My Uptown Girl

Gone

"Hey, Shirley?" Dally walked alongside her and Johnny as they made their way to her house. She turned to him. "Were those the same guys who attacked you and punched Johnny?"

"Nah. They were different." She put an arm around her younger brother and inspected the cut that was left on his cheek from Bob's ring. It had started to scab over and Johnny refused to cover it with a bandage while it healed. He said he thought it looked cool- that it made him look tough. She thought he was ridiculous.

"Well I'm gonna get the guy who did that to your face." Dally poked his cut cheek and Johnny hissed before swatting his hand away. "I'll become your personal bodyguard."

"Knock it off Dally." Shirley scolded the other boy as she threw open the door and let them inside. They made a beeline for the couch and, just before Shirley could shut the door, Ponyboy slammed the door back open, knocking her to the side as he ran in.

"Sorry, Shirley!" Ponyboy apologized absentmindedly as he joined his two friends on the couch.

"Feel free to come in, Pony." Shirley grunted as she shut the door and sat on the armrest of the couch, joining the others. "Darrel left you off early?"

"Everyone's leaving for the night and I didn't want to stay home by myself." He told them how Steve, Soda, and Two-Bit wanted to watch a football game that was happening later that night while Darrel had to go to work for his late-night job. "Can I hang with you guys?"

"Yeah!" Dally started to yell, catching the attention of everyone in the room. "I was thinking we should go to the movies like Johnny, Pony, and I used to do. The good ol' days." Shirley glanced to the clock that was pinned up in the center of the room. It was already five pm.

"Can't come with y'all. I got late shift starting at six tonight. Won't be off till midnight." The boys began to yell, booing her until she relented and went to her purse. "I can't come with you but I can help pay for snacks." She brought out a five-dollar-bill and handed it to Johnny as she trusted him the most with her money.

"You have your key to the house, right Johnny?" He nodded back to her instantly to confirm he had it and she sighed in relief. "Good."

She then went into her room to get ready, scolded the boys to lock the door when she was dressed, and left in her car to start her thirty minute drive to work, thinking of a way to repay the boys from her abrupt departure.

-

Halfway through her shift, Shirley was visited by someone she had hoped to never see again. Yet here he was, strutting into the diner in a drunken manner with his friends, as well as his girlfriend, right behind him. He took a seat at a booth that was right in front of the cash register so Shirley had to pay attention to him. He looked smug.

"Hey Shirley." Bob's voice slurred and she reeled away from him in a slight disgust. He was drunk, like usual. "Don't be like that. I'm not here to start a cat fight." Bob laughed at his own joke and took the menus out of Shirley's hands.

"Hi Shirley." A soft voice made her head turn and she smiled at her two Soc friends, Cherry and Marcia. They looked shaken up and that made her smile drop, looking back over to Bob.

"How long have you been drinking tonight, Bob?" His demeanor turned sour and he gave her a disappointing look. "Who are you? My mother?" Randy, who Shirley had been ignoring this entire time, snickered next to him.

"We ran into your greaser friends tonight." Shirley shot her head to Randy who gave her a sweet smile. "Some of the ones that came to your 'rescue' were at the drive-in. Didn't see you there so we figured you were working."

"And you came all this way just to see lil ol' me?" Shirley mocked him, trying to keep her temper under control. Bob literally tried to rape her last night, and Randy had helped him, and, yet, here they were, talking to Shirley as if it never happened. Did they even tell their girlfriends what they tried to do? She doubted it.