Stay By Me

Chapter 8

The meal surprised Diana. Dinner was very different from what she had been expecting, they all seemed to be a close knit family, each having his own place there.

The boy from earlier introduced himself as Johnny Cade. He seemed to be rather introverted and unconfrontational, which struck her as quite interesting considering the company he kept. She liked him instantly though, he was soft spoken but the words he did say held an air of wisdom.

The meal was simple spaghetti, but it was cooked with a certain love and care that she had lacked in her food for a long, long time. She was usually the one in her house to cook, but she saw cooking as a chore, and the food she made reflected that.

Halfway through the meal, the door opened, and Dallas Winston himself staggered in.

Diana gulped, if it was at the front of her mind she knew it was at the front of his. But he wouldn't expose the both of them like that, not at family dinner.

He had a shit-eating grin on his face. "Didn't expect you here."

"You've met before?" Darry asked.

"Sure have, saw her just last night, or really this morning,over at Buck's."

She wasn't going to let him get the pleasure in embarrassing her, so she put a smirk on her face as she silently continued eating her meal.

"You could say that,"she said eventually. "I wasn't that surprised to see him there, of course, but I was surprised he interacted with me at all, didn't realize he thought socs were people."

"Wouldn't have talked to you if I'd realized, you were dressed sleazy enough I nearly mistook you for some broad from the road."

She just raised her eyebrows in response. "Are you implying you thought I was a prostitute, here at dinner, with all of your friends present?"

He grinned bigger, knowing he'd struck a nerve.

She just leaned back and crossed her arms. "You know what, fine. I'll take it, better than a stuck up soc bitch."

Everyone seemed surprised by the exchange. As the pair continued talking, eating had slowed and then stopped.

"What?" She said with a smirk. "I don't care what any of you think about me, I doubt I'll be around long enough to make a lasting impression."

The room sat in silence for a moment, before Darry spoke up.

"Dally, grab yourself some food and sit down with the rest of us."

"Can't, she's sitting in my spot."

"Sit on the floor, then," she replied.

"Oh, don't be like that, why don't you sit on my lap, sweetheart?" He said with a devilish grin on his face.

"Okay," she replied, matching his grin.

Sodapop was conflicted. Her interacting with Dally was the most "alive" he'd seen her, even from the start. It was like she'd taken a particular liking to him from the start without even realizing it. That being said, Dally was dangerous. Even if she fell for him, he would break her heart. He would break her, just like all the girls before her. He wanted to think she was different though, maybe she could be the one to break the pattern. If Dally was what made her happy, who was he to interfere with that?

As he looked over, Dally had another shit-eating grin on his face, and Diana was sitting on his lap as if he were just a chair. She barely acknowledged his presence.

"Ow," he complained as she shifted her position.

"You asked me to do this," she reminded him.

He just grunted in response, and she shifted again, making sure he regretted asking her to sit on his lap.

Eventually, his hands started drifting away from his plate, and onto her ass. She was going to slap them away, but stopped. She wanted to see just how far he would go, sitting there in the Curtis' living room during dinnertime.

She was making small talk about herself, trying to keep it vague enough to not start any argument about class or anything. She could feel the gang's on her, or more specifically, Dally, as his hands inched to her waist and thighs.

But she wasn't going to give him a reaction, she was quite used to being touched, her positions were constantly being corrected in gymnastics. So she simply sat as if she was sitting in a chair, and not a greaser whose hand was inching its way up her shirt.

Then, his hand grazed a spot on her back, a spot where her dad had beat her and it had broken skin. It was relatively old, but it still wasn't completely healed since she hadn't stopped long enough to let it. It was still quite sensitive, and she flinched and sucked in a quick breath between her teeth.

Now all eyes were really on her, and then finally her face turned red and her face changed to that of shyness or embarrassment. She knew that Dally knew how she got that mark, he had got a good enough feel of it to know. And even though she really didn't want to care what any of the people here thought of her, she still instinctually did.

"Are you okay?" Sodapop asked her, concern plain on his face.

"Yeah, I'll be okay," she replied. "As soon as this asshole learns to keep his goddamn hands to himself!" She said, glaring at Dally.

Two-Bit laughed. "Yeah, the day that happens is the day I make it to heaven!"

"Precisely!" She cackled, jumping off of Dally's lap. She took her plate to the kitchen before opening the fridge and helping herself to a bottle of beer.

Sodapop sighed like a disapproving older brother, Ponyboy wondered why his brother cared that much. Steve and Two-Bit laughed, while Johnny looked concerned for all involved. Dally looked like he'd never thought she was hotter.

"Sodapop, can I leave now?" She asked as she sipped the beer. "I had shit I was gonna do tonight, and not all of it was bad."

"Like what?"

"I- okay. It's not any of your business what I was going to do. But I'm leaving now whether you like it or not. I'm sure I'll see some of you later," she smirked as she saw her way to the door.

"What do you see in her?" Ponyboy asked after her car pulled away.

"Misery," Sodapop said while the gang guffawed. "But I can tell she's got a lot she could live for. I'd hate for her to make a choice she'd regret, when I could have stopped her."

"Soda, she's old enough to make her own choices. If she makes bad choices, that's her own problem. It's not your purpose to stop other people from doing things, you need to be making your own choices," Darry told him.

"I know, I know," he sighed. "But something about her..."

Darry raised an eyebrow.

"Not like that!" He snapped. "I'm not the one trying to get in her pants all this evening."

The gang shifted their gaze to Dally, who just smirked suggestively.

"I mean, can you blame me, right?"

"Yes?" Sodapop said. "Give the girl a break! She deserves it! Or else maybe she wouldn't be losing her shit!"

"Look, she could have told me to stop or slapped my hands off whenever she wanted."

"That doesn't mean you should put her through extra shit for her to live a normal life."

Dally just laughed. "The hell? Normal? Soda, nothing about that broad is normal, just accept it."

_____
Please vote and comment! Feedback makes me happy :)