Greasers featured in this chapter: all
w: slightcursingxbloodmentionxviolence
Tulsa had started to feel… settled.
Not home, exactly—but not foreign anymore either.
It had been just over a week since we moved in with Aunt Eloise, and while the house creaked more than our place back in Hart, there was something warm about it. Comfortable. The kind of place where you could breathe and not worry about breaking something expensive.
Will Rogers High wasn’t anything like the strict home school setup we were used to. It was loud, imperfect, and smelled vaguely like mop water and cheap cologne—but at least here, I could blend in. Be nobody for a while. Which was exactly what I wanted. I didn’t want anyone looking at me like I was different.
Especially when they saw my eyes.
The front gate squeaked louder than usual when Ivy pushed it open, and the sound made Sam wince like it personally offended her. We were all sweaty and tired, dragging our shoes through the gravel like it owed us something. School at Will Rogers wasn’t just draining—it felt like a slow test of survival. And it’d only been two weeks.
“Did you hear what that girl said to Ellie in the hallway?” Erin asked, her brows furrowed as she tugged open the front door. “Said her accent made her sound like a stuck-up weather girl.”
Ellie tossed her bag on the couch like she was too tired to care. “I am a stuck-up weather girl. At least in debate class.”
I smirked. At least she was still throwing jabs with style.
The house smelled like lemon cleaner and soup that had been reheated one too many times. Aunt Eloise was stretched out on the couch with a worn quilt draped across her legs, her thinning hair tied back in a scarf that used to be vibrant, now faded to soft pastels. Her skin looked paler today—almost gray beneath the usual layer of light foundation she still insisted on wearing.
“You girls home already?” she rasped, voice low and scratchy. “Felt like I just laid down.”
“That’s ‘cause you did,” Ivy mumbled, passing behind her on the way to the kitchen.
Eloise reached for the end table with trembling fingers. “Sammy,” she said softly, “would you do me a favor, sweetheart?”
Samantha appeared in the hallway arch, arms crossed like she always was when trying not to show concern. “Of course.”
“I’m not feeling up to it today… I was gonna go down to the pharmacy and pick up my prescription, but…” she trailed off, shaking her head like the thought alone tired her out.
“You want me to go?” Samantha asked.
“If you don’t mind. Just take the Galaxie—keys are on the hook. They’ll know what to give you at the counter. I already called ahead.” She shifted her eyes to me. “Kaia, why don’t you ride with her? You’ve barely been out of the house since Saturday.”
I blinked, caught off guard mid-boot removal. “Oh. Yeah. Sure.”
Samantha looked like she wanted to argue, but she didn’t. Her jaw tightened and she nodded. “We’ll go now. You need anything else while we’re out?”
“Just the meds,” Eloise whispered, pulling the quilt tighter. “And maybe a Coke if the machine outside ain’t broken.”
Samantha gave her a quick smile. “Want anything special for dinner?”
“Surprise me,” Eloise answered, eyes already fluttering closed. “And don’t speed in my car, alright?”
Sam caught the keys mid-air as Eloise tossed them. The moment had the rhythm of a practiced routine. She knew every scratch and hum that Galaxie made, and she walked toward it like it answered to her.
Aunt Eloise’s car was a ’63 teal Ford Galaxie 500 Boxtop. It still looked brand new—chrome shining like mirrors, interior smelling like mint and old pages. Driving it felt like stepping into a different era. It was the only thing Aunt Eloise had ever truly pampered. The only thing in her life that still looked exactly how she remembered it.
Samantha slid behind the wheel like she belonged there, and I climbed in beside her. The vinyl seat was cool and stiff beneath my legs.
“This car is way too smooth for this neighborhood,” I muttered as we pulled away from the curb.
Sam smirked. “Good. Let ‘em stare.”
The golden late-afternoon air in Tulsa had that heavy, warm stillness—the kind that settled on your shoulders like a damp towel. I watched the sky shift between bruised peach and fading blue. It made me quiet. Sam, too.
