Keep On Trying by Another Illusion

Summary: Dealing with the deaths of two friends, Two-Bit uses all his wit to try and keep his remaining friends together, and on meeting someone within detention realises the importance of family and friendship to get through these difficult times. Two-Bit, OMC, OFC 3rd person POV

A.N-I’m British so use British spelling and terminology, which you may know by now! Thanks as ever to my betas and all my reviewers.

Disclaimer: I do not own Two-Bit or any of the characters created by S E Hinton, or ‘Don’t Get Me Wrong’ by ‘The Pretenders’.

Ten: Lunchtime Surprises and The Date

“Don’t get me wrong/ if I come and go like fashion/ I might be great tomorrow/ but hopeless yesterday ...”

It was the break between fourth and fifth period and Two-Bit was making his way to his locker to put away his books. It had been a particularly dull French lesson and only Woodshop would help him recover from it.

“Hi,” a voice said as he opened his locker. Filled with ominous memories of Annette accosting him the week before, he tried to work out who it was before he turned around.

“Hey,” he said and saw Bonnie waiting awkwardly as he shut his locker.

“Hi,” she said, smiling but looking nervous at the same time.

“Hey Bonnie, are you okay?” he asked dutifully.

She nodded. “I was just wondering about tonight. I mean, with everything that’s gone on, I-” the girl was really struggling to find the words and Two-Bit felt really sorry for her. She avoided his gaze and instead looked at the floor.

“Well,” he said uncertainly. Was this her nervous yet polite way of saying ‘screw you, I’m done with this’ or ‘do you still want to go out? “Maybe --I mean, if you-- y’know?”

“Yeah?” She smiled again, this time more relaxed. “So, it’s okay?” What was okay? Two-Bit nodded his head, still as uncertain of his plans tonight as he had been when they started talking. “I really didn’t know how to say that, or start the conversation at all."
He nodded in silent agreement which masked his silent confusion and leaned against the lockers. “So?”

“Can you pick me up?” she asked. So, it was still on. Two-Bit grinned in relief. “Do you know where I live?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Right, its-” The bell rang and she sighed. “Can I just tell you in English? I really have to get to Gym. Coach gets really annoyed if we’re late and I can’t be stuck with detention today.”

Two-Bit grinned. “No problem, see you in English.”

She smiled and sighed in relief. “See you,” she said, walking away from Two-Bit. He waited for a moment, reflecting on what had just happened.

Perhaps he hadn’t screwed everything up as badly as he had thought.

Two-Bit sighed as he compared two candy bars critically; one tasted better, but the other was cheaper. He smirked and quickly placed the more expensive bar in his right pocket and decided to buy the cheaper one.

“So you’re seeing her tonight?” Steve asked, casually picking up a bottle of soda.

“Yeah,” he replied. “I’m picking her up at seven.”

“Nice. Any plans?”

“Not really, just playing it by ear, y’know. ” He was thinking about taking her to get something to eat and then maybe catching a movie or something.

Steve nodded and looked out of the shop window. “Shit.” Two-Bit turned around and tried to see what was going on.

A group of Socs were walking over to Steve’s car, and they sure didn’t look happy. “What do they want?”

“If they fucking touch my car-” he began.

“I don’t think they’re after your car,” Two-Bit said quietly. “You got anything on you?”

“Only some busted pipe in my car. You?”

Two-Bit put his hand in his left pocket and felt his stolen blade. “Yeah,” he said, reluctantly and discreetly taking out the blade. Steve looked at him strangely, as if he could see what it was replacing, but didn’t say anything. They didn't talk about what had happened the night Dally had taken Two-Bit's knife, it was a new, unspoken rule.

“Does Pony have anything?” Steve asked. They moved closer to the doorway and saw Pony smash a pop bottle.

“He does now,” Two-Bit said quietly as they both looked at one another darkly.

“Fucking hell,” Steve said, shaking his head. “That ain’t Pony.” It wasn’t; the kid who had just scared off a pack of Socs was not the fourteen year old dreamer that they knew. Johnny and Dally had really left things screwed up and once again anger and resentment flared up in Two-Bit.

“You go pay, Steve. I’m going to talk to Pony,” he said, walking out slowly and hoping that the kid would listen to him, despite a strong feeling that he would not.

There was no point getting like Dally, he wasn’t someone to aspire to be like, in life or death. Dally had lived and died sad and piteous; that was the truth, even if no one around him recognised it or admitted it.

Two-Bit locked his Plymouth carefully and exhaled for a moment before he looked for Bonnie’s house.

