Simply a Greaser

Chapter 36

"You got a favorite song, greaser?" The soc boys stood in front of me, blocking my way.

"What?"

"You know what a song is, right? You think she knows what a song is, James?" One boy looked at the other, raising his eyebrows.

"I was just going to the bathroom..." I tried to push past the two boys, but they pushed me back, hitting my shoulder. I backed away, but couldn't run.

"There are only two stalls, I thought," James said, smiling. "Guess you'll just have to wait."

"So," the other boy pulled out two quarters, "you have a favorite song? I was going to play something on the jukebox."

"You shouldn't be here. There's a rumble soon, you should be on soc territory. You could get hurt here."

They both smiled at my words, obviously not worried about the threat of being hurt.

"We aren't gonna cause trouble, right Charlie? Just want some food and to listen to some mu-"

"My favorite song is Folsom Prison Blues, okay?" I said, naming the first song I could think of.

Charlie, the boy with the quarters, walked past me to the jukebox and played the song.

"Can I go to the bathroom now?" I asked, speaking over the music.

James shook his head, saying, "Usually people like to dance and sing to their favorite song. You don't want to miss out, do you?" He stepped closer to me. "We could dance together."

"Just leave me the hell alone, okay?" I was basically helpless with my arm in a sling. I wouldn't be able to fight well at all and there was no one around to help me. "Or I'll get you kicked out."

The boy in the booth laughed aloud. "You can't do shit! My uncle owns this place."

I was fucked.

"We should go..." the girl in the booth said quietly, glancing up from a notebook in front of her.

"We'll go after we eat and have some fun." James smiled down at me. "Was that your little sister? Or a kid you babysit? Seemed like-"

"We can dance." I wasn't even going to try the 'I have a boyfriend' line, and with him talking about Katie at all, he had me scared badly.

"Finally having some fun," he said as he grabbed too low on my waist. I put my hand on his shoulder and we danced to the rest of the song, like you might do to a slow song at a dance, then to a few more, him always too close to me for my comfort. We moved around the Dingo until my back was against the wall.

His friends started laughing and so did he, looking back at them for support. He turned back to me, and I knew what he was going to do. He was going to kiss me and I was going to hate it, but I had to think of Katie. And surely after this, they would leave me alone, or someone else would show up here.

As he leaned back, I pushed myself as close to the wall as I could, knowing that my actions wouldn't help anything.

Just before he kissed me, a small voice said from the booth, "Leave her alone, James."

James sneered and pulled away, shouting back at the girl, "And what will you do if I don't listen?!"

"Tell mom, dad, and your girlfriend." She wasn't bluffing as far as I could go. "I think we're all done with our food, so let's go."

James let go of me, rolling his eyes. "I knew we shouldn't have brought you along. Go get Marley and we'll leave."

The girl in the booth walked to the bathroom and came out with the other girl. Katie followed them.

The socs left quickly. I smiled at the girl from the booth, but she ignored me.

"Katie, are you okay?" I asked as soon as the socs had left.

"Yep. That girl gave me her drawin' and let me color!"

"Why the hell didn't you come outta the bathroom?!"

"She told me that I could only color in there," Katie said, holding out a piece of paper. There were creases all over the thing like it had been in someone's pocket for a while. The drawing was of a boy that I didn't recognize, and Katie had halfway colored it. The picture was pretty good, better than anything I could do.

I sighed, saying, "Listen, Katie- if anyone tries to make you stay in a bathroom, leave as soon as you can."

I was spending the night at Buck's, basically condemning Dally to the couch downstairs to sleep on once the bar cleared out. I was glad to have a bed to sleep on. Couches and armchairs were fine for a while, but they got uncomfortable. A hospital bed didn't count as a real bed, either; they were always too stiff and the blankets too thin, not to mention how flat the pillows were.

I showered, putting a bag over my arm and sealing it on my skin with some tape so no water got onto my sling. After my shower, I tried to sleep, not able to on account of the loud music and shouting downstairs.

The door was thrown open about thirty minutes after I showered. Dallas stood in the doorway, soaked to the bone for some reason. I figured it was raining outside, but he would have had to stand in a downpour for twenty minutes to be as wet as he was.

"Ava, I need to talk to you," he said slowly. It sounded like he was out of breath, his chest falling and rising quickly. "It's-"

"If it's about Two-Bit, I'm sorry I didn't tell you-"

"We got bigger things goin' on right now than Keith dumbass Mathews!" He started pacing, which never meant anything good.

"What happened?" I sat up, expecting him to say the fuzz was after him. "Is it the cops?"

"No. Well, kinda. But that's not our main concern!"

"What the hell is goin' on?"

Taking a deep breath, Dallas slowly said, "Mom is in town."

I stood up off the bed. "Wha- how did- how did you find that out? Wait, what do you mean the fuzz are 'kinda' after you? Dallas, tell me everythin'."