MY HAIR FEATHERS lightly around me as the wind tugs and twists it around. The air in the country was so much better. I could smell more than gasoline, cigarettes, and fast food. It was nice. It was no more than nice; it was amazing.

Johnny, Ponyboy, and Dally were outside. I could watch them roughhouse from my spot at the very top of the church. The view from the top of the church is breathtaking. I could see trees and green for miles and I could hear the birds singing their songs to each other.

I huff as I look back down at my math homework. I had come up here to clear my head and hopefully catch up on some of my schoolwork. Everything for all my classes was finished. Except math.

I hate math.

"Boo!"

I screech as a pair of calloused hands grip my shoulders, jumping out of my skin as my heart pounds in my ears. I sneer as I hear the booming laugh of none other than Dally. I hadn't even heard him come up the ladder to get up here.

"Jesus fuck Dallas." I breathe out as he sits beside me, still snickering.

"I've never seen you so jumpy." He teases.

"Fuck you, I was caught off guard." I fire back, he snorts, letting his legs dangle off the edge as he looks down at my work.

"You're seriously doing schoolwork when you have all this nature around you?" He asks as he pulls a cigarette from his pocket, lighting it.

"Like you care for nature, and I need to get it done. It's hard." I reply. Dally holds his lit cigarette out for me. As I take it he snatches my notebook. "Hey!" I exclaim, attempting to grab it from him.

He holds it far out in his opposite hand as his other holds me back. "I wouldn't do that." He warns as I reach over him.

I scoff. "And why no—" A shriek cuts me off as Dally rolls me over so my upper body hangs off the ledge. "D—Dallas pull me back up," I demand, trying to keep my voice from shaking as my eyes squeeze shut.

"Hold on just calm down—"

"Don't tell me to calm down!" I bark back.

I hear Dallas let out a breathy laugh. He's laughing?! The nerve of this prick. "Listen, Ange, I've got a hold on you, and I'm not gonna let go. Just open your eyes. Trust me." Dally says, his voice calm, almost gentle.

I wanted to bark out a laugh. Trust him. Dallas Winston was not trustworthy. As if he read my thoughts, Dally speaks up, "Angie, just shut your mind off for one damn second and trust me."

I suck in a breath. If Dally was going to drop me, he would've done it already. I knew that. So, I trusted him and slowly opened my eyes.

A soft gasp falls from my mouth. My body dangled off the ledge, swaying lightly. I could feel Dally's tight hold on my waist, securing me so I wouldn't fall. My heart still hammered in my chest.

Everything was turned upside down and I didn't understand what the hell Dally wanted me to see. "I don't get it." I call to him from above.

"Just shush and listen." He tells me, "Let your mind go blank, and all your senses work their magic."

Again I listen, clearing my mind and letting my body go completely limp.

I hear birds and the soft rustle of the leaves in the trees; I see an open field of wildflowers, and I smell the thick pine and lingering smell of the cigarette that I held and dropped when I thought I was going to fall.

Now I understood. Dally didn't want to show me anything. He wanted to open my mind. Just as my head started to feel heavy from all the blood rushing to it, Dally gently pulled me up, and I landed on his lap, breathing softly, feeling completely and utterly at ease.

"How did you..." My sentence trails off as Dally gives me a grin.

"You're not the only one who needs to find an escape from their mind sometimes, Angela." He mumbles, his deep brown eyes staring into my blue ones. I frown at his words, suddenly feeling like an asshole. I hadn't been the best person to Dally these past few weeks. I knew that.

I lick my lips, clearing my throat "Dally at the diner...I'm sorry about what I said. All of it...I didn't mean it." I mumble. I feel Dally tense beneath me and his eyes flicker down to my lips. His arm snakes around my waist, his hand going over the curve of my ass. I glanced down at Dally's lips, and slowly, my head moved forward.

"Hey, guys— oh...are we...interrupting?"

Our eyes snap to the ladder we previously climbed, only to see Ponyboy and Johnny poking their heads out. I tense as I realize how close me and Dally were. I was on his lap, our chests pressed together, his hand on my ass. This did not look good.

I jump up from Dally, clearing my throat, and Dally turns away from me, falling silent as I hurridly grab my notebook and pencil up from the floor. "No, Dally was just helping me with my math, and I fell off the ledge, so he had to help me up, and so the position looked...odd" I rush out.

Johnny and Ponyboy aren't buying it. Their eyes flicker between me and Dally before Dally finally gets to his feet. "I'm starvin' man, let's get somethin' to eat." He announces.

All the food he had brought for Johnny and Ponyboy currently sat in my stomach. So we'd have to go out and find a fast food spot or something.

"Ain't arguin' to that idea," Ponyboy says with a giant grin as he and Johnny descend the ladder.

Dally stood by the opening, watching them go down as his foot tapped impatiently against the wooden floor.

I can't believe I almost kissed him. "Dally," I call out quietly as he begins descending the stairs. He pauses but his eyes stay glued to the floor. He was refusing to look at me. "I'm sorry." I mumble, spinning my pencil between my fingers nervously.

"I'm sure you are." He mutters back before continuing his way down. He spoke so quietly I almost didn't hear him. I wish I didn't. Because now I stood here looking like an idiot.