Bonnie lived in a fairly middle class area; on a street where Two-Bit thought every house looked exactly the same. Two-Bit could see her brother’s Pontiac parked in the driveway, boy was that a tuff car. He was still thinking about what had happened at lunch with Pony but tried to shake it from his mind. Steve and Two-Bit had talked about it before class briefly, Steve was also worried about the kid. Two-Bit wondered whether it would be a good idea to talk to Soda, Soda could probably get through to him.

He shook his head, and walked up and knocked on the door carefully, praying that her family was out because he hated the interrogation from a girl’s family on a first date. But then again, by the sounds of it, Bonnie hardly had a standard family.

The door opened quickly and Two-Bit smiled as Bonnie looked at him happily. “You’re here, great. I am ready, but I just need to sort something out. I won’t be a minute, d’you wanna wait in the kitchen?”

No. No, he did not, he could hear people talking from there and wanted to avoid her family at all costs. “I-”

“Will you come in? It’s freezing outside and you’re bringing in a draft,” she said suddenly, ushering him inside, not giving him a chance to speak. “Kitchen’s down the corridor, I won’t be long, I promise,” she said, darting upstairs.

He loitered for a moment, not wanting to go into the kitchen and not sure what to do. He could hear piano --classical and Socy-- playing in one room to the left. The house looked just as he had expected; it was clean and looked like it had been decorated recently. There were some photos on the hallway; Bonnie as a kid with a teenage boy--Dale, he suspected-- then one from what looked like a couple of years ago with both her brothers, and then a recent photo of all three of them.

Luckily, she returned swiftly and smiled broadly at him as she pulled a black jacket on. “I just need to get my keys, is that okay?” she said, walking towards the kitchen. So, despite his best efforts he would still have to meet whoever was in the kitchen.

As they walked into the kitchen, two guys looked up and Two-Bit recognised them both. The younger one was the guy who had been seeing Bonnie after lessons and who worked at the record store and the older one had glared at him what felt like weeks ago.

“Hey guys, I’m off now,” Bonnie said, clearly oblivious of the looks Two-Bit was getting. Hell, if looks could kill Two-Bit would probably be dead now.
"Hang on a second, sis, I just want to talk to Two-Bit for a while," the younger one said and Two-Bit felt sick, this was not a good sign.

“Marty, do you have to be like this?” she asked desperately.

"I'm just watching out for my little sister," Marty said, his eyes still on Two-Bit.

"I'm older than you! You can't say that, only Dale can," she indignantly replied. Two-Bit grinned, she looked like she was about to stamp her feet or something overly dramatic like that. He felt bad for her, clearly she was really upset her brothers were giving her and Two-Bit a hard time. He would have to win them over.

"Fine, Shorty," Marty said simply. Bonnie scowled at him and awkwardly played with her keys. “Look, wait somewhere else. Dale and I wanna talk with him, that’s all. I promise he will stay in one piece … for the moment.”

Bonnie looked at Two-Bit with wide eyes. “I-”

“It doesn’t matter,” he lied. “I’ll just get to know your brothers a bit, okay?” He was going to be murdered, they were going to kill him and then tell Bonnie he had fell and hit his head on the table.

Bonnie looked nervous but smiled at Two-Bit. “Don’t worry, their bark is worse than their bite.” With her words ringing around the room she quickly left.

Two-Bit looked at the two men and stuffed his hands in his pocket awkwardly. “Interesting tattoo there,” he said, pointing at a cross tattoo on Marty’s shoulder. The kid must have been insane, it was freezing cold and he was wearing an t-shirt with the sleeves cut off and jeans, but didn’t even look bothered about it.

“Yeah? Dale’s got one too,” Marty said casually. Two-Bit resisted the jokes and comments that were coming to mind and bit his lip instead, hoping that that would stop him opening his mouth.

Dale took a step forward and Two-Bit had to resist taking a step back. “Look, we need to know a few things. Bonnie doesn’t always think things through like she should, and to be honest, I think going out with a guy who made her cry because he just ignored her is not a good idea."

“I get that, Dale,” Two-Bit said slowly, thinking of a way to try and sort the whole mess out. "I've got a younger sister, so I get where you both are coming from here.I'm not going to jerk Bonnie around, I'm not that kind of guy. I may have screwed up earlier, but I was more shocked than anything and handled it like an ass. Y'know, it's not like she even gave me any signs, any kind of a warning."

“Can you blame her?”

“Hell, I don’t know; but I tell you this, it would have been a lot better to hear from her than as gossip.”

