Take Me Back to Where We Started

"You should wear jeans more often." He said as I got into the car.

"Jean wearing is not acceptable over here."

"Yeah, yeah. What do you wanna do? Go to the movies or something?"

"Drive so my Dad doesn't see you." He started driving. "And a movie? I thought maybe we would go beat people up or rob a bank or something. Isn't that what you do?" I started playing with the gum in my mouth. "Think of something fun to do." I told him.

"You wanna get drunk?" He asked me.

"There we go. That's the best question I've been asked all week!"

"What about when I asked you out?"

"You might not be better than alcohol." I joked. "Not yet, at least."

"We'll run over to Buck's and get a bottle, then we'll head over to the party."

"It's not at Buck's?"

"Nope."

We went to Buck's and Dally went in and grabbed a bottle of vodka. After that, we drove to God knows where and parked on the street in front of a beat up house. We passed the bottle back and forth a few times before going into the party.

We weren't even in the house for five minutes when Dally turned to me and said that he had to pee. "You alright by yourself?" He asked me. I nodded my head and told him to go.

"Hey!" I heard someone call from behind me. I turned around. "Up for any cherry popping tonight?" The guy asked me.

I started laughing. "I don't think so. Maybe another time. Tim, right?"

"Yeah. Where's Dal?" He asked me.

"Bathroom."

"You want a drink?"

I nodded my head and followed him over towards the keg. Some guys were talking about how someone just did a 15 second keg stand. I stopped. "15? Is that supposed to be good?" I asked them.

"What, you think you can do better?"

"I hold the record on the other…" I figured it was best not to mention that I wasn't from around here. "Yeah, I think I can do better than 15 seconds."

"Well," the guy said. "Let's see it." I put both hands on the keg and the two guys I was talking to grabbed my legs. Some other guy put the tap in my mouth, then yelled "Start counting!" I was at 32 seconds when I started shaking my legs, signaling for whoever was holding me to put me down. I used the back of my hand to wipe the beer off of my mouth.

"You gonna throw up? Those 32 seconds won't count if you yack." One of the guys said to me.

"Nope. I feel fine."

"Alright, alright. That was pretty bad ass."

I nodded my head, then said "Thanks."

"Guess you don't need this drink."

I turned around and saw Tim standing with a beer in both of his hands.

"What are you two doing?" Dally walked over to us.

"Well," Tim said. "I was going to get her a drink, but she just chugged 32 seconds worth of beer. So, I don't think she needs it."

Dally looked at me, then back at Tim.

"Keg stand." Tim said. He handed me the beer, then slapped me on the back. "Nice job, kid." He disappeared into the crowd.

"You sure you wanna drink that?" Dally asked me. "I just got my jacket back. I don't want you thrown' up all over it again."

I didn't drink too much the rest of the night, One, because of the keg stand, and Two, because Dally was drinking enough for the both of us. He was beyond wasted by 10:30. Dallas introduced me to some of his friends earlier in the night and I was sitting and talking to them. The one guy was telling me about how he got the scar under his eye when Dallas walked over.

"Stand up." He looked like he was about to fall over, so I stood up. Once I was standing he sat down in my chair, then pulled me onto his lap.

"There's another chair right there, ya know." I said to him.

"Stop bitching. You have the best seat in the house."

After another 10 minutes of listening to Dally's friends talk, Tim walked over and handed both me and Dallas a beer, then sat down to the right of us. "This kid," he slapped Dally on the back "was at a party a couple weeks ago and the cops showed up, right? They weren't tryin' to bust anyone or anything, just a noise complaint and they were clearing every one out of the house. But this guy decided to nail a cop right in the mouth and got himself thrown into the cooler over night. He's a real idiot, you know that right?"

I looked down at Dallas. "My dad?" I asked him.

He smiled. "I don't fuckin' know. They all look the same."

"Your Dad's a cop?" Tim asked me.

"He's a cop." I replied.

"What's his name?" Tim asked. All I got out was his first name, before Tim cut in and said "Harris."

I began to answer him when Dallas pushed me up off of his lap, then stood up. "Come on. I wanna take you somewhere." He grabbed my hand and started pulling me towards the door.

"Say hi to the old man for me!" Tim yelled from behind me.

