On The Outside (A The Outsiders FF) #Wattys2015

Chapter 20

"You can't escape me now!" I heard a girl's voice shout from the living room. It was a voice I recognized all too well. But how could it be? Cherry was supposed to be in jail.

Bang. A gun was fired, causing me to jump a little. Six more bullets were shot. I jumped out of bed and darted into the living room.

A horrible sight welcomed me into the living room. The gang was shot, sprawled out across the floor. Blood soaked their shirts and stained the carpet around them. I searched around the room for Cherry, but she had escaped out the front door.

"Why didn't you save us, Dakota?" I heard Two-Bit's voice croak out to me. He was clearly struggling to stay alive.

"I-I'm sorry! I didn't know! Don't die! No!" I cried, dropping to my knees and burying my face in my hands.

"Dakota! Dakota, wake up!" Ponyboy said, shaking me awake. Beads of sweat were rolling down the side of my face and there were tear stains on my cheeks.

I looked around the room, relieve rushing over me at the sight of Ponyboy sitting up next to me. He was rubbing small circles in my back for comfort.

"Don't worry, it was just a nightmare," he eased, continuing to comfort me. I just nodded my head. "What was it about?"

I told Ponyboy everything from the nightmare - how Cherry broke into the house, how she shot everyone except me, how Two-Bit made me feel guilty about not saving them before he died.

We laid back down, Ponyboy wrapping an arm around me tightly in protection. I smiled to myself a drifted back to sleep, feeling safer than before.

* * * * * 

I woke up the next morning still trapped in Ponyboy's tight grasp. I poked his face in attempt to wake him up, but failed. I then decided to wake him up classically.

"PONYBOY!" I screamed in his face, catching him off guard and causing him to fall off the edge of the bed, hitting the floor with a thud.

I was laughing hysterically at him, which made me roll off the other side of the bed. Now Ponyboy was the one laughing, stumbling a bit as he stood up. He walked over to me and helped me up. I decided against pulling him down - I was saving that for a better time.

After I took a shower and got dressed, I headed into the living room, where the gang and the girls were already sitting.

"Hey, where's Darry?" I asked as I looked around at everyone, taking notice that Darry wasn't in the room.

"He's packing our lunch. We're going to have a picnic." Tiger said. I didn't question anything, I just nodded my head and sat down on the arm of the couch next to Dally.

I fiddled with my fingers out of habit, but Dally grabbed one of my hands, which took me by surprise.

"Hey, Dakota. What do you say about going on another date with me at The Dingo?" Dally asked me after everyone started their own conversation.

"What's in it for me?" I said, smirking and raising my eyebrows. He gave an airy chuckle, glanced down at our intertwined hands, then back up into my eyes.

"Well, you'll get to spend the night with me at The Dingo while we stuffed our faces," Dally replied, his facing showing confidence. "Just us two."

"Then I say yes." I responded. He leaned in and gave me a quick kiss before Darry walked into the room.

Darry was carrying a woven wooden picnic basket in one hand, almost looking like Dorothy's from The Wizard of Oz. He was huffing as if making sandwiches was hard work.

"You guys ready to go?" he questioned, looking at us expectantly. We all nodded and headed out the door.

Darry suggested that we get some exercise, so we walked to our destination, which ended up being a hill, lost in the depths of a small grove in the infamous park where Johnny murdered Bob. It was a nice, peaceful, relaxing place that I never knew existed.

Darry laid down a large blanket on the grass at the top of the hill and started unpacking our lunch from the basket. There was a refreshing breeze in the air and I could smell rain - the smell I loved -, causing me to predict that it was going to storm. I looked up into the sky, and there were dark gray rain clouds casting across the sky. I even felt a few raindrops trickling down onto my face.

"Come on. You just had to pick this day to go outside, didn't you, Darry?" Luna groaned, flinging off any rain that got on her, which was no use.

The trickling turned to pouring. Claps of thunder boomed one after another. It was nothing bad, just a regular storm. But we decided to make the most of it. Dally, Two-Bit, Steve, and Soda chased me around in the rain, although I ran out of breath quickly. Ponyboy, Johnny, and the girls were just sitting on the blanket, watching us, laughing and shaking their heads.

A red Corvette rounded a corner and drove onto the park's grass, heading our direction. Nobody else noticed it, but the car was too familiar to ignore.

"Guys!" I called over to them, pointing towards the oncoming car. "We need to get out of here. Now."

But it was too late - the driver of the car got out of her car and was getting something from the back seat. I knew who the person was before she even stepped out of the car, and I knew this was no longer a dream.

I didn't know how Cherry broke out of jail, but I was tired of being afraid of her. She was heading our way up the hill with a baseball bat and was tucking something away in her pocket. With each step she took towards us, the more nervous I became. I had to face her, though, and I was ready.