“Yeah?” Dale said, slouching against his chair. “I won’t bother to tell you not to hurt my sister again, it’s pretty clear and it’s not an empty threat. I would hunt you down if you so much as made her frown.”

“I hear you,” he said, not particularly wanting to prolong this interrogation.

“Alright, alright,” Dale said. “Um … look after my sister tonight.”

Two-Bit nodded and looked at Marty for a moment who was looking at him menacingly, spinning a knife on the counter. That kid was clearly insane and Two-Bit told himself never to be in a room alone with him.

Two-Bit nodded and quickly walked out of the back door where Bonnie was waiting.

“I survived,” he said happily.

She smiled. “Glad to hear it."

Bonnie was embarrassed, more embarrassed than she had been in a long time. She desperately tried to work out a way of rectifying the situation after her brothers' behaviour as she pulled her seatbelt on in Two-Bit's Plymouth. Maybe she could say they were just joking, or acting --yes, she could say they were in a play, although they hardly looked the acting type with their tattoos.

"I am so sorry," she said quickly. “They haven’t liked all my boyfriends.”

“It’s not a problem,” he lied, pulling out of the street as quickly as, Bonnie suspected, was humanly possible. She suspected it was a problem though, she could tell by his reaction that he was probably now wondering how many boyfriends she had had. She bit her lip, worried she had made herself sound like something she wasn't.

“So, what’s the plan?” she asked.

“Plan? Who said anything about a plan?” he asked, laughing. “I thought we could go get something to eat at this diner I know, I thought the Dingo would be a little too wild for you.”

“Did you now?” Bonnie asked, narrowing her eyes.

“Trust me, if the crap food doesn’t kill you then my friends will probably turn up and embarrass the hell outta both you and me.” Bonnie nodded, trying to decipher some deeper meaning from his words. Did he mean that he was ashamed of her? She nervously played with her seatbelt and worried about whether her hair looked okay.

“So we’re going to a diner?”

“Not a diner, the diner,” he said, grinning. “They do great burgers there. You eat burgers, right?”

“Yeah,” she said, shaking her head and smiling. “I eat burgers.”

“Trust me, they’re the best burgers this side of Oklahoma.”

“Well, now I have to try them,” she said lightly, hoping her nerves wouldn’t get the best of her. As much as she loved going out with a guy, the pressure of trying to get ready was overwhelming and perhaps why she didn’t do it that often. She had spent ages carefully selecting the right outfit, making sure that it gave out the right message and then trying to make herself look as good as possible, which felt like quite a feat.

She sighed and looked out of the car window. It was hard to see anything though because the car needed washing. She exhaled, it would all be fine.

The diner wasn’t too crowded thankfully, but there was still enough of a crowd for Two-Bit to feel assured that they could have a fairly private conversation.

They were taken to a booth in the corner by a waitress named Caroline who glared at Two-Bit and wore too strong perfume. She wore bright red tacky lipstick and reminded of Two-Bit of how some of those pretty blondes he had dated could end up.

Two-Bit tried to think about what would have warranted that glare, maybe he had dated one of her daughters or something.

Bonnie looked at him nervously. The girl looked slightly terrified and Two-Bit wondered if she dated much or not.

“She was nice,” she commented coolly when Caroline left.

“Aw well, the food is still good. You hungry?”

“Oh, yeah! My parents are working late so when it’s just the three of us, it’s a free-for-all when it comes to food, and being the short girl, I always get the raw end of the deal.”

Two-Bit smiled. “You get on well with your brothers, don’t you?”

She nodded and smiled. “It doesn’t mean they aren’t annoying sometimes though. I am so sorry-"
“Forget about it. Now I see why my sister doesn’t want me to meet her boyfriend,” he said, still feeling very disturbed by the fact he was using sister and boyfriend in the same sentence.

A different waitress came to their table, at least this one was smiling.

“Hi,” she said brightly. “Are you ready to order?”

“I … are you ready, Bonnie?”

“Yeah, I think so,” she said. “Could I have a cheeseburger with fries, please, and a coke?”

“Sounds good, I’ll have the same,” Two-Bit said, grinning at the waitress as she nodded, scribbled something down and then walked away.

He quietly wondered about how he could ask her about herself without sounding dull.

“My brothers weren’t too bad, were they?” she asked quietly.

“No,” he lied quickly. “They were just doing what they thought best.”

“They do that a lot, it doesn’t mean it’s right though. I am so sorry, Two-Bit.”

