medicine. dallas winston - the outsiders

13

THE THIRTEENTH CHAPTER ;
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Dallas scooted over so that he was against the wall. I sat beside of him slowly, raising an eyebrow. We looked around and there was no one in here beside the young man working. Hardly any Greaser comes to hang out here during the day time, so we really had the place to ourselves.

"I can read it out loud.." I say softly, looking up at him. He was chewing on the inside of his cheek before he just nodded at me.

I opened up to the first page and softly began reading the words. My stomach had many butterflies in them. I could hardly focus on the words, I just nonchalantly read that as my mind was swarming.

Dallas Winston was letting me read to him. The toughest, hardest, Greaser around was interested in a book, openly admitted he couldn't read well, and was letting me read it to him.

Before I knew it; his arm was around my shoulders. I turned my body slightly and leaned against him, settling comfortably under his arm. He was staring intently at the words I was reading, trying to follow along the best that I could.

The chapters were fairly short, so we got through the first two of them quickly. Then, the bell signaling customers rang, and he quickly pushed me off of him a bit. He kept his arm around my shoulders, though.

I was confused at first but eventually understood. More Greasers were now in the building and he didn't wanna embarrass himself. I didn't plan on telling him that, though.

"You tell the guys about this an' I'll skin ya, but, later we gotta finish this story, man." His eyes dripped with curiosity and excitement. He liked the book, alright.

"I think that one lil' guy was full of it, he didn't see no beast." He was speaking so only I could hear, but the fact that he still wanted to talk about the book was enough for me.

I smiled slightly and shrugged my shoulders. "You'll have to see, Dal."

"So you liked it?" I inquired, looking up at him. I leaned into his side a little bit more because he didn't seem to mind.

"Yeah..It's got me interested." He glanced around and I felt his body stiffen. I look up at him and then in the direction he was now staring. Two Greasers that I didn't recognize were now staring at us, with smirks on their faces. Well, one of them looked familiar after a few moments, and I finally realized who it was. It was the boy that reminded me of an alley cat.

"Dallas.." He declared, strutting over to our table. The boy with him looked a lot like him, and he stayed behind.

"Shepherd, man. What's up, man?" Dallas said. He didn't seem nervous, nothing of the sorts. His eyes darkened, though.

"I've been lookin' for ya, ol buddy." Tim Shepherd smirked. I observed the scar on his face for a moment until he looked down at me. "Hello, Rosie."

The way he said my name gave me an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. I knew something was about to go down.

"Yeah, I've heard. But, look, man, can't ya see I'm kinda busy?" Dallas pulled me a bit closer to him, almost like he would be ready to pull me behind him if Tim decided to pounce. I was beginning to get scared.

"I don't care." Tim narrowed his eyes. "You stole from me."

Dallas smirked, while rolling his eyes. "I took a couple bottles of whiskey from ya, so what?"

I couldn't help but think for a moment about what the big deal truly was. I thought they were somewhat buddies, at least that's what Two-Bit told me. They buddy around but can get into some serious altercations. Then, I thought about how Greasers like Tim Shepherd were even worse off than the ones in my neighborhood, and anything that they had was theirs and valuable. Even simple booze. I'd be angry too, I guess.

Dallas stood up, and his eyes narrowed. Tim's darkened, and the boy that was with Tim was progressively getting closer. I felt Dallas push me back, but I stood up with him. "D-Dal.." My mind was swarming, and I was getting really scared. I knew what Dallas was capable of, and i've heard how Tim Shepherd plays sometimes..

"Hey, take it outside, you two!" The waiter yelled from behind the counter. At first, he was ignored. "Do it or I'm callin' the cops!"

Tim and Dallas both made their way outside. I kept Dallas' jacket around my shoulders and held onto it tightly, almost for dear life. The worst scenarios began playing out in my mind. I stood there, frozen, staring outside of the window.

For one moment I thought about how Dallas is probably thankful he gave me his jacket. They mess up swinging ability. Tim still had one on, but he looked like he had zero fear.

Suddenly, my body jolted out the door. This didn't need to happen. I had to stop it.

I don't know why I was so adamant about stopping Dallas from getting into this fight. I've heard that he's been in plenty of them. I just never liked fighting. Maybe a part of me was remembering the time he saved me from the Socs, and this could be the way I repay him.

"Dally, stop!" I yell, going towards him. The boys were in each-other's faces, yelling curses, insults, and accusations.

A weird feeling came over me when I saw Tim's fist rear back, because I jumped right in front of Dallas to stop the blow.