Greater Than (Dallas Winston)

10 // I Am Me

     I really hate my house. It's too quiet and clean, but I can never bring myself to mess it up. I see a picture of me and my sister and my mom... I need to get over that, it happened a while ago.

I felt like the mailbox needed a checking, so I did that. There was a letter from my dad. He's been out of my life for a while, in fact, it's been so long that this letter is to Dolores Monroe. I hate that name. I'm Aubrey. Done. As a kid, I went by Dolly Monroe. But as I grew up, I went by Lo Monroe.

I opened the damn letter and it basically said,

"Dear Dolores,

I know you probably still hate me for leaving you guys, but I promise it was for a good reason. I just wanted to say we moved, so here's our place and I hope you can visit and we can talk.

P.s, I saw you in the paper the other day. You're hanging out with greasers now? At least they have big hearts...

-Dad"

What the fuck? Who judges my friends and gives me their address at the same time?!

See, I hate this house. Only bad memories are connected with it. I probably have like, a few acceptable memories, but that's all. This place was never a home and will never feel like it.

The next day, I took myself to see Two-Bit and Steve so we could go to the Curtis house. Their door was always unlocked just in case someone needed a place to stay, I actually used to stay there quite often.

Believe it or not, I hung out with Ponyboy and Johnny a lot before. Man, those two were a lot of fun. Sometimes I would stay when I was having a long talk with Sodapop. Mostly, it was because I REALLY hated my own house.

Steve yelled if anyone was awake. Once we heard Ponyboy, we all entered. Unfortunately, he said to not slam the door a little too late. The door shut and gave out quite a sound. Two-Bit ran into the kitchen and swung Pony around.

"Hey, Ponyboy," he cried gleefully, "long time no see." He spun Ponyboy into Steve, who gave him a slap on the back. I just stuck with a high five, considering he just came out of a hospital. One of the eggs Ponyboy held went flying and hit a clock.

"Now look what you did!" Ponyboy groaned "There went our breakfast. Can't you guys wait before you go shovin' me all over the country?"

"Someone's cranky and hungry." I blurted "You alright?"

"More hungry, though." Ponyboy said. Two-Bit started to slowly walk around Ponyboy.

"Man, dig baldy here! I wouldn't have believed it. I thought all the wild Indians in Oklahoma had been tamed. What little squaw's got that tuff-lookin' mop of yours, Ponyboy?" Two-Bit said

"Aw, lay off." said Ponyboy

"He was bein' smart and had to change his description from the paper, of course." I laughed

Steve asked "How do you like bein' a hero, big shot?"

"How do I like what?" asked Pony

"Being a hero. You know," Steve shoved a paper at him "like a big shot, even." The paper he handed Ponyboy read JUVENILE DELINQUENTS TURN HEROES

"What I like is the 'turn' bit." Two-bit pointed out "Y'all were heroes from the beginning."

I watched Ponyboy's face as he read on. He looked at it with horror but with interest, which I expected him to. Johnny was being charged for manslaughter. Ponyboy had to show up for court. Then he got to the point where they talked about Sodapop and Darry...