Stay By Me

Chapter 11

Diana regretted wrecking her father's car in that now she had no way to get around, but it was going to happen eventually. She could find away around the transportation issue if she tried hard enough. It would be worse just living with his belongings.

She woke up besides Dally some time the next day. She shakily got out of the bed and gathered her things, dressed herself, and left as fast as possible. She didn't have the energy to deal with him that day.

As she left the bar, she tried to get a mental map of the area. This wasn't her side of town, or at least not the side she was familiar with. It made her feel a little safer that she at least looked like she fit on that side of town. Actually, it probably helped her a lot, there was a high chance cops would be looking for her now.

She hadn't really stopped to consider that one. The fuzz was going to be after her, either because she wasn't there at the house last night, or because they suspected she was the one who did it. It wouldn't make sense for them to be after her though, if it had burned how she thought it would, it would not look purposeful. Besides, she had extra security. She was a girl, and a soc. No one would think she had it in her.

That meant she couldn't be found. She didn't want to though, so it wasn't going to stop her. She was above letting the law stop her at this point.

That meant that changing her appearance was going to become a priority. Given the people she seemed to be hanging out with these days, the easiest thing would be to look like a generic greaser girl, which put a few items onto her list. Namely a denim or leather jacket, more jeans, and T-shirts, as well as some boots. She also needed dark makeup, and to change her godawful hair.

Her hair was naturally brown, but she'd dyed it blonde to "look better" for gymnastics competitions. Blonde hair made her look more youthful, with her large brown eyes. She really didn't like it, especially since her hair was put into pigtails with ribbons, and she despised the way certain people watched her when she was dressed like that, in her leotard no bigger than a swimsuit. So it was high time the blonde hair left, or at the very least changed.

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A few hours later, she had replaced most of her small wardrobe, and she had makeup and a box of brown hair dye. She'd highly considered stealing it, but she felt shitty doing that when she could pay. So she did, ignoring the suspicious looks of the cashier.

She didn't know where she would go to dye her hair though, that process took a while. She wondered if she could sneak into the Curtis house and at least get out before anyone came home. It wasn't impossible, it was just weird.

Then again, did she really care that much what they thought about her? If she never stopped by again, she wouldn't have to.

Still, she couldn't bring herself to do it. So instead she headed back to Buck's, it would be easier to borrow Dally's bathroom. She'd banged him twice, he owed her a couple hours of bathroom use. Besides, he probably wouldn't be there and it was so grimy he wouldn't know she was ever there.

To her relief, he was already gone, and he'd carelessly left the door unlocked. Once there, she threw on one of his cleaner shirts, and set to the chore of dyeing her hair back to its natural color. But as she was about to do it, part of her wanted to keep the blonde, the bleached hair made her blend in with so many of the greaser girls she saw around. They had either bleached hair or had it dyed black, but most of them were blonde. In fact, most girls were blonde.

She decided to dye the ends and some of the back, and by the time she was done the sink was even more stained, Dally's shirt was ruined, and her hair looked like it was growing out blonde from brown. Which was fine, it looked good, until her roots grew back in again.

By the time she changed clothes and applied makeup, she was unrecognizable. She had used darker tones to modify the shapes of her features, and if no one knew exactly what her face looked like, no one would recognize her. Not even her new buddy Sodapop really knew what she looked like, he had either seen her wearing lots of makeup to cover her bruises, or her bare face.

She walked to the DX, smoking a cigarette. She wanted to see if Steve or Sodapop were there, and if they were, if they'd recognize her. It would help her see just how much she could get away with.

As she walked in, she noticed that from the register, Sodapop's eyes immediately tracked her every action, even as he greeted her as he would any customer. She was ever so slightly offended, but it meant that the "disguise" was working.

She walked around, not really picking anything up. Eventually, she grabbed another pack of smokes, another lighter, and a bottle of coke.

From the look on Sodapop's face, she could tell he thought she'd slipped some items into her jacket, but he wasn't going to confront her on it.

She gave him a half smile as he rung up her items.

"Thanks," she said as she went to go. "Sorry I left dinner early."

Sodapop did a double-take, looking at her features more closely.

"Diana?" He asked tentatively.

"That's my name, don't wear it out," she replied.

"What, why-"

She sighed. "I did a bad thing. And the cops are probably looking for me. I can't go back to the West side, which means I gotta blend in here."

"What did you do that's so bad you can't leave here?"

"Do you really, actually want to know?"

"I want to make sure you're okay."

"I'm not," she said simply. "By all means, it would have been so easy for me to die doing what I did last night. But you'll probably hear about it in the local paper."

Sodapop watched as she left. In the course of a few days, she'd gone from a distraught soc girl to a cold and unstable greaser girl running from the cops. He really didn't know what to think, but she was his friend. He just hoped something would stop her before she was a dead greaser girl.

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