Stay By Me

Chapter 15

"So what's the story of the car?" Diana asked as they sat eating at Dairy Queen.

"Whaddaya mean?" Dally asked around a bite of food.

"Well, that's a good car. There's no good reason it should be that cheap, so was it stolen? Was somebody killed by it? Conceived in it?"

"Does it matter?"

"I mean, if it was stolen, what if the cops catch word of it? With me in it? Absolutely the fuck not. Not dealing with the fuzz. I'll just enact plan A sooner than expected. And then somebody will have died in that damn mustang."

Dally rolled his eyes. "Quit worrying about nothing, it's fine. Even if that car was involved with a crime, they wouldn't have gotten fucking caught."

"Still doesn't explain why he didn't want more for it. He must have owed you one damn big favor. But I take it that means you don't know, and you're telling me to fuck off because of it."

People in the restaurant were starting to stare at the pair, with their loud and unapologetic swearing. Diana thought they were boring. Swearing added spice to speaking.

She picked at her burger. She wasn't too fond of the greasy meat, and considering that she was suddenly eating nothing but shit food, her stomach wasn't too happy with it. Her whole body felt like sludge those days.

"If you're not gonna eat that, pass it over," Dally demanded. She placed the burger into his palm, and sat in silence.

"You too good for burgers?" He sneered at her, mouth full of food.

"Yeah, I guess," she confessed. "Haven't really eaten them for years. Now that all I'm eating is gas station crap and alcohol, if I try to eat that I'll end up on the shitter for the next six hours."

Dally just laughed at her. "Imagine not being able to eat hamburgers being a problem," he chortled.

"I will leave you right here in this fucking Dairy Queen right now," she threatened.

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"How domestic is this," she mused as Dally drove them who-knows-where. It had taken a lot of bickering, threatening, and a bit of punching from both ends, but eventually Dally ended up in the driver's seat.

"What?"

"Just a couple who bought their first car together, as the man drives them home."

"We ain't a couple, it's my car, not yours, and where the fuck is home? Buck's ain't home."

"We are too a couple, a couple of people. And I know it's yours, but I was there and payed the cash. And yeah, I would hope that damn bar isn't home. Besides, where are we even going, if not there, we're going in a different direction?"

They pulled into the Curtis house driveway as the tires screeched against the concrete. She hoped they'd last a while, but maybe Dally could get Steve or Sodapop to fix it for free.

"Why are we here?"

"You didn't eat lunch, if you're not gonna leave me alone, eat something before you turn into a real bitch."

"I'm flattered," she replied, mostly sincerely.

"Don't be, I know we're not gonna fuck if you're in one of your moods."

"Oh, so you don't give a shit about me, but you do my vagina," she drawled, enunciating each letter to make him uncomfortable.

Dally scowled in disgust.

"Vagina!" She yelled at him, loud enough for the entire neighborhood to hear.

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Sodapop had gotten nervous when he'd seen the blue mustang pull up in the driveway. He'd never seen it before, and when he heard voices talking, he'd gotten even more nervous as he helped Darry serve dinner.

Then, he'd heard a female voice scream the word "Vagina!," and he calmed down. It had to be Diana and Dally, no one else would drive like that and then say something like that.

Dally sauntered in the door first, trying to hide any embarrassment on his part. His ears were red, but otherwise he looked normal.

Diana came in next, a proud smirk on her face. As happy as he was to see his friend, his heart sunk at her appearance. When she'd come into the DX the other day, he had mostly payed attention to the change in her clothes and makeup, but now that she was wearing a lot less makeup, he could see the obvious physical changes in her. Her face was thinner, and she had ever increasing purple bags underneath her sunken eyes. Her body was thinner as well, and she was already losing muscle mass she must have worked years for.

"Hey guys!" He said brightly.

"Hey Sodapop! What's for dinner?" Diana replied with a smile.

"Darry just pulled lasagna out of the oven, y'all are just in time."

"Neat, I've missed home cooked meals, even if mine are shit," she chuckled.

Sodapop sighed. She looked exhausted, like she was ready to drop dead any moment.

"Shit!" She screeched, startling everyone. Darry nearly dropped the pan of food, and shot her a dirty glance, while Dally looked ready to stab someone.

"What?" Sodapop demanded.

She just showed him the front page of the newspaper, which depicted a burned house. What caught his attention was the headline, which mentioned how the daughter of the house was missing, and it was suspected she had been kidnapped.

"Good work," Dally chuckled.

"What? Do you know something about this?" Sodapop demanded.

Diana chewed her lip. "I lit it."

"You what?" Ponyboy demanded, joining the conversation as he walked out from his bedroom.

"I used to live there. That was my house. I burned it. And now that piece of shit is saying I was kidnapped."

"Back up," Darry said sternly. "Calm down and start from the beginning. What's happening?"

"My dad is a real piece of shit. I don't wanna tell you the details, if you really want to know you can ask Dallas," she said. "But I couldn't go down without taking him down with me. So I went and lit the house on fire. It's no home of mine. And then I destroyed his car, and lit it on fire too. He knows I was gone. He didn't give a shit, he didn't want me back after I was released from my gymnastics program. He good as disowned me. But now that twat's saying that I was kidnapped from the home. I know he saw the car. He's not stupid, he's got to know it was me. But he's playing the heroic father card. His little national champion runner up daughter gets returned, and happily ever after they remake their lives, the two of them," she spat, anger clear on her face.

"Well you've obviously disguised yourself already, if I didn't know it was you, I'd never recognize you," Sodapop said.

"Which is good. Because if the fuzz finds me with y'all, y'all will be charged with kidnapping me, and the dumb system, and my "father," win again."

That dampened the mood pretty quickly. Darry took the newspaper from her hand and quickly read the article, confirming that she was right in what was going on.

"On the bright side, the description they have here of you isn't much like you are now," Darry said.

Diana wanted to beat her head into a wall. The way she saw it, every day she was dying a little bit more. She just the final deed yet. But goddamn! Her life was so fucked up, she wouldn't even be able to die in peace.

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Ghost readers make me sad, please interact! It would really make my day. Thanks!