Soda's Story

You know, being drafted was probably the worst thing to happen to me. I thought I wouldn't because there were slim chancing of it.

"Soda don't worry about the war," Steve had said, "Not even half the people who go are draftees. You don't have to worry."

Yeah, well, I did worry.

"Hit the barracks, Curtis! They're coming in! You too, Serna!" I grabbed at Serna's back and pulled him away from where our positions were. I was originally supposed to be part of the medical tent. Something to do with being too happy for my own good in a place like this. I'm not even happy.

Serna couldn't be more than eighteen, even though he told me he was twenty-one. He's a liar, but he's a damn good man, that's for sure, and if he wanted to be here, than I'll damn well give him the right to be.

I spun him around to face me and gave him some tactics. He nodded, and then we ducked. I nudged him in the elbow, with my elbow. It was our little thing before we went to combat again and again. He smiled and I returned it.

"I think you fuckin' cocky, Curtis." I laughed. Let me tell you something right now. Happiness and laughing at one thing isn't the same thing, and when you get a good chance to laugh, you'd damn well take it. I just rolled my eyes.

"Well I gotta be something', don't I? If I'm not cocky, then what else am I gonna be?" I said through the gunfire. He just shook his head.

"I sure don't know, Curtis. Maybe you could be normal." That was a real kneeslapper.

"Kid, my name is Sodapop. What the hell you think you're pulling with 'normal'?" He laughed and I grinned. He suddenly stood up, and by the way he stood right then, he reminded me of Ponyboy, off in a daze.

"Soda, are you sure we should hide this from Pony?" Darry asked. "I mean, he's gonna find out eventually, and he ain't gonna be happy about it." I nodded.

"Yeah I know, but -" I cut myself off as Ponyboy stood in the doorway.

"Hide what from me?" He rubbed at his wet hair with a towel.

"Nothin', Pone, just the bills and things." I said smoothly. I caught the look Darry gave me out of the corner of my eye. Pony stepped forward and took a deep breath.

"Guys, I want to help out with the bills. Please?" Darry shook his head.

"No, little buddy, you can't. You're only sixteen, and you have school. Not to mention track. You just let us worry about bills. For now." He looked confused and I caught what Darry did there.

"Damn it, Darry." I said loudly. "Goddamn it!" He took my shoulders.

"It had to happen eventually, Sodapop. Now just tell him." I jerked from his grasp and walked over to Ponyboy, putting my hands on his shoulders.

"Pone… Ponyboy, I've been…" God, it's so hard to say. "I've been drafted. To Vietnam for the war." It took a few seconds for Pony to process it. Then his eyes went wide and he pushed me away, shaking his head.

"No… no, no, no! Quit playin' around with me! It's not funny!" I held him again, still in the doorway.

"Pone, we're not playin'," I said, "It's the truth." He shook violently before he started crying. He just crumpled into himself right then and there on the kitchen floor.

"B-but you can't g-go! I n-need you!" He said, burying his face into my chest, like he did when he was fourteen.

"You'll have Darry, Pone."

"B-but what w-will we do without y-youuu?" He wailed, shoving his fist into his eyes.

"I'll come back. It ain't like I'm not coming back." I said confidently. He stared up at me, not saying a word. Then he stood up, and he looked dazed. As if he could fall over if you touched him.

Darry, silent in all of this finally spoke up.

"You… uh, want to sit with us, Pone?" Pony nodded and sat at the table with us, silent. And from that day until I left, he was by my side. He never left me, and Steve got angry at one point.

"He's being a baby! I'm going to 'Nam too!" I think he was jealous. He wasn't drafted or anything. He applied on his own free will. I just patted his back.

"I know, buddy, I know."

"Curtis, move!" That brought me from my memories. Though I didn't move, and I felt this stinging, painful spot on my side, just above my hip. I dropped my Remington M40.

"He's been shot! Oh my god he's been shot!" Serna yelled, putting pressure on my wound. I smiled at him for no reason.

"Curtis, you've been shot! Why are you smiling at me?!" He said, sounding panicked.

