Ding! Ding! Ding!

A small groan escaped his lips as Darrell Curtis rolled over in his bed, his eyes parting slightly as he tried to block out the light from the rising sun. It was six o'clock in the morning which meant it was time to get up for work and get his younger brothers up for work and school.

Sighing, Darry allowed himself to rest a few more moments before rolling out of bed and getting up. He shuffled towards his bathroom, starting the shower before heading slowly towards the room his two younger brothers shared.

Pushing aside the door, Darry wandered in, noticing Ponyboy first. Smiling slightly at his youngest brother's attempts at keeping out the sun, he reached over and took the pillow off of Pony's head before hitting him with it. "Get up, Pony, it's time for school," he yawned, listening to his brother's reply, which was broken up by a yawn.

"Come on, Pony, get up," Darry continued, heading over to the other side of the bed before freezing. "Hey, Pony?"

"What is it, Darry?" Pony muttered, yawning as he sat up in the bed, his eyes still closed.

"Where's Soda?"

"What you mean?"

"Where's Sodapop?"

"I' unno…" Pony replied, stretching as he got out of bed and headed toward the bathroom. "Maybe he left early to get Steve.."

Darry, who found this response a bit unbelievable, merely nodded his head slowly. If there was one thing he knew it was that Sodapop could handle himself.


The cold air hit against his face as Sodapop stood silently under a tree, his eyes watching the Valance house intently. He had called Cindy the night before, making certain she'd be able to sneak out early enough for them to walk together, yet, as he watched a few lights flicker on upstairs, he was beginning to think she'd be unable to make it.

Sighing slightly, he rubbed his hands together, feeling that they were becoming number by the minute.

"Well, hey handsome," a voice called from behind him, causing a smile to spread across his lips.

Turning around, it took him less than a minute to have Cindy in his arms, something he had missed for the past three days.

"I missed you," he whispered after a few minutes, backing away slowly before looking down into her eyes. He was unable to control the rapid beating of his heart as he felt Cindy's hand take his, squeezing it lightly.

"I missed you too. You had a good Christmas?"

"It was good," he replied, leading her slowly away from her house and towards the direction of the high school.

"Just good?"

"Would've been better with my wife around," he joked, his eyes flashing towards her face, causing her to blush lightly.

"I like the sound of that."

"Me too…"

Cindy nodded slowly, her thoughts recalling the events that had happened previous to Christmas. It had all been like a dream come true but now…now it was going to get hard. How was she supposed to pretend to not be wildly in love with Sodapop, the guy she had married secretly?

"You aight?"

Coming from her thoughts, Cindy smiled, nodding slowly. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking," she replied, finding that they had stopped in front of the high school. Looking up at the front doors, she sighed. This was where they parted. This was the main place that separated her from him – she was a student, he was nothing but a DX worker.

Shaking the thought from her mind, Cindy leaned over, kissing his cheek gently, noticing the look that had appeared on his face. "I'll see you later?" she questioned.

Sodapop nodded slowly, his eyes looking towards the school, his thoughts cascading rapidly through his mind. "Yeah."

"Hey, Sodapop…"

"Yeah?"

"I love you," Cindy whispered, bringing his face towards hers before placing a soft kiss against his lips. "Don't flirt too much at the station now," she teased, giving him a small wink before she headed towards the front of the school.

Laughing slightly as he watched her walk off towards a group of her friends, Sodapop shook his head. How was he supposed to make this work? It was hard enough dating her in secret, now he was married to her. His brothers didn't know. His friends didn't know. Her family didn't know. Worst of all, no one knew, which meant that she was an object of most guys' affections.

Feeling his blood begin to boil, Sodapop tried to force the thoughts from his mind as he walked toward the DX station. Unfortunately, all the while, he couldn't help but feel that maybe they had made a mistake in eloping.