Change of Heart

About fifteen minutes later, I stopped crying and the only remainder were the few tears that made silent tracks down my cheeks.

"Are you going to tell me what happened?" Darry asked softly, running a hand through my hair.

Sniffling once more, I went through the whole story, watching Darry's face turn from angry to downright furious at the end. "He kissed you?! Even after that whole thing...and you telling him that you were going out with me?!"

"Yeah..." I bit my lip nervously. Darry's eyes were furious. Thinking about it again, I was starting to have second thoughts about telling him anything...

"I can't believe him," Darry seethed. "He's going down."

"Stop." I grabbed his arm and pulled him back onto my bed so he was sitting, facing me. Taking a deep shuddered breath, I tried to calm him a little bit. "He's not worth it. Just...he's scum. I was upset, but I guess it wasn't that big of a deal. I guess I'm just close to my time of the month."

Darry raised an eyebrow at me like, 'Uh, little too much info,' but if he was ever going to have a girlfriend, he was going to have to get used to that sort of thing. "Are you sure? 'Cause I could squish his head like a grape."

"I'm positive," I laughed. Leaning in, I kissed him softly. "Thanks for looking out for me though."

"No problem," he whispered. Our faces were still close together, his hand cupped around the back of my neck..

Then, there was a knock, ruining the whole moment. "Is anyone in there...?" Soda's voice asked cautiously.

"Yeah," I breathed, pulling away from Darry and leaning my back against the opposite wall. "Come in if you want."

Soda stepped into the room, his hand firmly over his eyes. "Did I interrupt something?"

"No," Darry answered, shooting a look at me before wiping his hand across his cheek as a signal. I repeated his action and found a black streak on my hand. Good call.

"Anyway, I just wanted to see if it was okay if I hung out with Steve tonight."

"By hanging out," Darry went to confirm, "do you mean go to parties?"

"Of course not, Darry!" Soda exclaimed sarcastically. "We're going to stay at his house and have a tea party with his teddy bear Dexter and his dolly named Laura."

Darry hesitated for a second before saying, "That was a joke, right?"

"Even I got that it was sarcasm..." I trailed off, laughing a little. It sounded kind of shaky, and I wondered if Soda could tell that I was crying.

"Oh..." Darry cleared his throat before continuing in a slightly lower voice, "That's fine. Um...just make sure that you're home before midnight, okay?"

"Sure." Soda looked between the two of us, and then turned back into the hallway, shutting the door behind him.

"So you feeling better?" Darry whispered as he turned back to me.

"I'm fine. I just overreacted a little, I guess."

He hugged me and rubbed my upper arm before standing up and grinning. "Why don't we still go out for dinner?"

"It's kind of late now..." I observed, checking the clock that was hanging on the wall in front of me. "Why don't we just go out for ice cream and lie and say that we had dinner?"

"How rebellious," he laughed, taking my hand and standing up. I followed his lead, and we walked out into the hallway.

After seeming to come across a thought, Darry scampered around the house, checking in every room.

"Ummm...got a problem?" I questioned, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Just making sure that Soda didn't hear about our plan," Darry smirked. "Don't want to give the kid any ideas."

"Oh, you're so loving," I rolled my eyes.

"I try." A couple of seconds later, Darry was satisfied seeing that Soda was no longer in the house, and we got to leave.

We walked a few blocks to the nearest ice cream parlor.

***

A couple of days later, I was home with Ponyboy and Sammy, both of whom were having staring contests. Whenever Ponyboy lost, Sammy would mock him mercilessly. They were really a strange little couple, but whatever floated their boats.

The door flung open, and since I was so used to it, I didn't even look up from my book to see who it was. I just kind of figured it was Two-Bit.

"Hi, y'all," a voice greeted, and it certainly wasn't Two-Bit. Fury raged through me as I looked up to find Dally standing there.

"What gives you the nerve to come back here?!" I snapped without thinking, throwing my book down on the couch next to me and standing up so I looked slightly more formidable. It was a long shot, sure, but at least it was something.

"I always come here," Dally shot back, his eyes starting to blaze with temper. I knew that meant that he was getting dangerous, and Pony's warning glare confirmed it, but I didn't care.

"Well you shouldn't. I kind of live here temporarily, and I'd really like it if I never have to see your face again." Why was it that no matter how much I showed discontent toward him, he never got it? Did I have to spell it out with a skywriter that I hated his guts?

"You're such a baby. God, everything I do just upsets you and you go crying to Darry. Grow some skin!"

I glared at him angrily. "You're acting like everything that you're doing isn't worth getting upset over..."

"It's not! And if you're going around telling people that it is, you're just feeding them a bunch of shit."

"Oh, so asking to talk to me, then it turning out to be that you're jealous," his mouth opened to protest, but I kept talking so he didn't have a chance, "and want me to break up with Darry, and then you kissed me, that's not something to get angry about?!"

"No! You should just dump him and get back with me!"

"Get out," I ordered, my voice shaking with contempt. "Just leave."

Dally took a step toward me before Pony cleared his throat. Until that moment, I had totally forgotten that the kids were there... Oops.

After shooting me another angry glare, Dally finally followed my directions. He probably didn't want to fight in front of them either.

"So what happened between you and Dally...exactly...?" Sammy questioned, her eyes lingering at the door.

I explained before sighing and putting my head against the back of the couch. With all my being, I hoped that Dally would just disappear so my life wouldn't have so much friggin' drama. It was starting to get annoying.