dallas winston, everybody knows you don't mess with dallas winston.
he's spent two years away from his home in new york city where he left his younger sister. up until late-november, 1964, no one was aware dallas had any siblings; until one night...
warning : this chapter contains smut. if you're uncomfortable with reading explicit material, do not read past page 15 !!!
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SODAPOP CURTIS
cigarettes, whiskey, and limes—the smell of buck's bar fills my nose as i follow madeline inside.
we both turned seventeen over the past week, not twenty one, but that's not why we're here. madeline wants to see if dallas came back or said anything to buck he didn't say to us.
i asked her, "don't you think dally would come see you the minute he came back home instead of hiding out in his apartment?"
"no." madeline answered, and that was that.
i can't ever imagine darry doing something like that to pony or me, skipping town and then coming back and not even telling us. i could never do that to them.
"winston and curtis," buck says our last names by way of greeting the second his eyes land on us as we near the bar. "i may know your brothers, but that doesn't mean i'll serve you. underage is still underage."
"we don't want a drink." madeline says, climbing onto a bar stool. i come beside her, but i don't sit. instead i rest my elbows on top of the wooden bar, looking at her as she braces herself to ask the question.
"dallas hasn't come back, has he? you haven't seen him since he left a few weeks ago?"
"no," buck shakes his head, a white towel over his fist as he cleans a glass. "'m sorry, kid. he'll be back though. is everything all right?"
"yeah." i nod, speaking up for madeline as her gaze falls, a contemplative look on her face now.
"i have that spare key to his place upstairs, just so you know." buck tells her.
"what?" her brown eyes lift to meet his.
"before dallas left he gave me the spare, said to hold onto it in case you come over to sleep here or somethin'. he said you used to sleep with him some nights back in new york when you were scared." he says the second half of his sentence with a bit of a questioning tone underneath, his eyebrows slightly furrowed as madeline looks at him confusedly.
"no." she shakes her head, hopping off the barstool. "i don't need it. thanks, though."
i give buck a quick wave over my shoulder as i hurry to follow her out of the bar and outside to the car. she opens the door and slides in, shutting it behind her as i race around to the drivers seat to do the same.
"what was that?" i ask, turning the keys to start steve's dodge charger he let us borrow. "you okay?"
"i don't know. i didn't know dally left a key for me to use. i didn't know i used to get scared at night and climb into bed with him." she rattles her thoughts off. "i must've been ... seven or younger. dally started getting into trouble when he was ten, so it must've been before all that." her voice softens, her eyes zoned out as she thinks.
