Grease and Switchblades~ Book 1

Things Really are Rough all Over

     The hardest part of being a greaser girl was being taunted by socs. Luckily I have Pony and the gang to protect me. I haven't seen Dally in days, or Steve. I was mad at both of them. Steve still thought Ponyboy was going to cheat, which I knew he never would. We still talk about how we are going to get married someday.
     Today was the day I get my cast off. Pony said he would walk with me to the doctor to get it taken off. We started walking, "I hate Dallas Winston." I said. "Yeah, me too." We were silent for another couple of minutes. "You know, without you in my life, I would have become one of those mean kids, like Dallas. I would probably be getting in trouble all the time. I could've been taken away from my brothers by now." Pony said. "Well, I'm glad I'm here." I said. "I love you." Pony said. "I love you, too." I said.
     We got to the doctor, walked in, and waited. It took about forty-five minutes until the doctor came out and asked for me. We walked into the room where they had something that looked like a small saw that they cut the cast off with. The doctor took the boot and wrapped it around my leg. "Alright, this should last another week." He said. "Oh, good." I said. I did not have to use the crutches anymore, and it felt a lot different.
     I walked out of the building feeling a whole lot better. "How's it feel?" Pony asked. "Feels great." I said. I could finally grab cigarettes out of my pocket without stopping. I could finally hug Ponyboy without him holding me up. It felt absolutely amazing. We walked back to the Curtis house and as I walked in I saw Steve. I walked straight past him to the bathroom. "I don't want to see him." I whispered to Pony. "Ok." He said. I still haven't told Pony what he had said. I never felt that it was the right time. Pony walked out of the room and to Steve. I peered out the bathroom door to watch.
     "You have to go." Pony said. "Yeah? Why should I, big man?" I could tell Pony was furious, even though I couldn't see his face. "Because, I don't know what you said, and I don't need to know, but you hurt Elizabeth. Nobody hurts Elizabeth. Get out." Pony demanded. "Oh, that? Yeah, I told her you liked that Cherry girl. That you were gonna date her." Steve said. "I would never." Pony replied angrily. Steve stormed out of the house. I walked out of the bathroom as fast as I could to Pony. "Thank you." I said. "No problem." Pony walked to the kitchen annoyed. I decided to sit back on the couch.
     I sat down trying to comprehend all of the things that have happened. First my parents kick me out, then Dallas gets turned on, then my own brother hates me. "What are we gonna do, Pony?" I asked. "I dunno. I'll go and try to talk to Dally later. Maybe he'll be nicer. I still don't know about your brother though." He waited a couple seconds, "You know I would never date anyone else but you right?" He asked. "Of course, Mr. Curtis, someday." I said. "I love you, Mrs. Curtis, someday." He said.
     We both sat on the couch. I lied my head on his shoulder and we held hands. "You know, we should really read my favorite book together." He said. "Oh yeah? What's that?" I asked already knowing the answer. He just smiled. We sat there for another couple minutes. Later on we went back outside and watched the rest of the gang play football. We sat on the bench, just like we had the couch.
     I was so tired that I finally lied down Pony's lap. My eyes were closed, but I could tell he was looking at me. I looked up at him and his beautiful eyes. He looked down at me smiling. I giggled a little bit thinking about how beautiful he looked. "You got yourself a good girl there, Pony." Two-Bit said. "Obviously." Pony said. He looked back down at me, I smiled then got back up to a seated position. All of the boys decided to come in and sit down on the couches. "What was that about anyways?" I heard. "Yeah, why are you so mad at Steve?" The boys asked.
     "Well, Steve said some things. Some mean things about Pony. He didn't need to say those things and it made me angry." The boys stopped watching cartoons and stared at me, "What did he say?" Soda asked. I hesitated to answer. "He just said something about a girl named Cherry." I said. "Oh! Cherry!" Two-Bit said. "Yeah, Cherry. Why? Do you know her?" I asked. "Uh, yeah she's a soc and she loves Pony." Two-Bit said. I got nervous, really nervous. I looked over to Pony, his face was bright red. He was not smiling at all though, he seemed frustrated. He stood up and walked away to the bathroom. I followed behind him to make sure he was alright. "Pony?" I knocked on the door. "I don't wanna talk, Elizabeth." I started to wonder if he actually did like Cherry. "Fine." I said a little annoyed. I walked back to the couches and sat.
      "I'm sorry, Elizabeth. I didn't mean anything by it." Two-Bit said. "It's not that you said it. It's that I think Ponyboy actually does like her." I said looking down and fidgeting with my fingers. "You know that's not true. Pony really likes you." Soda said. "Yeah, I know." I said. They went back to watching their cartoons. I heard them talking about Soda having to sleep with Darry for the past couple of weeks, "Wait, what?" I asked. Soda turned to me, "Uh, I mean, it's fine." He said. "If you have to sleep with Darry I can leave, Soda." I said. "No, I can't do that to you or Pony." He said. "Yeah, yeah. You're going back to your own bed." I said. I figured that if Pony was going to lock himself in the bathroom that I would go over and talk to Dallas and Steve like he was going to.
     I told the boys that I had to go to pick up some smokes, which they believed. I walked out of the Curtis house. It took me about ten minutes to walk to the bar where Dally was. I got there and talked to Buck for a couple of minutes. "You got your cast off!" He said. "Yeah I did. I only got this stupid boot for another couple days." I said. I talked to him some more until Dallas came down the stairs. "What're you doing here?" He asked. It was hard for me to get words out. I just stood there, eyes wide, and not blinking. "Are ya gonna talk?" He asked. I snapped out of my haze annoyed.
     "I'm trying to say I'm sorry for what Pony did to you. You were just being such a jerk." I said. He looked at me a little taken back. "Yeah, I know." He said. "What?" Buck said loudly. "What?" I asked. "Dallas Winston just admitted to doing something wrong." He said. "Yeah. I guess I did." Dally said. Dallas agreed to walk me over to Steve to talk to him. The walk was awkward because we had just forgiven each other for the fight. We finally got to Steve's house. I knew full well that Steve was going to act mean.
      I walked up to the door and knocked. Steve opened the door, realized it was me, and tried to close it in my face. I stopped the door right before it closed, "Steve, I just wanna talk to you." I said. "I'm not in the mood." He said. I walked in anyway with Dallas behind me. I felt like Dally was there to protect me just in case Steve got violent, yelled at me, or anything of the sort. Steve angrily sat on the couch realizing I had walked in. "Listen, I don't want to fight anymore." He wouldn't even look at me. "Please, look at me." I said. "I don't want to talk to you. Get out of this house. Now!" He demanded. "Fine." I yelled. I stormed out of the house with Dallas behind me and we walked all the way to the Curtis house. I had never been so angry before. Not with Dally, not my parents, just now.