I Could Use Somebody

It was 7 o'clock and as usual, I was running late. I ran up to the Curtis's and Dally, Johnny and Pony were all standing there. I apologized and as I was talking, Dally walked right by me. I rolled my eyes and followed Pony and Johnny as they trailed behind Dallas, who insisted that he knew a short cut. We cut behind some building and were about to walk into an open field, when we ran into three kids, who couldn't have been older than seven or eight, sitting down on the grass playing cards. Dally stopped walking.

"Hey, did I say you kid's could play on my grass?" He pointed a finger at them. They didn't answer him, apart from the one little boy who shook his head. "Give me those cards." Dallas reached his hand out as the kids handed over their deck of playing cards. "You ever play 52 card pick up?" He asked, meaning for it to be a rhetorical question. All three of the boys responded "yes."

"What?" Dallas questioned, that stupid crooked smile appearing on his face. "Don't get wise. I don't like little kids, I don't like them, I just…" He threw their cards all over the ground. I pushed past him, disgusted with him for picking on little kids. I knew that these kids were from the North side and they were tough, and probably had older brothers who did stuff like this to them all the time, but I felt bad. I knelt down and started picking up their cards, stacking them on top of one and other. While I was doing this, Dallas walked away and muttered "stupid," as he passed by me. I smiled and handed the cards to the kids, then started walking with Pony, since Johnny followed right behind Dally. Probably because he didn't want Dal to get mad at him.

When we got there I reached into my pocket to pull out money, but I shoved it back in my pocket just as fast as I pulled it out. I remembered that I was with Dallas Winston. Even if he did have the money to get into the movie, which he probably did, he still wouldn't pay. Instead, we snuck around the side and crawled though a hole in the fence. We sat behind Cherry Valance and her friend Marcia Whats-Her-Face; I knew her, but I couldn't remember her last name. I was never really "friends" with Cherry or Marcia, but if I saw them in the hallway I had to talk to them like we've been best friends our whole lives: it was a Soc thing. I saw Dallas eyeing up Cherry the second we sat down. He elbowed Pony in the side before leaning forward.

“Are you a real red head?” He put his mouth near her ear. I started getting annoyed. Dally kept going and I could tell Cherry was getting mad. Every word he said to her pissed me off even more.

“How can I tell if this is your real red hair?” Before he even said it, I knew where he was going with this. “If this is the same red hair that you have on, uh, these eyebrows too...?” He leaned back in his chair and started laughing.

I got so mad I threw my head back and groaned. "Shut the fuck up, Dally." Usually, I would try to watch my mouth when I was in public, but he really pissed me off. I didn't want to see him hitting on another girl. He turned and faced me.

“I know you're not talkin' to me like that.” He snapped.

I got up and climbed over Johnny and Pony and attempted to climb over Dallas, but he stood up. “You got a problem?” He got close to my face so I put both of my hands on his chest and pushed him backwards. “Next time you wanna know if someone's hair color is the same hair color that they have on, uh, these eyebrows too...” I mimicked him and pointed to my eyebrows. “You can ask me.” I pushed past him and started walking towards the exit.

“I already know what color hair you have on your vagina!” He screamed. I stopped walking for a second without turning around, then just kept walking.

It was dark, and I knew I shouldn't be walking but I was cold and I wanted to go home. I was so close to my house when I heard someone say my name. I slid my hand into my pocket and held the blade that Dallas gave me last year. I could never use it, even if my life depended on it. I turned around and saw Tim Shepard.

“Thank God.” I took my hand out of my pocket. “What's up Tim?”

He wasn't in a good mood. “Where's your boyfriend?”

I cocked my head to the side. “Who?”

He sighed. “Don't play dumb, Nicole. Dallas. Where is he?”

I shook my head. “Boyfriend? That was over a year ago, Tim. And I don't know where he is.”

He started raising his voice. “I know he slashed my tires.”

I laughed, then stopped when I realized how mad he was. “Listen, Shepard I really don't know were Dallas is.”

His face softened. "Yeah, whatever."

"Catch ya later Tim." I turned around and continued walking back to my house.

"Hey, wait!" He called after me. "Why don't you come on over to my buddy's with me. He's having some people over. Should be fun."

I smiled at him. "Thanks but no thanks. I'm cold. Plus, Krysta told me to be home before she got home." That was a lie. She didn't care when I got home.

