Quiet As A Mouse (Outsiders Fanfic)

Chapter 29- Boyfriends Screw, You, and Asshole

Note to Readers: Sorry for the profanity in the title, and again I apologize for not updating in forever.  Comment and vote if you like this chapter!

"Work here?" Two-Bit choked out, trying unsuccessfully to stifle a laugh because a second later he busted up.

I stared at him, unamused until he stopped laughing long enough to gasp out, "I never knew you were so hilarious, Mickey.  I must have taught you well," he gloated.  I had a feeling Two-Bit had already had a bit to drink tonight.

"Do I look like I'm kidding?" I asked, dead serious.

He stared, and Dal, Tim, and Curly all had matching half-amused, half-malicious smirks on their faces.

"So what about those beers then, waitress?" Curly asked coyly.

Technically the only one old enough to legally drink was Tim, but Two-Bit and Dally could pass for twenty-one if they tried. Denny didn't care how young his customers were though so long as they paid their tab and didn't cause a commotion or regularly start fights, so I served up their beers and then left to go clear some tables.

I avoided walking past the section of the bar they were sitting at for the rest of my shift, and once all the customers in the dining hall were gone, I washed down all the tables, washed, dried, and put away all the dishes the busboy hadn't finished, and then swept and mopped the floors in the dining hall and kitchen.  By midnight I was done, and the bar was almost empty, except for of course Dally, Tim, and the usual drunks that stayed out till bar time.

I headed through the kitchen for the back door, only to stop short when I saw it was pouring outside.  Big fat drops, the kind that falls in sheets and stings your skin and blinds you.  No way could I walk home in that safely, and Two-Bit had left almost an hour ago with some broad he had picked up, so I wasn't getting a ride. Considering what happened last time I had gone home in the rain, I wasn't going to risk it.  I could probably call Aunt Kat or one of the gang to come get me...

I went back to the bar and had just dialed the number for 'my' house on the payphone but then thought better of it.  Aunt Kat had already gone to bed, no doubt, and since Two-Bit more likely than not wasn't home yet, I wasn't going to have Aunt Kat wake up Kayla in the middle of the night just to come get me.  Same thing for Darry or Soda or Steve, they probably all had to work tomorrow.  I could always ask Dally since he was still here, I thought, but then my brain threw that idea back in my face.  No way was I asking him for a ride home, and that's aside from the fact he was already too drunk to drive decently.

I sighed and settled on waiting out the storm, so I went back to the bar and grabbed another soda, sitting a couple stools down from everyone else.

"Waiting for a ride from your boyfriend?" Chuck teased me.  He was still there, tending bar of course, but Denny and everyone else who had worked tonight had left a while ago.

"I don't have a boyfriend," I told him.  I noticed Dally glancing at me out of the corner of his eye.

"A nice girl like you?" Chuck questioned. 

"I have many," I said with a smirk, just because I knew Dally was listening.  Although pretty much everyone knew I didn't have a boyfriend considering the fact that everyone knew everything about everyone around here, obviously.

"Oh yeah?  What are their names?" Dally called across the bar to me.  He sounded surprisingly sober considering the amount of beer I'd seen him consume tonight, but a few of the other people at the bar, including Tim, exploded into raucous laughter.  Like I said, the drunks were entertaining.

"Screw, You, and Asshole," I answered, half-sarcastically.

"Sound like nice guys," Dally replied flatly.

"Hey now, don't go insulting my customers, it's bad for business," Chuck teased me.  He was like a fun uncle,  always teasing the younger kids that worked here, but nice enough and I liked him.

"Trust me, this one could use a few more insults once in a while," Tim slurred, waving a beer in Dally's direction.

"Watch where you spill that thing, Shepard," he remarked gruffly before turning to me and asking, "If you have so many boyfriends, how come none of them are here to pick you up?"

"First of all, I don't.  I thought you could tell what sarcasm is, but you must just be dumber than I gave you credit for.  And secondly, it's none of your business in the first place," I snapped defensively.

He downed the rest of his beer and slammed the mug back on the bar before standing up and commanding, "All right, let's go, Mick."

"Thanks, but no thanks," I told him.

"Two-Bit told me to give you a ride home once you were done cause he knew he was too plastered to do it himself.  Now let's go, unless you want to hang around here all night," Dally said.

I kind of doubted the truth of his statement, my cousin rarely seemed to think about the welfare of others, especially if he was drunk and there was a multitude of pretty girls around, but Dally had a point.  I really didn't want to wait around here all night, especially since now you could hear the rain splattering on the roof of the bar.  The storm must have picked up, and it was already bad before.  I'd like to get out of here before it got any worse, so I accepted his offer.

Not without muttering, "I'm going to regret this, aren't I," to myself as I shrugged on my jean jacket before following Dally out the door.

He had Buck's red T-bird again, and after a dash through the pounding rain, we both jumped inside and slammed the doors, soaking wet.  Dally started up the car and pulled out of the parking lot, thankfully not driving as fast as I'm sure he normally would because the weather was so bad.  The headlights did little to illuminate the dark wet night, and the rainwater streaming down the windshield faster than the wipers could keep up didn't help matters.

"So how long were you planning on keeping your new job a secret?" Dally asked in his usual uninterested dry tone after we were cruising down the road for a while.

"How long is it going to take you to realize it's none of your business?" I replied defiantly, noticing a set of headlights glaring through the dark.  I hoped they saw us, cause I could barely see them and they were almost right in front of us.

"Hey, don't get snappy.  Just making conversation," he answered, taking his hands off the wheel and holding them up defensively. 

Which was a very bad idea, because the car swerved on the wet pavement, and Dally overcorrected when he jerked it back onto the road, and in a flash of blinding light, the car slammed into something and spun off the road, sending my vision into a blur filled with nothing but blobs of shapes, loud grinding metal, and pure panic welling up inside me.  And a very large lump of hateful annoyance for Dallas Winston.