Devil in disguise (Dallas Winston fan-fic)

The last call

Although Dally never got to say this to me, I believed I had made the promise of staying out of trouble and doing well at school. I couldn't concentrate, anyway. He was stuck in my mind all day and night.

That day, when he dropped me at my house, I watched him go down the street with the T-Bird driving as fast as he could. "As always," I thought to myself.

When I turned around I saw my parents standing in the porch. My mother was the first to run over to me and hug me so hard she could have broken my bones. My dad stared at me and in the end he hugged me too. My brother was watching everything through the kitchen window. I saw the shadow which was his head in the distance. That's when I decided it was the time to let it all out. Hot tears started to stream down my face as my parents pulled me inside of the house and made me sit down on the couch. They asked lots of questions about where I had been, what I had done, the cut in my leg, my haircut, the cigarettes I had in my pocket... and Dallas Winston, obviously.

When I heard his name I wiped my tears and tried to keep being tough, but once I had started crying it was hard to hold back the tears again. They gave me a lecture about the worried they were, when they called the cops, my friends coming to cool them both off...

Wait, what friends? Oh okay, Ponyboy had brought Darry there to tell them that I was well and Dally would take care of me and all that shit. I remember praying during the lecture, hoping that Darry could feel how thankful I was for bothering to come and help to make them feel less worried.

In the end they didn't ground me. They thought I had suffered enough during the trip and saw how guilty I felt. Their warm welcome didn't make me feel better. I was all the time thinking I didn't belong there anymore. I mean, I was glad to be back. But maybe the 'Dally thing' had broken me forever.

Dally knew too well when and how to keep away from me. I didn't find him anywhere in 3 months or so. I was at the Dingo with with a boy I had met in highschool, same age as Pony, called Mark Jennings. He was nice and kinda wild and tough. But not Dally. Then I looked up at 3 guys who had walked in. Dallas, Pony and Johnny. They sat in two couches which were one opposite the other and ordered 2 milkshakes and a coffee. Pony and Johnny were playing with some straws and bothering the waitress who was cleaning the table right next to them.

"Where ya goin'?" Mark asked me when I stood up.

"Wait a sec. Just some guys I know," I said walking to their table. Pony and Johnny smiled at me. I sometimes hung out with them both and talked at school. But I was most of the time around Soda and Steve at the DX. They liked to have me there and Steve started teaching me some stuff about cars after he saw I was interested in them, motorcycles and drag races.

Then Dallas' eyes and mine met. He seemed to look for a way out to avoid talking to me. It still hurt him as it did to me, I could tell. I tried to be nice. Dallas saw Mark was with me and his eyes had a sparkle of jealousy. "Hey, how ya doin'?" he greeted me with a kiss.

"Not as good as you, babe," I joked.

"Any news, doll?" Dally asked.

I sighed. "Heading to Uni in 4 months. Bullshit, basically. Don't wanna leave," I explained.

He stared at my eyes with a nostalgic look he tried to hide. "Well, you gotta do what you gotta do. And so do I, man," he said. We stared at each other for some seconds. He felt something towards me. I still loved him and would've agreed to be his girl again if he had asked me. He seemed to tell me "You've made the right choice going on." I wasn't that sure. I wouldn't be that happy anymore.

And as I had told him, I soon found myself studying at University the following year. I had been saving some money and Steve helped me to buy myself a black Matchless motorcycle. I liked it a lot and used to ride it around town to show off. Everytime I rode it, I thought to myself "Dally would have been a great buddy to ride with." I took the cycle with me when I went to Uni and with all the stuff I was busy with I didn't have time to daydream of the Winston boy. Almost, because he came back to my mind when I talked on the phone with the greasers.

One day the phone rang and my apartment mate answered. "Hey, Carrie. It's a guy," he said. I lived with a boy because I've never felt comfortable being around girls who ain't tomboys like me. Since I had arrived in US, everything doing with guys had turned out to work great.

I had just come inside after riding for two hours heading to nowhere and making my way back. I grabbed the phone and held it close to my ear. "Listen, princess, I don't have much time," I heard a familiar deep voice say. I felt my heart go wild.

"Dally, babe!" I yelled.

"Yeah, the one and only. Wish you were here 'cause I'm in deep trouble and Johnny's dead," he said with broken voice. Said it so directly... He definitely proved to be Dallas.

"What?" I screamed. "Tell me it's a joke. Not Johnny," I cried. My knees went weak and I sat down on the floor.

"Am the first one who wishes it was a joke. But it's not, man. The fuzz is lookin' for me right now." He sounded real worried.

"No way. What the hell did you do? You, dumb!" I managed to ask.

"That's not important. I just wanted to hear you one more time. Needed to say... I love ya, man," he said.

"Te quiero mucho, Dallas," I told him, closing my eyes as hard as I could. I could hear the police cars arriving through the phone. [I love you a lot, Dallas]

Then Dally hung up the phone. I waited as if it was possible that I heard his voice again. Waited for an hour, my hand still grabbing the phone. I didn't know what was going to happen. It seemed impossible to me the fact that Johnnycake had died. "How the fuck?" I wondered.

I called the Curtis bros and soon heard Darry's voice. "Hi?" he asked.

"Hey Darry, Carrie here. What the fuck is goin' on, man? Dallas just gave me a call and said Johnny is dead..." I told him.

"Well, he's said the truth," Darry said. "Johnny died at the hospital today. Pony, Dallas and he got in some trouble at a church in fire in Windrixville. They were taken to the hospital." He sounded as broken as I supposed the rest of the guys were.

"How is Dally doin'? He there?" I asked. I hoped he could explain what had happened to him but I could figure out which the answer was.

"Dally's gone now. Cops shot him after he pulled out a gun. It wasn't loaded though. It all happened soon after Johnny died."

I started crying. Crying hard. I knew why Dally had done it, sure. For Johnny, as we all would have done it. I was so sorry for Johnny, 'cause he had a long life to live and he had ended up that way. It wasn't fair.

And I knew Dally would be dead someday, since all he did was break the law and mess around. But it hurt anyways, 'cause as Johnny was the only thing Dally loved (besides me, I guess), Dallas was the only thing I always wanted.

AfterI had calmed down a little, Darry told me about the funeral that was takingplace the following day. I promised myself I would go, that I would be there.For Johnny, but mostly for Dally. I mean, Johnny was a better person and Irespected him a whole lot, but everyone would be there mostly for Johnny. Dallywas just a consequence, he wasn't the hero, he was a badass greaser who couldhave been killed anytime anywhere. And I would be there for him, standing byhis side 'till the very end.