"Come on. It's only at Dylan's. You know him. I've seen you there before." I turned around and looked at my house, then started walking towards Tim.

"I'll come, but only for a little."

The whole way there I heard Tim go on about how he got in a fight with Dally last night and then he started talking about the Soc's. Tim was an alright guy. Maybe not to other people, but he's never given me a reason not like him. I did kinda feel awkward around him though...

"Yes? No?" I rubbed my arms because I was cold. I didn't realize Tim was still talking.

"What?"

He shoved a cigarette in my face. "No thanks, Shepard." He lit it for himself, then opened the door to Dylan's house. I could barely see because of all the smoke. I knew most of the people there. It was mostly guys from Shepard's gang. I was familiar with all of them but I tried to avoid them. More now than ever since I didn't really have anyone to protect me.

"You want a beer?" Tim asked, getting close to my ear so I could hear him over the music. I nodded and he walked away.

"You know," I heard a voice behind me. I turned around to see Bo, one of the guys in Shepard's gang, smiling down at me.

"I know what?" I asked, confused.

He took a sip of what smelled like straight whiskey. "You're not with Dally anymore."

I waited a second for him to finish talking but he didn't say anything. "Is that a question or...I don't know where you're going with this."

He laughed. "I'm tryin' to say that I don't have to be careful with what I say. Since you ain't with Ol' Dally anymore, he can't kill me for talkin' to you."

"Alright, that's great." I looked away for him, hoping that he would get the hint and walk away but of course, he kept going. Some other guy that I recognized from Shepard's gang was standing next to him now.

"No one really likes Dally anyway. Everyone's just scared of him. Did he like threaten you into dating him or somethin'? You're too good lookin' to be with that pussy." That pissed me off, but I just went along with it.

"Ugh totally. That's what he did." I said sarcastically. He turned so he was half facing his friend from the gang, before wrapping an arm around my waste and pulling me closer to him. I stiffened my arms, attempting to push him away from me. It was a failed attempt.

"Why don't you, me and my buddy here go on upstairs?" He asked, with that same crooked smirk that Dallas had.

"I would rather have every strand of hair pulled out of my head than go anywhere with you two shit heads." I stomped as hard as I could on Bo's foot.

The second I stepped down on his foot, I felt his hand hit my face. After that I only saw what happened with one eye, since I was holding the one that just got punched. I turned around and ran right into Tim.

"You alright, darlin'?" He asked, extending his arm so I would grab the beer. I grabbed it, then pushed by him. "Where the fuck are ya goin'?" He called after me. I ignored him and made my way out of the house and started walking home.

Every ten or fifteen steps I would stop and blink down hard and feel my eye to see if it was swollen. Again, I was almost home when I saw someone standing against a street light smoking a cigarette. I thought about turning around but there was no other way to get to my house and I was freezing my ass off. I put my hand in my pocket, gripping my switch blade as I got closer and closer to the figure standing under the street light. I was twenty feet away when I realized who was standing under the light. I took my hand out of my pocket and started walking faster, trying to get past him as quickly as possible.

“What are you doing?” I crossed my arms.

“Walking.”

He shook his head and started walking next to me. “I meant what are you doing walking alone, stupid?”

I pushed my hair in front of my eye so he couldn't see it. “I'm walking home from the movies.”

He stopped walking. “What are you talkin' about? You left the movies two hours ago. Where were you?”

I kept walking and didn't answer him so he grabbed my arm. “Can we keep walking? I'm freezing.”

He squinted and flicked away his cigarette. “What's that?”

I turned my head. “That's my eye.”

He grabbed my head and turned it back around. “Wise ass. What the fuck happened to you?”

“I ran into Shepard and...”

“Shepard did this to you? I'll fucking kill him...” He would've kept going on and on if I didn't cut him off.

“No, Dally. Shepard didn't do this. Don't be stupid. One of the guys in his gang did.” He didn't say anything, and from experience, I knew he wanted more of an answer. “He tried to get me to go upstairs with him. I wasn't into it and he got mad. That's it."

I could see how mad he was getting. “Dally, it's really not a big deal, I'm fine. Let it go.”I didn't want him to go running off, beating up the first guy he saw that was in Shepard's gang. "Wanna go get a drink? I asked. He nodded and turned around and we both started walking towards Buck Merrill's place. “Dally I wanna apologiz....” He cut me off.

“We're not talking until we're both drunk.”