People Don't Change (Dally Winston)

Chapter 7

I've officially been living in Tulsa for a month now. I haven't seen Dally much though. I think he purposely avoids having a conversation with me.

~~~

I was sitting on the counter at the DX talking to Soda and Steve after school. Business today was unusually slow, so it didn't matter that I was there. About every half an hour or so, someone would come in and buy a candy bar or a coke or something, at which point I would have to find a new place to sit.

"So what's going on with you and Dally?" Soda asked, raising his eyebrows at me just like Two-Bit always did.

"What do you mean? We never speak to each other," I replied, somewhat sadly, looking down at my red converse.

"Yeah, but I always catch the two of you starin' at each other like you have something to say, but then you never say it," he stated.

"I don't have anything to say to him."

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Maybe. I don't know. Even if I did, he wouldn't talk to me," I sighed.

"What would you tell him if he would?" Soda asked.

"I guess I'd tell him that I missed him and didn't want our friendship to end this way," I answered, after giving the question some thought. Maybe I should try to talk to him. I mean, it's not like we can avoid having this conversation forever.

~~~

*Dally's POV*

Man, Jenny must be really mad at me. She hasn't had a real conversation with me in weeks, but at this point, I can't tell which one of us is avoiding the other.

I lie awake every night, thinking of ways to get her to talk. I can't keep being around someone who is constantly on the verge of screaming at me. I'm just worried about what she'll say.

I tell myself that she's just another girl, and that I shouldn't care this much about what happens between us. The problem is, none of it is true. She means more to me than I will ever admit. She was always there, unconditionally, as my friend.

Every night, this is the point my thoughts circle back to, before I force myself to fall asleep. Every night I tell myself that I will talk to her the next day, and every day, I avoid her.