Beach Babe | The Outsiders | Johnny Cade

| Delicate | 39 |

I woke up and my eyes hurt from crying. My eyelids were slightly swollen and parts of my face were still red.

I carried myself, and my tequila, downstairs. I felt very fragile. As if one small thing happened I would just shatter. I had a couple drinks before sluggishly getting ready for work. I wrote a note and left it on the counter for my brothers.

     Theo I'll talk to you after work. You're on house arrest, you can't leave unless it's school. How long? Dunno yet. No friends, no nothing.

     August you're still grounded, you aren't on house arrest but for your own safety I would suggest staying home. I don't know if Dallas is still out for blood.

Please for the love of God don't do anything stupid today - Stacy

I got to work slightly late and had a buzz. It made the job a little easier and a little more confusing.

"Stacy.. are you.. drunk?" Soda asks

"Nope. Just buzzed." I wonder if I look as bad as I feel.

"Is that because of your brother?" I nod "What happened with that, did he get charged?"

"Nah. I'm not exactly sure what happened but some lady from the state was there and threatened to take Theo if it happened again." I rub my eyes, they feel heavy "Apparently they held up a store, or one of them did."

"That's not good."

I want a drink. "No it's really not."

      When Soda wasn't in the garage working on a car with Steve he was in the store with me. I could tell he knew something was wrong and he kept me laughing. Soda said Saturday is usually one of the busiest days but there's been almost no one.

Tim Shepard did show up though. That wasn't fun. He said Curly got sent to a reformatory and would be there for about six months. He said the only two that didn't get locked up were that Davey kid and Theo. I'm still confused on why Davey said 'we really didn't know..' I'll find out later after work. Also why have I never even heard about this kid?

This shift was over before I knew it. Soda and Steve were wisecracking the whole way to the Curtis's. I briefly stopped by my place to grab booze. Today wasn't a sober kind of day. Me and Steve both took turns taking drinks from it, he's definitely got a lower Tequila tolerance than me, he was already as drunk as me after a few drinks. And I had been drinking all day.

Sodapop was herding us like sheep, which wasn't very hard because we were stumbling all over the place. At one point me and Steve threw our arms around each other's shoulders and were badly singing 'Auld Lang Syne' I'm just sure Soda was cringing the whole time. 

     The bottle was empty when we got to the Curtis's, it was almost half way full when I grabbed it.

Me and Steve burst through the door "Honey we're home!" Steve yelled out

"I brought dumb and dumber." Sodapop says walking in after us

"How drunk are you?" Darry asks

"Half a bottle of tequila drunk!" I laugh

I think the only thing holding me and Steve up, is me and Steve. If we let go of the other's shoulders we're both falling over. "Okay... why?" Darry furrows his brow

"Why not?" Steve slurs out

His grip on me falters and I stumble and fall flat on my back. That's hilarious to Steve who moments later falls over too, Then we're both laughing, hysterically. Im not sure why.