Early morning sunlight poured in through the windshield, making Tana's eyes squeeze together. She moved her hand to shield her face. She let out a yawn, her eyes fluttering open. As she looked around for the first time since falling asleep last night, she couldn't help but feel confused. It took her a whole minute before she realized what she'd done.

She'd run off with Dallas Winston. Of all people she could have run away with, it was Dallas.

The man in question laid in the seat next to her, his shirt off and his chest heaving lightly with small breaths. She couldn't help but stare at the small, round scars that covered his torso. They looked a lot like bullet holes, but Tana couldn't be sure. She wanted to reach out and touch them, just to see if they were real.

While sleeping, Dallas was quite peaceful. In fact, he was almost attractive.

Sunny let out a whine from the backseat. Tana turned around in her seat to see the dog was laying there. He wagged his tail, happy to have caught his owner's attention. Tana unlocked the doors and let herself out of the car. She opened up the back door and let Sunny out, who was more than happy to be stretching his legs. She watched as the dog sniffed around.

Apparently, they'd camped out in the city park. She remembered entering Texas last night. They'd taken an exit off the interstate, but she wasn't sure where they'd ended up.

Tana heard the passenger side door open and turned to see Dallas exiting the car. He now had his shirt from the day before back on. The blond sent her a nod by way of greeting.

"You hungry?" Dallas asked.

Tana's stomach grumbled. "Yeah," she responded. "Maybe we can find a diner or something."

"That sounds good," Dallas agreed, which surprised Tana. Most of their conversations the previous night consisted of them arguing about various things, mostly due to their extremely different upbringings. To Tana, Dallas was just another greaser hoodlum. To Dallas, Tana was a stuck up rich girl. What the both failed to realize was that they were more similar than they thought. The longing to be out of Tulsa tugged at them, the threat of danger imminent but inviting. They could already taste that great feeling of freedom, even if they'd only driven a few hours in the night.

But what Tana would never admit was that she was glad she got to know at least a little bit about Dallas, albeit he was reluctant to tell her much of his past. Even if most of their time together was spent insulting each other, Tana was more curious about the cowboy than anything. And Dallas could say practically the same thing.

Dallas let out a yawn. It was far too early for his liking. He moved around to the side of the car that Tana was leaned up against and he stood beside her. They watched as Sunny sniffed around excitedly, the new smells enticing him.

"We should go to a gasoline station and buy us a map so we know where we are and where we're going."

"I wasn't focused on the going, but knowing where we are would be pretty nice," Tana said.

"Man," Dallas groaned, rubbing his forehead. He ran his hands through his hair, which was getting longer and looking a lot like how Ponyboy's used to look before he chopped it off.

"What?" Tana asked, an annoyed expression crossing her features.

"Don't get no attitude with me, doll," Dally said, turning his gaze from the ground to the blonde girl standing beside him. "You've gotta have some idea of where you're headin'."

"It's not that I don't want to know, it's just that I enjoy that element of surprise. Waking up in an unfamiliar town is so exciting."

Dallas rolled his eyes. This girl was going to be the death of him. Hell, he'd almost died once for her. Who knew what more trouble she could drag him into? It was then that Dallas felt like he was turning into Darry. He was careful, a lot more careful than he used to be. Anyone who knew Dallas knew that he lived for trouble. Anymore, he just hid away in his room at Buck's.

After that whole thing with the police back in November and how he'd miraculously survived, he found himself wanting to live. He'd really quietened down after almost dying. It was like opening his eyes to something fresh.

And now here he was running off with some fuckin' chick in her stupid Corvette.

"You're right," Tana said, snapping Dallas out of his thoughts. He turned to look at the girl. She was already looking at him.

"Huh?"

"We should get a map. But can we do that after breakfast? I think we'll be able to agree and plan better on full stomachs."

"Yeah," Dally nodded. That was a good idea. He was starving. And so was she. After the both of them had missed supper the night before, it was no wonder they were at each others' throats all night. "Well, let's get to it."

The two found a small diner in town, after figuring out where they were. Irving, Texas. The diner offered outside seating, which was perfect as they couldn't take Sunny inside and Tana refused to leave him in the hot car to suffer. Tana tied the end of Sunny's leash around one of the table legs, allowing him to rest under the shade of the umbrella above the table.

As Tana and Dallas ate, they were surprisingly quiet.

"Hey," said Tana after finishing her orange juice.

"Hey," Dally said, scraping the rest of his egg yolk onto his toast. He ate like he'd never eaten in his whole life.

"Can we walk around town a bit before we leave? I wanna see what all this place has to offer."

"I'm not opposed to that," Dallas said.

After paying for their meal, the two walked up and down the streets of Irving, looking in shop windows and enjoying the peace of the small town. Everyone was the same here, but they were all friendly. Despite Tana's rich appearance and Dallas' mean scowl, the two found themselves greeted a few times by smiles and small waves.