“You’ve already said that. It’s fine, honestly.”

“Thanks, Two-Bit,” she said gratefully, twirling a strand of her dark hair in her fingers. “You’re friends with those guys who work at the DX, aren’t you? I thought I saw you with one of them.”

“Steve? Yeah, I’m friends with him and Soda.” Two-Bit felt some sudden dread, was this where she would confess true love for the perfect Sodapop Curtis?

“That’s cool. My friend has a huge crush on Soda, it’s kind of funny actually.”

“Yeah?”

“Anyway, that’s probably boring to you. ”

“It’s fine,” he said casually. He wanted to just continue some type of small-talk with her for as long as possible, he did like her but he felt stumped for something to say.

Their food arrived fairly quickly and they continued their conversations for a while, Two-Bit managed to engineer a few of his best jokes in the conversation and they went down well. Bonnie seemed happy and Two-Bit was having a good time so he was not too worried about how the night was going, it had actually been pretty enjoyable.

“You were right,” she said, looking down at her empty plate. “The food here is really good.”

“I told--”

"Bitch," Bonnie suddenly said, her voice was uncharacteristically hard and venemous, completely at odds with how Two-Bit thought of her.

“I think I missed something there, Bonnie.”

“She is a bitch, pure and simple,” Bonnie said pointing at a woman walking into the diner, with some guy on her arm. She was too old to be some sort of rival for Bonnie, the woman looked about thirty with blonde hair that Two-Bit could tell came from a salon, not nature.

“Who is she?” he asked dubiously

“That’s Sharon; Dale’s ex, and that guy with her right there is Dale’s former best friend,” she darkly said. Two-Bit raised his eyebrows. He tried not to smile as he instantly remembered Steve’s tale of Soda’s date with a different Sharon, or at least he hoped she was a different Sharon.

“And I’m guessing you don’t like her?”

“She cheated on my brother with his best friend. Dale, he takes a long time to trust anybody and she betrayed him, so yeah, I really don’t like her. She left him with a kid and he’s had to pretty much sacrifice everything.”

“Understandable,” Two-Bit said, thinking of Darry who had also given up a lot for his brothers. Two-Bit wished Pony would see that, the kid was smart, so much smarter than Two-Bit could ever be, but he could be really dense when it came to the important stuff.

“Anyway, I’m sorry, I just exploded a little there.”

“It’s fine,” he said cautiously.

Bonnie shook her head. “There’s a lot of drama, huh?”

“Trust me, you haven’t met my friends,” he said, smiling.

Bonnie walked through the back door carefully. She had had a really good time with Two-Bit, he was funny and nice and she was starting to really like him.

“Good time?” someone asked from the kitchen doorway.

“Yes, but no thanks to you, Dale,” she said, sighing loudly.

“Hey, I just wanted to do my duty,” he said, turning the kitchen light on and walking over to her.

“Well, can you be nice next time?”

“Will there be a next time?” he asked, grinning.

“I don’t know,” she said, “but I would like there to be.” Dale nodded and sat down, running a hand through his hair.

Bonnie hovered on the spot, wondering whether to tell him about what had happened with Sharon.

“Are you okay?” he asked, obviously sensing something else was on her mind.

“Yeah. Dale, I saw Sharon in the diner with Rob.” He looked at her suddenly and frowned.

“With Rob? Still?” he asked, surprised.

“Yeah, I’m sorry,” Bonnie said. “If it helps, I called her a bitch and completely worried Two-Bit.”

Dale smiled. “Did she say anything?” Bonnie shook her head. “I shouldn’t have expected her to. That bridge burned a while ago.” Dale sighed and shook his head, before standing up.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m going to try get some sleep. Night, sis,” he said turning away.

“Night, Dale,” Bonnie said, watching him walk away. He wasn’t wearing a top so the white scars on his back from his father and one too many bad foster homes were visible for once. She shuddered slightly, the scars always made her uncomfortable and it struck her as strange and wrong that she hardly minded the fact that Marty was scarred mentally, but seeing a scar on Dale made her feel sick. Maybe it was because she could fool herself with Marty that he was fine because she couldn't see the scars, but with Dale she could, so she had to face he had a past. Marty's past only came through thanks to his behaviour and the few, rare conversations about his life before coming to the Crosses.

She exhaled slowly and decided to have a glass of water before she went to bed. She could try and get a couple of hours sleep before seeing if Marty was up and finishing her homework. She probably would worry about how she had come across in the diner too much to get a lot of sleep anyway. It was going to be a long night.