A/N: Here the new chapter for this old story. I hope you like chapter 2 should be up later! (HOPEFULLY)
I smile and tuck a piece of my loose hair back into my braid. Two-Bit is gabbing to us gilrs about the party that the Curtis brother's threw last night after graduation. He's got this devilish gleam in his eyes that let me know that most of the things he's telling us are probably an exaggeration, but I continue to let him talk because I know he likes the attention.
"Yeup, the party last night makes this little get together a big ol'snore," he says before playfully jabbing me in the ribs. "You know when I was sixteen we all would have been rip roaring drunk already."
"Oh Lord," I say but my friends burst into a fit of giggles. "Why don't you go back to Curtis house than since their so much more fun?"
"And miss my baby sister's sweet sixteen?" Two-Bit asks and I roll my eyes again. "Besides I'm sure things will pick up once Mama goes to bed. Which one of you gals snuck beer in your purse."
My friends start giggling again, but my best friend Mindy just rolls her eyes. She looks at me and makes a face that causes me to smirk. We have our looks to each other down because most of the time we're thinking the same thing. Tonight it's when is Two-Bit going to leave us alone?
"I bet it was Mindy who snuck the beer in. You know what they say about Preacher's daughters," Two-Bit then breaks into a cackle and Mindy rolls her eyes dramatically.
She's been my very best friend since elementary school and has grown up with Two-Bit teaser her non-stop. She was his unofficial little sister and he probably loves her just the same as he loves me. He would go from teasing her to protecting her in a matter of seconds, because that's just how Two-Bit is with the people that he considered being family. Mindy's been around for most of our lives which made her more a part of our family then our actual blood relatives.
"I'm just the real life of the party," her voice is heavily sarcastic and my brother grins.
"Don't I know it," he grins before reaching over and tousling her hair the same way he would mine.
Mindy is real quiet, but when she's comfortable with people she can be a real character. She's smaller than me, barely standing around five foot and has long brown hair that curls at the ends. Her eyes are the same color as coffee and she has a real sweet delicate voice. Her cheekbones are by far her most striking feature because of how prominent they are. She could be a movie star or even a model is she wasn't so modest. As the preacher's daughter her morals are higher than most, but that doesn't mean she can't have a good time. She would just rather fun be natural, like going to the lake to actual swim instead of booze up or going to the movies to actual see what's playing instead of making a scene to get a rise out of people. She's middle class and has Soc friends as well, but she still gets along well with our kind here.
"Well how come you didn't go to the Curtis party Eleanor?" Polly asks. She's always trying to get the best of everyone because she thinks she's so much better.
She's like the ring leader of our little group of friends and is real tough. Her older brother is the second in command for the Tiber Street Tigers. Two-Bit can't stand her and always tells me to stop hanging around her, but I like Polly for the soul reason that she always knows how to have a good time. Which too be honest I'm not a big drinker, but I feel like it's important to have the high school experience every so often and I could only get that with Polly.
Polly is your typical Greaser girl. She talks loud, swears too much, and cakes on her makeup. She stands about the same height as me and has curly blond ringlets that won't grow past her shoulders. Her eyes are a muddy green which really compliments the creamy tone of her skin. Her voice is also seductive, with a deep raspy tone and limps are long making her seem incredibly skinny. Truthfully, she would be the prettiest in my group of friends if she wasn't so damn mean and petty. It worked for some girls, but not for her.
"Why would I go to a Curtis party?" I ask and she shrugs her shoulders.
"I just thought y'all were friends, considering you grew up together." Polly licks her lips and then smiles at me and I have half a mind to jump across the table and strangle her, but I don't.
"No they're my brother's friends. They don't have anything to do with me," I say evenly and Two-Bit rolls his eyes.
"I was there," Angela Shepard who tagged along with Polly says and I glance at Mindy.
Mindy gives me the look of 'Why the hell is she here anyways' and I shrug my shoulders, tipping my chair back on the two back legs.
"Were you now?" Emily says with false excitement. She closed my group of friends and I was sure glad to have her.
She's a rather tall red-head with eyes the color of a cloudless sky. She's smart and witty and best of all could not stand Angela Shepard for the life of her. Like me, she could deal with Polly because to be honest we were about the realest that girl is ever going to get so Polly had to be nice to us sometimes which gave us some perks in that friendship. Emily has olive colored skin and even though she's a greaser girl she sure did her best not to look the part. Her face is always clean and her clothes were better looking than any of ours. Although she has an attitude, she's also really nice and caring. She just doesn't like when people tried to make her close friends looks bad and Angela Shepard is the queen of that.