Remembering her instant camera in her purse, Tana removed it and turned it on. She snapped a quick picture of Dallas, who had walked ahead of her. Upon hearing the click of the camera, Dally turned to see Tana retrieving the photograph. She had a wide, shit-eating grin on her face.

"Why'd you take a picture of me?"

"Because you looked really good from this angle."

"And not from this one?"

"Not with that scowl on your face."

"I don't have a scowl on my face."

"You always have a scowl on your face."

Tana smiled as the picture developed. "Aw. This looks nice." She walked up to Dally and shoved the picture into his hands.

"Wow," he said, sounding genuinely impressed. "What are you, an artist or something?"

"Or something, I guess," Tana shrugged. "I paint pictures of things I like."

"What do you like?"

"Mostly only Sunny."

"Oh. I would have figured you'd have a million paintings of your friends."

"They're not my friends. We only hang out because their dads work for my dad. They don't get me."

"That's sad. I don't really have a family, but my gang... they really care for me. I guess they're as close to family as I'll ever have."

"That's nice," Tana said dismissively, feeling awkward. So neither of them really had a family. But at least Dallas had friends who cared. Tana had never known what that was like. She had Sunny and she never figured she needed anything more. But hearing someone like Dallas Winston talking about how he had a bunch of friends who cared for him... it kind of made Tana jealous.

Maybe no one really cared about her.

She knew her parents at least loved her, but she knew they didn't care. They had the law firm and that was clearly more important than their only kid.

At least Tana had Sunny. If she didn't have her dog, she didn't have anybody.

The two eventually stumbled upon an art gallery, which excited Tana more than anything else they'd seen that day.

"Are you really going to drag me in there?" Dallas complained.

"Either that or you can stay out here on your lonesome with Sunny."

"Fine. We'll have a heyday without you."

"Whatever." Tana headed inside on her own.

After about twenty minutes of wandering around, she grew bored and left. When she didn't see Dally or Sunny outside, she grew worried. Had he taken her dog and left? She had the car key, so there was no way for him to just take off unless he got on a train somewhere.

Her anxiety growing rampant, she started down the sidewalk. Fifteen minutes passed with no sight of the blond-haired man or her dog and she was growing worried.

As Dallas rounded the corner with Sunny in tow forty-five minutes after Tana had disappeared inside the art gallery, he was surprised to see she wasn't waiting outside for him. He heaved a sigh and sat down on the stairs, deciding to wait for her. People passed him by, paying him no mind.

It was passing lunchtime and Tana still hadn't made her way outside.

"This is ridiculous," Dallas growled. Sunny let out a whine. "Yeah, let's go find the car. If she wants to look for us, she can start there. Fuckin' women," he muttered.

Dallas took off, Sunny walking right next to him. He reached the car, only to see Tana leaning against it, looking miserable.

"Hey," Dally greeted her gruffly, confused. Her head jerked up and her face quickly contorted into anger.

"Where the hell were you?" she demanded. "I came outside and you had just disappeared."

"I got bored. What, was I just supposed to sit there and twiddle my thumbs?" he countered angrily.

"No, but you could have come in and found me. I wasn't even in there that long."

"Well, how was I supposed to know? I figured you'd be in there an hour. I went on a walk. Now I'm back."

Tana rolled her eyes. "I thought you left." Her voice was barely above a whisper.

"What, and leave all my shit in your car? What was I gonna do with your damn dog?"

"I don't know, Dallas!" Tana screamed. "Let's just go get that stupid map so we can get going."

"Women," Dally groaned under his breath. Tana sent him a glare. If looks could kill.

Tana threw her car key at Dally. "You drive. I'm too mad."

Dallas caught the key and, without a word, helped the dog into the backseat before climbing into the driver's side. He started up the car and peeled out of the parking lot of the park.

As much as Tana wanted to scream at Dallas for driving like an asshole, she was just too exhausted. She rested her head against the window as Dally drove down the streets in search of a convenience store.

When he pulled up to a gasoline station, he noted they needed to fill up.

"You go and find a map, I'll stay out here and pump gas," Dallas said.

Tana nodded. "Please don't leave me," she uttered to him but, before he could reply, she was already heading inside.

Dallas was confused. Why was she so worried about him leaving her? After she'd dragged him into this adventure with her, she was suddenly worried he'd take off? Where was he going to head off to?

Dallas pumped ten dollars' worth of gas before going inside to pay. He met Tana at the checkout counter, where she'd found a map of the States and had thrown several candy bars and drinks up there as well. Once she paid, she headed out to the car, leaving Dallas on his own. He paid for the gas and met Tana in the car. She had the map book flipped open to show Texas.

"We're here," she said, pointing at Irving on the map. "The next city is Fort Worth which, according to this...it's about twenty-five miles or so to the West."

"You wanna go there?"

"Yeah. We can find a place to sleep."

"What about Sunny?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it, I guess," she said with a shrug.

Dally started up the car and they were on their way again.