Lost in The Outsiders

Chapter 3: The Power of "The Outsiders"

I opened the door to let my friends in. They had their books in their hands and smiles on their faces. We walked upstairs and into my room. Before we read "The Outsiders" we decided that we all would gossip first. I didn't mind at all, I know we would have enough time to read the book still.

Stina told us about a boy that lives in England, and about our personal stalker.

"I swear, he really needs some friends" Ava stated.

"I don't think he has anybody at all except us" Jordan mentioned.

"I mean I feel bad for the guy, but he really needs to face the facts that it's over. You ruined it for yourself, buddy." I said, annoyed with him.

We went on and on until my old boyfriend, Zach was brought up in the conversation.

"Are you guys dating or what?" Stina asked me.

"Not anymore," I replied.

"Why?" They asked in unison

"I was being ignored so I broke up with him" I said quietly.

They all looked up at me, with sympathetic expressions.

"I know he didn't care," I mentioned, "because it's been 2 days and he already found a new girlfriend that he said he would die for. And get this, he already kissed her." I rolled my eyes. I heard bad things about this girl. She's had so many boyfriends you could call her a girl-player. But of course, he didn't care about me, so why should I care about him?

I was pretty upset about it, but I brushed it off. We grabbed some snacks and some drinks and sat down on bean bags in my room, books in our hands.

"Let's get this party started!" I laughed, bringing in sparkling grape juice, pretending it was alcohol. We all laughed for a little and settled down.

We opened our books and I began reading the first page.

"When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman, and a ride home."

We all took turns reading pages of the book, getting more into it with every word we read. We came across the character descriptions. I decided that we all should pick somebody's character description to read.

"All right guys, pick a character" I said, after choosing the main character, Ponyboy Curtis. He seemed to be nice, and he was fragile and cute. I read a loud his character description.

"I have light-brown, almost-red hair and greenish-gray eyes. I wish they were more gray, because I hate most guys that have green eyes, but I have to be content with what I have. My hair is longer than a lot of boys wear theirs, squared off in back and long at the front and sides, but I am a greaser and most of my neighborhood rarely bothers to get a haircut. Besides, I look better with long hair."

I smiled. He sounded cuter with every word I said.

Stina chose Sodapop Curtis, bragging about how handsome he was and what not.

"Soda is handsomer than anyone else I know. Not like Darry--- Soda's movie-star kind of handsome, the kind that people stop on the street to watch go by. He's not as tall as Darry, and he's a little slimmer, but he has a finely drawn, sensitive face that somehow manages to be reckless and thoughtful at the same time. He's got dark-gold hair that he combs back--- long and silky and straight--- and in the summer the sun bleaches it to a shining wheat gold. His eyes are dark brown--- lively, dancing, recklessly laughing eyes that can be gentle and sympathetic one moment and blazing with anger the next. He has Dad's eyes, but Soda is one of a kind. He can get drunk in a drag race or dancing without ever getting near alcohol. In our neighborhood it's rare to find a kid who doesn't drink once in a while. But Soda never touches a drop--- he doesn't need to. He gets drunk on just plain living. And he understands everybody."

She raised her eyebrows and snapped her fingers. I just rolled my eyes.

Jordan went for the bad-boy, Dallas Winston.

"He had an elfish face, with high cheekbones and a pointed chin, small, sharp animal teeth, and ears like a lynx. His hair was almost white it was so blond, and he didn't like haircuts, or hair oil either, so it fell over his forehead in wisps and kicked out in the back in tufts and curled behind his ears and along the nape of his neck. His eyes were blue, blazing ice, cold with a hatred of the whole world. Dally had spent three years on the wild side of New York and had been arrested at the age of ten. He was tougher than the rest of us--- tougher, colder, meaner. The shade of difference that separates a greaser from a hood wasn't present in Dally. He was as wild as the boys in the downtown outfits, like Tim Shepard's gang."

I saw her eyes get wider as she read aloud Dallas' description, but she still admitted she liked the guy.

Ava chose Johnny Cade, whose description was last in the book.

"Johnny Cade was last and least. If you can picture a little dark puppy that has been kicked too many times and is lost in a crowd of strangers, you'll have Johnny. He was the youngest, next to me, smaller than the rest, with a slight build. He had big black eyes in a dark tanned face; his hair was jet-black and heavily greased and combed to the side, but it was so long that it fell in shaggy bangs across his forehead. He had a nervous, suspicious look in his eyes, and that beating he got from the Socs didn't help matters. He was the gang's pet, everyone's kid brother. His father was always beating him up, and his mother ignored him, except when she was hacked off at something, and then you could hear her yelling at him clear down at our house. I think he hated that worse than getting whipped. He would have run away a million times if we hadn't been there. If it hadn't been for the gang, Johnny would never have known what love and affection are."

The description killed all of our moods. Poor Johnny Cade. But we all continued reading. Once we finished the first chapter we stopped. I could tell they were loving the book, and we all wanted to read more. But then, everything seemed to go blank for a moment, and my vision blurred. I could still see my friends. I couldn't tell if they were shocked, or even if the same thing was happening to them. I called out their names and they all looked around at each other. Everyone's mouths were moving, trying to say something. I found myself very dizzy, and pain pounded in my head. Before I knew it, I had passed out, and didn't remember a thing after that.