I glance down at my math work, having to take a double take to see if I actually saw what I saw. The problems were solved. All ten of them were answered. When the hell did Dally have the time to do my math? While I was upside down maybe? But why?

"Angela, hurry up, or we're leaving you!" I hear Ponyboy shout from below.

"Coming!" I call back as I rush to the ladder, carefully going down the stairs as I try to push the last few minutes from my head.

💥|TIME SKIP|💥

"Can we have four barbeque sandwiches, four cokes, and a... that's it." Dally says as he orders our food from the Dairy Queen in the small town.

I sat in the front, with Ponyboy and Johnny in the back. I'd been quiet the whole trip, letting my eyes wander around the scenery. Dally pays for the food and pulls into the parking lot, parking the car and killing the engine. He starts handing out everyone's food.

He sets mine in my lap, and I mumble a 'Thanks' before picking it up, unraveling the foil around it, and taking a bite.

It was delicious, as Dairy Queen usually was. I didn't know if I'd eat it all since I already ate the snacks that Dally had bought.

"You guys really are hungry, huh?" Dally chuckles, I glance behind me and see Ponyboy and Johnny eating their food as if they're scared it'll disappear if they don't eat fast enough.

Dally takes a bite from his sandwich before speaking, I wish he hadn't when he starts talking. "That kid you killed had plenty of friends. It's all over town, Soc against Grease. Look I started carrying a heater." Dally pulls a gun from the waistband of his jeans.

My eyes widen and I choke on my sandwich. "Dal, you kill people with heaters." Ponyboy says through a mouthful of food.

"Don't worry it ain't loaded." Dally replies as he spins the chamber, showing the empty spots where the bullets go.

"Hey, mister!" A child starts running up to Dally's car. Dally lets out a low curse, and he slams the gun back into his waistband just as the child stops in front of his car door. "Do you have fifteen cents?" The little girl questions.

"Nah, I don't have any, man." Dally replies without looking at the kid.

"Are you sure?" The girl asks.

"No, please go away we're busy here. Go away." Dally tells the kid.

I roll my eyes "Come here, Hon." I call to the girl, waving her over. Her face brightens and she runs over to my side of the car. I dig in my pockets, pulling out two dimes. "There, an extra five cents too." I smile up at her putting the change into her hand.

She closes her fist around the money, giving me a wide grin. "Thank you, miss." She chirps before running off.

Dally scoffs, rolling his eyes and grumbling something under his breath.

"What got something to say?" I ask, glaring at Dally.

"Nothing, I just thought you'd be smarter with your money since you're unemployed now." Dally replies cooly.

I sneer at him, I didn't want Ponyboy to know I was jobless.

"You lost your job?" Ponyboy questions from the back.

I sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose "It's complicated." I tell him. "Oh, I have some good news. It's about the whole Soc thing." I add desperate to get off the subject of my job.

"Yeah, what is it?" Ponyboy asks, even Dally looks curious.

"Beatrice talked to Cherry, and they're gonna testify in the trial that the Socs were drunk and that you guys acted in self-defense." I explain.

"We're going back to turn ourselves in." Johnny speaks up, his words muffled by the food in his mouth.

"What?" Dally questions, turning around and tapping his ear as if he didn't hear him correctly.

"We'll get let off easy. It was self-defense; Angie just said Cherry and Bea would testify, and I won't say that you helped us. I'll give you back that gun so you won't get in any trouble."

"No, no, no," Dally cuts Johnny off, shaking his head, his brows scrunched up as he faces the front again. He's quiet before he finally speaks "Are you sure? That's what you want to do?" He questions in disbelief.

"Of course, man. It ain't fair to Darry, Angie, and Soda worrying about Ponyboy all of the time." —Johnny pauses to take a sip of his soda— "I mean my folks might be worried about me."

"Yeah well, the boys are worried. You know Two-Bit wanted to go to Texas to look for you?" Dally says. I remember before Dally and I got pulled to the station, Dally came by and told me to tell the cops that the boys went to Texas to steer them away from Pony and Johnny. He only told me, the others couldn't know to keep them as far away from this mess as we could.

"I just wanna know, did my parents ask about me?" My heart tightens at the hope in Johnny's voice.

I almost punched Dally from his response, "No, they didn't, and so what? My old man doesn't care if I get in a car wreck or drunk or in jail or something. He doesn't care. But that doesn't bother me none." He tells Johnny.

Johnny is quiet in the backseat, and I glare at Dally, shaking my head. Dally looks behind him to face Johnny. "It's fine, man. You're not goin' anywhere." Johnny is still quiet and Dally sucks his bottom lip into his mouth, his knee bouncing. "I'll get you a hangout— a hideout."

Again Johnny stays silent.

Dally mumbles something under his breath and starts the car, pulling out of Dairy Queen quickly as he speaks, "Johnny, you don't know what a few months of jail could do to you. I just don't wanna see anything bad happen to you like it happened to me. You understand?"

Johnny doesn't reply and the rest of the ride is silent.

I crinkle my nose at the smell of ash, and burning fills my nostrils, and my eyes widen when we get to the church.

Dally comes to a halt. The church is on fire.

The sounds of children screaming send me flying out of the car, ignoring Dally's protests.