Grease and Switchblades~ Book 1

My One and Only

     I woke up that morning and immediately walked outside. I left my cigarettes in the backyard, so I just grabbed one and lit the match. I inhaled deeply, and held it in for a couple seconds. I exhaled, I thought about Pony. I thought about all of the good times we've had. I want to stay here, but I can not impose on them any longer. I have to do something.
     I finished my cigarette, got up, walked inside, packed my stuff without waking Ponyboy, and left. I walked to Steve's house not knowing what I was doing. I hesitated to knock on the door. I decided I would, I then put my fist up and made the knocking motion. The weird thing was that I couldn't reach the door, because somebody had already opened it.
     "Steve?" I said with my voice cracking. "What're you doing here?" Steve asked. He seemed worried about me. "Why are you crying?" I hadn't even noticed I was. "Um, I just..." I said. "I need to go away for a little bit. All fo the stuff with my parents, I-I, um, I just need to take a little bit of time to get away." I said this not knowing where I was going to go. "Well, let me come with you." Steve said. "No... no. I just need to take some time alone." I said walking down the steps. "I love you, I don't know when I'll be back, so don't tell Ponyboy I'm gone. I'll figure it out once I get there." I said. "Be careful, Elizabeth, I love you." Steve said. "I will."
     I walked down the street, still slow because of my crutches. I walked for hours. I finally stopped at a gas station sign. I walked inside knowing I didn't have money. "Hello." The cashier said. "Hi." I had not realized how sad my voice sounded. I slowly walked to the snack aisle. I skimmed through a couple and shoved one in my sweatshirt pocket. The cashier hadn't realized, so I went to the counter and asked for a pack of smokes and matches. He gave them to me, "Thanks." I said. I looked in my pockets and to my surprise I had money. I gave him some for the cigarettes, but kept my snack in my pocket. I got out of there as quick as I could with my lousy leg.
     I walked some more. I realized I had no idea where I was going, so I started walking back. I remembered Pony telling my that Dally lived at the bar with Buck. I walked towards the bar. I finally got there and knocked on the door. It was the middle of the day, so there wasn't a party. Buck came out confused. "Heya Buck." I said this nervously. "Uhhhh, what are you doing here, Elizabeth?" He said. "Well, I, uh, ran off..." I said it kind of regretting my words. "Get inside, kid." We walked inside and he sat me down at the bar. He grabbed a cup and put some water in it. "Thanks." I said trying to get up on the stool without hurting my leg.
     "So, why'd you run away?" He said filling a drink for himself. I grabbed a cigarette out of my pocket and a match. "Well, I couldn't deal with it. I didn't want to impose on Pony or Steve anymore than I had. Which is kind of ironic because that's what I'm doing to you. Can I stay here? I'll ask Dallas if I can sleep on the floor if that's any better." I said. "Yeah, yeah, you can sleep here. Dally is upstairs if you wanna talk to him." Buck said. "Thanks." I said as I slowly got down off the stool and back to my crutches.
     It was hard to walk up the stairs, but I did it. I got to Dally's door and knocked twice. I waited for a second, and then knocked again. "Dally is probably sleeping." I mumbled to myself. The door opened quickly. "What do you want?" Dallas said with a mean voice. "Sorry, Dallas. I was just looking for a place to stay." I said this walking slowly back to the stairs. "It's fine. Come here." He said. "Ok." I walked into the room and looked at it up and down. It was small, but it would do. "So, uh, why are you here again?" Dally asked. "Well, I didn't want to keep bothering Pony and Steve anymore. Plus I'm having problems with my parents." I was looking down at my feet because I didn't want to confront Dallas. "Yeah, whatever, other people have it bad, too." He said. "Right. I'll just leave. You don't need me occupying any more space."