"Oh yeah I went with my boyfriend Bryan. They graduated together you know," Angela says and Two-Bit gets up from the table. This was enough girls talk for him.
"Can you ask Mama when she's going to bring out the cake?" I whisper to him and he nods.
"Sure thing," Two-Bit says before he disappears into the kitchen. I sure wish I could leave with him.
"Oh you and Bryan are together? It isn't like you haven't told us this about twenty times in the last hour or anything," Emily snaps and Angela's black eyes glare at her across the table.
"Well I'm just happy. It isn't like any of you have a boyfriend or any boys to talk about at all," Angela's voice is full of false sweetness. It's enough to make me gag and for Mindy to stifle a giggle next to me.
"Why are you even here?" Emily says under her breath as Angela continues her own account of what happened during the Curtis' graduation party.
I feel like I may die boredom because Angela is no Two-Bit when she tells stories, but thankfully we're saved when the lights are turned off and my mama brings out the cake she made for my birthday. She sets in down in front of me and then kisses the top of my head sweetly.
"My girl," she whispers to me affectionately. She then turns to Two-Bit and points an angry finger, "Now I mean it Two-Bit, you smash this cake into your sister's face this year and there's going to be some hell to pay."
"Mama, you really think I would ruin my baby sister's sixteenth birthday like that?" He asks and the table nods in harmonious agreement. Two-Bit just cracks a grin and response and says, "Well yeah I guess I would."
Two-Bit leads us in a humorous round of happy birthday but I'm barely listening to what my guests are singing. My birthday always kicks off the summer and right now I'm determined to have the best summer I could ever imagine. I want a summer that a teenage girl dreams about. When the song comes to a close I take a deep breath and close my eyes repeating my wish in my head over and over again.
Please oh, please just give me a summer that I'll remember.
I open my eyes and blow all sixteen candles out, knowing that the only person around to make my wish true would be me and I wasn't about to let myself down.
My brother switches the lights back on and I watch my Mama cut the cake she worked so hard to bake me. I take a deep breath and look at Mindy who's smiling at me. She always looks real happy to be around me and I'm glad that she's here to celebrate another birthday of mine, because truth be told we're starting to grow apart. Having different types of friends can do that to a relationship.
"What did you wish for?" Two-Bit asks and I shake my head at him.
"For you to get a job, move out, and shave those caterpillars off the side of your face," I tell him and my brother smirks.
"Well now that you told me it won't come true," he says causing me to cock my eyebrow up in a very Two-Bit fashion and he laughs. "Kid you're getting to become more and more like me every day."
"Oh lord, don't say that to me again," I make a face he shakes his head at me.
"Why don't you want to be like your older brother?" He asks and I shake my head no.
"If it means I'm twenty-three and still living in mama's house than no sir," my voice is full of good fun and Two-Bit laughs, but locks his jaw like he's real annoyed.
"Kid if I moved out of her you'd miss way too much," he says and I roll my eyes. It's true I would miss my brother way too much, but I would never tell him that.
After the cake is eaten people begin to file out of the house like I expected them to. My friends tell me that they'll see me tomorrow and I'm glad that this doesn't include Angela Shepard. Mindy hugs me tightly before she leaves and whispers in my ear, "I left your gift under your bed."
"I said no gifts," I pull away from the hug and Mindy just shrugs her shoulders.
"It's your birthday," she tells me with a smile and I hug her again.
"Thanks," I tell her and she winks at me before walking down to her daddy's car that's parked in the driveway.
"Happy Birthday Eleanor!" He calls from the window and I wave to him.
"Thanks Mr. Robert's!" I yell back before heading back inside the house.
Two-Bit is putting on his leather jacket and I stare at him for a brief moment. "Where you going?" I ask and Two-Bit just looks at me, a small smile on his face.
"Me and Steve are heading to out to Buck Merril's. Want to come?" He asks but I know he's kidding.
"Sure, let me go get the bottle of gin that's tucked away in my closet." I kid and he laughs, tousling my hair.
