The Outsiders: And the girl from the future

Waking up in hell.

AMBER'S P.O.V.

My eyes fluttered open. Memories came flooding back to me. Pony. Where is Pony? I was just walking with him.... Then he got hit. Then I got hit. My head throbbed and I was pretty confused.

It was dark and I was sitting on the floor. One of my hands was tied to a pipe in the corner. The rope was tied really tight and it hurt my hand giving it rope burn every time I moved. The room was carpeted and there was no furniture. It was really musty smelling and there were no windows so I could tell that I was in someone's basement. My eyes adjusted to the light and I could make out a light bulb hanging from the ceiling and the only other object in the room was a folding chair in the opposite corner of the room. I got scared. This was crazy, the kinda stuff that only happens in movies. This wasn't real. Who took me? Why?

I thought real hard. My head hurt so bad it was hard to think. I could hear footsteps upstairs but no one coming down the stairs. I was getting frustrated because I couldn't think straight. I laid my head back on the wall I was next to and closed my eyes. Hopefully, someone will come. Actually, I don't know if I want someone to come. I don't know... I can't even think of who would do this.

Then it came to me. I know who did this! But before I could fully comprehend my realization, I fell asleep against the cold wall, in someone's dark, musty basement. 

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*Smack!*

My head jolted to the right and my cheek stung. A lot of people had hit me before, but this was an angry slap, a bitch slap if you will.

I let out a small yelp and turned to look at who had slapped me. The light bulb was turned on so the room was bright with a unshaded light. There stood a girl I didn't know. She had bleached-blonde hair tied back into a tight high pony-tail. She wore a bright pink spaghetti strap tank top and a short, skanky denim skirt. A cigarette hung out of her mouth which was painted with bright red lipstick. Her eyes had poorly done eye makeup making her resemble a raccoon, and her blush was too heavily applied. She looked about seventeen and had hard, cold eyes. Kind of like Dally's.

"Candy!" A voice yelled from the poorly lit doorway. "I never said you could come down here." 

"Candy" looked back in the direction of the voice, then back at me. She gave me an ugly smile and took a long drag on her cigarette. "Sorry hun, I just wanted to see the skank running around with the littlest Curtis."

I didn't really know that the Curtis' were so well known by everyone. But.... they were all drop-dead gorgeous, and the nicest people I've ever met, so they are bound to get some attention.

I heard heels start to click on the ground and the echoey noise made me shutter. Then a girl I knew well stepped into the light. It all hit me like a truck. Kimberly. "Sorry about that Amber, my older sis here is a little- how should I put this? Fiercer." Kimberly said then spitting in my general direction.

Thoughts rushed through my mind and I couldn't grasp any. Until I focused on one thing, like an anchor. Ponyboy.  I took a deep breath and tried to relax. "So this is what you do when the boy you like gets a new girl? Get rid of her?"

Kimberly looked annoyed and popped her hip. She went to the corner and dragged the folding chair over to in front of me. She then proceeded to take the cigarette out of Candy's hand and take a long breath of smoke. Candy walked out of the room, leaving us alone. "I've liked Pony since the first grade, and he likes me." She made eye contact with me then took another drag on her smoke. "Then in the eighth grade, we got together. We were happy. I loved him and he loved me, and it showed." Kimberly looked at the wall as she pondered in deep thought. "We were together until the end of ninth grade when for some reason, he broke it off." 

I had gathered the nerve to say something. "If he broke it off you get over it, not take out the competition!" I said a little louder than I meant. "You're crazy!" I shouted as loud as I meant. "Who does this?! You're crazy!" I repeated because that's all I was thinking. She bent down and slapped me hard on the face in the same place Candy had moments earlier. "Girls are so much meaner in the 60's" I mumbled as I regained my posture. 

Kimberly continued, "He didn't totally break up with me.... When he told me we needed space, he said he would come back, that he would take his break, and come back to me." Kimberley looked distressed. She looked reckless, like someone who was about to do something irrational. Someone who had gotten really hurt and tried to build themselves back up but missed a piece. "He was my lab partner, he would hold my hand under the table and give me kisses when the teacher wasn't looking. We were in love, that was love if I ever felt it."

I then remembered that Pony said something about them being lab partners... But he had hesitated, acted as if he didn't know who she was completely. Is that what he would do with me? After he was done with me he would act as if it ever happened? He said I was the first girl he really cared about. What about Kimberly? Maybe she wasn't as crazy as I thought, maybe she was just hurting. Then again, she did have me tied up in her basement, so she obviously wasn't "Playing with a full deck".

"I'm sorry he did that to you, but Ponyboy is just one guy, you are on the cheer team, you could get any boy you wanted," I said to her.

"Except Pony, the only boy I actually want is the only boy I can't have." She looked back at me with anger and sadness in her eyes. 

I felt a ting of pity and gave her a sympathetic look. She stood up and her sad face turned back into cold, hard, and hurt. She put her cigarette between her fingers. She knelt down and looked me straight in the eyes. "Don't give me your pity, I don't want it!" She pressed her red-hot cigarette to my cheek and held it there while I squirmed, wanting to let out a scream. I reached up to hit her with my free hand, but she pulled away quicker than I could react. "If I can't have Ponyboy Curtis, no one can!" She said taking the cigarette, throwing it at me and walking out of the room. The cliche saying would have made me laugh if my cheek wasn't burning. She flicked the light off as she left, leaving me in the dark basement room, silently crying. 

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I let myself cry a little longer until I sniffed and wiped my tears. I needed to get out of here. I could take her physically, but I think the best plan would be just to run. I looked at the rope binding me to the pipe. It was tied tight, but in a few areas, it was thin. Thin enough to rip. I was weak though, and I couldn't see. I don't think I'll be able to rip it soon enough- soon enough before she comes back.