The Outsiders: A Girl in the Gang

Chapter 9

        On Monday I walked in the house exactly fifteen minutes after school had let out at three to find Dally home from work.  I had tried my best to get home right away, thinking maybe Dally would let up on me if I did what he said, no matter how much it sucked to make myself actually listen to him.  Two-Bit had trapped me in the hallway though, refusing to let me pass until I participated in answering his lame knock-knock joke.  When he had tried to tell me another one though, I threatened to punch him until he let me pass.

        Dal was sprawled on the couch, watching T.V., a beer can in one hand and a lit Kool's cigarette in the other.  His clothes were rumbled and he looked disheveled, leading me to believe he hadn't gone to work today, sleeping off his hangover from last night.

        I snagged a Pepsi from the fridge, I either drank that or water and occasionally chocolate milk, and flopped down in the armchair.

        "Hey Dal.  Am I ungrounded yet?" I asked casually.  He hadn't really said anything about it since last Friday night, so I figured it couldn't hurt to ask.

        "Not yet," he replied, and it seemed like most of the alcohol was out of his system.  His speech wasn't slurred, and I don't think his breath smelled like liquor.  "Why?" he asked me, and I hesitated before replying.

        "Pony asked me if I could go to the movies with 'em Friday night."

        "Just him or the rest of the guys too?" Dally asked suspiciously.

        "Everyone else too, I think," I said.  From what I recalled of our conversation, he hadn't really specified.

        "On Friday you can go out," Dally said grudgingly, "but until then you're still grounded," he added.  Well, at least he was a little lenient.

        "All right," I said and then turned my attention to the show on T.V.  Even if he had said no, I would have gone anyways, so I don't know why I asked in the first place.

        Friday night at seven, I met Ponyboy at the corner of Pickett and Sutton.

        "Hi," I greeted him and then asked, "Isn't anyone else coming?"

        "Yeah," he said, looking sheepish, though I don't know why.  "Johnny'll meet us there, and Soda and Steve might come when they get off work," he said.

        We walked around town for a while, waiting for it to get dark cause we had two hours to wait till the movies started anyways.  I noticed a few people giving us funny looks, and I hoped they didn't think that anything was going on between Pony and I, because that was definitely not going to happen.  I shuddered at the thought, and Pony noticed.

        "You cold?" he asked.

        "No," I said, cause I wasn't.  It wasn't that cold out anyways, and I had my jean jacket on.

        We stopped at a gas station to get some ice cream, not the DX but one closer in town, near the drive-in theater.  There, we ran into Two-Bit.

        "Hey!  Look at the couple!" he shouted loudly, throwing his arms toward us as if to give us a group hug.

        "What?" I shouted and then turned away from Two-Bit.  His breath smelled strongly of beer, he'd definitely been drinking though it was still early in the evening.  Ponyboy's face was flushed red, especially his ears, and I wondered if maybe he had planned this to be a sort of date.  If I found out that that's what he had intended, I was gonna kill him. 

        I glared at Pony, who turned to Two-Bit and then said, "You're crazy!  And you've been drinking."

        "But-" Two-Bit said and then started laughing hysterically.  I hated being around drunk people, they acted like freaking idiots.  Some other guy that I didn't know came over to Two-Bit, and I headed for the door.  Whoever that was could deal with him, and as I pushed through the door and outside, I noticed Pony following. 

        "Well, you didn't seem to adamant to object to Two-Bit's 'couple' comment," I snarked at him.

        "What?" he asked.

        I rolled my eyes in disbelief and then repeated, "What Two-Bit said.  You didn't say anything.  If you think this is some kind of date, you're nuts. I'll go watch a movie by myself if you keep acting like that," I explained sternly.  I had no interest in being anything but friends with him and everyone else either.

        "No!" he shouted, appalled.  "Two-Bit's just drunk.  He always does stupid things like that when he drinks too much.  I didn't mean anything, I just-" he paused.  "I don't know.  Sorry, I just want to go see a movie.  And since you're still kind of new, I thought you might want to come," he apologized.

        I accepted it, though I was still slightly suspicious.  I brushed it off and then asked, "Three weeks is still new to you?"

        He laughed, and by then we were at the theater.