Jackie

17- A Long Talk

"Alright, cmon kid, y'know I don't do this sappy shit. Let's go home." Dallas said pulling himself away and putting an arm around my shoulder as we walked to Buck's in silence.

I have to be super honest. Seeing him all bruised up and a little bloody from fighting people to protect me was a little hot.

When we got to Buck's and went up the stairs, I assumed he would go to his room while I went to the bathroom to clean up but he followed me.

I took a rag and ran it under the cold water to wipe the makeup and dried blood from scraping my face on the concrete off my face, but as I took the rag out of the water, Dally grabbed it from my hands and spun me around to face him.

"Dal I can do this by myself." I said. "Shut up." He replied. I did just that and let him do his thing. He gently rubbed the wet rag on my face, getting the makeup off first, which was smeared down my face from crying.

I should really invest in some waterproof makeup huh?

When he moved on the the bruised scrape on my upper right cheek, I winced away from the rag in pain. He used his free hand to gently hold my chin in place and very carefully dabbed the rag on the wound. I looked up into his eyes, and he looked into mine when he was done focusing on my cheek.

"Your turn." I smiled and grabbed the rag from his hands. "Nah, I'm good." He said while trying to step out of the bathroom.

I did the same move he did but more firmly, using my free hand to grab his face and keep him there. I used the rag and gently as he did and cleaned all blood off his face.

"That one cut is a little deep. Stay right there." I whispered. I turned around and got some hydrogen peroxide to clean the cut. I put the peroxide on a new rag. "This is gonna sting, don't punch me okay?" I gave a small grin too. He gave a small grin back.

I gently put the rag against the cut and watched the peroxide bubble when it touched the blood. He slightly moved away. "Fuck." He whispered. "Just a little more I promise." I whispered back.

While dabbing the rag on the cut lightly, I spoke to clear the silence in the bathroom. "I bet these weren't the alone moments you thought we would have in here a month ago is it?" I said with a giggle.

"No, not exactly, but this is okay too." He whispered back.

After that, we both went back to our rooms. I paced around. I needed to talk to him about everything that just happened. I couldn't sleep or even lye down thinking about it. Why was he there when those guys showed up? Why did he let me cry on him? I couldn't take it anymore, I was gonna go to his room.

I opened up my door only to be met with Dallas, and his hand raised like he was about to knock.

"Guess we had the same idea." He said quietly. "Yeah I guess we did." I responded.

I went back and sat on the edge of the bed while he closed the door and stood against it.

"Why were you there when they showed up?" I asked him.

"I was the only one that noticed to slip out of the house. I thought you were just going out for a smoke, but I saw you walking away. I wanted to talk to you anyway. And then I turned a corner and saw you with a blade against your throat." He answered with his arms crossed.

"You know, if you didn't show up I'd probably be dead, tied to a chair in a warehouse or somethin." I looked up at him into his eyes. "Thank you Dallas."

"Yeah whatever." He said looking down. We sat in silence for a minute. "Dal, one more thing? Why, uh, why did you let me cry on you. You should have told me how fucking pathetic I was." I said looking back down at the ground.

"Cus you can't keep your tough guy act up all the time Jackie. Especially when some New York assholes try to fucking kidnap you. I don't blame ya." He said looking up at me.

"Yeah, you just don't seem like the type of person to tolerate it when someone bawls like a baby." I responded looking back up.

"I don't, usually. Yous just, I don't know, you're just different Jackie. You're just..different." He said quietly.

As we sat and stared at each other for a minute my breathing started to get heavy and pick up again. I wasn't going to cry but I was just extremely paranoid once again.

Dallas had looked like he zoned out until my eyes dropped down from his to the floor and he noticed my breathing quicken. His look of boredom turned into slight concern.

"Jackie what's wrong?" He asked almost like he sounded mad.

"Dal, they're gonna come back and kill me. Why did I fucking cut him, now they're really gonna kill me. I can't die Dallas I'm 16 years old, I cannot fucking die." I said while digging in my jacket pocket frantically for a cigarette.

I lit the cigarette. Not caring about smoke in small spaces, not caring about Dally's big brown emotional eyes that everyone else sees as cold staring at me, not caring about any of the small shit I used to care so much about because now I was simply terrified that I wasn't going to ever get to care about those things again.

Dally sighed. "Cmon kid, you ain't gonna die, we ain't gonna let them touch you." He said, trying to be reassuring.

"The rest of the gang doesn't even know Dally, they don't even know and I don't even want to leave this room." I said quickly, still trying to catch my breath from the panic.

"Then I won't let them touch you." He said in a very serious manner. "For now, I'm gonna go downstairs and call the Curtis house, let them know what happened, and then swear to God I'll be right back, okay?" He said uncrossing his arms and his hand on the doorknob, waiting for my response. I nodded my head and he quietly left the room.

While he was gone I took off my jacket and shoes and laid in my bed, facing the wall and my arms crossed.

I heard Dallas come back into the room quietly.
He must have thought I was asleep, because he didn't say anything and instead I heard him slump down on the floor.

I waited a couple of minutes to look over to see what he was doing but he was asleep. His back against the wall and arms crossed on his lap, his head slightly tilted.

I felt bad, having him sleep on the floor. I got up from the bed and took the blanket with me, sitting on the floor next to him. I put my back against the wall and laid the blanket over the both of us. I closed my eyes and my head must have naturally fallen over to lay on his shoulder because after a while, his head rested on top of mine.