Cadaverous Love

Chapter Eighteen

The gang travels down the dirt road that goes through the forest, and eventually ends at the lake.

Darry repositions the cooler under his arm, that's stuffed with cokes and thanks to Two-Bit, a ton of beer. Sodapop throws a volley ball up in the air and spikes it at the back of Steve's head, causing Johnny to jump. Steve turns and chucks the football at Soda, laughing.

"Hey, Ponyboy," Dallas says loudly, "ya wanna race?" Pony nods and gets alined with Dal.

I look over at Morgan, she nods at me, somehow understanding what I'm trying to say without me actually saying it. She hops onto Ponyboy's back as I jump onto Dallas's. Instantly, his hands grab the back of my thighs as I wrap my arms around his shoulders.

"Three," Ponyboy says loudly, Two-"

"Get off their backs!" Darry shouts, jogging to get to us.

"Guidy up Pony!" Morgan yells, laughing after.

I smack Dallas's ass, "You got this."

"Save that for the bedroom." He says smugly.

"I don't approve!" Darry practically screams as the boys take off running, they couldn't care less about wether Darry approves or not. I tighten my grip on Dallas as we pass Two and Vicky.

"Watch it!" Two-Bit yells, dropping his can of beer. Ponyboy pulls ahead and makes it to the lake before we can. Morgan and him collapse on the ground; Pony just completely out of breath and Morgan in a fit of giggles. Dallas stops at the bank, his feet slightly in the water. The lake is large, and on the other side all you can see is trees. A few rocks stick out here and there along the shore of the other side. I slide off his back as he rests his hands on his knees to catch his breath. I kick him in the butt, causing him to lose balance and stumble into the water, face first. I laugh at him as he stands back up, glaring, his eyebrows furrowed underneath his dripping hair.

"You little shit." Grabbing me by the arm, he swings me into the lake. I sit up, the sand cool against my skin. I peel off the T-Shirt and throw it at Dallas, and then wring some of the water out of my hair.

"Man, did I do that?" Dallas points to my arm where he grabbed me, a small purple and yellow bruise appearing.

I shrug, "I don't know." He holds a hand out, a gesture to help me up. I take it and as I'm halfway up he let's go, just to watch me fall back into the water again. I stand up on my own this time, glaring playfully.

The rest of the guys show up at the lake at this point. Darry eyes us suspiciously as Steve and Sodapop run down the dock and Soda does a cannon ball in. Darry sets the cooler down and pulls off his T-shirt, runs past Steve, and does the most graceful dive into the water I've ever seen.

"Johnny," Dallas says walking back to the edge of the lake, "you gonna come swimming?" Johnny stands awkwardly, rubbing his arms.

"Oh, I don't know, Dal."

"Come on, man." I almost laugh at Dallas's city accent. He stands there for a moment, Johnny shakes his head.

Steve approaches them, curious. "Dally, Johnny here doesn't know how to swim."

"Johnnycake doesn't know how to swim?" Ponyboy asks, I could hear it was meant to be sarcastic, but more concern showed than comedy.

"Stop making such a big fuss over it," Soda half shouts.

"Yeah, Soda's right," Steve chimes in, "we can teach ya. It's real easy." Johnny finally gives in and let's Steve teach him how to swim. Dallas runs down the dock and jumps into the water. Ponyboy wades into the lake instead of jumping, most likely so he can just stay close to Morgan. Even though, I know Morgan would be up for the challenge. Two-bit rolls around in the sand yelling something about him being a crab, while Vicky tries to put a towel down, which Two just keeps rolling over.

Darry swims faster than any of us, of course Dallas challenges him to a race across the lake. It's pretty obvious who won.

"I wanna rematch!" I hear Dal yell, Darry merely shrugs, "fine." Dallas then turns to climb on top of one of the rocks.

"Dallas, what are you doing?" Sodapop yells.

"Dal, get down from there! You're gonna get yourself hurt!" Darry tries to reason with him, which is pointless. If there's one thing we all know about Dallas, it's that he'll do anything dangerous, no matter how incredibly stupid it may be. He's all for thrills. Dallas shouts and jumps into the water, he yells over his shoulder that he'll beat Darry now. He's right, he does beat him, but only because he was halfway across the lake by the time Darry started swimming.

I look away and block my view of Dallas with my hand as he stands up and begins to wade closer to shore,

"Pull your shorts up!" Ponyboy yells.

"Oh, whoops." Dal says, "but why? I'm just gonna pull them down again." He chuckles, short and heavily.

"Dallas!" Darry yells.

"Okay. Okay! Gosh, man."