Southside

Chapter Ten: Safe

We got up and walked out of the movie theater as soon as the credits started. I was still mad at Lucy for making me run into Scott like I was some idiot. She could tell I was still mad at her.

"Hey let's all get some shakes," she said. "They're on me. Your favorite is vanilla, right Blondie?" she asked as she nudged my arm. I looked at her and smiled.

"Ya, it is..." We walked out onto the street and headed down to Rockets.

"So what did ya guys think of the movie?" Danny asked.

"It was pretty good," Lucy answered.

"Oh yeah! I loved the shower scene. EEK! EEK! EEK!" Jimmy joked as he pretended to stab me. I laughed and shoved him away.

We walked into Rockets and sat ourselves down at a table near the window. We ordered our drinks and relaxed.

"Hey, Jimmy is your cheek okay? You got a real nasty bruise," I pointed out.

"Yeah, I'm alright." He flipped up the collar on his leather jacket and smoothed back his hair. "I look pretty tough huh?" he asked with a grin. Me and Lucy smiled at each other.

"Yeah Jimmy, it looks like you had a pretty mean fight with a seven year old," Lucy joked. Jimmy glared at her. "Oh, I'm just joking. You look real tough." Jimmy sat up and smiled.

"What about you Danny? How are your hands?" Jimmy asked. Danny looked down at his bandaged knuckles. He shrugged and said,

"Eh, they hurt real bad when Ricky put that disinfectant on it, but it's okay now. Anyways, it's a lot better than Blondie. How are you holding up?"

I was aching all over. I felt like I had been run over by a car. "I'm okay," I lied. "It looks a lot worse than it actually is."

"Well right now it barely looks like you were in a fig- I mean... I doesn't even look like you fell off your bike," Jimmy winked. I smiled.

"But what are we gonna tell everyone at school. With all of us banged up they are gonna assume we were in some type of fight. We can't all say we coincidentally fell off all of our bikes," Lucy pointed out. 

"Well Blondie fell off her bike. Greaser guys are always getting into fights so it's not gonna cause that much suspicion," Jimmy answered. He was right. This wasn't going to be the first time that some greasers come to school with a few cuts and bruises.

Our drinks came and we all started drinking them down. Jack came through the door and walked over to where we were sitting.

"Hey guys," he said as he pulled a chair over to our table. He sat down and ordered a coke. 

"Where've ya been?" Danny asked. I took off Jack's jacket and offered it to him.

"Nah, Blondie. You keep it for now. Looks good on you," he winked. I put it back on and he continued. "Well I was out trying to hear the news. Ya know, if anyone is talking about you-know-what."

"And?" Lucy asked with a worried face.

"And it looks like we're safe." He motioned us to lean in close. He started with a hushed voice, "well, everyone has notice they're missing. Good news is that they think they've just run off. Apparently there have been some rumors before hand that the Richies were planning to run off anyways. Something about pressure from their parents, schoolwork, college, and other crap." He put his hands behind his head and leaned back. He put his feet on the table and said, "Looks like it's back to normal."

We all leaned back into our seats and let out a sigh of relief. So it was actually gonna be okay... Nobody was going to the cooler... Things were finally looking good. Jack's coke came and he started chugging it down.