Stay Gold

I woke up to the room spinning, feeling like a jackhammer was being plowed into my head. Everything hurts. My head, my body. I got enough strength to finally open my eyes. Everything was bright, it was blinding. My common sense was coming back to me and I realized that I wasn’t in my room at the Curtis household. I was in a strange place. I pulled the blanket that was covering me. I only had a bra on. I kept examining everything around me. Then it finally it me --

Dally. He was sound asleep beside me. Realizing I was practically nude, and the fact that he wasn’t wearing a shit, I came to a conclusion...an awful and disgusting conclusion.

“Wake up, you degenerate piece of shit!” I said, hitting Dally in the face repeatedly. Panicking, he immediately sprung up from the bed and grabbed the blade on the nightstand.

“Back the fuck up,” He warned, soon realizing it was me. “Elaine, what the fuck? What are you doing he-” He paused, looking just as baffled as I did. “What’s going on?” Dally was staring at my cleavage, like he was getting entertainment out of it. I was quick to cover it by pulling the blanket all the way up my chest.

“Shut up,” I hissed, glaring at him like he was the devil, “you wanna tell me what the H-E double hockey sticks happened last night?” I was shaking from being so upset. Dally jumped out of bed and ran over to the mirror near his dresser. He had hickeys all over him, and so did I.

“I’m not exactly sure...” He began, “But I think we had a good time last night.” He laughed, trying to lighten up the mood. I just glared at him. That was the last thing I wanted to do, laugh. I wanted to kill Dally Winston for this. I was half-tempted to.

“You’re an asshole, Dal.” I hurried to get my clothes back on. I refused to make eye contact with Dally. I was disgusted by his presence...I was disgusted with myself. “Gee, Darry is going to skin me alive for not coming home last night.” A lot was going through my head. I had just slept with Dallas Winston, I got blitzed out of my mind the night before, and now I was going to have Darry up my ass for not coming home. Lord knows what he’d do to Dally if he found out we fooled around.

“Sorry,” Dally bluntly said.

I glanced over at him, still having that disgusted look in my eyes. Somehow, my feelings changed. I mean, I was still madder than hell at the boy, but...I don’t know. You know that old saying, “Everything looks better when you’re drunk”? Well, that may have been the case last night. Oddly enough, I don’t think that was the case this morning, because Dally Winston was still good-looking; Even with his messed up hair.

“Do you remember anything that happened last night? Because it’s pretty damn obvious what we did last night...” And it was. That was the one-hundred percent truth. We had sex. From the looks of it, it was pretty rough too.

Dally turned away from me, almost like he was ashamed to take so much as a glance at me. “Well...”

“Well?” I snapped, “Spit it out!”

“I remember a good amount of what happened last night.”

That sure made me feel highly of him. Not. Dally knew what he was doing last night, completely in control of his actions. As to me, I had no idea what I was doing, or what was going on around me. I couldn’t say no. Dally took complete advantage of me. I had to admit, though -- I seen it coming.

“You were pretty good, too,” Dally said, somewhat smirking. Great, asshole enjoyed doing the dirty to me, too. I didn’t know whether I should still be pissed at him, or just laugh at the whole situation. It was so horrible, that it was actually funny. I grabbed my purse, making sure everything was still in there.

Money.

Blade.

Smokes.

Everything was there. I walked toward the door, glaring at Dally every now and then. “I better get outta here before I end your life and make it look like a drug overdose,” I said cooly. Dally followed me out the door, and back to the house.

“You crusin’ for a bruisin’, hood?” I growled, “I’ve had enough of your bullshit for one day.”

“You’re looking like a hood yourself, Elaine.”

“I’m sure as hell not like you.”

“And you’re sure as hell ain’t like anyone in the gang.”

“Good.”

It was these conversations I had with Dally that made me want him. Yes, want. As if last night wasn’t enough. The way he egged me on, it drove me crazy. Gave me chills up my spine.

I was surprised when Dally had walked me all the way back to the house, and was even more surprised when he came inside. I looked around -- no sign of Darry. That was a good sign.

“Phew,” I said wiping my forehead, “that could have been bad-”

“Where the hell have you been?” An all too-familiar voice snapped. It was Darry, and boy did he look angry! He came in from the backyard, muscles showing, looking ever so intimidating. I just stood there frozen, not knowing what to say.

“I found Elaine in the vacant lot this mornin’,” Dally said calmly, and surprisingly believable. “I heard word from someone that the socs’ tore up the lot. So, I went down there to check it out and found Elaine there, knocked out.”

Darry believed him, and I almost did there for a second; Then remembering what had happened only hours before. Darry kept his eyes on me, and I was terrified. I felt as if I were to make a simple move, he’d pounce and kill me right in the living room, in front of Dally. Thinking of that, I made the smart decision to not move an inch.