"Serna, my name is Sodapop. I'm not normal. I never caught your name, Serna. What is it" I asked, still grinning.

"My name?"

"Nooo… My name. Yes your name, Sergeant." I said.

"My name is James, sir." Now we were using the miltia terms. But I don't like that.

"Just call me Sodapop, James." I said, sticking my hand out for him to shake. He didn't seem eager to take his hand from my side, but he did anyways, shaking my hand with his bloody one.

"Medics! Back up!" James backed up away from me while I was loaded onto a poorly made stretcher. I was still grinning ear-to-ear, but I couldn't tell myself why.

"Get him some help!"

"I got it!" A familiar voice shouted. Then his face came into view.

"Steve?" I said, my eyes going wide.

"That's Sergeant Randle to-" He stopped dead in his tracks, eyeing me wearily.

"Sodapop?" I nodded.

"Yeah, but I'm a little tied down at the moment, do you think you could help me?" I gestured to my side. He shook his head.

"Christ, Soda, you've been shot and you're still grinning and acting like a fool." I laughed a bubbly laugh escaping my throat.

"Of course." I said. But then I got serious. "What's going to happen to me?" I almost cried like a baby right then. Talk about mood swings. Steve pressed on my wound, stanching the bleeding.

"I'm gonna be honest you, buddy. I really don't know." He grit his teeth as I felt something leave me. He picked it up and showed it to me. It was a bullet.

"That's what I needed." He said I laughed, and so did he.

"I'm gonna need to stitch you up, not gonna lie, it's gonna hurt."

"I think I'll be fine, buddy." I said, bracing myself. The first stitch, and I was feeling every pain that the adrenaline had numbed. I screamed out of reflex, and Steve winced, but kept stitching, wrapping gauze around my waist and hip, keeping it secure.

"You'll be on the first helicopter home, Sodapop." He said, patting my arm. I gripped his wrist, not letting him go.

"What about you? What will you be doing?" He sighed.

"I have to stay. My term's not over for a three months. I'm coming back. It ain't like I'm not coming back." He said, just like I told Ponyboy that day.

"It's not a fight everyone can win, do you understand that? People get killed in these wars. People die," he said, trembling. "I just don't want that to be you! I don't want to have to get a letter in the mail saying that you're dead! I want you alive, Soda!" Ponyboy screamed when I grabbed my bag to go.

I stepped to hug him, then Darry, and gave him my last few words before I left.

"You dig okay, Ponyboy. Keep watching those sunsets." I said, stepping on the plane, waving.

"Soda? Sodapop, are you okay?" I felt hot trails down the sides of my face and past my ears, since I was laying down.

"I'm going home." I said, trembling. "I'm going home." I whispers. And right then, I didn't hear the screaming men, then many lives being lost or not, men being saved. I didn't hear the anguished, pained cries. I only heard Pony and Darry.

"Don't you ever forget, Soda. We love you. No matter what." Darry said, and Pony repeated him. I waved from the plane's entrance, boarding in my uniform, the buzz cut I received.

"Goodbye…" I whispered as we took off. Steve was sitting beside me, having already boarding before me, having talked to Two-Bit. Two-it was in tears when I talked to him last. He had hugged me, then Steve, and wished us luck.

As I was being rushed from the Med tent to the helicopter, I saw James being brought in.

"James!" I screamed to him. He had a chest wound. He wasn't moving. He wasn't breathing, I observed From afar as I was loaded into the chopper with other men. James had died.

"Damn it." I said. "Fucking dammit!" I screamed, pounding the stretcher I was on. "He was just a kid!" I screamed, then started wailing when I realized that's what I said the night Dally was shot down.

They held me down as they strapped me to the stretcher. I shoved my fists into my eyes, rubbing them harshly and getting the weird pattern things in them. I took a shuttering breath. I blinked and looked around.

Finally, my vision went watery and black around the edges and I just closed my eyes.

I'm going home.

A/N: Hey guys, I know I have another story on hold right now, but I needed to write this. it's been on my chest for a long time, and I needed to write it. I hope you like it.

TTOH