The Outsiders Lyric Imagines

"One of Us" D. Curtis/Gang

"...Even when you're lonely, know you're not alone. You're one of us..."

[One Of Us by New Politics]

To say that today hadn't been easy was a pretty big understatement. Your day just started off bad; someone siphoned your gas so you had to walk to the gas station five blocks over to get some. That entire process made you almost an hour later for work. Of course, you got yelled at for being late for your shift at the diner. A few hours into your shift, you got groped by a couple of hungover men more than twice your age only to get yelled at again for slapping their hands away. On top of that, you were on the verge of getting evicted from your apartment. Things in your life were going to hell in a handbasket quickly.

You were a proud person; you didn't like asking for help or taking charity. You'd been in Tulsa for two years after leaving home in Dallas. All you had was a backpack with some clothes, your grandfather's watch, and about $14 in your wallet. Once here, you found quick work as a waitress and a less-than-decent apartment that was cheap. Initially, it was rough, especially when you learned about everything between greasers and socs. By default, you were a greaser. Although, things did pick up when you met a small group of guys. They came into the dinner often enough that you got to know them and soon they just welcomed you into their little gang.

About six or seven months after that, the oldest of the group, Darrel, asked you out. Now, about 18 months later, the two of you were still dating and things felt serious; you try your best to help him out around the house. Sometimes with housework, sometimes with dinner, really anything to help out. You went over almost every day after work but today, you picked up an extra shift to earn some more money.

You clocked out a little after 11:30 PM and after a sixteen-hour shift, you just wanted to just go home and collapse into bed. Although, when you got outside all seven of the guys were waiting by your car. You looked at them in slight astonishment, each one had a look of worry on their face "what're you guys doin' here? It's almost midnight." Darry took a step forward and looked down at you "doll, why didn't you tell us about everything goin' on?" You furrowed your brows at the question "what do you mean?" Two-Bit looked up from the asphalt "when you didn't show up like you normally do, me and Dal when to your place and there was a notice on the front door. So we went back to tell Darry and came over after a couple hours when you still didn't show up."

Sodapop and Ponyboy looked up at you, but Ponyboy spoke up first "c'mon (y/n), you're one of us. You can always count on us to be there for you." You nodded, almost ashamedly "I know guys, I just didn't want to admit the situation I'm in. That would've made it too real and I'd rather go through it alone than drag any of you into it." Darry pulled you into a tight hug "baby, no, sure sometimes you may feel lonely but you're never alone. Ponyboy's right, you're one of us." Sodapop nodded "everybody needs someone to call their own," Johnny nodded and finished Soda's thought, showing his usual caring smile "and you've got seven of us." Steve and Dallas nodded their agreements. Your heart skipped a beat at their sentiment. "Everybody needs a place to call their home, let that place be our home," Darry said with nothing but complete, genuine love in his voice.

"(Y/N), I want you to move in with us," Darry said genuinely "I love you so much and I want to do this for you. I want to take this bit of stress off of your shoulders." You looked up at him with wide eyes "Darry, I can't do that. What about-" Ponyboy cut you off "we're both more than fine with it (Y/N), you make our brother happy and you're really nice to have around the house." Sodapop nodded with a smile "besides, you make Darry way more lenient on all of us." Dallas nodded with his usual cocky smirk "yeah, he ain't yellin' at us as much anymore and is relaxed." "By comparison, he's relaxed by comparison," Steve added, earning himself a quick glare from Darry. Darry smiled down at you "so, what do you say, doll?" As you looked around at the seven of them, you saw nothing but genuineness in each of their eyes.

When you didn't say anything for a minute Darry rubbed your back softly "I've also got somethin' else I wanna do for you." You looked up at the man "Darry-" He shook his head and knelt down in front of you, taking your hand in his "look, (Y/N), I can't give you a big fancy house and multiple cars or any of that crap but I've never loved a girl more than I loved you. I was gonna wait for our two year anniversary but, will you marry me?"

If this were in a cartoon, your jaw would've fallen to the floor. A few happy tears started to run down your cheeks. All you could do was nod your answer. Darry grinned as widely as humanly possible and stood, engulfing you in a giant bear hug. The rest of the guys cheered happily and joined in the hug, even Dallas. Despite his best efforts to remain cool, Dallas couldn't hide the warmth and pride he felt in his heart from watching this entire series of fortunate events unfold.