“Thanks for bringing her home, Dal.” Darry said, still eyeing me. “You on the other hand, little girl, you’re in for hell.”

I figured that much. I’d seen what he’d do to Ponyboy or Sodapop if they were ever bad. He didn’t hit ‘em or nothin’, but he still kept them in the house as punishment. Darry wasn’t the one to hit anyone unless they threatened him. I figured since I was living there, that he had every right to punish me like he did the boys. That, or kick me out. If he kicked me out, I wouldn’t know what to do or where to go. I’d probably be sleeping out on a park bench somewhere. Or worse -- back home. Nothing was worse than that. Not even sleeping around with scum of the earth like Dallas Winston.

Darry walked Dally out on the porch and they talked for a little bit. I was already feeling like a prisoner, and Darry was the warden. I had no idea what he was about to do, and that scared me a little. I knew it couldn’t be any worse than what Daddy did to me, though. At least...I hoped not.

“What the fuck goes through your head?” Darry shouted as he came back into the house, eyes narrowing toward me.

“I am so sorry-”

“That ain’t good enough!” He shouted even louder, cutting me off mid-sentence, “I was worried sick that the cops picked you up and shipped you back home.” There was disappointment in his voice. “Going out and drinking is one thing, but staying all night at god knows where is a different story. I oughta throw you out on your ass!”

Bam. There was my punishment, sealed in blood. My blood.

“So you’re kicking me out?” I asked, not-so-surprised.

Darry shook his head, “I couldn’t do that. Ponyboy would follow you like a lost puppy if I did that. But you sure as hell ain’t leavin’ this house for a while, girl.”

I just about started crying from happiness. I would have jumped for joy, but I’m certain that everything would start spinning again like it was earlier.

“For now,” He began, “go back to bed -- you look sickly. We’ll decide your fate later on.”

Not only did I feel sick, I looked sick. The worst of the worst was over, punishment-wise. Now I knew all I’d be hearing for a few days would be Darry bitchin’ and moanin’. Knowing I had ditched Pony last night, I feared what he would have to say to me.

I hurried into the bedroom and lay on the bed, bundled up like a caterpillar. It felt like I was only asleep a few minutes, when Ponyboy came into the room hollering.

“So you ran off with Dally last night?” He snapped. I threw the pillow over my head again, refusing to look at Ponyboy. “Oh, so you did...”

“Ponyboy, buzz off! What happened last night is none of your business. As a matter of fact, I don’t know what happened,” I said pausing for a second, remembering the story Dally had fed Darry. “I woke up at the lot. Dal found me there, since you’re ever so concerned.”

“I didn’t mean it like that, Elaine...you know that.” There he goes; Fumbling his words around.

“You’re incinerating that I slept with trash like Dallas Winston. I would never touch trash like him, ever!” I was lying right through my teeth. The thing was, each lie was becoming more believable.

“Don’t talk about Dal like that!” Ponyboy lashed back, “Don’t forget, I’m just like him, everyone is just like him. You’re the outsider here, Elaine. Remember that.” I had never heard Ponyboy so much step on a bug, let alone tell me off like that. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it, my only reaction was to fight back and defend myself.

“Suddenly I’m the bad guy here? Give me a fucking break! You’re treating me as if I’m some cheap, French whore. You’re the one always takin’ my side, why are you suddenly defending that scumbag friend of yours?” There was so stopping me at this point. I was ready to kill, eyes locked on my target: Ponyboy.

“You’re ridiculous, maybe I was wrong about you. You’re acting like a whor-” Before he could finish the nice words he was calling me, I gave him five across the face. That’s when Darry ran in.

He was livid. Mean. Almost certain that either me or Pony would be carried out in a body bag by the end of the day.

“I can’t sit down for two minutes without something happenin’?!” Darry snapped, stick-eyein’ the two of us. “Elaine, I can’t even begin to explain how pissed I am at you. You had no right to smack the kid!” He said, looking at the mark I had left on Ponyboy. “And Pony, you had no right to start harassing Elaine in the first place! Don’t you ever use your damn head?” The bitching turned over to Ponyboy, who soon stormed out of the house -- calling me every name in the book. I stood there, shocked. I didn’t even know that Ponyboy knew what those words meant.

My shaking had gotten so bad to the point where I was craving a cancer stick. Just my luck though, I didn’t have any. Ponyboy ran off with them. Everyone and everything was upsetting me. I wanted to curl up into a ball, cuss, and cry.

“I think I figured out your punishment,” Darry called out from behind me. I slowly turned around to look at him.

“You’re goin’ to school.”