"Evie looked like she stepped out of a Playboy," Steve said. His words were all strung together in one airy breath. I watched him light up a cancer stick.
We were just sitting around in the lot. We had to take our dates home early, but we weren't really ready to go home. Tulsa was dead tonight. The dance was fun, then Evie showed up, and it went down hill from there. She gave our dates dirty looks, and flirted with every guy there, and made sure Steve saw. They had broken up a week after Dallas died. Steve didn't want to say why. I heard through the grapevine that Steve cheated. I heard that she cheated. Who knew what happened; all I knew is that she wasn't right for Steve.
"We took the Carter twins to the dance. Girls don't get better looking than that," I commented. I was right. The Carter twins were way better looking than any other girl around here.
"They have nothing between the ears," Steve said. He shifted around and put his hands behind his head.
"Hey, ya'll!" Two-Bit jumped over us and landed on his butt.
I couldn't help crack up. Two-Bit rolled up to face us.
"Ya'll having a pow-wow?" he asked
"Where did you go? You were at the dance for like twenty minutes?" I asked.
"Cathy and I had some celebrating to do. It's our anniversary. So we got a room at Buck's," he replied. His grin let us know that he got laid. Steve and I both rolled our eyes.
"You mean you guys didn't take a roll in the hay with the farmer's daughters?" Two-Bit grinned.
The Carter twins may have been lookers, but they weren't known to put out on the first date. Scoring a date with them was a huge deal thou.
"Shut up," Steve snapped. He had been in a really crappy mood lately. He started working full time and going to school. He hardly went out anymore. He insisted on saving every penny he earned. I had to practically force him to take out Beth Carter.
Two-Bit dug around in his leather jacket. "Look at my present. My girl is the best," he said, holding up a bottle of Jack Daniels. He opened the bottle and took a swig.
"I don't get how a goon like you can have a girl like Cathy," Steve said. He sounded almost bitter.
I wrapped my coat around me tighter. It was really starting to get cold out. Darry was right; I should have worn my winter coat.
"Hey you can't resist this," Two-Bit said, pointing to his face. "Maybe if you two didn't look and act like apes, you might actually get some real action."
"I get plenty of action," I said, punching him in the shoulder.
Steve accepted the bottle that Two-Bit passed to him. "You are a fire crotch," he joked.
"And how would you know?" Two-Bit cocked an eyebrow.
I laughed as Steve scowled at him. "I miss summer; when did it get this cold?" I asked. I blew into my hands to warm them up.
"It's the middle of October," Steve stated.
"I bet it's warm in Hawaii," I said. "Maybe we should go there. I need a vacation and some Hawaiian girls."
Steve laughed. "I'd rather go to Florida and not have to leave the mainland. I've been saving up to go."
"That why you working full time now? What's in Florida?" I asked.
"Yup, and I have some family there," Steve said, burying his face on his knees. "Sodapop, it is twelve ten."
"Shit," I jumped to my feet. Midnight was my curfew. Darry was real big about curfew.
"See ya guys later," I called over my shoulder.
Darry wasn't going to be happy. He was all about Pony and me being home on time. I was normally good about it. I had seen how much it scared him when Pony didn't come home. Lucky for me, the lot wasn't too far from home. The lights were off in the house. I guess everyone had gone to bed, or they were out looking for me. I nervously bit my lip, and kicked my shoes off. I wondered down the hall. It really didn't look like anyone was home.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" A low raspy voice asked.
I felt a hand cuff my mouth tightly. Another arm wrapped my entire body, squeezing the daylights out of me. I tried to struggle, but the person dragged me. I wanted to freak out. I tried to bit the hand around my mouth but I couldn't. I got picked up like a feather and tossed faced down on the couch.
"What'd I tell you about being home on time?" Darry barked, and then cracked up laughing. He sat on top of me. I tried to catch my breath. My heart was pounding. I could hear it in my head.
"You scared the heck out of me," I said. I tried to push him off me, but he was too big. He should have been an actor. He made his voice sound completely different.
"Good, you shouldn't have come home late," he said smartly.
"Yeah, yeah, I gotcha. You nearly gave me a heart attack," I told him.
