Disclaimer: Only Susie Hinton owns The Outsiders. The song "The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide is Press Coverage" belongs to Panic at the Disco, and the title of our story comes from the one and only Bob Seger. We appreciate all of their contributions, and we thank them immensely.
Note: This is our sidefic for our story "Tender is the Night." For maximum enjoyment, you may want to read that one first, though it shouldn't be required. This story begins in correspondence with Chapter 29 of "Tender." Enjoy!
I believe this may call for a proper introduction,
And well, don't you see?
I'm the narrator and this is just the prologue.
The constant back and forth of pointless hits had been going on since the moment they had met. It started with a skin on skin fight when Dally came tromping into his territory and making trouble with every guy he had in his crew. They were friends, sure, in the loosest of definitions, but their friendship was anything but normal.
Dally had this thing where he liked to mess with Tim's car. As far as Tim could tell, it was the only thing other than his brother and sister he could mess with that he could both really screw up and piss him off. He'd taken out the headlights, taken out the side mirrors and his latest attempt at serious damage was to key the length of the driver's side.
Tim had been ready to knock Dally's head off when he saw it. Even more so when he realized he'd given the shithead and his girlfriend a ride after he'd done it. In hindsight, he supposed he should have been expecting it; he had kissed that little broad when she was drunk one night. But hell, that was all in good fun. Tim had been looking for a fight the night he'd kissed her and Dally was more than willing to oblige once he'd walked out on the sight. No matter how it happened, though, a fight was a fight and Dally was always up for one.
That's why they were buddies.
Tim was ready to take it to the next level, though. Fights were always good, but they weren't always enough. He didn't have the cash to get the scratch in the paint fixed yet and Lord knew that Dally would only do more damage by the time he'd gotten it fixed. It was time to outplay the son of a bitch and he'd laid opportunity in the palm of Tim's hand. Cheating on your girlfriend never got you anywhere, especially when Tim Shepard was watching.
Ellie O'Hare always flew under his radar until the last few months. He'd never known more than the girl's name before she wound up in the hospital and Dally started messing around with her. Curly used to yammer on about her, and if Tim kept the facts straight over the years, Curly used to tease her when they were just in grade school together. Sloppy seconds weren't his style, especially seconds from a mental list of boys on the East Side, but Dally had really fucked up and Tim was willing to reconsider to get under his skin.
With the hard work done for him, all Tim had to do was spill the beans about Dally's infidelities and ask her out before anyone else did. So, he broke the news to her and asked her out to Buck's New Years party. It was all perfect timing and Tim enjoyed the fact that he knew Dally was still hard up for this chick, even if he did cheat on her. It was going to piss him off to know that she was going out with his rival.
He didn't expect Dally to go out of his mind and jump Curly about it, though. He wasn't all that concerned for Curly's sake because the kid could take care of himself and if he couldn't, then he shouldn't get himself in the situation to begin with. No, Tim was more concerned because it reflected poorly on a gang leader when he had to hear from one of his boys that his idiot brother was all bloodied up by that asshole Winston.
"I didn't think he was gonna smash my face into that wall like he tried to do," Curly complained, still holding a towel of ice to his swelling cheek.
"'Tried?'" Tim asked incredulously. "It looks like he did a pretty good job do it. I'm sure the wall doesn't look half as bad as your face does right now."
"It was the Dingo, Tim," Curly said, still trying to weasel his way out of responsibility for his own actions. "I didn't think he was coming to jump me because of something you did."
"That's your problem," Tim replied simply. "You don't think about this shit."
Curly shut his mouth and leaned back on the couch in their living room.
Tim thought he had won that round and sighed loudly when Curly opened his trap again.
"Is Ellie really going out with you on Friday?"
Tim blew a smoke ring and studied his little brother. He wasn't blind to the fact that the kid had a crush on Dally's girl, but he didn't really think it was much of one.
"Did you think she'd turn me down?" he asked.
Curly shrugged. "I didn't think she would say yes."
"It ain't a big deal. It's just something to get a rise outta Dal and she's all for it."
Curly looked at him skeptically. "How do you know that Dally is even going to give a shit? I thought he was through with her."
"Look at your face, Curly. He fucking cares that she's going out with me," he said, rubbing it in. "Besides, she knows that's all I'm doing this for and she's mad at him. Now if we have a little fun along the way …"
The most Tim had ever interacted with Ellie was when he kissed her to get a fight out of Dally a few months back, but when he first approached her with the idea of going out to piss off Dally, he liked her well enough not to regret the decision. She seemed pretty unsure of him, but then again, she was just a kid, just a little older than Curly. She was pretty quick, though, and she seemed to know the score pretty well. He almost hated breaking the news to her that she and Dal were quits, but he figured the end result would be worth it.
