Teasing Fate |The Outsiders|

31. It's What We Do

"YOU DON'T FUCK WITH EAST-SIDERS."

***

Even several blocks away, the sour stench of beer, smoke, and her perfume still cling to me. My hands tug as the sleeve of my jacket methodically as my feet thump against the cracks in the cement. The sun has finally begun its descent below the horizon, its last few dying rays paint the sky in long strokes of red, orange, and pink. Thick shadows are cast over the neighbourhood, thanks to the dark clouds moving past. The wind pushing through the bare branches of the trees I pass isn't that cold or bitter, in comparison to what I'm feeling, it's like it wasn't there at all.

I hated not knowing. I'd been that way for years. I hated being left out of the loop, only to discover the important pieces far too late. And as of right now, that's all I seemed to be doing. I really didn't expect Marley to react the way she did. What I'd done was really fucking shitty, the kind of thing I'd kill a guy over if he did it to Angela, and I know that. Marley had come to my house because she didn't know where else to go. We'd done things both our families would've never approved of, even if it felt right. And then I told her I used her. That she was nothing more than a girl I'd used to get my dick wet and my chemistry grade up. I could be a good liar when I wanted to be, and I really did hate it under circumstances like these. My mind was still reeling, mostly with my sister's words, and how Marley didn't deny it.

I liked to think I wasn't an asshole to most girls -- not as bad as Dally, anyway. I made my intentions clear from the get-go and left once I got what I wanted. That worked out for a couple girls I'd been with who'd after that night, pretend it never happened and we'd move on with our lives. For one or two girls, that didn't blow over too well, and I'd have to avoid their brothers, or cousins, or fathers every time I stepped outside. But never had a girl turned to dealing drugs as a way to get back at me.

Maybe I'd have thought about it a little differently if Marley was just making out with a guy behind the drugstore. Sure, I'd jump him regardless, but it wouldn't make my stomach coil if it was a kid our age rather than an eighteen-year-old blackmailing her. I was chewing on my lip as I walked, eyes darting around the neighbourhood as I looked for my target. I didn't have to walk much further after that, the plumes of smoke curling up to the sky from the back of the house mixed with her high-pitched laughter. I knew better than to get for her front door, and I certainly wasn't about to open her gate and let everyone within a ten-mine radius know what I was doing. So, I opted to climb over it instead and hit the dying grass in her backyard softly as I began to creep around to her window.

I didn't have that many friends in Tulsa at the moment. Pat was still pissed at me, and everyone else I would've gone to hated me for the same reason. Marley Curtis was a difficult girl to hate, and I was a difficult guy to like. Curly and his cronies woulda helped me out if I was in a pinch, but it's Curly and his friends. If I'm ever that desperate, just shoot me. Her voice was getting louder now as I made my way around the side of her house, silently praying I wasn't about to put my trust in the wrong person.

Yes, Sylvia Jones hated me with every fibre of her being and would kill me unprovoked, but I knew she'd hate some guy using Marley just as much as I did. Cheap grass burned in the evening air as I rounded the corner, her legs dangled down over her windowsill and hanging above the ground below. I can already tell this is going to end poorly, especially when there's a guy already leaning against the house beside her.

"I see what you're doin'," Dally chuckles. His eyes glow as bright as the burning edge of the blunt between his teeth, the smoke makes his gaze hazy for a second before it finally vanishes. All it does is make him look more livid. As try as he might though, it's nothing compared to the look Syl's sending me now. "-You stop by the bar an' try to get with Marley again, and when she tells you to fuck off, you come over here."