Stay By Me

Chapter 19

Diana woke up to the sounds of Dally being dragged off somewhere.

"I'm coming, I'm coming, get your fucking hands off me!" She heard him snarl.

She quickly went to the grimy window, where upon looking out she saw a few cops attempting to restrain him and shove him into a cop car.

Fuck. That wasn't good at all.

Obviously he hadn't convicted the crime, but given his reputation, she figured they were dragging him in just because. She was honestly glad they hadn't shot him on the spot, she was sure a few of the cops would have been more than happy to.

She took a deep breath. It didn't have to be a bad thing. This could be an opportunity for him to get the police off their trail. That is, if they believed what he said. He had every reason to be lying, if they were smart they wouldn't follow any leads he gave them. But she had to hope they would, for the best of all of them.

That lead her to a realization, she held a lot of power over multiple people. She was one of two people in Tulsa who knew where Johnny and Ponyboy were, and who also knew what went down last night.

But considering how close the cops were going to be in contact with her, she needed to keep herself hidden. She didn't know whether to keep herself holed up at Buck's until Dally got back, or to go to the Curtis.' She decided to stay there, she wouldn't be able to see the distraught brothers and not spill everything to them. But they had to stay oblivious, at least for now.

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Dally arrived back at Buck's, a cigarette in his hands and a dangerous look in his eyes.

"What happened?" She asked.

"Nothing much," he replied with a wolfish grin. "Accused me of murder, then when that didn't work they asked me about Pony and Johnny, tipped em' off that they were in Texas."

"Good," she replied. "Anything else new?"

He nodded seriously. "The fucking socs are damn near full out warfare. I barely made it back here safe, ain't no one can walk alone. I'm gonna have to start carrying a heater. You know how to use that little blade on ya?"

"Dally! You- never mind. Doesn't matter now. But does it matter? If I know how to use the knife or not? The important thing is to stab them before you stab yourself."

"What doesn't matter?"

"I was gonna say that guns kill people. But you already gave one to Pony and Johnny, and they didn't even need one last night. Knives kill people too. It just comes down to who dies."

"That's how shit works around here," he said grimly.

"What now? I'm sure the rest of your gang is over at the Curtis residence, I'm sure they're all losing their shit. Do you think it'd make it better or worse to pop by for a visit?"

"I dunno," Dally sighed. "Guess it won't hurt. But no matter what, promise me this. No matter how hard they beg or whatever, don't fucking tell them where they are."

"I won't," she promised.

"Okay. Lemme go grab something from Buck, and let's go."

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Before he drove them much faster than necessary to the Curtis,' Diana had noticed how Dally had stuffed a gun into his waistband. She just hoped it wasn't actually loaded, that it was all for show.

Once they arrived, the first thing Diana noticed was how exhausted everyone looked. Even Two-Bit didn't have a smile on his face. And she was pretty certain his resting face was a smile.

"Hey y'all," she said quietly. "I heard what happened."

Sodapop turned to her, a hopeless look on his face. He looked completely drained. It hurt her to see her friend like that, but she knew if she told him what he wanted to hear, it would just hurt him more in the long run.

"Hi Diana," he greeted her quietly. "How are you holding up?"

"Better than you," she replied. "What about you?"

"I just, we were worried something terrible when Pony didn't come home last night, I know Darry feels terrible about it all, and then we caught word of what happened at the park, and now him and Johnny are gone, and..." he rambled.

She went and sat down by him on the worn-out sofa. "What happened last night, it fucking sucks. And I know we all feel bad, because there was something that happened that we all could have stopped, which would have lead to this not happening. But it's too late for that now, now we have to make choices that will keep more worse things from happening."

"Yeah? And what's that supposed to mean?" He asked.

"I dunno. Just don't make dumb, badly thought out choices."

Two-Bit chuckled humorlessly. It was disconcerting coming from him. "I think that's the only kind of choices we know how to make.

"That's not true, and you know it isn't."

"You don't get it!" Sodapop said abruptly. "They're gone! They're out wanted for murder! They're just kids. They're kids. They-"

She cut him off. "And that means that we need to do whatever we can to make sure that they're safe, and this turns out how we want it to. Obviously, best case scenario they make it home safely, and it can be counted as self defense. But right now, Tulsa might not even be the best place for them to be. The socs are going crazy, no one can walk by themselves any time of day. If they even saw them, they'd be dead on the spot," she said grimly.

The gang seemed to think this over, when she saw a police car in her peripheral vision. Her head snapped to the window, where she saw it pulling into the Curtis' driveway.

"Shit," she hissed. "I need to go. I can't be here."

"You and Dally go into the bathroom, turn on the shower. Lock the door," Darry said. "No funny business."

Diana rolled her eyes. "Please. Even I know now's not the time," she said, walking into the bathroom and shutting the door.

After they turned the shower on, she and Dally stood in the cramped bathroom in silence. They were both trying to listen to what the cops wanted over the sound of the water.

From what she could tell, the cops were questioning Sodapop and Darry as to what happened that night, before the murder and if they knew what happened after.

The brothers didn't know any more than the rest of the gang, and overall didn't help the cops, as they left fairly quickly.

She shut off the shower, and she and Dally went back into the living room.

"Y'all staying for lunch?" He asked tiredly.

"Would you like some help? You seem awful tired Darry," she said.

"Sure," he said gratefully.

Dally shot her a look, reminding her of the promise she made.

"I know," she mouthed to him. "It'll be fine."

He gave her a curt nod in response. It was funny how wrong life was, but how normal they had to pretend it was.

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