Darry just laughed. He leaned down and kissed the top of my hair. "Ponyboy turn the lights on."
The living room lights flickered on. My younger brother appeared in the doorway. He was trying to stiffen his laughter, but was failing at doing so.
"He did that to me last week," Pony laughed.
"Yup, and he at least managed to fight back," Darry punched me in the arm. He jumped off me and helped me to my feet.
"You're crazy. We should call the state on you. That has to be some type of abuse," I joked.
Darry just shook his head. "Nope, it's a trick I learned from the guys at work. Parents have been scaring their kids for ages. It is how they get them to do things, or not do things."
I stuck my tongue out at him. It was getting really cold in here too. "Man, why is it so cold?"
"Furnace broke," Pony answered.
"Yeah, right in time," Darry said sarcastically. "Just needs a part. I'll pick it up after work."
Darry was a handyman by nature. If it was broke, he knew how to fix it. I had no clue on how he knew to fix everything around the house. I was the car guy of the family, but Steve was the car guy of the gang. He would always be a better mechanic than me.
"Is it going to be expensive?" I asked.
"Don't worry about it bud," Darry said.
That meant it was really expensive. He didn't talk about the cost of something if it was really expensive. I smiled up at him.
"Come on," I said to Pony. "Let go to sleep."
The DX was extra busy today. One of the mechanics called off, and the boss made Steve work on the cars. Lenny got fired. I felt kind of bad, but I really didn't like the guy much. He was the type that would steal from your Mother when she invited him to dinner. I was stuck running the store all by my lonesome. Why did everyone want gas on Saturday? Things were finally slowing down when Steve emerged from the garage.
"Now you come," I joked. "Now that there are no cars in need of gas, and people in need of food. What's up with that?"
Steve just sort grinned. "I did seven oil changes in that time. How many do you think you can do in that time?"
I was about to respond when the boss came in. "Sodapop, I have sixteen available hours next week."
"I'll take them," Steve butted in.
"It's Lenny's graveyard shifts," he said. "Don't you have school in the morning?"
"He does. I'll take them," I said. I looked at Steve confused. We needed money more than he did. His old man had some already.
"Darry doesn't want you working graveyard shift. My Dad doesn't care. I'll take them," Steve said. He had a pleading look in his eyes.
"Steve our furnace broke. The part is expensive," I explained. I hated bringing in my family's situation, but we really needed money.
"Look, I'm trying to help out my Dad too. I got a car and other stuff to pay for," he argued.
I couldn't help but drop my jaw. Steve knew all about our situation; since when was a car more important than family?
Our boss slammed his hand on the counter making us both jump. "Stop acting like kids in front of customers. You both get eight hours,"
"We are kids," I smarted.
Steve snickered, and our boss just glared at us and stormed off. I leaned heavily on the counter, and watched the lady in our store disappear to where the milk was.
"What's going on with you?" I asked.
"You ain't the only one who needs money," Steve said. He pulled a rag out and began wiping the counter top.
"You're Dad loose his job?" I asked.
Steve shook his head. "Look Soda, this just isn't something I feel like getting into right now. Pony's here anyways."
Pony came running through the doors. He was drenched in sweat. Steve never sounded so relieved to see Pony. Not that he didn't like my brother, he liked him just fine. He just hated when Pony came on our dates. I didn't see what the big deal was. He was quite you almost forgot he was there. I watched as he handed Pony some water.
"You're getting back in shape really fast," Steve said.
"I saw the mail truck pull up after I got done with my run," Pony started. "I figured you would want this now. I ran all the way here."
Pony handed me an envelope. It had a Florida return address on it with Sandy's name. I only had written her once since she returned my letter. I turned the letter around in my hand. This almost didn't feel real. There was a small cat sticker on it. Sandy always loved cats. I tore open the envelope.
"Burn it Sodapop," Steve yelled. He tried to snatch the envelope from my hands, but my grip was too tight.
"No," I smacked his hand out of the way. He was my best friend, but today he was really bugging me.
"She ain't worth it. She's in Florida and having a kid," Steve said. He stuck his hand out. "Give it here."
"I still love her," I said. "I'm going to read this outside."
A/N: I have trouble finding Soda's voice. Let me know if you have some tips for it!