The Outsiders

Chapter 21

"Dallas?" I asked, making sure he knew what he just asked.

"You heard me, Pony," he said as he looked down to me. "Be my girl."

I was scared for a moment when the thought of how he used to talk about Sylvia. He hated that chick and she was his girlfriend for a long time. He hated her after a while. Maybe it would be the same with us.

"What about Sylvia? She has to know you are alive," I said wondering what he was going to say about her.

"Who cares about her? She isn't you."

Okay, maybe he is just saying that. Then Johnny's small voice came into my head, "there is so much I haven't seen. I've never been out of our neighborhood." It got me thinking, you only live once.

"Sure, Dallas," I said. I do only live once and I want to live it up. Just like how Johnny never got to.

Dallas tightened his arms around me and spun me around. I narrowly missed the car we were near as my legs flung everywhere. I think this was the first time I've ever seen him truly happy. I've seen him with the devious, planning smile on his face, but I've never seen him with that smile on his face. He didn't look like a hood. He almost looked like a normal person. Not a greaser, or even a criminal; just a normal person who worked and lived and stayed away from everything criminal like. But Dallas wouldn't be like that...EVER.

"So, you wouldn't feel guilty if we kissed, would you?" Dallas asked.

Oh what he doesn't know. I've never really felt guilty for kissing him. I just felt guilty for kissing him and thinking about Johnny afterwards. But, when I am with Dallas, everything around me vanished. Maybe it was fate or destiny that he lived through the cops shooting him that night of the rumble.

I shook my head with a smile. "No, I wouldn't."

"Good," he said as he slipped his hand around my head and pulled me closer to him. "Because I really want to kiss you right now."

I giggled, something I haven't done since I saw Soda try on one of my skirts to make me smile when I had to stay in bed for a week. I've laughing since but never giggled.

Dallas smiled and kissed me. I wrapped my arms around him, running my fingers through his hair. Mark would hate this, I thought. Then, somehow the image of Darry or Two-Bit or even Steve catching me making out with Dallas. I've no idea what would happen to Steve even after what happened between him and I.

"What are you going to do now?" Dallas asked me as I looked at him.

I shrugged. "I don't know. I am pretty sure Cherry is going to want an update. She worries about me like a sister, you know?"

Dallas nodded. "Hard to believe I used to think she was a low life. Now she's your best friend."

"Yeah, things have changed a lot since you were last here."

Dallas smiled as he twisted a bit of my hair with his fingers. "Yeah, you're telling me."

I forgot the last time Dallas saw me was the night the rumble happened. He never knew I wanted to keep my hair the way it was after Johnny died and it was time to cut my hair again.

"Pony, we have to do something about your hair," Cherry said as she looked at it. It was still bleached some. The sun helped hide it some when summer came around. Still, you could see when it was last bleached and Johnny hacked away my one-length hair.

"Yeah?" I asked uneasily. Since I started hanging around her, things changed.

"Yeah," she said as she looked at it. "The bleach is coming out and split-ends don't really look that great on anyone."

"So?"

"So let Marcia and I treat you to a salon hair cut. I promise you can get anything you wanted," she said.

I was still uneasy about it when I said, "Yeah, sure."

As soon as school was let out the next day, I was dragged to the salon where Cherry adn Marcia get their hair done. They didn't tell me much. I didn't even dress like a soc would. I dressed like I would for school everyday. I looked like a greaser.

Before I knew it, I was sitting in a chair being spun around to face the mirror.

"Now, what do you want?"

I widened my eyes. I was against doing something Johnny did before. He bleached my hair and cut it for me. When I looked in the mirror, I looked like a soc. I didn't look like a greaser.

"I-I don't know," I managed out. There was a lump that grew in my chest.

"Charlette, her best friend cut her hair before he died," Cherry said for me when I couldn't. "Give her something even her best friend would be proud of."

"I have the perfect thing," she said excitedly. Then she turned to me. "How about we redefine the layers?"

"What?" Johnny gave me layers?

"Honey, trust me, you want layers."

After that, I got redefined the layers every time my hair was cut. Charlette cut all the split ends and re-layered everything. After she was done, it was like I was back at that church on Jay Mountain. I imagined that Johnny just did a better job because he wasn't scared of getting caught by the fuzz.

"You've changed a lot," Dallas said.

"Yeah, you've told me," I said. I wanted to tell him then that I loved Johnny, like I've wanted to so many times before. I just couldn't bring myself to do it, like the other times.

I stepped away from Dallas, wanting to get away to think. "Dallas, I'll see you later," I said as I tucked some hair behind my ear. "There is something I need to do."

"Alright, how about tonight we go to a movie?" he asked.

I smiled. "Sure." I stepped away from him more. "I'll see you tonight."

When Dallas smiled and waved when I did, I ran down the road, hoping I wasn't going to run into anymore people. I wanted to see someone in particular. I wanted to tell them everything that's happened.