Chapter 1: Outburst and Letters

Down The Rabbit Hole

Disclaimer: Do I look like I own The Outsiders? The real owner of The Outsiders is the best author ever, S.E. Hinton. I also do not make a profit from the stories that I write on this site.

A/N: Please tell me what you think! Criticism is welcome, but no flames please. Flames killed Johnny. Suggestions are always welcome, no matter what they may be. Thank you.

Ages:

Ponyboy: 15

Sodapop and Steve: 18

Darry: 20

Two-Bit: 19

Summary: The night that Sodapop ran out, Sandy had returned Soda back his letter he had sent to her, unopened. Why has Soda been acting so weird lately? What if there was another letter, much less trivial, hidden in plain sight under Sandy's? Will Soda be lost down the rabbit hole, forever?

Third Person POV ~Fall, 1965~

"Your livin' in a vacuum, Ponyboy, and you gonna have to cut it out," Darry drawled angrily, taking another bite of baked chicken and shoving it into his mouth before beginning to talk again. "You don't just stop living because you loose somebody. I thought that you would have understood this by now."

"Well, it just ain't that easy, is it, Darry? Why can't I just drop out of school like Sodapop," Pony hollered back, looking at Soda for support.

"Goddammit you guys!" Sodapop bursts out. "Why can't you just leave me out of y'all's fights?" He threw his chair back as he stood up and then proceeding to storm out of the house.

Ponyboy and Darry looked at each other in shock and then back at the screen door. Darry sighed and picked up what Soda had dropped in his was Sandy's unopened letter.

"It's a letter from Sandy, returned unopened. He was gonna marry her, Ponyboy." Darry let the rest hang unspoken in the air.

Why didn't I just listen to him more, Ponyboy wondered guiltily, staring down at his feet. Did he even try to talk to me, and I didn't pay attention to him? He always listens to me when I want to talk.

"Come on, Ponyboy, let's go after him," Darry sighed, following his brother out the screen door, listening to it slam behind them.

As they talked outside in the crisp fall air, clearing the tense air, nobody but Soda knew what letter laid under Sandy's addressed to one Mr. Sodapop Patrick Curtis.

Ponyboy's POV (The Next Day)

"Sodapop! Get up for work. Ponyboy, you got school too," Darry barged into me and Sodapop's room and hollered, shaking the bed annoyingly.

I groaned, rolling back over on the bed to try and grab a few extra minutes of sleep. No such luck. Darry wouldn't leave until we were out of bed.

I was greasing my hair, already showered, when Sodapop came into the bathroom with a worried, concerned look on his face. It didn't fit my brother.

"Ponyboy," he started, and then stopped. I turned away from the mirror to face him.

"What's wrong, Soda?" I asked him worriedly, frowning. I thought that we had cleared everything up last night. Was it still about Sandy?

"Nothing. I just love you lots, kiddo," Soda told me, shaking his head.

Before I left for school, instead of ruffling my hair or doing something equally annoying like Sodapop normally did, he gave me a big hug.

I got in Two-Bit's car to go to school feeling even more worried than before. It was an extremely silent ride that morning.

A/N: This is the prologue to my new story. Any guesses on what the mystery letter is? I hope that I made it pretty obvious, yet subtle. :) I'm evil, I know guys! Thanks for reading and please review.

Word Count: 649 words

Bunnies to y'all,

~Alee XxX