I sat right at the front trying to avoid anyone staring at my face, yet I still found the courage to turn and look at the four men in uniform.
Four men and one heavy wooden coffin.
Older women who I assumed to be aunties or something of the sort to the deceased loudly wailed.
Older men, one I knew was his father sipped at his flask while looking at the coffin guiltily.
A large group of boys, six to be exact sat quietly and sorrowfully sulked.
They were sat around me although the youngest looking one, a boy with almost reddish brown hair greased into a cowlick sat beside me since I was at the end of the row.
"How did you know Dal?" He spoke up.
"Well how did you know him?" I cocked an eyebrow at the young boy.
"Friend. He was in our gang but he went away to the military for 'nam and- yeah." He shrugged.
"I'm his wife, or was his pregnant widowed wife." I nodded my head.
The boy blinked before speaking "How come we don't know you?" He squinted his eyes at me, earning the attention of the rest of his crew.
"I don't get out much, my husband didn't want me to go out either. Said I needed to take care of myself and his baby." I looked forward as the ceremony continued.
"Dallas Tucker Winston. Who was a friend, companion, husband, and a soon to be father."
The preacher gestured to me and my barely bulging belly.
The boys seated in my row gawked at me in shock, before the eldest looking one forced them to stop.
They all bowed their heads in shame and sorrow as the funeral proceeded.
Once it was over, I laid the bouquet of white lilies onto the coffin, and walked away.
It felt like the walk of shame, a pregnant teenager-ish girl, mourning over her husband of a shotgun wedding.
"Wait! Miss, please wait!" The younger boy caught me before I left the cemetery with the rest of his gang trailing behind.
"If you really are with our buddy's child, we wanna see the kid. Y'know, be uncles." One of them said before extending his hand "I'm Sodapop Curtis, by the way."
I hesitated before shaking his hand, feeling uncomfortable.
"I'm Darrel Curtis, how do you do?" The eldest one shook my hand as well.
"So what exactly do you want with me and my child?" I spoke up before the rest of the boys could make an introduction.
"Like Soda said, be his uncles. The kid is as much as family to us as Dal was." A boy in a black leather jacket and hair shaped into complex swirls repeated.
"We'll help. I mean, it's surely what Dal would have wanted." The Sodapop boy offered.
I shook my head meekly, before speaking softly.
"Dallas hadn't even told you about me, I wouldn't want to burden anyone either." I half-sobbed.
"He told me." A tanned boy with dark eyes and hair shyly commented.
"Oh?" I pursued an answer with little to no energy whatsoever in my voice.
"He said he knew a girl, who he'd been seeing for awhile and he really liked her. But, she got pregnant and he was a nervous wreck. Told me not to say a word to no one." The boy explained.
"Aw come on, ain't no way he actually married the broad." One of them, dressed in full gasoline scented denim whined.
I merely held out my hand, and revealed the skull design piece on my ring finger.
The boy immediately retracted and avoided my eyes, my cold hurt eyes.
"I'll be leaving now." I quickly left and drove away, looking into the rear view mirror.
The harder I glared at it, the more I saw something or rather someone come into view, Dallas.
"I guess now you met my buddies." He sneered.
"You're so vain, and look at you. You look like a GI Joe." I spat as I drove.
"Focus on driving for crying out loud, I don't want you to kill my kid." His cold and clammy hands reached and turned the steering wheel for me.
"Hey outta here, you ain't nothing no more. Just a corpse that has a dumb fucking soul that's haunting me for getting knocked up." I snarled at him.
"Well too fucking bad, man. Why didn't we fight like this when I was still living, man?" He sighed.
I kept my eyes on the road. "Because you weren't as insufferable and didn't pop up everywhere to spook me. I hope you know that's bad for the baby."
I could tell his apparition was hurt in a way by my words.
"Sorry, I won't be doing that anymore I guess."
Before I could look back to meet his eyes, he was gone.
"You're always leaving too damn soon, Dallas."
