Beach Babe | The Outsiders | Johnny Cade

| Nights | 29 |

I ended up staying with them all week. I had a really bad nightmare the first night and woke up screaming, it was easily the worst nightmare I've had all year.

It was the night that my dad and brother died,

I was driving around the streets of Las Vegas learning to drive with my dad in the passenger seat and my brother in the middle seat in the back. We were in town for the Elvis concert yesterday and we had a few days before we needed to go home. I had just gotten my permit and was struggling to learn how to drive.

Rich had gotten it down, he was so good at driving and I couldn't even make a right hand turn correctly. I was at a four way stop in the process of a left turn, and I was expecting to mess it up, but I wasn't expecting the drunk driver going 75 to completely T-bone us on.

The car spun so fast and I couldn't stop it, it just kept going and then we were in a ditch. My adrenaline was running wild so I couldn't feel the pain of my broken shoulder or mild head injury. I thought my seat belt was chocking me so I unbuckled it and climbed out of broken windshield in front of me cutting my arms, hands, and legs. My window was against the ground and I couldn't get out.

I couldn't hear out of my left ear but out of my right I heard groaning, I stumbled over to where I heard it... my brother was lying on the ground with a giant piece of metal sticking out of him, I could barely even recognize him anymore, he was so covered in blood and glass and grass, and other stuff I didn't even want to look at.

I knelt down and tried talking to him but no words would come out, nothing, I was trying to scream but nothing. Nothing. Nothing. This isnt what happened And when the drunk driver was supposed to come over to apologize instead it was Jesse. Bat in hand.

He yanked me off the ground and told me he did it on purpose so he wouldn't have to deal with my brother. He slammed me back down to the ground and reared back the bat and

I woke up with Soda and Darry trying to wake me up and calm me down, it was terrible, I was sobbing and I just kept apologizing for waking them up. Soda told me it wasn't an issue, but I felt terrible. I ended up telling Soda what happened after Darry went back to bed

      I didn't go back to sleep. I stayed up till the sun rose then cracked open my half drunken tequila, and drank the whole thing. I wasn't going to school today so I passed out and slept till noon. When I woke up my stupid brain decided it would be fun to see how long it would take the guys to realize I was hammered, the answer is 30 minutes. Darry sent me back to bed and told me to stay over for a few more nights so I wouldn't have to deal with my family.

      Tuesday and Wednesday were absolute hell, I was severely hungover and couldn't pay attention in school at all. Leah was still dealing with the effects of Saturday, she did in fact have alcohol poisoning and was sick. Unfortunately that was the most interesting thing that happened.

Today I went back to my house to get more stuff and had a little conversation with Theo, he told me that our mom was overly nice to him and August the whole time and it freaked him out. He said anytime they mentioned me she changed the topic immediately.

"Oh and one last thing, she took all of her stuff."

I furrowed my brow "What do you mean?"

He sighed "She moved out basically, she put all of her stuff in boxes then stacked it up in the trunk of Clark's car. Said she would be gone for a while and wouldn't need it. I don't think she'll be coming back, not unless one of us dies." I couldn't place his tone, it was somewhere between disappointed, sad, and angry.

I ran upstairs to her room to see if it was true, it was. The only things left were the furniture, the box of cash hidden under the dresser, and four huge boxes in her closet. I walked over to the boxes, they didn't have anything written on the outside of them like all our other moving stuff. I took one box from the pile, sat down next to it, and opened it.

It was a box full of my dad's stuff, old pictures of him, his knifes, his home recipe book, his journals from throughout the years, his photo albums from the military, basically anything he every touched, and at the bottom there was my dad's old pistol. I move on to the next box and it's full of all my dads old favorite clothes. I sift through all the old clothes on the verge of tears, they still smell like him too.

       The next two boxes are full of Richard's stuff, pictures of us, his football jersey, his two homecoming kind crowns, his lucky ring (it was our grandfathers class ring from 1919) he wore it everyday and wore it on a chain around his neck during football games, all his old school work that he had gotten A's on, and his old diary.

       I'm bawling on the floor after seeing all of that again, and a little mad, my mom had told us she didn't keep anything from my dad or rich when we moved. She said we need to move on and seeing their stuff was just making it worse. But knowing she was lying makes it worse.

       I force myself to stop crying and leave the room, but not before grabbing my the most recent journal and my brothers diary from the boxes. I guess I'm addicted to crying because reading these is definitely going to make me sob.

       I grab some new clothes and throw my dirty ones in the laundry, grab that hair care stuff my brothers got me, put it in my bag, and walk back to the Curtis's. My mom should be leaving tonight so I don't need to avoid my family anymore. 

       When I step in the door it's apparently obvious I've been crying because when Johnny and Darry see me from where they're sitting both of their brows furrow. Me and Johnny still haven't talked and this uncomfortable awkwardness has settled between us. I absolutely hate it, and him looking at me gives me butterflies and I hate that too.

Two-bit sees the two journal/diary's in my hand and asks me about them, I tell him it my notes for school and he immediately loses interest. I put my stuff in pony's old room and settle back on the couch with Two-bit and make small talk with him till Steve and soda burst through the door. Are they drunk? They're never this happy after work. 

"Why're you two so giddy?" I ask them

"Well," Steve grabs a beer from the fridge "Hannah called me at work today and we were talking about you living in California"

This could go one of two ways

He's got a stupid smug look on his face "And she told me some veryyyy interesting things about you Stacy."

Shhhhiiitttt. I guess the gang is going to find out what I used to be like back in California.

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Thanks for reading!!