Lose Your Mind-A Dallas Winston Fanfiction

The Becoming

Explosions are not comfortable.-Yevgeny Zamyatin

I was feeling awful sick about the situation by the next day. I couldn't get Bryon out of my head. Something about him just stuck with me. I wish I would have gotten to the hospital and seen that Byron was just some terrible kid, but he wasn't. I think I would have liked him if I ever got to know him.

I had seen Curly around and I knew he was planning something. He kept showing up outside my house uninvited. I didn't know what he wanted. I warned Mark about him, but he didn't even bat an eyelash. He just told me to stick around after sundown.

I headed back to the Curtis's to check on Dallas, but when I was there so was someone else who I wasn't planning on seeing. At first I didn't know who he was until Dally said his name. I nearly ducked out of the room when I found out it was Tim Shepard. Tim was real cool looking. You could tell he knew his way around and he walked the streets  mean. He had his hair slicked back too, and steely grey eyes. A deep scar ran itself underneath his left eye and I could tell he meant business. I knew him and Dally hung out sometime, but I didn't know they were close or anything.

"Come on over here." Dally waved me over, "Tim, this is Ice."

When I met Tim's eyes a cold fear went straight down to my bone. He cocked his head to one side, looking at me from left to right. Curly must have told him something because you just don't look at people like that without meaning too.

"Pleasure." He gave me a half smile.

A chipped tooth peaked out from behind his lips. He watched me, even when Dallas looked away. I wasn't afraid of Curly, but I knew Tim was trouble. Curly was just part of a gang, Tim ran it. Ponboy had told me stories about him. Sure, the boys were greasers, but Tim was a hood. He was a cold-blooded one too. I had known a couple guys like him in my old town, and I used to run with them but they got me into so much trouble I had to back out. That was one of the only times I've been afraid.

"You ain't tell me you had a girl, Dal." Tim looked at me again.

Dallas shrugged, sitting up on the couch, "Maybe it ain't any of your business."

Tim eyed him and then stalked out. I thought I missed something in the conversation that triggered Tim's anger, but Dallas didn't even looked phased. Tim and him were one in the same.

"I didn't know you and Tim were close." I said once Tim had taken off in his T-Bird.

Dallas lit up a smoke, "He's my buddy, that's all."

I could picture it. Tim and Dallas walking the streets and nobody messing with them. They're the type of people that make you cross the street when you see them coming.

"How are you feeling?" I asked him, changing the subject.

"I've been better. I've been worse."

A cool breeze blew itself in through the cracked window, "You happen to know when school starts around here?'

I hadn't thought much of school, to be honest. It's never been my number one priority. It's not that I don't like it or anything, I just sometimes have things to do. I actually like learning a lot, but sometimes I just don't have the motivation to try. I ain't stupid.

"You're going to go?" He raised a dark eyebrow at me.

"You're not?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "We'll see."

I just had always figured that he didn't go to school much. It didn't bother me. Soda was a high school drop out after all. I couldn't be concerned with other peoples futures when I had my own.

"What are you gonna do after this place?" I was curious.

However, Dallas wasn't looking to be questioned, "Lay off, will ya? You're making my headache come back."

I only rolled my eyes. I had gotten used to his stinging comments. They had long ago lost their effect on me. I looked at the clock that was hanging above the fireplace and nearly jumped right out of my skin. I was late, again, for a deal I was supposed to make. I had forgotten about it until then.

Dally must have sensed my surprise, "You okay?"

"Yeah, uh, I've just got to go do something." I ran out the front door before he could ask another question.

I was getting desperate for excuses and running out of them fast. Things were starting to catch up with me. Soda and Ponyboy had figured out my secret and I knew then it was only a matter of time until Dallas did too.