Partners In Crime | Dallas Winston FanFic

Chapter Twenty-Two: Restless

When I walked in the door, which was unlocked as always, Darry immediately stood up from his armchair to greet me.

"Hey, Lexie. How was your date? Did you make good choices?" He asked, folding up his newspaper. He smiled at me, but I knew it was only because he was trying to hide the fact that he'd been worrying again.

"It was good, and of course I made good choices, Darry," I answered with a soft laugh, rolling my eyes, "But what are you still doing up?" I asked, looking over at the clock above the fireplace. "It's past midnight and you have work in the morning."

Darry walked over to me and gently squeezed my shoulder.

"Just wanted to make sure you got home alright. I'm heading to bed now, don't worry. Goodnight, Lexie. See you in the morning," he responded, kissing the top of my head just like Dad used to do.

"Goodnight, Darry," I said with a smile as my brother walked towards his room, noticing his obvious exhaustion before he closed the door behind him.

I sat down on the couch and sighed, taking off my heels and earrings. After sitting there for a while, reflecting on the amazing night I'd just had, I got up and headed towards the bathroom. I closed the door quietly behind me, trying to make as little noise as possible so I wouldn't wake up my brothers, and turned on the shower. I let the warm water run over my face, scrubbing off what little makeup was left from earlier, as I continued thinking about my date. Once I was finished washing my long, wavy hair, I stepped out of the shower and dried off with a fluffy green towel. As I changed into my pajamas, I suddenly remembered what was happening tomorrow night— the rumble. I gasped a little, surprised that I'd completely forgotten about it, as I stared at myself in my bedroom mirror.

Here we were— the four of us were finally out of the hospital and everything was going smoothly again— almost like it had been before mom and dad died— and now another pointless rumble was gonna come and ruin everything. Darry and Pony were finally starting to get along alright, the eight of us were closer than ever after the fire, things were finally getting better. But now with the rumble— people get seriously hurt in rumbles— sometimes even killed. I took a deep breath, trying to collect my spiraling thoughts. Everything would be fine... it had to be... right?

I climbed into bed, trying not to worry too much about the rumble anymore. That would be a problem for me to deal with in the morning, but for now, I'd just need to try to get some sleep. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, then quickly realized that falling asleep wouldn't be nearly as easy as I thought it would be.

"What if someone dies tomorrow night?" I whispered to myself, staring up at the darkened ceiling. I thought about the gang, envisioning all of our faces, then thought about what would happen if one of us died. If I died, my brothers and Dally would be absolutely devastated, or at least I'd hope so. If Darry died, which is highly unlikely considering his amount of muscle, but if he did hypothetically die, we'd be without a leader. If Johnny died, I have no idea what we'd do, since he's like everybody's kid brother... the same goes for Ponyboy. If Two-Bit died, all of our lives would be a lot more boring. If Steve or Soda died, the other would probably kill themselves or something, because I don't think they could live without each other. And if Dal died, I'd be heartbroken, and it would put even more pressure on Darry to be a leader.

"God, we really couldn't live without any of them, could we?" I asked myself, still staring up into the darkness. I don't know what I was expecting, but when the only answer I received was silence, I closed my eyes again and sighed.

I knew in that moment that we had to win the rumble.

After all, we didn't really have any other choice.

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Author's Note:

Hey... it's been a while! I finally found the time to check Wattpad a few days ago and realized that I never finished writing this chapter, so I finally decided to work on it some more. I guess I sort of lost inspiration halfway through writing it because it's pretty dull, there isn't too much action, but I had to get this one done in order to move on to the more interesting stuff. Stay tuned :)

Hope you enjoy and stay gold 🌅