"You ain't much of a baby anymore," he says as he looks down at me. I shrug my shoulders because I don't feel any different than I had yesterday when I was fifteen.
"Sure I am," I say and Two-Bit just smirks. The truth was I could kind of understand where he was coming from. In the past few months I've finally started to fill out, becoming curvier like a woman. My dirty blonde hair has grown out to reach the middle of my back and I've even taught myself to apply just the right amount of eyeliner to make my blue eyes the main feature on my face. So I could understand what Two-Bit meant. I look older and he isn't used to that yet.
"I'll see you tomorrow," he tells me and I punch him affectionately in the shoulder.
"Be safe," a constant reminder I've told him over the years.
"Always am," he says and I close the front door carefully behind him.
I lock myself away in my room since Mama had already gone to bed. She has a long day of work tomorrow and even though both Two-Bit and I think she overworks herself there's nothing she can really do. She's a single mom and has to work to not only put food on the table but make sure she raised Two-Bit and I well enough to stay out of any dangerous trouble. Even though her relatives don't think so, I think Mama has done a damn fine job raising the two of us by herself.
The gift from Mindy is right under my bed like she said it would be and I smile at the perfectly wrapped gift. In her loopy handwriting she wrote to my best friend with love. I carefully open the paper not wanting to do too much damage to it since it's so pretty. Inside is the Beatles record and I laugh, glad that she had hidden it from the others because they would have given us so much shit for liking them. I flip the record between my fingers before placing it gently on the desk underneath my window. It's still incredibly hot and I make the decision that tonight would be the perfect time to make my first visit to the vacant lot.
Every summer when the weather's just right at night I sneak off to the vacant lot and sit underneath the stars. It's just a way for me to escape and think about everything that I need to do or should be doing. The lot had originally been Johnny's place and out of all of my brother's friends he had been my favorite.
He found me out there one time when I had decided to run away and live in the old abandoned car in the lot. I had been crying because I was cold and didn't want to go home just yet. I was trying to prove a point to myself that I didn't need my brother or mama to take care of me, but deep down inside little 'ol me knew I needed them more than I cared to admit. Johnny had heard me crying and stood up from the spot where he had been watching the stars and joined me on top of the that old rusty car.
"Why are you out here El?" He asked and I just sniffled in response, "Come on you can tell me."
"I'm running away," I said once I was sure I could say it without my voice quivering.
Johnny gave the look over like my mama did whenever I left the house to make sure I was wearing the appropriate clothes. "You're gonna runaway in slippers?" He pointed and I turned away from him huffy. I wasn't too smart of a kid.
"Why is this any of your business Johnny Cade?" I snapped and he chuckled, lighting up a cigarette and taking a slow drag.
"Because Two-Bit would skin me if he knew I had saw you and didn't make you go straight home," Johnny answered and I rolled my eyes.
"Two-Bit doesn't care about me," I was being stubborn but Johnny was being patient with me. If it had been someone like Dallas or Steve who found me they would have just picked me up and brought me back home even if I had screamed the entire time there.
"That's just a ton of bologna," he said being careful not to swear at me. "Two-Bit loves you more than anything on this earth and I can't believe you would even think that."
"Look El," Johnny said as he took off his jacket to give to me since I had been shaking like crazy, "everyone thinks there home life is unsatisfying but let me tell you that everyone loves you more than you could possibly think."
"They don't show it all the time," I whispered and Johnny just shrugged.
"Everyone has off days, but I know that Two-Bit would lose his mind if anything ever happened to you, believe me." Johnny whispered back before nudging me with his shoulder. "Let me take you home."
When I don't get up to follow him Johnny sighed and said, "Whenever you feel like youre being suffocated, come out to the vacant lot. It's a good place to take a break and just sort everything out. You can keep me company, but come one you're not dressed to be out here tonight."
That was the last time I ever Johnny Cade because just a few weeks after him and Ponyboy got into a lot of trouble and he died a just a week or two later. I cried at his funeral, not only because it scared me something awful seeing my brother and his tough friends cry but also because I would miss how sweet Johnny Cade had been to me.
I crawl up onto the old abandoned car and lay down on the hood. The sky is cloudless and I can see almost every star in the night sky. I love it here. I felt safe here. As I got older I finally understood why Johnny liked it here so much, because even it if was just for a few minutes the wide night sky makes you feel free.
A/N: Let me know what you think!