The pharmacy was uneventful. The woman behind the counter didn’t look at us long enough to remember us later. Just passed over the paper bag with a nod and turned back to her label printer. The bag crinkled like dry leaves when I set it in the floorboard.
We didn’t speak on the way back. The silence between us was the familiar kind. Not angry. Not even awkward. Just… space. Space she liked. Space I usually hated.
We were only a few blocks from the house when I saw movement.
“Sam,” I said suddenly, straightening up. “Slow down.”
She barely glanced at me. “What?”
“Isn’t that Erin’s classmate? Pony—something? I saw him and Erin walking the halls today at school. Wait—he’s running.”
She squinted. “From what?”
We both looked just in time to see him sprint across the sidewalk, clutching his side, glancing behind him.
A red convertible with chrome trim.
Five boys—Socs—climbed out laughing, shouting, chasing after him like a pack of wild dogs. You could tell by the way they moved, the cruel edge in their voices. It wasn’t just for fun. They wanted blood.
“Oh my god,” I breathed. “He’s getting jumped!”
“Kaia,” Samantha said sharply. “Stay in the car.”
“What? No! We’re stopping, right?”
“Sam—SAM. He’s just a kid!”
“I said stay in the car!” she barked, gripping the wheel tighter. She didn’t pull over. Just kept rolling forward, slow, like we were rubbernecking something far-off. But this wasn’t far off. This was happening right in front of us.
“They’ve got him on the ground!”
I reached for the handle.
“Don’t you dare open that door, Kaia.”
“I have to! We can’t just watch this happen—”
But before I could fully push the door open, she slammed on the brakes just enough to jolt me and gripped my wrist hard.
“Kaia—stop!” she hissed. “You’re gonna get us hurt. You think those boys wouldn’t come after us next? We don’t know him. He’s not our problem.”
“And so are you! Now, let it go!”
She just kept driving, slowly. You could see her hands gripping the wheel, like she so desperately wanted to help but didn’t budge.
My mouth opened, ready to scream at her, but then I saw them.
I twisted in my seat, watching as three guys came running up to the scene. One was wearing a red flannel shirt, he looked handsome, I mean, movie fucking star handsome. The other wore a denim cut off and looked mean. The other one was wearing a Mickey Mouse shirt. They were Greasers and they didn’t hesitate. They charged. An older looking greaser stayed back with Ponyboy, tending to him. The Socs started running back to their car once they saw the greasers pull up.
Then there was him. A fourth joined in on the small run in, he was wearing a dark brownish leather jacket like it was armor. He definitely looked tuff, and I don’t mean ‘tough’ I mean, Tuff. It was like something out of a damn movie—striking blonde, almost white hair, jaw set. The Socs looked more panicked once they saw the fourth one come out but the greasers still wailed on them while they were in the car. They started to back up, almost taking the guy in the denim cutoff as he held on to one of the Socs. The tuff looking one picked up a heavy tree branch and hurled it at the car. It hit the trunk with a crack, and I swear I saw one of the Socs flinch even from here. He hit it with justice and spat in their direction. It was impressive.
His eyes caught mine like a match to gasoline. Just a second. Just enough. His expression flickered—part challenge, part question.
I didn’t know what he saw in my face.
Slowly sank back into my seat like a coward.
Samantha drove off in silence.
My heart was beating like a drum, mouth dry with shame. The kind that doesn’t fade even when you tell yourself you didn’t have a choice.
“You shouldn’t have kept driving,” I said finally, barely a whisper.
“We did what we were supposed to,” Sam said.
“Doesn’t mean it was right.”
The Galaxie rumbled over a bump in the road. The plastic bag on the floor rustled again, like it was reminding me of who we were now. What we chose not to do.
I stared out the window, fingers curled in my lap.
“No,” I whispered. “But maybe we should’ve been the kind of people who stopped.”
We didn’t say another word on the drive back.
