Stay - Dallas Winston

1

The phone rang, waking me up out of my sleep. 

Every day for the last two months, at 8:30 am, my phone would ring. 

Only once it would ring, then they would hang up before I could even get to the phone.   

“Shut the fuck up!” I groaned as I threw my pillow across the room, aiming for the phone on my dresser.  

I miss it every time.   

My head was pounding from drinking too much at Buck Merrill's party last night.  

I don't even know how the fuck I got home in that condition.  

I rolled back over in bed, and pulled the blankets over my eyes, falling back asleep.

...

“Where the hell were you?!” Johnny said bursting in my room, before yanking the blanket off of my body. 

The light from the sky felt like it was burning my eyeballs.  

Johnny Cade is my best friend.  

He and I come from what you call ‘broken homes’.  
His father is an alcoholic and an abuser, so is mine.  
His mother yells at him constantly too, mine is dead.   

Johnny is 16, while I'm 17.  

“Jesus Christ.” I said, glaring at him.  

I grabbed a cigarette off of my night stand, and sat up in bed.  

I struck a match off of my head board, and lit the cigarette between my lips. 

“Where the hell were you? I can’t believe you skipped the last day of school!” he said, plopping down on the bed next to me.   

“Oh shit, I thought it was Saturday.” I chuckled. 

I really did think it was Saturday.  

Even if it wasn't, I was too hung over to go anyway.   

“Well it's not, it's almost 4 in the afternoon... on Friday.” Johnny said, pulling me up to my feet.   “We were supposed to be at the Curtis house an hour ago.  Come on Courtney, we have places to be….. And put some pants on!”

“I want to go back to sleep.” I groaned, I didn't wanna do anything besides lay in bed.  

“Come on, Ponyboy got jumped not too long ago!” Johnny said rushing me. 

My eyes got wide.  

I grabbed the closest pair of pants, and rushed out the door.  

We ran to the Curtis house.
It wasn't too far, only a couple blocks.  

When we got there everyone was outside.   

Darry, Soda, Steve, and Twobit were in the driveway talking.  
Ponyboy and Dallas, were leaning up against the fence talking. 

Dallas Winston? 

I thought he was sitting in jail for another couple months.

I swallowed hard, as Johnny and I walked up to Ponyboy and Dal.  

“You ok, Pony?” I asked him.  

“Yeah, just a little shaken up.” he gave me a weak smile.   

“When did you get out, Dal?” Johnny asked him. 

“This morning, good behavior.” Dallas smirked. 

Good behavior?

I didn't believe that for a second.

Dallas Winston, being good?

Bullshit. 

I rolled my eyes in response.

Dallas Winston looked me up and down, up and down again, then paused before he spoke. 

Dallas took a step closer to me.

“Now that I'm out, I'm going to make it my business to get the guy that did that to your face.”  Dallas spoke in his deep voice, he pointed his finger at me.

He attempted to put it under my chin to lift my face up, but I swatted his hand away.

“I can take care of myself, you don't need to be involved.”  I said, as I turned my head the other direction.

My right eye had a healing bruise, and had a scar just below the eyebrow.

My dad had thrown me down the stairs about 2 weeks ago in a drunken rage.

I haven't seen him since, but I can feel his presence in the house, when he returns from work or the bar.

“Well, obviously you can't take care of yourself. You look like shit. Besides, you look hungover. C'Mon now princess, just let me take a look.”  Dallas said, reaching for my chin again.

He lifted my chin up, and over so he could get a good look at my eye.

I shot him a glare.

His warm fingertips grazed the underside of my jaw.

I took another deep inhale, before I pushed his hand away again.

“See, that wasn't so hard? Now which one of these socs did it?” He asked me.

Dallas was looking into my eyes.

His dark brown eyes slowly blinked, as he waited for me to respond.

Johnny had glanced at me, but only for a second, before looking at the ground.

“It was some other guys.  Don't worry, I left them looking a lot worse than I do.” I let out a chuckle, and a soft smile.  

“That's my girl.” Dallas, said putting his arm around my shoulders.

I could feel my heart rate quicken, as he gave me a little squeeze. 

The butterflies in my stomach floated up, and into my chest.

I could feel them dancing around in my ribcage.

“I see you have your rings back.” Johnny chimed in. 

Dallas quickly let go of me, and examined the skull ring that he had in his pinky finger.  

“The broad was two timing me in jail, man.” Dallas said through gritted teeth, as he kicked the fence.  

“I'm sorry, man.” Johnny said, looking at the ground. 

His ex girlfriend Sylvia, what a skank.

I don't think he really even liked her.

He never brought her around, never talked about her, and never really spent time with her even.

It seemed like they weren’t even really together.  

I don't know why they were even dating.   

“It's cool, I'm done with her for real.” Dallas scuffed, as he took the ring off his pinkie.  

He grabbed my left hand, and slipped it onto my thumb. 

That was the only finger that it would fit,  it would have been too big on the rest of them. 

“You can keep it, it's too small for me.” Dallas huffed, he didn't even look in my direction. 

“Thanks, I guess.” I said, looking at my hands.   

“What are we doing tonight? I'm looking for some action.” Dallas said, in his low voice.  

His New York accent made his voice sound so smooth. 

“We're not looking for any trouble.” Ponyboy chimed in. 

“I'm not looking for trouble, what about a movie? Like the good old days, right Johnny.” Dallas pat him on the back. 

“Yeah, we were planning on going later I think.”Johnny smiled. 

“Cool, see you kids around.” Dallas smiled back before walking away.