Chapter Text
Dallas Winston slipped a small pack of chips into his pocket with the other snacks before making an attempt to walk out of the store. Unfortunately, that attempt failed.
“Hey!” He froze and looked behind him. “Where do you think you're going with those?” An older man, who he assumed was the store owner, stood up from his place at the register.
Well shit. Dallas thought. He made an effort to get to the door but his shirt got caught by a man, who had grabbed it. Part of it ripped off and he continued on. When he made it out of the door he bolted to the left and was accompanied by a girl with dark eyes, and a pixie cut.
“You get the stuff?” She asked dodging a stranger.“Yeah,” Dallas said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a pack of gum.
“Awe thanks Winston. You're so sweet.” She grabbed the pack from his hand.
“I ain’t sweet Nancy. You're getting everything next time, remember.”
“Ok, ok. Whatever you say Mr. Tough guy.” They finally made it to the small alley way they always went to and sat on the bench. It was flaming hot because of the summer heat but they both acted like it didn’t hurt. Nancy slipped a piece of the stolen gum into her mouth and Dallas pulled out his bag of chips.
“So,” he started, uneasy. “How's Charlie been?”
“Charlie? Oh he’s been fine. His job at the cafes been great actually. He just got promoted to waiter.” “That’s good.” They talked for a little longer, laughing at the man who had tried to catch Dallas. “Well shit, I gotta go. My foster family will get on me if I get home too late.” Nancy said looking at the sun set.
Dallas groaned. “Ok, I’ll see ya later.”
“Later,” And with that she walked away.He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. He didn’t want to go back to his father’s house. One day he would run away. One day he would be free. Maybe he would take a train. That was his best chance, but unfortunately from what he knew there were no trains around New York except the subway and sneaking on one would be harder than stealing a bag of chips.
There was suddenly a loud ruckus from down the alley and a small voice repeating “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” Dallas looked down to the other end and saw a small boy with jet black hair getting jumped.
He usually wouldn’t have done anything about something like that but this was different. He recognized the group as a gang, a popular one in fact. He couldn’t put his finger on the name but he knew they were one of them racist ones and that really pissed him off. They were all just trying to survive, so why go after some people for something they can’t control? And besides that, if he didn’t do something this kid would get himself killed, by this group or the next. He wasn’t fighting back at all, just apologizing.What is up with this kid? He wondered. Dallas sighed and stood up, grabbing the switchblade from his back pocket. He was due for a good fight.
“Hey,” he called out, walking towards them. “What do you think you're doing?”
“What do you think you're doing?” One of the bigger guys, Dallas recognized him as Teddy Bear, (he got the name for suffocating a couple guys) stepped towards him. He must have been nearly twice Dallas’ size but that didn’t scare him. Nothing scared Dallas Winston.“Get away from the kid and we don’t gotta fight.” He said, raising the blade. The guy stepped up to about a foot away from him.
“You won’t use that. I know you won’t.”
“Oh yeah?” In one quick move Dallas had sliced his arm. Teddy called out in pain and gripped his arm, face reddening. Blood dripped to the ground.
“You're gonna pay for that.” He said through clenched teeth.
Dallas got punched straight across the face, and stumbled back a little bit. He quickly straightened his composure and touched his face. When he saw the blood on his hand he smiled.
“That's all you got? I thought you choked some guys.”
That just made Teddy even angrier. “I’ll choke you!” He shouted as he swung again, but this time Dallas was ready.
He dodged it and walked towards the other part of the gang. Teddy had fallen to the ground and was trying to get up but was failing. He finally got up but Dallas put the blade to his chin.
“Get out.” He said. There was a split second of fear in Teddy's eyes but he quickly hid it.
“Fine,” he said, annoyed. “Cmon boys, let's go.” He walked the other way, and the other 3 boys followed him, giving Dallas dirty looks as they walked by.
“That’ll teach you not to mess with Dallas Winston.” He said under his breath much louder than he meant to.
Shit. He thought. They definitely heard that. He knew that he now had a target on his back, asking them to jump him. Dallas began to walk back towards where the bench and his chips were before stopping when he heard small footsteps behind him. He whipped around but there was nobody there. Shrugging, he continued to the bench.
Kid must’ve gotten scared and run off. He thought. There were more footsteps, so he swing around again and this time he saw the boy duck behind a small trash can. He sighed.“Y’know, if you’re gonna follow me either actually be silent or just show yourself.” When he was greeted with silence he returned to walking, rubbing his eyes in frustration. The footsteps followed Dallas all the way to the bench where he sat down and looked over at the boy. He froze in his tracks and just stood there. He was obviously terrified of Dallas.
Why is this kid following me? Doesn’t he know who I am? How many fights I’ve started? He thought. It was true that Dallas was popular among teens, kids, small gangs, and now maybe after that stunt he’d just pulled bigger ones. Many people avoided him all together.
“What are you doing? Don’t you know who I am?”
“Um- I-” He stuttered. “I-I don’t know who you are. I just came here. My parents threw me out. T-they said I was bad.”
Dallas sighed. What was it with parents and throwing their kids out? This boy couldn’t have been older than eight and he didn’t even seem like a bad kid, just a scared one.
“Ok, how’d you get here? You walk?” He leaned his head back in annoyance.
“I ran for forever until I found a train.” His voice got a little shaky. “I rode it until I got hungry and got off. That's how I got here.”
That spiked Dallas’ attention. “Do you happen to know where this train is? Like, is it underground?” He asked, praying that this kid did.
“Oh, I-it’s not underground. I would show you but I don’t think I have the energy.” He yawned and stretched before instantly flinching in pain.
Dallas saw this as his ticket out. If he could get this kid back to health to the point where he could lead him to the tracks this was his way to leave. He could even bring Nancy and Charlie, get them out of the system.
“Ok kid, well I happen to have a gang of three that could use an extra member. You wanna come with me?”
The boy’s eyes lit up. “Do you really mean it? Like I can stay with you?”
“Sure kid.” Dallas said, standing up. “My name is Dallas by the way. Dallas Winston. You got a name?”
They started walking. “Yeah, my name is Johnny.”
“Ok, Johnny. Follow me. I got some friends I want to introduce you to.”