Savin' Me

After a while of me sitting there, I heard Ponyboy whisper, "Do you think she's alive?"

"I don't know," was Johnny's soft reply. There was a moment of silence before I felt something under my nose and Johnny said again, "No, she's breathing."

"Well, that's good... Zoe, are you alright?"

"Eh," I groaned. "I ate too much."

Finally, I got up and walked into the living room. My stomach was killing me, but it had lessened a little so I didn't have to sit there and complain.

"So what should we do?" Ponyboy asked as he sat down next to me. I was thankful that he was such a nice kid. If he had been like, 'Whoa, who is that chick?!' I probably would have cried. Maybe not cried, but it would have been uncomfortable.

"Um...I don't know," I smiled. "What do y'all do for fun?"

"Jump Socs," Pony bragged, flexing his muscles...or lack thereof.

I stared at him for a second with disbelief. "Uh huh... And I'm Cleopatra, queen of Egypt."

They laughed at my sarcasm, but it was all cut short when the door slammed open. The guy's eyes got real wide, and then a slow grin made its way across his face.

"Why hello," he introduced, taking my hand in his. "I'm Dallas Winston. And who might you be?"

Dallas was good-looking, but he had this unapproachable, bad boy quality about him that I could sense right off the bat. I could also tell that he was a player, and a dangerous one at that. Probably a serial dater. Or a serial sex addict.

His hair was kind of long, though not as long as Ponyboy's and Johnny's, and dark brown. His eyes were about the same color, and he was tall and stocky with a build, just not a great one.

"I'm Zoe," I smiled, being careful to show him that I wasn't interested. I withdrew my hand and clasped it with my other one.

He raised an eyebrow at me. "And why is it that we haven't been acquainted before now?"

"I don't usually hang around the jail," I replied, trying to resist the tugging at the corners of my mouth.

Ponyboy howled with laughter, but a single look from Dally shut him up. "Well, maybe you should. You can meet lots of interestin' people at jail."

"Your view of interesting and mine are different, I'm sure." I flicked my auburn hair behind my shoulder. I knew it looked like I was flirting, and that was exactly what I wanted him to think.

"Oh, I bet it's not so different." He sat down next to me, almost smushing Ponyboy in the process. His arm was around my shoulders, and he leaned close to my ear. "I could show you."

Okay, when the creep factor got turned up, I was out. I shoved him away from me and said, "Uh, no thanks."

"Why?" Dallas put on this offended face and looked at me, his eyes intense. "You could like what you see."

"Alright, that's enough, Dally," Ponyboy spoke up cautiously. So I guessed my thinking about Dally being dangerous was right. Why else would Pony seem scared as he spoke up?

"What did you say to me?" he seethed, turning around to face Pony.

"Hey," I butted in, grabbing Dally's arm. "Leave him alone."

He looked down angrily at my hand, which was grasping his brown leather jacket. My first instinct was to take my hand away and pull my sleeve over my wrist, nervous that he would see the scars there, but I fought it. It was clear that not even a bit of my wrist was showing.

"Why are you wearing a sweatshirt?" Dally asked finally, the fire leaving his eyes. I knew that he'd calmed down enough for me to pull my hand away. It didn't make any sense in retrospect, since I was definitely not strong enough to keep him from doing anything, but it was the thought that counted.

"Because I'm cold," I replied simply. I had gotten good at lying, and it was times like these that I was glad.

"It's, like, seventy-five degrees outside..." Dally trailed off, glancing out the window. I knew it was May and it was starting to get hot, but there was no way that I was going to stop wearing sweatshirts and long-sleeve shirts.

I shrugged. "I get cold easily, that's all."

Dally nodded. "All broads get cold easily. What's wrong with you?"

"Lots," I grinned. Crisis averted.

"You don't have to tell me that twice," he replied. "Anyway, I'm gonna bail, since this broad's not hot on me...yet." He winked suggestively, and I suppressed a real chill that was making its way up my spine. "Later."

"Bye, Dal'," Johnny replied, watching the guy go out the door. I raised an eyebrow at him, but didn't ask any questions. It wasn't my business.

"Sorry about him," Pony expressed, giving me a sheepish look. "He comes on a little strong."

Waving him off, I replied, "It's nothing. Greasers are always like that."

"He's a cool guy though," Johnny peeped up. I turned toward him and wondered again if there was something there. There weren't a lot of homosexual guys, or really any, but I guess in a part of town where there was such a dominant air of masculinity, there could be a guy here who wanted to enjoy the view...?

"Hey, Zoe. You wanna go for a walk?" Johnny's voice broke through the slightly uncomfortable silence.

"Uh, sure," I replied, shooting a look at Pony. Wouldn't he be lonely?

He shook his head, as if he sensed my question.

We walked outside and started down the street. My hands were firmly in my pockets. We weren't talking or anything, so, since I don't have too much of a verbal filter, I just burst out with the question that was plaguing my mind.

"Do you like Dally?"

Johnny looked at me questioningly. "Yeah... I mean, I look up to him a lot. He's kind of like the big brother that I never had, you know?"

I kept my glare on him, and he slowly seemed to cross over into the light of realization. "Oh...not like that. No." His face got real red. "Do I come off like that?"

"No, no," I objected. "Just, the way you were looking at him... It was admiration, and I guess that I just mistook that for liking him..."

There was a really awkward silence that settled between us. "Sorry. Forget I said anything."

Johnny surprised me by laughing. "It's okay. Don't worry about it. Friends aren't supposed to care about weird questions, right?"

Friends. I grinned as the word echoed through my head. He was right, I guess that was what we were. Since I was sixteen now, I never thought that I'd ever get another friend besides Lily.

And it could only go uphill from there.