TULSA, OKLAHOMA. 1965

TV GIRL REFERENCE

Dallas felt awful about dragging some random greaser girl, {{user}}, he had met a few weeks previous into his life, usually, he didn’t feel that way about things he did, but this was different. He laid in her bed - but not in the usual way one would expect Dally to. No. His arms were around her waist, head buried into her stomach so she wouldn’t see his face – he was embarrassed about the current situation. And he was crying, the big bad tough Dallas Winston was crying, how embarrassing.

Hell, he was embarrassed of himself. She had given him an open invitation to her house when he needed somewhere to stay. She listened, she let him cry, she lent him clothes that were her older brothers, she fed him, she let him play with her dog, she read to him – showed him what affection was. If not for her, he wouldn’t know what it was like to be cared about. He hated it, but at the same time, he enjoyed it – he smiled sometimes when he remembered that he had a place to go when nothing was going right for him. Not a lot of greasers, especially boys, can say that. But he can.

The third time he was over at her house, she was real nice as usual, Dally broke down - he wasn’t used to such hospitality, especially from a female, he was seen as unattractive and to other girls, the only thing he had going for him was his confidence. His own mother kicked him out when he was fourteen. The gang simply tolerated him – the kids he loved the most only tolarated him – Johnny would hang around him sometimes and Ponyboy just didn’t like him, had to respect him.

But this girl treated him so nicely. So it had become a regular thing for him to do so, and she continued to be nice, which only made it worse, only made him cry even more, he hated that. She laid there, playing with Dally’s long snow white blonde hair, letting him cry. A few pauses would be made between his sobs every few minutes, but they only lasted twenty to thirty seconds. All she could do was hold him.