Lust - Dallas Winston

21

"Sorry, I didn't call..... what's going on?" I said, as I walked into the Curtis house.

Darry and the two officers turned to me.

Darry looked like he was going to yell at me, then stopped.

"Ponyboy and Johnny took off last night, I'm glad you're ok." Darry spoke softly.

"What do you mean, they took off?" I asked.

"When was the last time you saw and talked to Ponyboy and Johnny?" One of the officers asked me, while the other flipped open his note pad to write my answers down.

"Last night, when it got dark. Ponyboy, Johnny, Dallas, and I went to the drive in to watch a movie. I didn't stay very long. I left part way through the movie, and went to a party." I spoke.

Which... it was true....

I didn't physically talk to, or physically see those two after that.

"Where were you around 2 am?" The officer asked me.

"A party. Like I said, I left the movies, and went to a party. Met up with Dallas again on the way there." I replied.

The officer with the note pad looked up at me.

"That doesn't answer where you were." He snapped.

"Buck Merrill's place," I snapped back," me and Dallas partied there for a while, then we went to bed. I fell asleep shortly after I laid down. I woke up, and came here."

"You have an attitude, Miss." The officer with the note pad snapped at me again.

"Don't." The nice officer said to the one with the note pad, signaling he should 'cool it'.

"I don't get how any of these questions about where I was, have anything to do with Ponyboy and Johnny." I spoke.

"There was a body found by the fountain in the park, Bob Sheldon. He had a stab wound to his abdomen, and water from the fountain was all over the concrete, but he was dry. Witnesses say they saw those two there, and were just trying to put the pieces together." The officer was straightforward with it.

Holy shit.

That's why Ponyboy was wet.

Those socs probably tried holding him in the fountain, and one of them must have stabbed Bob.

"I don't see Ponyboy or Johnny going out of their way to hurt no body," I defended the two of them, "but like I said, I saw them at the movies and that was it. The rest of the night I was at Buck Merrill's with Dallas."

The officers thanked us, before they left.

"You're lucky I don't have the energy to yell at you for not coming home last night! You're lucky I don't have the energy to yell at you for them hickies on your neck!" Darry scolded me.

"Then how come it sounds like you're yelling?" I asked him.

Darry's jaw tightened, as he took a long deep breath in.

"You got a map, Darry?" I asked him, as I remembered the few things from last night.

Train.

Windrixville.

Church.

"Yeah, I do. It's in the kitchen. I have a feeling that you know a little more than what you told them officers." Darry said.

I dug around in the drawers of the kitchen, looking for the map.

"You gonna tell me what you know?" Darry asked me in a much calmer tone.

As I found the map, my eyes scanned the page for Windrixville.

They must have hopped a train there, and are hiding out in a church somewhere.

Had to be an abandoned one, otherwise they would be caught as soon as the day light came.

"I'm not really one hundred percent sure I know if what I know is correct. I'm just piecing it together. But, I may know where they are at. I can't tell you any more than that. For your sake, and mine." I told Darry.

Windrixville wasn't far from here, and there is a bus route there.

If I hurry up and leave soon, I could catch the bus and still make it there before noon.

"I gotta go check on them, Darry." I pleaded, and I put the map away.

"Make sure you bring a jacket, it gets cold at night." Darry told me.

"Thank you." I smiled at him.

I ran to my room, and grabbed a few things before I left.

I grabbed a jacket, cigarettes, a lighter, a hair brush, and some change for the bus ride there.

I ran all the way to the bus stop, and made it just in time.

The bus was pretty full.

The only seat open was next to an older gentleman.

He was reading his paper, but then he stopped.

He looked up at me with a huge grin.

"Normally, people wear their rings on their fingers." He chuckled.

"I'm sorry?" I asked, confused.

"Your ring, it's on your shoe." He chuckled again.

I looked down at my shoes.

Only to see Dallas Winston's skull ring looped into the shoelaces, that were tied on my shoes.

That bastard.

How the hell did he even think of that?

"Well, I guess I won't lose it then." I chucked back at the old man.

"I suppose it's harder to lose a shoe, than a ring." He shrugged, as he went back to reading his paper.

It actually did make me sort of smile, how Dallas kept sneaking his ring back into my possession.

I couldn't tell if he was just being annoying, or if he really did want me to have it.