The moment I walked into my house I was met by an explosion of noise. Nothing unusual, so I walked into the kitchen for a Pepsi.
"I can't believe you Dally,"
"It's not my fault she was just there!"
"Hey quiet! I'm trying to watch some T.V!"
I, Ponyboy Curtis, walked into the living room to see what all the noise was about. On the couch sat Dallas Wilson, JD, hood, troublemaker to the bone. He was beat up something good and had a pretty big shiner. Lying on the couch next to him was a girl who was beat up almost as bad as Dally.
"Cripes Dally, what'd you do?" I asked, sitting down next to Two-Bit on the floor.
Dally gave me one of those looks and sighed, lighting a cigarette, "I found her in an alleyway getting the shit beaten out of her. Of course I wouldn't stand for that, so I got to beat up a few good for nothin' Socs."
Soda, my older brother, walked in the door, looking like a Greek god come to Earth. "Dally, who's that?" He asked, walking into the kitchen and bringing out the chocolate cake that was always in the freezer.
"Do I need to tell every person under the sun?" He yelled, jumping up but wincing from the pain of a few bruised ribs.
"Apparently," said Steve, eating the cake that Soda brought out.
"So, where's she gonna stay?" I asked, pulling out my math homework and sitting down on the floor.
"Whatcha doin' that for?" Asked Two-Bit, pulling the homework from under my arm.
"Darry says if I don't do it they'll throw me in some boys home." I replied, taking my homework back from out wise cracking friend. Two-Bit shrugged and walked into the kitchen to get a beer.
"Seriously, where's she gonna stay?" I asked, reaching over Steve for some of the cake.
Dally shook his head with a frown, "She aint gonna be at my place, my old man'll think she's my girl and she's pregnant or something. Hey Soda, I'll be hangin' here for a while okay?"
Soda shrugged and began trying to arm wrestle Johnny, who proceeded to beat him three to zero.
Dally winced and began blowing smoke rings that floated up into the ceiling. I wondered how that girl managed to sleep through all this noise. I motioned for Soda to follow me into the kitchen as Steve and Dally began to argue.
"Hey Soda, is she really gonna' stay here?"
Soda shrugged, "If Darry won't kill us then yes."
Two-Bit walked in, followed by Johnny. "Hey who wants to take bets about the girl?"
"Five bucks says she hates him."
"Five bucks says they hate each other."
"Five bucks says they fall in love," said Johnny in that quiet voice of his.
"Fall in love?" I said skeptically, "Come on Johnnycake, you don't actually believe in that stuff do you?" Johnny simply shrugged,
"If you think they won't, who'll take it?"
There was an instant uproar in which everyone bet against Johnny. He simply shrugged and insisted that they would fall in love eventually.
I laughed and walked into the living room to find Dally asleep, the girl leaning against him. Things had begun to quiet down for the day, Steve and Two-Bit left to go hang out at the diner, leaving me, Soda, Dally and the beat up girl. We were just sitting down to dinner, fried chicken and potatoes, when a burst of noise sent us running to the living room. Dally and the girl had woken up, and they were both moaning from their injuries and yelling at the same time.
"If I hadn't saved your sorry ass…."
"My sorry ass didn't need saving!" Yelled the girl, trying to stand up but falling into Dally.
"You see, you can't even stand! Now tell me you didn't need saving," he retorted, helping her up.
"QUIET!" Yelled my eldest brother Darrell Curtis, aka Darry. He had just walked in the door, and immediately walked over to Soda and began questioning him. "Why is there a girl in our house?"
Soda launched into the story, aided occasionally by me and Dally. "So," said Darry, sitting down on one of the chairs. "You two are gonna stay here until…"
"Until she's better," said Dally, sitting down on the couch with a groan.
"Excuse me, but I never asked for charity!" She yelled, giving us a fierce look. For the first time, I got a good look at her. She had tanned skin, and her hair was shoulder length dirty blonde. Her face looked familiar, all except the eyes. They were blue, like two chips of ice. They had the same look in them as Dally's, as if they wanted to forget all they had seen. I was brought out of my thinking by a sharp smack on the head dealt by Dally.
"Didn't your brother ever teach you not to stare?" He said, walking into the kitchen, "Oh great…food. I'm so hungry I could eat a horse."
Darry and Soda followed him into the kitchen and began eating. I stood there with the girl. "Oh, uh, do you want something to eat?" I asked, feeling like a total fool.
She nodded and followed me into the kitchen where my brothers and Dally were already pigging out on the chicken. I passed the girl a plate and sat down in between Dally and Sodapop.
"So girlie, what's your name, asked Dally, trying to put his arm around her.
"Tera. And don't call me 'girlie'." She removed his arm from around her shoulders and began wolfing down the chicken.
"So Tera why were you in the alleyway gettin' the tar beaten outta ya?"
She gave Dally a cold look, "I ticked off the rich kids, the Socs or whatever they're called."
Darry whistled through his teeth, "I hate people who beat on girls. It's just wrong."
"What'd they look like?" Asked Soda, getting excited.
Tera shrugged, "I don't know. One guy had a ton of rings on his fingers and they all showed up in this one car…a blue..."
"Mustang," I breathed, looking nervously at Dally. "Dally; it's the same guys who jumped Johnny!"
"Wait, is Johnny the guy with the beat up face?" Asked Tera, helping herself to more of our food.
"Ya, the Socs jumped him," said Dally hollowly. Johnny was the gang's pet, everyone's brother. If Dally ever loved anything other then himself, it was Johnny.
"Well," said Soda, standing up. "I'm gonna shower." He hurriedly dumped his dishes in the sink and ran towards the bathroom.
I looked over at Tera and Dally who were arguing. I sighed, it looked like Johnny was going to lose a lot of money on the bet.
"Hey Pony, you've got homework," said Darry, grabbing his plate and dumping it into the sink.
"Fine," I said grumpily, putting my plate in the sink.
"Hey Dall, Tera, can you guys get the dishes?" Asked Darry, sitting down with the newspaper.
"Fine," said Dally, grabbing his plate and dropping it into the sink. "Dishes are done." He walked into the living room and sat down for a smoke. Tera followed me and sat down on the floor, looking at all the bruises on her arms.
"Hey Darry, can you help me with my homework?" I asked, walking over to him and showing him the algebra I was struggling with.
"Sure little buddy," he proceeded to show me not only how to do the problems, but how to do them quickly.
After that we sat down in front of the T.V. Nothing eventful happened until Soda walked out if the shower in only a towel. When he saw Tera he jumped a mile high. "Cripes, I forgot there was a girl here."
We laughed and ate some chocolate cake, and then Darry yelled over the din of Steve and Two-Bit fighting that it was time for bed.
I walked to my room in a daze and sank down onto my soft mattress. A few minutes later Soda came and laid down next to me, tossing an arm over my shoulder. "Soda?"
"Mmm?"
"Do you miss Sandy?"
"Yea."
"Do you think you'll ever love anyone else?"
"Yea…" With that he fell asleep. I sat there thinking, and stood up, trying not to disturb Soda. I walked out into the living room. Sprawled on the couch was Dally, arm around Tera. I wondered if he knew he was sleeping like that. I walked into the kitchen and grabbed a plateful of chocolate cake, wondering if it tasted the same everywhere…