I Survived

1

I stared out the window of the car, trees flashing by. I could smell Dad's alcohol breath from here, and it made me want to puke. I sighed and moved as far away from him as I could. I wasn't sure how long it was, but I felt Dad's hand snake to the inside of thigh. Please, not now; I thought. I gulped.

"You know Danielle, your a very pretty girl." The car swiveled a bit. Dad wasn't looking at the road, and it was raining. This was the worst time to not be looking at the road.

"Dad, you should be looking at the road right now." I tried pulling his hand away, but he just grabbed my thing tighter.

"Don't tell me what to do." I let out a squeak as his fingernails dug into my skin, making holes in my leggings. I felt a knot form in my throat, telling me that I was about to cry.

"Can we please not do this right now?" His fingers dig into my skin more and I was sure there would be blood at some point.

"Danielle-" I heard the front of the car smash, then Dad scream, and then my head came forward quickly, hitting itself on the dashboard. The whole world went black as I felt my body grow limp.

-

"I haven't seen him in forever, how did you guys find him?" I touched the bruise on my head, I had been right. We did end up crashing, but in the process the fucking bastard died. Which wasn't a loss on my side.

"I'm not sure, I think he saw it on the news and he called in." I nodded. I told them everything, about what Dad was doing and how he had been drunk and driving. They said if he was alive, I wouldn't have been allowed to go back home with him either.

When I got the news he died, I wasn't sad. I was just wondering where I would live. My parents were divorced, and I had no idea where she was. I didn't have any aunt's or uncle's, which meant I had no cousins either. So I didn't have anyone to stay with. Or so I thought. They said I would live with my Mom, somehow Dally heard what happened and called the hospital. Dally told them where he was and social services approved for me to go there. Today, I would be leaving the hospital and going there. I was dressed and ready, I just sat on my hospital bed waiting for them. I wasn't sure if just Dally was coming or if Mom was coming too.

"Hey kid." I looked up, and there was Dally. I could tell it was him by his smirk. I wasn't sure what it was about it, but I could always tell it was him whenever he smirked. His hair was brown now, I guessed that he dyed it so he didn't look so much like Dad. A lot of people thought they were twins, and sometimes Dally acted like him too. Lashing out and yelling.

I crossed my arms. "Dallas." He sighed.

"C'mon the cars outside." I grabbed the few suitcases I had and followed him outside. He signed a few papers and walked outside to the car where I put my suitcases in the backseat. I sat down in the passenger seat, ignoring Dally. "Kid, would you stop ignoring me?" He glanced at me.

"You didn't call or anything." I said, still not looking at him.

"I'm sorry Dani, I wasn't allowed to." I furrowed my eyebrows, and slowly turned to look at him.

"Mom didn't let you?" Dally chuckled.

"Try that old man of ours." I looked down, almost feeling like his nails were digging into my skin again. "Every time I called, he'd hang up and apparently he took the letters I sent you because you never wrote back." Dally pulled out a cigarette and lit it. So, Dally must have thought I was the bad one.

"Yeah, I didn't get a letter." I chuckled, I did this whenever I felt bad or nervous. Like whenever I'd get in trouble, I'd laugh a bit. Dad always thought I did it because I thought what I did was funny, but Dally would always take up for me.

"I bet you that dickhead has them in that attic." I shrugged.

"Probably, I wasn't ever allowed in there."

-

The rest of the way to my new home, well an apartment above a bar, Dally told me about Greasers, Soc's, and all of his friends. He didn't say name because he wanted to introduce me to them once we go to the "Curtis house" where they all hung out. I was pretty excited. After we put all of my things away, Dally gave me a switchblade. He said Soc's would still jump girls or do even worse. I didn't want to think about what he meant by that.

We walked the rest of the way to the Curtis house, Dally rambled on about Soc's.

"Did you tell them?" His eyebrows furrowed, as he let out a puff of smoke.

"Of course, I told them that's where I was gonna be today. They offered to come but I said I wanted to talk to you by myself." I nodded and we both walked up the steps. I quickly fixed my hair before trailing behind Dally when he opened the door.

"Where is she?" Someone asked.

"Calm down Darry, jeez. She's right here." Dally moved out of the way, revealing me behind him. I have them all a small wave whilst I smiled. Dally pulled me to a couch where I sat next to a brown headed boy with greenish-grey eyes. His eyes followed me, making me slightly uncomfortable. He was really cute though.

"We've heard a lot about you Danielle." The man said.

"That's Darry, Sodapop, Steve, Two-Bit, Johnny," He paused and looked at the boy next to me, who was still staring. "and Ponyboy." Dally rolled his eyes slightly.

"It's nice to meet all of you." I let out a small sigh. They all seemed pretty nice, so there wasn't anything I should be scared or anxious about.

"How old are you?" Sodapop asked, he seemed like the fun type. The one that could find the good in everything. 

"I turned fourteen a few weeks ago." Soda smirked. I wasn't sure why.

"So is Pony." I looked at him. He rubbed the crook of his neck.

"Y-yeah, I mean it sounds like I'm older because I turned f-fourteen a few months ago s-so." I giggled at the way he stumbled over his words.

"What is wrong with you Ponyboy?" Darry asked as he went into the kitchen.

"N-nothing's wrong." He stood up and walked out of the room. I felt a knot form in my throat. Did I do something to make him upset? Or did he just not like me already?

"Pony's not really good with meeting new people. Especially girls." Soda said, laughing a bit at his own words. I was glad it wasn't me, because if it was I probably would have cried right in front of everyone. Now that would be a bad first impression.
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Word Count:1,221