"Is Tim a regular like you down at the station?" I asked Dally.

"Yeah," he said. "but no one is in there as much as I am." Even though I was walking behind him, I could hear him smile when he said that.

"And you're proud of that?" He didn't answer me, but I knew that he was extremely proud of himself for being the station's most frequent visitor. We were outside when Dally started shuffling around in his pockets. "The fuck are my keys?" He said to himself.

"You're not driving anywhere. You're wasted." I said to him.

"No, I can drive."

I grabbed his hand and took the keys from him. "I don't wanna die. Neither of us are driving."

"I wanna take you somewhere." He started walking so I followed him. "I shouldn't have taken those last three shots, huh?" He asked me.

"Yeah, I don't think it was a…" Before I could finish my sentence, Dallas hit the ground. "Why'd you fucking trip me?" He yelled.

I started laughing. "I didn't touch you. There was a curb, you idiot. Come here." I threw his arm over my shoulders and helped him walk.

"Can I tell you something?" He asked me.

"I would love to hear it, but for your own sake, you might not wanna say it."

"No, I wanna say it. I think you're fuckin' beautiful."

"Well, thank you. But you're extremely drunk so…" He cut me off.

"Shut the fuck up and let me finish. I think I like you a little too much."

"What do you mean 'a little too much'?"

He stopped walking, then took the necklace off of his neck and handed it to me. "Here."

"What's this?" I asked him.

"I want you to wear it."

"If I put this on, does this mean we're like boyfriend and girlfriend?" I joked, elbowing him in the side.

"That's usually what it means, yeah."

"How about you keep your necklace tonight, and tomorrow morning when you're not fucked up, you can give it to me then. Sound like a plan?" I helped him put the necklace back on.

"Yeah, yeah." Dallas pointed in front of us. "Right there, that's where we're going." I helped Dallas up the stairs and opened the front door.

"Anybody home?" He yelled.

"Right here. Why are you screaming?" Someone asked.

We walked into the house. There were six boys sitting in the living room, one I recognized.

"Hey!" Two Bit stood up, beer in hand.

"I want you guys to meet my girlfriend." Dallas said. I shook my head, then helped him over to the couch. I sat him down in between a dark haired boy and a boy with light brown hair.

"Girlfriend?" Two Bit asked.

"He made that up. He's pretty drunk."

"What's your name?" I heard someone ask.

"It's Nicole. I invited her to Buck's last week. Look's like Dal's got her now, though." Two Bit answered for me.

"Ponyboy, get up so Nicole can sit down over there." I recognized that voice. It took me a few seconds to realize that that was Darry Curtis, the guy me and my brother were talking about earlier. They used to be good friends.

"Oh, no. It's okay, really. I was actually gonna get going."

"No, you're staying with me. Pony, beat it." Dally slurred from the couch. I apologized to the boy Dally made move and I sat down next to him. He immediately threw his arm over my shoulders. He then started introducing me to everyone in the room.

"That stupid looking' guy in the Mickey t-shirt is Two Bit, but you already know that. The big one is Darry. You just met Ponyboy. Those two over there are Steve and Soda. And this…" He threw his arm around the boy next to him. "Is Johnny."

"Nice to meet you." I said to all of them.

"So, how do you know Dally?" Steve asked me.

"I'll answer for you." Two Bit said. "Well, ya see I asked her to go to Buck's with me and she couldn't handle her liquor and she ended up passing out on Dally's floor. I don't know what happened after that. Romantic, huh?"

"You live around here?" The same guy asked me.

"Nope. She lives in a big fuckin' house on the other side of town. You should see it." Dally said.

"You got yourself a Soc, Dal?" Soda asked.

"I'm not…I'm not with him. We were just hanging out."

"Shut the fuck up. You love me." Dally said.

"Love?" Two Bit asked.

I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know, apparently."

"It was nice meetin' you. I'm gonna call it a night." Darry said, standing up. "Pone, you got a lot to do tomorrow, you better get to sleep soon. You too Soda. I don't care what the rest of you do, but Johnny, if you're not stayin' here, you better not get home too late. I don't want you gettin' in any trouble."

"I'm about to head out if any of ya'll want a ride." Two Bit offered.

Both Steve and Johnny got up.

