Author's Note: Here's another story from me. Since I've written two stories about Ponyboy, I decided to make this one about Two-Bit. The POVs change during the story, but it says at the beginning of the section whose POV it is. I hope you like it!
Oh, and animalsare4life and anyone else who was wondering what Pony did with the ring in my other story…I had several ideas, but none of them really worked, so I'll leave that to your imagination.
Chapter One
Two-Bit
I stumbled out of the bright sunlight and into the pharmacy. I was glad to be inside where it was a bit darker because I had an awful hangover. How many beers had I had last night? Ten? Fifteen? I had no idea, but I think it was a new record for me, and now I had an awful headache. That was the whole reason why I had even left my house; we were all out of Aspirin.
I leaned on the counter and waited for someone to help me. I had been standing there for a good five minutes when I saw the sign that said 'for service, please ring bell'. There was a bell sitting next to the sign. I rang it and then resumed leaning against the counter with my head buried in my hands to block out the light. Maybe I'd have to get some sunglasses too.
I felt a hand on my shoulder, and then someone said "Can I help you?"
I looked up into a pair of intense green eyes. They belonged to a girl that looked about my age. I was about to ask her for some Aspirin when my head started pounding and I felt like I was going to faint. I sunk down onto one of the barstools by the counter. Why hadn't I noticed those before? I could have been sitting down.
"Are you alright?" The girl asked.
"I need some Aspirin," I said. "For my head."
The girl nodded and then disappeared. I hoped she would hurry up. My head hurt really, really bad. I had walked here, but I didn't think that I could make it home. Maybe I could hitchhike or something. What was my address again?
The girl reappeared with a bottle of Aspirin and a cup of water. "I thought you might want to take some of the Aspirin now," She said as she nodded to the cup of water.
I took three Aspirins and then started looking in my pockets for some money. I couldn't find any money. Not even a nickel or a dime or something; nothing, just some lint. I put my head in my hands and sighed. How could I have done something so stupid? I can't just be hung over, I must be getting sick. I could feel the girl staring at me.
"Forgot my money," I said softly.
"What?" The girl asked.
I looked up at her "I forgot my money." I was about to cry because I felt so awful. Why couldn't she just take out a gun and shoot me? Instead of shooting me the girl nodded and pressed some buttons on the cash register.
"There," She said. "Now it says you paid for it, and if someone notices the money is gone then I'll just say it's my fault. I really don't care if I get fired anyway because I hate this job."
"Thanks," I said.
"Sure. Now go home, you look really awful," the girl said.
I grabbed the Aspirin and stumbled out of the pharmacy. The words of the girl were still ringing in my ears. "Now go home, you look really awful." I just wished I could remember where home was, my head was foggy. There was a bench in front of the pharmacy and I flopped down on it. I was going to have to stop drinking, but I just couldn't help it. I'd been drinking more ever since Johnny and Dally had died because, in a way, I wanted to die too. The gang hadn't noticed because they were all to busy with their own grief to notice me. Plus, I tried to act like my normal self around them. They had already lost enough people; they didn't need to see that I was slipping away too.
My head was feeling so terrible. I laid down on the bench, I didn't care if I looked like some kind of hobo; I would just be there for a minute. I sighed, I wanted to go home, but I had no idea where home was. I also wanted my Mickey Mouse.
Not a lot of people know this, actually, no one knows this, but I have this stuffed animal Mickey Mouse. I got it when I was two years old for my birthday, and I took it everywhere with me until I was four. Now, Mickey is under my bed most of the time but whenever I feel sick or upset I get it out and cuddle it. It always makes me feel better. If anyone found out about Mickey my reputation would be shot, but I'd taken a lot of time to make sure that no one found out. Now though, I really didn't care; I wanted to go home, and I wanted my Mickey Mouse.
I decided to take a nap, right there, on the bench. I would just sleep for a few minutes, and maybe when I woke up my headache would be gone and I could remember where I lived.
At least, I hoped I would.