He wasn't really expecting such an immediate reaction when she stopped by the Dingo and ended up in that fight with Sylvia. He hadn't even planned for either of them to show up, but somehow the timing worked in his favor on both counts. He could tell Ellie was a pistol from the few times he had talked to her, but he'd never sized her up to being the kind to girl to get into a catfight like she had. Sylvia probably hadn't either when Ellie sprung on her. Whether or not the party went well didn't really matter anymore. The sight of those two fighting had been worth it all.
"Do you know where she lives?" Tim asked Curly.
"Down off Boston Street," he replied, perhaps a little too quickly.
"You know the number?"
"I think it's 380-something. You know where Steve Randle lives? She lives a couple houses over."
"How the hell do you know all that?" Tim asked.
Curly shrugged. "Because I do."
"Because you stalk her," he replied with a taunting grin.
"Because you tell me to keep an eye on shit and I do," Curly argued.
"Yeah, I mean shit like the Tigers and Brumly and Winston," Tim replied over his shoulder as he walked out of the room. "Not following your dream girl around."
"Shut up, Tim," Curly called after him.
XXX
The bell above the door jingled when he walked in. He looked around and a plump woman, filing her nails, snapped her gum in his direction.
"Need help, son?" she asked in a deep southern drawl.
"Is Ellie here?" he asked, sauntering up to her.
She stood a little straighter and looked him up and down.
"What do you want with her?" she asked, setting her nail file down and focusing her attention on him completely.
"I just need to talk to her," he said, already annoyed.
"What about? She don't need no more trouble," she said.
Tim looked down an aisle and back at the stout woman.
"I ain't here to give her any trouble. She's a friend of mine," he said, standing back from her and trying to look like a saint in hoodlum's clothing. Christ, this wasn't even her mother and he was getting the third degree.
Her face scrunched up, her lips pursed together and her eyes narrowed and looking him over, sizing him up. She did this for a good ten seconds before she called Ellie's name.
"Don't you mess with her now," the woman warned. "She's a good kid and has enough to deal with."
"I ain't messing with nobody, ma'am," he replied. "Just want to talk to her."
"Sure," she muttered.
Tim had a few choice words for the old broad, but Ellie walked out of a back room just in time.
"Hi, Tim," she said slowly, apparently surprised to see him there.
Tim met her halfway down the aisle, far enough away from the woman at the cash register. He was sure she wanted to listen in on their conversation.
"Who's the old hag back there?" he asked, gesturing back to the lady at the front counter.
"Oh, that's just Bobbie." Ellie looked over his shoulder at her and smiled, so the broad must have been watching them like a hawk. "Did she give you a hard time?"
"I thought she was gonna frisk me," he replied, glancing back at her. She still stood there popping that gum and staring after them. "She seems to think I'm gonna give you a hard time or something."
"Well, are you?" Ellie asked, rearranging cans of soup on the shelves beside them that didn't need rearranging.
"I just stopped by to make sure we were still on for tomorrow night," he said, picking up a can of soup and tossing it in the air.
Ellie hesitated and busied herself with more cans.
Tim put the can of soup he was tossing around back on the shelf and looked down at her. "You know this ain't nothing personal, right?"
Ellie shrugged. "Yeah, I know." The way she said it, he wondered if she took offense to that. He wondered if he should try another tactic.
"Well, I guess it's a little personal," he went on. "Winston thought it'd be a good idea to jump Curly about all of this."
"He jumped Curly?" She seemed genuinely surprised at the information.
"Yeah, jumped him right outside the Dingo. That place got a lot of action this week," he added with a grin. He dropped the grin when she blushed and went back to rearranging soup.
She wasn't making his job very easy. She wasn't supposed to back out of their date. That wasn't the plan.
"It's not gonna be a big deal," Tim tried to reason. "It'll just be a little party at Buck's, some music, some dancing, the clock strikes midnight and I drive you home. That's it. It'll be fun. I know you dated Dal, but you remember what fun is, right?"
He lightened up a little when she cracked a smile at that, albeit small and modest, but not forced. If he could stick to jokes bashing Dally, they would probably get along just fine. He looked up when he saw the youngest Curtis brother walking towards them. Tim could never remember the kid's name, but Curly seemed to think the kid was all right. Then again, Curly was sitting at home with another concussion and a swollen face.
He nodded at the kid. "Curtis."
He figured he may as well leave while he was ahead and looked back at her.
"I'll see you tomorrow night, Ellie. Pick you up around eight," he said, walking away and leaving no room for argument. Telling from the look on her face she still wasn't sure of it, but she didn't question it.
The only thing left was the party itself and seeing Dally's reaction firsthand. It was going to be one hell of a New Year.
Swear to shake it up if you swear to listen,
Oh, we're still so young,
Desperate for attention.
A/N: It will be one hell of a year; 1966 promises to hold a lot of drama. Are Tim and Ellie going to be able to hold out given the fact that they are essentially using each other? Stay tuned.
PS: Happy Good Fic Day!