Chapter 1
(In the point of Sodapop Curtis)
I stepped outside from the movie house and turned to Ponyboy. Boy, I sure was glad he was back and not a fugitive. It had broken my heart when he'd left, he's my little brother and I cared for him. . Ponyboy looked at me and grinned, taking me outta my thoughts. "Last time I was here, I was alone and got jumped by some Socs." he remarked quietly. "Yah, I remember that, you was bleeding like a pig and scared as a cat." I said laughing. I was trying to break this convo up because I knew what was coming next. "Back when Johnny and Dally was alive, I was here, I shoulda been with Johnny." Pony choked. I slung an arm over Pony and tried to comfort him, only I didn't know what to say. Maybe I needed some comforting too.
As we walked home, I saw Two-Bit in the corner of my eye before he full-out leaped in front of us, knocking air outta my lungs. "Well, looks like the Curtis boys are ditching, where's Darry?" Two-Bit teased then gave one of his easy smiles. "It's the first day of summer so I'm not ditching and Soda got today off work." Ponyboy answered, smiling right back at Two-Bit. "It's the first day of summer and you boys are spending it in the dark?!" Two-Bit said, motioning to the movie house we just came out of. Before I could say something, Two-Bit started to walk away. He turned around and said "I got a date with Maria tonight so don't wait up.", cocking his eyebrow and gave us another one of his easy smiles as he strolled away.
When we got home, the first thing I did was take off my shoes. I really do like running around the house with my socks, it makes everything more fun. I raced Pony to the fridge to get some chocolate milk. Because he's on the track team, he won. After drinking some chocolate milk, Pony took a book and started to read. "Its summer, you don't have to read for 3 more months!"I remarked, knowing that Pony needs books like I need horse riding. Ponyboy just noded, too caught up in the book to really listen to me. I sighed and started to take out the things for dinner. I wanedt dinner to be ready just as Darry got home from work. As I did this, I looked out the window to see Steve running up to our door. The door is already open so Steve just kept running until he was right in front of us. Ponyboy looked up from his book, confused as I was. Steve took a few deep breaths as Pony set his book down and I stopped making dinner. "Soda, Sandy is back!" Steve shouted happily, grinning like the Chesire Cat. I felt a smile on my face disappear.
Chapter 2
Steve stared at me breathlessly as I felt my stomach drop. Pony knew the truth about Sandy and looked at me with concern. I tried to swallow the lump in the throat and forced a smile on my face. "You ok Pepsicola?" Pony asked, using my childhood nickname to comfort me. "Yah, I'm swell, just in shock I guess." I replied, shrugging my shoulders, trying to look nonchalant. Steve was too high on excitement to really pay attention to me and Pony just cocked his head at me. I playfully pulled them out of my way and over my shoulder, I said "I'm gonna see Sandy."
As I walked to her house, I shoved my hands deeper into my jacket. I felt sick to my stomach but somehow I kept walking. I guess I really wanted to know why she just left for Florida and sent all my letters to her back, unopened. I knew the answer, I really did, but I just wanted to hear it from her because if I didn't, I'd always have hope that she still loved me, and that was a lie.
Just as I was passing the DX station where I worked, I saw Sandy standing next the where I usually fixed the cars with Steve. She saw me too and hurried across the street to catch me. "Oh Soda!" she exclaimed, looking at me with her beautiful blue eyes. I grinned at her and motioned for her to sit on the curb as I did. She promptly sat and stared at me for a moment, as if she was unsure of what to do. "Sandy, why didn't you ever read my letters or write back?" I asked suddenly. I needed to know the answer and I needed it now. Sandy turned fully to look me right in the face. I saw her now-watery eyes and got the answer I needed.
I stood up and then helped her up. Just because she didn't love me didn't mean that I could be rude to a girl. " See you around." I said, flashed her another smile before I walked home. Smiles come more naturally to me then tears, so all I do is smile. As I walked home, I told myself to not be upset around the others. I'm not supposed to have any problems, I'm the one who solved problems, not had them.
Chapter 3
When I got home, Darry was already home from work and was filled in on the Sandy news. He looked at me all throughout dinner with these big, pitiful eyes. I hated pity, especially from Darry because that meant something was REALLY wrong. I tried to keep grinning and laughing like nothing was wrong but with all the pity looks, I just couldn't do it. "Can y'all stop looking at me, I'm just fine, Sandy ain't my girl no more and I'm ok with that so stop!" I exclaimed, slamming my hands onto the table for emphasis. With that, everyone stopped looking at me funny and I relaxed. "So, there's a party over at Buck's tonight, you wanna go?" Steve asked as he shoveled more food into his mouth. I thought about how Buck's parties were mostly people getting so drunk that they couldn't remember anything. Now, tonight that sounded perfect for my situation so I piped up and said "I'll go!"
Pony was gonna come, but he hadn't finished his math homework, so Darry wasn't even going to let him out of the house without all his homework complete. As I got spruced up to get drunker than Two-Bit, Darry came in and watched me through the mirror for a minute. "Be careful out there little buddy." he said softly and he ruffled my hair and left.
