The Outsiders: A Girl in the Gang

Chapter 14

        I tackled Dally from behind, knocking him to the ground only because I caught him off guard.  I was on top of him, sitting on his chest, about to bust his nose like I did to that Soc.

        But I hesitated just a second too long before swinging, and Dally caught my fist in his hand and then shoved me sideways off of him, shouting, 'What do you think you're doing?!"

        "Beating the crap out of you!" I screamed, jumping to my feet and tackling him again.

        Dally smashed into the fence, and then we were both on the ground, rolling around and wrestling.  I kept throwing punches and missing, Dally either blocked them or avoided them.  I hated that he was such a better fighter than me, but I was surprised he wasn't trying to punch me back.

        "Tara, stop!" Dally grunted as he rolled over, pinning me underneath him.

        "No!  It's about time you let me have my own life instead of controlling it," I said, grabbing his arm and twisting it in a direction it wasn't supposed to go.  He had no choice but to roll to the side or face a broken arm, and then I was back on top of him.

        "I'm not controlling it," he said, stopping to block a punch that I directed at his jawline before continuing, "I'm trying to keep you safe."

        "I don't need you to keep me safe, I can do it myself!" I shouted back, struggling as he pinned my arms to my sides.  It really sucked that my brother was so much stronger than me.

        "Tell that to the cop who dragged you down to the station," he grunted, avoiding a kick at his stomach from me.

        But I managed to wiggle out from underneath my brother and I had one of his arms immobilized by my knee digging into the inside of his elbow, and I was about to give him a black eye when two other people dragged me off.  Soda and Steve had my arms held behind my back, one of them was yelling at me to knock it off, and I saw Pony and Johnny asking Dally what happened.  He was on his feet, panting, but made no move to slug me.

        "You need to stop this, Tara.  You can't haul off and slug someone every time they make you mad," Dally said loudly.

        "And why not?  You do the same damn thing, Dallas.  You were mad at me and then you slapped Ponyboy for no reason.  He didn't even do anything!" I replied.  I was yelling, but I had stopped struggling and Soda and Steve had released my arms.

        "I outta slap you, too, for talking like that and never listening to me.  I told you I didn't want you talking to Pony, but you didn't listen!" he yelled at me.

        I saw Ponyboy's cheeks flame red, he probably thought it was all his fault anyways.  I didn't think it was, but Dally would probably blame him.  Everyone else was staring in shock, not daring to say anything.

        "And why can't I talk to him?  You are so controlling my life, telling me who I can and can't be friends with and who I can talk to.  I've told you a million times before, I can take care fo myself, Dallas Winston.  I know what's good for me better than you or anyone else can, so leave me alone and leave my friends out of it!" I shouted at Dally.

        We just stood there, glaring at each other, breathing heavily.  I had nothing to say to him or anyone else, I wasn't going to deal with my damn brother anymore.  I walked down the sidewalk, shoving my way past Dally and Johnny who was next to him.

        When they were all out of sight, I began running.  I don't know where I was going, but away from all the anger brewing inside of me was a good place to start.  I kept running, I have no idea where I was, but I ended up at the abandoned lot near our house.

        I wasn't planning on going home anytime soon, but I didn't feel like talking to anyone or being seen by anyone sitting in the middle of the lot either.  I climbed up as high as I could in one of the large trees in the lot and began ripping leaves off the tree, shredding them to pieces and letting the green bits rain down below.  I felt like staying up there forever, high above the rest of the world and away from Dally and Pony and all the other guys and my worries of what who would say whenever I did something.