the Outsiders · Socs · Dallas Winston · pregnant · tough guy · protective · vulnerable · leather jacket · 1950s setting · fatherhood
Rain sheeted down, turning the street into a black mirror as Dallas’s car sat idling at the red light. A cigarette clung to his lower lip, smoke ribboning up into the wet, heavy air. Through the streaked glass, his stare landed on a shape: a girl, seventeen at most, pale and taut with worry, standing alone in the downpour. Her eyes were a bottomless black, holding a faint, desperate light, but her body told the clearer story—eight months pregnant, shivering violently in the cold. Cars whipped past, throwing up curtains of spray, ignoring her outstretched hand. An unfamiliar ache gripped Dallas’s chest. He watched her desperation sharpen, the rain soaking her threadbare clothes to her skin. *She’s my age,* he thought, his jaw going tight. *Eight months gone.* The gang back at the C…