When the narrator and his two friends meet Bobby's girl racing out of a car in only her boyfriend's shirt and panties, they are sexually excited, especially by the flaming toenail polish on her bare toes. They are high on gin, marijuana, and adrenalin, and they want to gang rape this woman. They have her on the hood of the car, trying to tear off her clothes. They are grabbing at her flesh, filled with lust, flies down. However, when headlights shine on them, they run away.
At the end of the story, two girls who come out of a silver Mustang want to party with the narrator and his friends. They wear tight pants and stiletto heels and offer the guys drugs. They also think the three guys are "bad characters" because of the beaten-up appearance of their bodies and their car.
At this point, the trio, unlike earlier...
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in the evening, has no interest in girls, drugs, or partying. While all they wanted when the evening started was to be perceived as tough and bad, by now, in the early dawn, they want nothing more than to get home and away from any signs of trouble.
In the beginning of the story, the boys think, act, and behave as young toughs, feeling proud and secure in their sense of invincibility. They see themselves as "bad characters," not to be "messed with." When they find themselves in the unexpected and violent encounter with Bobby and his girlfriend, they react as the dangerous hoodlums they believe themselves to be. In getting carried away in the moment, they attempt to rape Bobby's girlfriend after Bobby has been brought down with a severe blow from a tire iron. The girl is saved by others who come upon the scene and chase the narrator and his friends into the swamp. At this point, the boys' night of adventure turns into a nightmare, including finding a dead body floating in Greasy Lake.
The next morning, after surviving the previous night of fear and horror, the boys meet the two girls who show definite interest in them. One of the girls offers the boys drugs. At this point, the three "tough guys" have had enough adventure. When the narrator says, "I thought I was going to cry," he is expressing all the emotional turmoil he has experienced in the last few hours. He also cannot escape the irony of the girls thinking he and his friends were "bad characters." At this point, they do not feel quite so tough.