Beach Babe | The Outsiders | Johnny Cade

| Oh | 44 |

"That's a very inspiring story, I'm glad your mom got out of that and got some money."

"Yeah me too." He takes a drink of his water "Did you win yours?"

I sigh "No, when the guy is the police chiefs son and the judge is his best friend it tends to not go in the victims favor I've learned."

"Aw I'm sorry."

I shiver, I really need to fix that damn window. "K I'm done bye." August drops his plate in the sink and disappears into his room. Rude! He is so dead later.

I roll my eyes "Don't mind him, he's just... he's been a little prick lately."

"Yeah Theo told me about that, is your boyfriend okay?" Theo talked about Johnny to him?

"Yeah he's alright. He's got a bad cut under his eye and he's been pretty jumpy lately, but yeah he's fine."

"That's good at least" he glance at Theo and smirks "So do you happen to have any baby pictures of Theo?"

Theo's face drops and he looks at me and shakes his head "Nope. No. We don't have any pictures.. at all actually. What's a camera?"

I laugh "Oh yeah I've got tons of pictures" Theo covers his face with his hands "I'll go get them." I go around the corner to a closet I've forgotten we even have. I remember mom putting a bunch of boxes in here and one of them being labeled 'Pictures'. I pulled on the light string and searched the boxes till I found the boxes and took out a few photo books, ones from when Theo would be 1-5. I walk back to the kitchen and Theo is still hiding his face while Davey is laughing at him. "Alright here they are" I set the books down on the table.

Theo groans "Stacy why must you do this to me." It's comes out muffled from under his hands

Davey grabs the book from when Theo was four and starts flipping through it. "Is that you and your dad?" He points to a picture of Theo riding on my dad's shoulders at a parade so he could see.

Theo peeks out from his hands and his face is red "Yeah, we all took turns on his shoulders so we could see." That was a good day, it was a lot of fun.

"That's cute... hey who's that?" He points to a picture of Theo and Rich building a sand castle on the beach.

"My older brother Richard, you remember me telling you about him?" Davey thinks for a minute then nods his head

"He was your twin right?" I nod "That's cool."

He flips through the remaining pictures, making jokes about Theo and Theo hiding his face and looking embarrassed. It's pretty funny to watch. Also something I noticed, Theo's wearing that sleeveless shirt and when did he get so much muscle? He's like ripped. It's insane. I don't like it. When he reaches the end of the book he moves on to another one, the one where Theo was five, and starts flipping through it.

He's about halfway through it when he lifts it up and a picture falls out, a picture that I'd hoped to never see again. A picture of me and Jesse. It was taken directly after the homecoming football game. It has me on my tiptoes kissing Jesse's cheek, still in my cheer uniform and him still in his football stuff. The chill that shoots through me is something no cold could ever produce.

Theo grabs it before I do and he quickly snatches it up and rips it up into tiny pieces then throws it away. But it's too late, the image and memory both fresh and on the top of my brain. That was a terrible night. I don't want to remember. So why is my brain replaying it?

"What was that?" Davey asks

I start shaking, I don't know why. "Nothing. Look I think it's time we went to bed, I hate to have you leave but it's getting late." Theo stands up and so does Davey, Theo walks him to the front and they talk at the door for a few minutes before he comes back. "Stacy? Stacy, the pictures gone. He can't hurt you. It's okay." He runs my back