That's Life for You

Chapter 6

The smell of smoke mixed with burning flesh fills my nostrils. I swallow back the bile that rises in my throat. I can barely feel the pain in my jaw from where I've been clenching it for so long. All I feel is the burning heat from the cigarette that Ponyboy is holding against my forefinger. The sun beats down on us, hot and unforgiving. I can see sweat beads forming on Ponyboy's forehead and he's gritting his teeth. I think if he opens his mouth that he'll yell, but he doesn't say uncle.

I know that the cigarette is burning a hole into my skin, but I ignore it. I'm used to pain. I had to deal with pain all my life, at least this pain I can control. This is my pain.

"What the hell are you doing?" Tim's angry voice startles us so much we both let our cigarettes fall to the ground. When he realizes what we're doing he knocks our heads together so hard that I'm stunned for a minute. I blink a couple of times, until my vision clears back up.

"We were just fooling around," I mutter, stepping on the still burning cigarette.

Tim grabs my shirt and gives me a shake like I'm a disobedient puppy. "You call burning holes in your skin fooling around?"

I stare down at the gaping wound on my finger and press down on it. I hiss softly when that intensifies the pain.

"Don't mess with it, stupid." I know Tim is debating on knocking our heads together again and his glare goes to Ponyboy, who withers under it.

Man, that confused me. Ponyboy being scared of Tim I mean. He was in a gang with Dallas Winston after all.

"I thought you was supposed to be some kind of boy genius," Tim says. "Must not be too smart if you're letting this dumbass." Tim jerks his thumb towards me. "Talk you into stupid shit like this."

Ponyboy scraps the toe of his worn-out sneaker against the concrete, avoiding Tim's eyes at all costs. "You won't tell my brother about this, will ya?" He finally asks.

"I probably should." Tim tells him and Ponyboy visibly goes paler.

"Aww, come on Tim." I butt in. "Don't go ratting on him. I told you we was just fooling- "

Tim cuffs me a good one on the back of the head. "You're in no position to be telling me what to do, are you now?"

I scowl but keep my mouth shut.

"I should tell him..." Tim says again. "But I ain't going too."

"Thanks, Tim," Ponyboy mutters, his color slowly starting to return.

"But I catch either one of you pulling something like this again, I'll kill you both."

Without waiting to see Ponyboy's reaction Tim grabs me by the collar of my shirt and starts dragging me down the street, cussing at me every step of the way.

Tim let go of my shirt and stopped cussing about a block ago, but I still kept pace with him because I know that's what he wants. We weren't going home and I didn't ask where we were headed. I was pretty sure Tim was over being mad, but didn't want to risk it by bombarding him with questions.

I inwardly groan when I realize we're heading towards Buck's. Not the crowd I wanted to deal with right now. It was clear that I didn't have a choice at the moment.

I focus on the throbbing of my finger while I follow Tim inside, trying to block out the country music that's already blaring. It's dark inside and it takes a minute for my eyes to adjust.

Buck's place always put me on edge. How Dally could sleep here, I'll never know. The music, the drunken red necks and the atmosphere made my skin crawl.

"C'mon." Tim is heading up the stairs, like a dog that doesn't want to get scolded I follow him and a part of me hates myself for it.

I trail after him until we reach a room that's at the end of the hall. He pauses before he opens the door and turns towards me.