After graduating college, Austin Curtis returns home without really knowing what to expect. Time has helped her mature, but through the years she spent away from Tulsa, there was a nagging in her mind about how she left everyone...more specifically...
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A few weeks had passed since Austin fell asleep on Dal's shoulder in the bed of her pick-up in the weeks that passed, Austin had started her new job at the court and had taken to it fondly. She and Two-Bit had made plans nearly three times a week to have lunch together, and Dallas ended up tagging along on quite a few of those lunches. In all honesty, Austin and Dallas's friendship had returned to what it used to be. The cold, closed off Dallas Winston who desperately kept his true self hidden from others was gone, and the gentler, kind Dallas that only Austin had known seemed to be the only part of Dallas that was left. He also learned that the guarded and secretive girl Austin had been, who was too afraid of being real with another person, had turned into a genuine and authentic woman who learned how to be bold.
After the first week of the pair re-entering their friendship, Dallas and Austin had slowly grown comfortable in the other's presence. Whenever Dal was working on a job site close to the courthouse, he would ask her to lunch or join her at her office, he found himself coming over to the Curtis house for dinner just as often as he did during the years when Austin was away, and the best part was that they each had their best friend back. What seemed to be the most enjoyable part of their newfound friendship were the many nights the pair would climb onto the roof and talk about their lives, their hopes, and their wildest dreams. The habit happened accidentally one night after Darry, Gracie, and Ponyboy had all gone to bed one night. Instead of trying to whisper through a dimly lit house, or going to her room which shared a wall with Ponyboy's, Austin and Dallas found themselves bundled up on the roof, allowing their voices entertain the night.
Once, Dallas pulled a joint from his pocket and was taken aback when Austin reached out, took it in her fingers, and inhaled the smoke as if she'd been doing grass for years.
"Shit," he'd said after she'd handed the joint back to him.
"What?" she asked through a hard cough brought on by the cold air while a smile danced dangerously on her face.
"I would have never thought you'd picked up this habit while getting your fancy book learning degree," Dallas chuckled.
"It's not a habit. It's just an occasional thing," she huffed and playfully nudged him with her elbow.
"You're not a goody two-shoes anymore, are you?" Dallas teased as he offered her one more hit from the joint before he decided to stash it away in case Darry or someone else could smell it.
"Dal, do you not remember I got fired for punching a guy at my place of work, hustled people to get money for food and utilities, carried a knife everywhere I went since eleventh grade, drank under age nearly as much as the rest of y'all, aside from Two-Bit, and I've fought in a ton of rumbles since knowing you. The only time I may have been this perfect, good-girl you've always pictured me as was the year you moved here." Austin watched as Dallas nodded along with each thing she said.
"I guess you're right," he said as he stashed the joint away and laid back against the shingles of the roof. "But even with all that, you're still the best person I'd ever met. With all of that you didn't compare to how sleazy and greasy other girls on our side of town were."