"If your parents give you any trouble, don't you go runnin' off to the lot. You come back here, you hear me?" Dally said to Johnny.

Johnny shoved his hands in his pocket. "Yeah, yeah. Alright, Dal."

"Since you and old Dally over there are in love, I'm sure I'll be seeing a lot more of you." Two Bit said to me.

"Where did this whole 'love' thing come from?" I asked him.

"Hey, Dal said it. Not me." Two Bit said walking out the door. Both Steve and Johnny followed him.

"So…" Dally whispered into my ear. "Everyone's gone."

I started laughing at him. "Yeah, including you. You're hammered, my friend."

"Drunk sex is the best sex, you know." He said. His mouth still close to my ear.

"Said who?"

"Shit, I don't know. Work with me here." He flopped back on the couch.

"You're too drunk. I wouldn't wanna take advantage of you."

"Please," he said smiling. "Take advantage of me. I won't stop you and I know I won't regret it in the morning." I felt his hand slide down towards the small of my back.

"Get up and walk in a straight line. If you can do it, drunk sex it is. If you can't, it's time for bed." I would never do anything with anyone on someone else's couch, especially when they were right down the hallway. The only reason I made that bet with him was because I knew he wouldn't be able to do it.

"What a fuckin' joke." He said as he pushed himself off of the couch. He spread his arms out to his sides to balance himself, then took his first step. He took another. After his first two steps, he looked up at me and raised his eyebrows and smiled. He took two more steps. Once he got to the couch, he turned around and started walking back the other way. "I told you this was a joke…" before he could finish his sentence I kicked the back of his knees and he hit the ground. "What the fuck are you doin'? You're lucky I'm this drunk or I would get up and clobber you."

I ignored his comment about "clobbering me." "I told you you couldn't do it."

"I'm sleeping here." Dallas said from the floor.

"That's fine." I said, getting comfortable on the couch.

"You're sleeping down here with me, aren't you?"

"I would love to, but I really don't think this couch should go to waste. Sorry."

"I wanna tell you about myself. Come down here so I can tell you all about the man, Dallas Winston."

I grabbed the blanket from the couch and laid on the floor next to Dally.

"I lived in New York for awhile. The first time I got arrested was when I was 10. I hate my old man as much as you hate yours. I've never killed anyone…well, wait" he paused, "…no, no. He didn't die; almost killing someone doesn't count. I treat Johnny like he's my little brother. He's the only thing that I've ever cared about. That's about it." Dally turned his head and looked at me.

"Well," he said, waiting for me to talk. "What about you?"

"Uh, I don't know. I've never lived in New York, I've never been arrested, I've…"

"C'mon. Seriously."

"Alright." I began, trying to think of what to say. "I've lived in the same house my whole life, we fight a lot, but my brother is the only person I really love, I guess. Other than my brother, being at home sucks most of the time. And I know it sounds dumb because I live in a nice house and really, anything I want, I get."

"So? Just because you live in a nice house don't mean that your life can't suck. Sorry, keep going."

"I don't know, that's really it. I'm not interesting."

"Yeah, you are. You know any Soc's that go on dates with people like me? I think that makes you interesting."

"I guess, but I think more of us Soc's should go on dates with people like you."

"Why don't you and your old man get along?" He asked me, changing the subject back to me.

"Shit, I don't know. We're a lot alike, and I hate admitting it, but we are. We're both stubborn and impatient and when we fight, we really fight. My Dad doesn't yell at my brother or my mom, just me. He won't say it, but he thinks i'm a fuck up. He always talks about how Paul did this, or Paul did that, and he's always comparing me to him, which pisses me off because I'm not Paul. He wants me to be just like my brother's girlfriend. If he could, he would probably kick my ass out and adopt her…"

"I don't wanna interrupt you, but if I fall asleep it's because I'm tired and all of the alcohol. You're not boring or anythin', so don't get offended if I pass out."

"I could just stop talking…"

"No. Keep talking."

So, I kept talking. First about my father, then about other things, like Paul's football scholarship, and the ugly dress that Caitlin wore the other day. Once I heard Dallas's breathing slow, I stopped. Somewhere in between thinking about my English paper that was due on Tuesday and Dallas, I fell asleep.