have no idea why, but I had nothing better to be doing. As usual, Darry had to work, Steve and Soda were on a double date with Evie and Sandy, and Two-Bit had plans to get drunk. So we made our way along the fence, looking for the hole just large enough to slide underneath. Admission is fairly cheap, but Dally doesn't do things the easy way. He likes the idea of getting caught, the thrill, the danger. But Johnny and I are law-abiding citizens, so we were a little bit anxious. When we finally found the hole in the fence, we made our way through one-by-one, with Dally leading the way and us following closely behind. 

We made our way over to the sitting area in front of the concession stand, for people who didn't bring cars— or snuck in like we did. It was mostly greasers over here, with the socs in cars near the screen. Whether this happened subconsciously or was a formal decision, I don't know. We claimed some seats in the second row, Dally and Pony sitting on the left and Johnny and I sitting on the right. Then I noticed some socs, and a blue Mustang, near the screen and I felt Johnny go stiff beside me. He saw them too, drunk and angry. Two girls around my age stormed off from their car and headed our direction.

"Come on, Cherry! You're supposed to be my girlfriend, after all," the blonde soc slurred.

"Bob, I can't stand it when you drink and you're not about to make me do it too! We came here to watch a movie, but I should've known better. We're done!" The redhead yelled.

They continued to stomp our direction and sat down in the row in front of us. We all watched the Mustang speed away, just like the one had done yesterday. Those things sure were fast. Then I turned my attention towards Ponyboy and Dallas, and noticed that he was already checking out the girls.

"Some cute redhead, huh, Johnny?" He asked, just loud enough for the socs to hear. 

Johnny just shrugged shyly and tried to avoid making eye contact. I, however, scoffed and rolled my eyes. Dally should know better, socs don't date greasers. To them, we're white trash with long, greasy hair. The girls were also unimpressed, obviously ignoring him. But Dallas Winston never takes no for an answer. He leaned forward in his seat, just inches away from redhead's face.

"Are you a real redhead?" He asked her with a smug look on his face.

When she ignored him once again, he asked her another, stupider, question.

"Are you real?"

Now the redhead wasn't just unimpressed, she was annoyed. She rolled her eyes and sighed, chewing hard on her gum.

"Is this your real red hair... the same red hair that's on your—" he paused and looked down, then chuckled, "these eyebrows of your's?" He pointed to her eyebrows, almost poking her in the eye.

"Be nice and leave us alone," she requested in a fed-up tone. When he didn't back off, she demanded, "BE NICE AND LEAVE US ALONE."

"I'm never nice," Dally replied with a smirk.

"Cut it out, Dal," Johnny spoke up. Pony and I looked at each other, shocked. Johnny— who idolized Dally? We were both taken aback. 

Dally chose to ignore him, though, and just continued to antagonize the soc. He put both of his feet on the back of her chair and leaned backwards. 

"Get your feet off my chair and shut your trap!" She demanded, now more than unimpressed— angry.

"Who's gonna make me?" He asked, unfazed.

Johnny got up and announced that he was going to get a Coke and I decided to come with him. I was tired of watching Dally torture that redhead, even I was starting to get annoyed. But was it because of the way he was acting or was it jealousy? I quickly shook that thought out of my head and looked around— only to see Dallas standing a few people behind us in line. He must've been tired of the constant rejection and needed a break. 

"You following us or something?" I asked him, "Or did you finally decide to leave that soc alone?"

He just looked at me, somewhat surprised. I was usually real friendly and sympathetic, but I was so tired of seeing him and thinking about him— ugh. I couldn't avoid him and it was driving me insane. I don't like him, I don't like him, I don't like him, I continued to remind myself. Again and again, I told myself that lie.

The rest of that night was a blur. Dally got splashed in the face with Coke, he stormed off and according to Tim Sheppard- slashed his tires, Two-Bit joined us and scared poor Johnny half to death, Pony and Two-Bit were hitting it off real well with Cherry and Marcia- while Johnny and I awkwardly third-wheeled, and we all walked the two socs home. But of course that didn't happen easily. Their boyfriends came back, now really drunk, and demanded a fight. Luckily Cherry's got some sense and stepped in before things got nasty. I gotta give it to her for that, maybe all socs aren't that bad.

I still can't remember everything that happened, though, because my mind was focused on something else the entire time. Chanting that phrase over and over again. 

I don't like Dallas Winston.

I don't like Dallas Winston.

I don't like Dallas Winston.

Like I said, I lie to myself all the time. But I never believe me.

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Author's Note:

When I was halfway through writing this, I realized that some of my dialogue was a little out of order (like the whole redhead conversation.) I was just doing it from memory, though, and I think the events flow better this way. Let's just say it was a ✨creative decision✨

It wouldn't  let me link this up top for some reason, so I decided to put it here. This chapter reminds me of a YouTube video I made a little while back, so I wanted to include it :)

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/mfGGZz14Qb4

Thanks for the support so far! Hope you enjoy and stay gold 🌅

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