Cut My Lip

Fifteen

When we pulled into the driveway, I saw Dally and Two-Bit's car in the street, and I figured everyone really had come over to see how the proposal went.

As we walked toward the front door, I could see everyone's silhouettes inside. As soon as I opened the door my brothers looked at me expectantly.

"What?" I asked nonchalantly.

"Oh, you know what," Steve said.

Annie smiled. "I said yes."

Everyone cheered, and Soda and Pony both hugged her tightly. I joined in on the hug.

"C'mon, Dally. You're basically our brother in law now." Soda said, and he rolled his eyes and pretended to make a scene, but he hugged us.

Annie's POV

"Annie, I just had an idea." Dally said. It was well past midnight and we were all still awake.

Dally, Johnny, Soda, and Steve were all cramped on the couch, Two-Bit and Pony were on the armchairs, and I was sitting on Darry's lap, on the floor.

"Lord help us all,"

He threw a pillow at me and I ducked so it hit Darry. "We should go to New York."

"Why...?"

"We got cousins we haven't seen in a while."

"Don't you hate Uncle Richie, though?"

"Who said we would have to see Uncle Richie?"

"You should take all of us with you to meet your cousins," Steve said, half jokingly.

"That's not a bad idea, Randle," Dally said.

"I don't know..." I frowned.

That immediately seemed to convince everyone else that taking a weekend trip to New York was the best idea in the whole world.

"Please?" Darry begged, and I gave in.

"Fine."

.

Two weeks later, we'd picked Johnny and Pony up out of school early and went to the train station.

"Legally taking the train? Haven't done this in years." I said to Dally after our tickets had gotten punched.

He laughed, and we boarded the train and looked for seats.

.

"Wow, you two seem like you're on edge." Soda commented.

I had my hands shoved in my pockets, ready to flick out my switchblade at the slightest sign of danger. Dally kept looking around and glancing down alleys.

"Yeah, we ain't exactly welcome in this part of town, so walk quick." I said.

"What'd you two do?" Darry asked wearily.

"I got kidnapped by a mafia boss and Dally killed him when he wouldn't let me go." I explained.

"Never got caught." My brother said proudly.

"Where are we headed, anyway?" Steve looked around.

"We'll catch a bus up there and head to Queens. I called Grandma Margret last week- she's got two extra bedrooms ever since our cousins moved out- we're staying with her." I said.

Dally groaned. "Not Grandma Marge!"

"What's so bad about her?" Johnny asked.

"All she does is ramble on and on-"

"But she means well!"

"She's stuck up-"

"She is not!"

"And she's got about fifty million cats!"

"Okay, so she's like every other old white woman?" Soda smirked, and Dally nodded.

"See, Annie? He gets it."

I rolled my eyes. "You're just mean. Margret is not as bad as he makes her out to be. She's just..."

"Very stereotypical?" Dally offered and I hit his arm.

"She's just a bit much, if you're not used to her."

Darry's POV

When we got to Dally and Annie's aunt's house, she made him knock. A moment later, a short, old woman answered.

The twins looked a lot more like Margret than I'd thought they would. Margret was short and she was pale with completely white hair. She had liver spots on her hands and her face, and she had a pair of glasses balanced on her nose.

What surprised me the most was when the twins started speaking in French. "Bonjour, grand-mère Margret."

"Bonjours mes chéris. Sont-ce vos amis?"

I saw that everyone was shocked at how fluent the two were. Dally pointed to all of us in turn and listed us off. "You two speak French?" I asked her under my breath.

"Yeah, it's our first language. Our mom and her parents immigrated from France and our dad is from Germany. We speak both."

"That's pretty hot."

She rolled her eyes before she glanced back at her grandmother. "Nous pouvons encore rester dans les chambres, oui?"

"Oui, oui. Est-ce qu'ils parlent français?"

Dally shook his head. "Nous allons traduire pour eux, grand-mère."

Margret nodded before she ushered us all inside. "Sorry it is so cramped," she said in a very heavy accent. "Dallas and Annabelle will show around, oui?"

Annie's face got red when she heard her grandmother call her Annabelle.

Dally ignored it. "Oui. There's a guest room in the basement and there's one upstairs, y'all get to decide amongst yourselves."

It was decided that me, Annie, Soda, and Pony would stay downstairs, and Dally, Steve, Johnny, and Two-Bit would stay upstairs.

"What's with the whole Annabelle thing, huh?" I asked her while we put our bags in the basement.

"I don't want to talk about it." She muttered.