Not even when the street narrowed into the familiar curve leading to Aunt Eloise’s block. Not when the evening shadows crept longer over the sidewalks, or when a dog barked somewhere in the distance. Not even when Samantha pulled the Galaxie into the gravel driveway and cut the engine.
I just sat there, eyes fixed on the thin crack in the windshield, pretending it wasn’t my reflection staring back at me with shame in her face.
“Kaia,” Sam finally said, her voice low. Careful. “We’re home.”
I opened the door and stepped out without answering. Gravel crunched under my shoes like it was trying to bite me. The air was cooler now, but I still felt hot all over. Sick-hot. Guilt-hot.
I walked up the porch steps, letting the screen door slam behind me harder than I meant to. I didn’t even hear if Sam followed.
Eloise was dozing in her armchair, her breathing light and uneven beneath the hum of the old fan in the corner. Erin and Ivy were still at the kitchen table, flipping through magazines and eating the last of the stale cookies we brought from Hart.
“Hey, you’re back—” Erin started.
I walked right past them, down the hall, into the small shared bedroom, and shut the door behind me.
I sat on the edge of the bed, hands clenched in my lap, shaking.
He couldn’t have been more than fifteen. Maybe sixteen. He had blood running down his neck and dirt on his jaw, and he hadn’t even done anything. He was just there. And they were holding him down on the ground senseless for it.
I reached up and touched my face, wondering if I’d cry. I didn’t. Not yet. There was a soft knock at the door. Then another.
“Kaia?” Samantha’s voice came through. Not stern. Not bossy. Just… soft. Tired. “Can I come in?”
She opened the door anyway and stepped inside like she was walking into a hospital room. She closed it behind her, but didn’t come any closer.
“I didn’t want you to get hurt,” she said quietly.
I didn’t look at her. “But I didn’t care. I would’ve taken the risk.”
“Everything is dangerous, Sam,” I snapped, finally turning to face her. “But we watched him get attacked like it was a scene from a movie—and we drove away. You didn’t even let me try. You pulled me back like I was the one doing something wrong.”
Her mouth tightened, like she was swallowing her own words.
I stood up. “Do you even know how I feel right now? What it’s like to sit here after, to know I did nothing? To know I could have helped? You know, I can’t even tell Erin about this because I know she would freak out.”
“There were already people running in,” she said. “Greasers. They handled it. And I’m sure Erin will be alright. Just a bit worried for him.”
“That’s not the point,” I said, voice rising. “I saw something bad happening, and I wanted to do something. And you told me not to. You made me sit there and watch.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“You were trying to protect yourself.” The words came out before I could stop them. And God, they hurt.
Sam flinched. Her face didn’t fall exactly, but the light in her eyes dimmed like a bulb getting cut down to low.
“I didn’t mean—” I started, but stopped.
She looked down at her hands. “I keep thinking about it too.”
I didn’t expect her to say that.
“I keep seeing him,” she continued, quieter. “I keep wondering if we’d stopped sooner… if I hadn’t said anything… if maybe he wouldn’t have gotten hurt at all.”
The silence that followed made my throat burn.
She slowly stepped toward me and sat on the opposite bed. “I just… I’m not like you, Kaia. You jump in. You feel everything. I freeze. I think about the consequences before anything else. It’s not always right. But it’s who I am.”
I crossed my arms, chewing the inside of my cheek. “So that’s it?”
“No.” She looked at me then. Really looked. “That’s not it. I should’ve trusted you. I should’ve stopped.”
We both sat there, the quiet heavy and full of things we couldn’t take back.
“I don’t want to be someone who looks away,” I whispered. “I don’t want that to become a habit.”
“It won’t,” Sam said. Her voice was hoarse. “Not for you.”
I glanced out the window, where the sky had finally surrendered to dusk. Somewhere in the distance, a siren cried out—faint and fading. I didn’t know if it was for Ponyboy.
And that was enough to make me promise myself, right then and there: Next time… I ain’t staying in the car.
Damn, I really hope there isn’t a next time…
