The Outsiders: A Girl in the Gang

Chapter 2

        Through a dim, reddish haze, I could see four guys coming closer, their figures blurry though they drew nearer.  I closed my eyes, opening them again when I could actually hear their footsteps and the quiet murmur of their voices.  The footsteps stopped.

        Please don't notice me, please don't notice me, I pleaded silently in my brain.  Let me suffer by myself, let me drift into a dreamless sleep and never move again.  No such luck.  A foot nudged my arm.

        "Hey, you all right kid?" a voice asked, sounding far away like I was underwater and someone was talking at the surface.

        I just moaned, not able to make myself form words.  I wanted to get up and run away and stay there forever and never move again at the same time.  The foot nudged me again.

        "Hey, are you okay?"

        A different voice said, "She looks pretty bad."

        "Bad?" a third voice almost squeaked.  Whoever that was probably had probably never seen all the blood that was currently running into my eyes at once. 

        "She looks like she's dead!"

        The fourth voice, though, was one that I recognized.

        "We've gotta take her to a hospital or something.  She looks really pale."

        It was That Kid.  You know, the one from my English class that couldn't stop staring at me.  I have no idea how I recognized that voice, but I did, for sure.

        And now I really wanted to get up and run away, and if my aching, beaten body would allow me, that's exactly what I was going to do.  I groaned loudly as I tried to get up, my body hurting so much all at once that I couldn't even pinpoint where the pain was coming from.  Hands were pulling me to my feet, and the minute I was up even though I wanted to cry cause the pain was so unbearable, I tried pulling away to stand on my own, so I could get out of here.

        "Calm down.  We're not gonna hurt you. Whoever did that isn't even here anymore," a soothing voice said.

        But I wasn't placated.  I wasn't some defenseless baby animal, a damsel in distress.  I could take care of myself, that much I knew for sure, if my brother had taught me anything.  I yanked my arms away, ignoring the pain.  I furiously wiped blood out of my eyes so I could see.

        Everything was swaying, but if I stayed perfectly still, it stopped and I could focus on the four faces looking back at me, showing a mix of emotions.  Worry, horror, disgust, surprise.  I must've been quite a sight, blood, bruises, and dirt all over me.

        Of the four guys, I recognized two of them.  One of them was That Kid, the other was his friend from school with the long black hair. He looked extremely pale faced and I wondered if it had anything to do with the scar on his face that ran from his temple to his cheekbone that I had just noticed now.

        One of the other two looked kind of like That Kid, but a little older and his hair was darker.  The other one had dark brown hair that was combed in a bunch of complicated swirls.

        I turned away from them,towards the direction of my house, I think.  I couldn't really tell, my sense of direction was all mixed-up, but I started walking anyways.  Or at least tried.  The minute I took a step, my legs buckled, and I would have collapsed on the pavement if it weren't for two of them, the older two that I didn't recognize, catching me.

        "We better take her to a hospital or something," I was barely able to make out one of them saying as my brain shut down, needing rest.  I forced it to turn on again, snapping awake as dread knotted in my gut.