reckless 【 the outsiders 】

fifteen.

"California? With all those surfer guys who grow their hair longer than yours and listen to The Beach Bums?"

Leigh chuckled and nodded, looking directly at Dally from where she was lying on her bed. "Chill out, Winston, It's a work thing. I'll probably barely even leave the hotel."

"Yeah but it's gonna be months."

It's finally summertime. Leigh turned eighteen about a month ago which meant she was finally able to take part in the seasonal summer job that took many of the hotel dancers halfway across the country. She'd heard stories about summers in California from many of her coworkers and couldn't wait to finally experience it herself. She was meant to spend the first six weeks in summer school. Everyone knew she wouldn't be caught dead in summer school and she was completely content with a future status of high school dropout. She was pumped but it meant spending two months away from Dallas. He wasn't pleased in the slightest. They'd been together nearly six months now and two of those months were spent separate, Dally felt like he just got her back even though it's been a month since he's gotten out of the cooler.

"I can't say no, my boss got me this job." Leigh stood up and even though her boyfriend was upset at the news, she couldn't help but be excited, she knew he just was gonna miss being around her. She walked over to where he was messing with the little trinkets on her dresser and wall, simply trying to distract himself from what was going on, and grabbed his hands, holding them close to her. "It's a huge deal for me and I'm the youngest one who's gonna be doin' it."

"Why'd he want you to do it anyway?" He was slowly pulling his hands away from her and took a seat.

"'Cause I'm one of the best he's got. His words, not mine."

"What about your friends or somethin', they don't care?"

"My friend is only upset because I don't get a plus one to bring her with me."

"And your dad? Brothers? No one wants you to stay?"

"It is a little scary how little people care about me, huh? No, no one wants me to stay." She chuckled again and thought about her dad's reaction. He had only known she was dancing for real for a few months but he supported anything that would get his kids out of their small city. "And it's all expense paid, my dad went with me to pick out new clothes for it. Not to mention, he doesn't like you very much so it also helps that I'll be away from you."

"He don't even know me."

"Exactly."

"He ain't gonna forbid me from seein' you or somethin'?"

"No, he says it won't last too long so it don't matter." She laughed even though Dallas looked a little bothered by it. She focused some of her restless energy on replacing everything he had moved. "If you wanna meet him, you can stay a few more hours. I never asked because you don't seem like you meet parents."

"Never have." He already had it in mind, he'd be staying until her dad got home. He had no idea what he'd be doing but would just stay with her. "When are you supposed to leave?"

"This weekend. Friday."

"Two days?"

"Guess so," she shrugged, now facing him and walking towards where he was sitting.

"You're tellin' me that you're going halfway across the country and you're going in two days."

"Well... yeah." She'd been working on the way she would react based on a number of reactions he could've had. All of that went out the window and she, instead, did a nervous giggle and stood behind him, wrapping her arms around him the way she knew he liked it and kissing his forehead.

"You know that ain't gonna work this time," he grumbled, crossing his arms.

"What do you mean? I'm not doing anything, sweets," Leigh mumbled against his skin, leaving a trail of kisses between each word.

"Why wouldn't you tell me sooner?"

"Well, you wouldn't have wanted me to go so I figured I'd tell you when it was too late and you couldn't really try and talk me into staying."

He rolled his eyes and sighed and she didn't know how she should take that. He didn't seem upset, especially not as upset as she thought he'd be, so she had no idea what to do. "Wanna help me pack?"

"Why?"

She smirked, slightly and walked around him, grabbing his hand and pulling him to her closet. "Because you can tell me what you think I should pack. It's a few months so I'll obviously need, like, one bag?"

"Just take the whole closet, I don't care."

"Oh," she said, biting her lip and looking through her bottoms. "So you don't mind if I take these, right?" She giggled as he eyed his least favorite pair of shorts that she was holding up to her waist in front of her lounging shorts.

"Who are you even gonna wear those for?"

"Myself. Maybe to the beach."

"You said you wouldn't leave the hotel."

She rolled her eyes, throwing those shorts as well as a few more pairs of shorts and pants onto her bed. "Well are you gonna take me to the beach?" she asks, not giving him any time to respond. "No? Exactly."

"I could."

"You don't even wanna dance with me, why would you take me to the beach?"

"Dancin' is stupid." He realized quickly that those weren't the words he should've said as he could see her negative change in body language. Dallas tried to fix his obvious mistake the moment he noticed. "No, it's not."

"Out of everything you've ever said to me, that's easily the worst."

"I meant to say dancin' is not stupid."

"This is the one thing I'm good at and you think it's a joke."

"Leigh, I don't."

Dallas didn't have a passion. The only thing he thought he could love was Leigh so he didn't understand why it was such a big deal to her. The boy didn't understand why but he knew it was very important so he also knew he'd have to either try really hard or let Leigh be angry until she tired herself out. "You do and I knew you didn't care about it, obviously, but it's much better when you don't call it stupid right to my face."

"I didn't mean it, alright? It slipped out."

"It wouldn't have slipped out if you hadn't thought it." Leigh closed her closet door roughly and involuntarily began pacing back and forth.

"Can you cool it, please?"

"No, Dallas, I can't. What if I told you that your friends were stupid? Would you be cool? If--if I told you I couldn't stand being around Two-Bit or Johnny?"

Before either of the two could get any more heated, they heard the door, followed by a familiar voice--for Leigh, at least. "Leigh-Ann Autumn Sawyer, are you home?"

edited 12-29-21