Simply a Greaser

Chapter 63

Hours later, I was resting my head on Two-Bit's shoulder as we talked about both everything and nothing, absently watching parts of an unknown TV show. 

We finally ran out of topics except for the elephant in the room. 

"Did Dally really not tell you that he was leavin' for New York so soon?" he asked quietly. 

"Nope. You think he would've, considerin' I'm his sister and all." I sighed. "I thought he'd be in Tulsa for another month or so, you know?" 

"Yeah, me too. I can't believe he's actually gonna leave without you." 

"He seems pretty dead set on it," I mumbled. 

Two-Bit chuckled. "He seemed pretty dead set on you never datin', too. Look how that turned out." 

"My brother," I said, "is a huge fucking mess. Maybe mom can fix that." 

Two-Bit laughed. "Wouldn't bet on it." He sighed. "I wouldn't be too worried, Ava. He'll write and call, and probably come visit, too." 

I nodded. "Yeah, I know. But that's not the same." I paused, trying to collect my thoughts. "I don't know how I made it with dad all that time. Especially without him. I thought- I thought he'd forgotten me. And I'd forgotten him, too." 

"Don't be so hard on yourself. You had a lot on your plate when you were livin' with your dad." 

"You can say that again." My eyelids were getting heavy and I yawned. "God, in New York we were inseparable. Then we moved and everything changed." 

Two-Bit chuckled. "But you two still managed to be siblings again."     

I was awoken bright and early by Dally screaming something in my face. I tried to hit him, but he moved out of my range too quickly. With a laugh, he went into the kitchen. I threw a pillow at his back. 

I got off the couch and followed him, mumbling to myself about how I needed sleep, then tripped over the pillow. The gang was all in the kitchen, eating some eggs and cake with chocolate milk, looking as tired as I felt. 

Dally had the most food piled onto his plate and was just digging into it like he was a starving animal or something. I wrinkled my nose in disgust at him, and he just smiled in response. 

"Why am I awake?" I asked. 

"So you can eat," Dally explained. "You gotta have a good breakfast today, man." 

"And why's that?" 

"It's my last day in Tulsa." He smirked. "And I'm gonna make it one helluva last day." 

"Give me an egg," I grumbled, grabbing a plate. 

Steve gave me a thumbs up. "Now that's the spirit!" 

Through a mouthful of food, Soda asked, "What're we gonna do today anyway?" 

Dally shrugged. "Whatever the hell I feel like." 

"Oh God," I mumbled. "We're all gonna end up in jail."  

The day was... almost normal. Dally didn't make us go do anything that we didn't always do, honestly. 

We went and saw some movie he wanted to see, with him paying for us. We went to the Dingo, talked to some friends we saw there for a while, then back to the Curtis' to catch Mickey on TV. We headed over to the Lot and stayed there for a few hours, talking and messing around. We sneaked into the Drive-In and half-watched the movies, mostly just messing around there, too. 

Dally's big final day turned out to be like any other. 

We were back at the Curtis'. The only thing that was unusual was that nobody was drinking. 

We were all crowded around the living room table, telling stories about each other- about Dally, mostly, but not all him. 

Steve laughed and said, "Now get this. Dal and I are together, back when he still went to school with us. It's after a football game and we're at Brady Thompson's eighteenth birthday party, both havin' some fun..." 

I began to drift off, losing focus on the gang and thinking to myself. I could still remember how Dally looked when we were kids. He was shorter than me for a long time, always skinny though. His hair used to be down to his shoulders and shaggy before dad made him get it cut. I couldn't remember a time when he didn't have a mean look about him, but I could recall when he would never think of getting arrested or getting into fights. That was a long, long time ago. 

Everybody laughed, and I snapped back to attention. Johnny had picked up the conversation. 

I looked at Dallas. He had a stupid grin on his face, something he had rarely. I knew he loved these guys, no matter what he said. The gang was the only real friend- only real family- he and I had had in a long time. 

I knew why Dally hadn't done anything out of the ordinary that day. He wanted to pretend that it wasn't some special day. He wanted it to be normal. Because he didn't want to leave. 

Not really.        

Sorry, this chapter is a bit shorter, I just thought it was a good place to end it!! We're almost to the end...