Stay - Dallas Winston

12

Tears began to stream down my face, as Johnny cleaned the dried blood from my skin. 

"I know it hurts, I'm almost done." Johnny continued to lightly scrub at my face. 

"Why does this keep happening?" I choked out. 

"I don't know...." Johnny trailed off for a moment.  "You know, you look like your mom."

"Yeah, people tell me that all the time.  That probably the reason too..." I sighed. 

A soft knock at the door sounded.  

Johnny set the rag down, and opened the door. 

Dallas walked in, holding a pair of Ponyboy's clothes. 

"I, um... you better change out of them blood clothes." Dallas stumbled over his words. 

Dallas set the clothes on my lap, before him and Johnny left the room. 

I slowly changed out of my dirty clothes, and into the new ones.

By then, all the alcohol in my system had taken full effect. 

I was so blasted, I couldn't feel hardly any pain. 

I stumbled my way into the living room. 

Soda and Darry had gone to bed, Steve and Twobit had left. 

Ponyboy sat in the chair that Darry usually sits in to read his morning paper. 

Dallas and Johnny sat on opposite sides of the couch. 

I flopped down in-between them, and rested my head on Johnny's shoulder. 

We all sat there silently, watching the small TV in their living room. 

"I still never showered." I whispered to Johnny. 

"That's ok, you can do it here tomorrow." He whispered back.  

"You better, you look like garbage, man." Dallas scuffed, staring blankly at the TV.

Maybe it was the way he said it, but that made the switch flip inside my head.  

I pulled myself up to my feet, and looked down at Dallas. 

I could feel my whole body go hot, as anger flowed through my veins. 

"What did you say?" I spat at him. 

Now, Dallas Winston didn't like back talk. 

Dallas didn't like anything that made him feel threatened. 

Dallas quickly stood up to face me. 

He toward over me, as he stepped closer. 

We both stared at each other.

With every second that passed, more anger filled the two of us. 

Johnny and Ponyboy sat there silently, as they both were too stunned to speak. 

"Haven't you learned not to walk with out a blade?! Like come on, stupid! Those socs are gonna keep jumping ya, man!" Dallas screamed in my face. 

Of course he would jump to conclusions. 

Dallas Winston always thinks he's right.  

I hated Dallas sometimes. 

"Fuck. You." I fired back. 

The words just seemed to fall out of my mouth, I didn't even have time to think about what I was saying. 

Dallas stood there motionless. 

"Fuck you, and your big ass eyebrow!" I screamed in his face. 

Dallas quickly shoved me at my shoulders, causing me to stumble back.  

It wasn't really a hard shove, it was more of a 'back off, bitch.' shove. 

"You two, stop it!" Johnny yelled. 

Even though the shove didn't hurt me, I was sick of being pushed around. 

I wasn't going to let another man put his hands on me. 

I pulled back my fist, and punched Dallas across the face. 

I punched him with all my might. 

Dallas stumbled backwards into the couch, and his nose began to bleed. 

I can't believe I just did that. 

Dallas quickly turned, and walked out the front door. 

His walk was surprisingly calmer than I had expected. 

He sat down on the steps of the porch. 

"On that note, good night." Ponyboy quickly said, running off to his room. 

I slowly sat back down next to Johnny. 

We sat there, still as statues... for at least 30 minutes. 

Dallas continued to sit on the porch, looking out into the street. 

"I wasn't gonna let another man put his hands on me." I managed to choke out. 

"Good," Johnny looked over at me, "I'm glad you finally stood your ground.  He shouldn't have said that, he shouldn't have shoved you."

Johnny was right, but I still felt terrible for punching Dallas... even though it was well deserved. 

"Can.. can you go see if he's alright? I don't want him sitting outside all night." I asked Johnny. 

"Yeah, I will.  I want you to lay down, and try to get some sleep." Johnny ordered me. 

I nodded in agreement, and laid down on the couch. 

Johnny walked out, and sat down by Dallas for a while. 

I could hear them talking back and forth, but I couldn't quite make out what they were saying. 

After a while, Johnny came back inside. 

Johnny shut the light off, and laid down on the couch. 

He laid down by my feet, as he stuck his feet by my chest. 

"He's ok, but his ego is hurt. He's gonna sit out there a little longer, but he will come inside." Johnny whispered to me. 

"Thanks, Johnny." I whispered back.