The story behind this is - I started writing this around 20 minutes ago because I was bored. Then I took of and voila… an emotional one shot. Oops.

I don't own the Outsiders or any of the characters. But I do own the Hawaii Citrus deodarent I made my mother buy me at Walmart. That's something.

)()()(

Everyone is silent as they take their respective seats. Ponyboy, then Soda, then a gap, then Darry, then another gap. It's always been this way, only someone has always been there to fill in the gap.

Darry looks at his bowl of soup and then to his brothers. They're looking into their soup too.

The funny thing is, no one makes a move to eat the soup.

Soda chokes up a little when he sees this. He'd been the one to make it. He knew he'd done something wrong.

He squeezes his eyes closed. He's not his mother.

The gaps are daunting. The brothers think it's strange that things stand out so much more when something is missing.

Soda begins to swing his foot. His foot hits the empty chair beside him and sends it shooting away just a little.

He's quick to jump and move it back where it had been before.

Then he settles back into his seat.

The silence screams.

Someone has ought to talk. Say something.

Anything.

Anyone.

Please?

Ponyboy stirs his soup a little. The spoon drags along the bowl and makes a harsh noise.

It drones on for a little while.

Darry is the first to speak. "Stop that," he says to his brother. His voice is flat. Lifeless.

Ponyboy stops and it's silent again.

Everyone is staring at the empty seats like they're not empty at all.

The way they're looking at them, one might've thought they seated polar bears. Wearing birthday hats.

But the chairs seat no one. They never again will.

Soda feels something inside him boiling. He knows that tears will creep up on him if he doesn't make a move.

He stands up fast, his chair flies out from behind him.

"This is ridiculous," he says. "I'll just move em."

He places his hand on the first empty chair and stops, like he's frozen in time. Pony jumps in.

"Ok. I will too..."

He places his hand on the other chair. He too finds himself unable to move.

His eyes meet Soda's.

Soda has mom.

Pony has dad.

Ponyboy gives in and drags the chair away and Soda follows in suit. They back the empty seats up against the wall.

Then they both sit back down. They continue to eat like nothing has happened.

Darry realizes the table is lopsided.

But that's ok.

So is everything else.

But one day, Dally will walk in and kick one of the chairs into place as he animatedly displays a fight he got into. Or Steve will sit down in one of them a little too roughly and it will go flying out underneath him to where it looks right. Or Two-Bit will shove one into it's respective position when he pulls it out from under someone's ass.

And eventually, everything else will fall into place too.

)()()(

Please review. You don't have to say anything good. Just tell me what you think. Nothing is 'lame.'