street fights

halfway normal

Tessa's POV *one week later*

I was able to sit up more on the bed. Not fully, but a little bit. Dallas was sitting next to me and although my pain killers wore off, I was still enjoying myself.

"What's the date today?" I asked.

"17th. Still June." He muttered.

"Wait, isn't the rumble tonight?" I asked.

"Yeah, but I hate to break it to ya, but you aren't fighting in that."

"I might not be able to, but you can." I mumbled.

"I'm not just gonna leave you here to go beat up a bunch of self entitled rich kids."

I sighed. "I know you want to. I'll be alright by myself. I promise."

"Tessa..."

"Dallas, go. I'll be ok. I promise. I know you want to. Don't waste your time. I'm gonna go to sleep soon, anyway."

"You sure?" He asked, sitting up more.

"Yes, Dallas go." I said with a laugh. "I'll be fine. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Oh, yes! Bye, Tessa. You're the best!" He kissed me and ran out of the room to get down to the park.

I laughed as he bolted out. I really was ok with him leaving. I wished I could be there, but I was sore and I was ok with going to bed.

But I guess that's not how it works. It's almost worse then Bucks.

I mean, I'm up till late at night and all I smell is old people and medicine. It sucks.

Dallas stopped my after the rumble and they kicked the Socs butts. Greasers won and Socs gotta stay off our territory from now on.

Damn motorcycle accident. I wish I coulda been there. Hell, it may not have made a difference, but I could have done something.

Dallas was in the hospital with me everyday for as long as he could. The guys came over a little bit too. Ponyboy was second behind Dally. But everyone came which made me feel like I wasn't a complete friendless loser.

I went home the next week and I was stuck in a wheel chair. They asked me to take home pain medications and take one a day, but I couldn't. I didn't want Dallas seeing them. It's all I could think of when he was in the hospital with me.

Is he gonna find drugs?

Is this really why he's here?

I haven't seen any in a while. Hell, I guess I never saw any since the day we got to this damn town. But it still always worried me.

If he was able to hide it then, whose to say he can't hide it now?

I practically had to force them not to give them to me. But I couldn't tell them why.

Although I didn't really leave bed much. I just felt no point. Like I was in some deep spiral of depression and agony.

I felt ridiculous being in a wheel chair. Dallas told me to just suck it up so we can go places, but I couldn't. I was too... what's the word... bitter? I felt ridiculous.

More time when on and my stitches got to come out and my ribs healed to a full. My arm was close to being healed, but I had one more leg surgery I had to deal with. It was ridiculous.

But after five months, my arm was healed! I've also been doing physical therapy on my leg. That meant I could start using crutches! Hey, it wasn't great, but boy was it better than scooting my ass around in a chair!

I walked out of the hospital with my crutches and a grin on my face. Dallas hasn't found out the news yet that I'm done with the chair.

"Good morning." I muttered to the bus driver as I put a coin in the slot.

I heard a group of Socs boys laugh as I walked past them. I took it amongst myself to "accidentally" hit one of them with my crutches.

"Oops. Sorry." I said with a fake grin.

It shut them up, but it probably would cause some problems for me down the road. I knew it would.

But in the moment, I didn't really care. I was having a great day. I stopped close to the Curtis' house, because I knew that's where everyone was and I wanted to show everyone I was able to stand up decently now.

I walked up to the door and sighed before I opened it. "Surprise!" I yelled.

Everyone looked over and I grinned as they all stood up. "You can kinda walk!" Ponyboy yelled.

"Yep. Finally got my cast off my arm today and I got passed to use crutches. Not the greatest thing in the world, but it's better." I said with a grin.

"That's awesome, Tessa. Congrats. I was just gonna go back to Bucks and see if you wanted to go to lunch with us." Dallas said. "You down?"

"Sure, but it still takes me a while to move around..." I muttered.

"It's alright. We've got time. Let's go!" Two-Bit yelled. I grinned at his enthusiasm.

We walked down, very slowly, to the diner closest to the house and we all sat down. I threw the crutches to the ground and groaned.

"It feels so weird to move my arm again. I can do so much more!" I said with a grin.

"We haven't really seen ya the past couple months. All we had was Dallas to make sure you were ok." Sodapop said.

"Yeah, I'm sorry 'bout that. I mean, I felt so stupid. Like I was so vulnerable and I hated that I had to rely on everyone else for stuff. So I woulda just rather stayed home."

"Well, we're glad you're back out and moving." Darry said.

"Yep. I can eat waffles like a normal person now with a fork and a knife." I said with a laugh.

We all laughed and joked around while enjoying a lunch out. It felt great.

I felt like I was almost myself again.

I was finally... well... normal. Maybe more just halfway normal. I still couldn't really walk.

But in a few months, my leg is gonna be healed. I'm gonna be able to walk. I'll be able to do everything I missed out on doing from the past year.

I can't believe I took walking for granted.