     I turned around as he put his hand on my shoulder. "Stop. I'm sorry I didn't mean that. You can stay here. Let me just, uh, make up the bed." He walked over to the bed and pulled the sheets up to the top. "Thank you." I sat on the bed after he did and I looked at my feet yet again. "Steve is gonna call about you." He said. "Yeah, I know. I just needed some time away." He looked at me with big eyes and leaned in. "What are you doing?" I asked scooting away. "Just tryin' to kiss you." He shrugged. "I'm with Pony." I said straightening myself up again. "Oh, I didn't realize." I nodded, "It's alright." He looked at me again and then back away.
     We sat in the bed for a couple more minutes talking about how I smoke and how Dallas started smoking, and shoplifting. I realized I still had the candy bar in my pocket. I grabbed it and split it in half. "Here." I said handing the other half to Dally. "Thanks, kid." We ate the candy bar, then we stood up and walked out. We got downstairs and Buck looked at the two of us. "What're you guys doing today?" He asked. "I don't know, probably just walk around or something." Dallas and I walked to the door and he opened it for me. "Thanks." I said ducking under his arm. "No problem."
     We walked out and had not spoken about me staying with him, or his failed kiss. We just kept walking. I was looking down at my feet making sure I wouldn't trip on anything. I heard a stern voice say, "Give me whatever you have." I looked up and immediately knew something was completely wrong. The tall man had a gun pointed at Dallas. "I told you once. Give me everything." He said again. Dallas reached down his pocket then pulled out a couple of crumpled up dollar bills. "This is all I have." Dallas said. "Fine. You?" He asked. "I don't got nothin'." I said. "What's in your pockets?" I reached into my pockets and found my cigarettes. I pulled them out and showed him that that was all I had. "Really? You can't have anything? Well, I guess I'll just have to hurt your friend here." Dallas looked at him with huge eyes. Before I could stop the man, he shot Dallas. I looked at him with a pale expression.
     "Why? Why did you have to do this?" I screamed as the man ran away. I screamed for help when someone finally saw me. "I'll call the ambulance." They said. They ran back inside and came back out quickly. "I'm a doctor." They said. "Oh good. What do we do?" I asked. He explained all the steps as I did them. The ambulance pulled up, got a stretcher out, and put Dallas on it. They wheeled him inside the ambulance. They told me I could come with him and I did. I sat by his side in the back of the ambulance. I grasped his hand tight. Even though I had only known him for a short amount of time, I could not lose him.
     We got to the hospital. "You get out first and stand off to the side." I did as they told me. I walked behind them until they told me to stop and stay put. I waited for about half an hour when Darry, Soda, and Pony showed up. "Where were you?" They asked. "I just needed some time to think, that's all. But I went to Dallas and we took a walk... and..." I couldn't finish the rest. I broke down crying as Pony held me up in his arms. "It's ok. Dally is gonna be fine. He always is." He looked down at me still crying. "Ok." We all sat down in the waiting room for about another hour and a half. I had cried twice since the first time. I was so worried about Dallas not making it. I have no idea what I would do if he can't make it through this.
     A doctor walked out and looked me straight in the eyes. "Dallas Winston is going to be ok. We took the bullet out, and now all he has to do is recover." We all jumped up and hugged each other. "Great! When can we see him?" I asked. "You can go see Mr. Winston now if you would like."  We followed him to the room where Dallas was sleeping. "Hey Dally." The boys said in unison. I just stood there in the doorway shocked. "What's wrong?" Dally asked. "I-I just, It's hard to see you in a hospital bed." I said walking to him. "Yeah I know. I'm ok though. Hey, Pony. You gotta smoke, man?" He said. Pony reached into his pocket to grab one out. "Can I get one too, Pony?" Darry and Soda looked at me surprised. "What? Didn't know I smoke?" They laughed. The doctor came in, "So, Dallas, you're free to go in about a week. We just need to make sure you're all good." We all looked at the doctor. "Ok, thanks." Dallas said. We visited him every day that week, then we took him home.