B R E A K I N G. T H E. G I R L.
Laurie Jean Randle
Chapter Two

It was eight o' clock. I was worried. Steve wasn't home yet. My father wasn't home yet. It was just me, still. Ok, Steve usually didn't come home this early and my father didn't come home at exactly eight o' clock. But still. I was looking out the window, through the curtains, looking up and down the street. Where are they? I smiled to myself when I saw a figure coming into sight down our street. But they stopped short of our house and went inside their house two doors down. I gave up looking and sat back down. I'd finished talking to Brenda a few minutes ago. She says she isn't feeling so well and she may not come to school tomorrow. But really, I think she just doesn't want to hand in her English homework. I tried calling Jane but she didn't answer. So I sat back in the corner and watched the TV.

The house was silent, besides the TV. It made me nervous. Whenever there was silence I usually found myself waiting for something bad to happen. Even if we were doing a test at school and the room is all quiet but the occasional pen scratching on paper. It made me want to scream and run away to find a place where there is lots of noise and people. I still hadn't finished my essay. So after taking another look around the room, making sure there were no signs of another person, I ran to my room. I grabbed my paper and pen and a few notes I had and ran back to the lounge room.

I'd been writing for only a few minutes when I heard a car pull up in the street. It was either our house or next door. And I waited until I heard whoever it was walk up the front yard and bang on the front door. I dropped my things to the floor and jumped up, happy to be opening the door. My dad was home.

"Hi dad." I said as I opened the screen door and let him in. He grunted and continued on through the house, probably going to his bedroom. He disappeared down the hallway as I shut the door. Taking one last look outside, but there was no sign of Steve. I sighed, sitting back down to finish my essay. I could hear dad muttering things to himself as he went back out into the kitchen. I ignored him. He'd been at work all day and he must've been tired.

"Laurie!" he yelled. What does he want, I thought.

"Yeah?"

"Where's Steve?" he asked. That's what I was thinking, I thought. I gathered my papers and stood up, going to the kitchen. My dad was looking through the mail on the kitchen bench. It was the same pile of mail he'd been going through since last Thursday. Steve and I decided not to tell him about this.

"He's at his friend's house. He said he'd be home soon." I said.

"He called?"

"Um, no. I went for a walk and he was working. He said he'd be home by eight-thirty." I said. And I left him to look over the bills while I went to my room. I just had a few more things to write down in the essay, so I left it on my dresser as I got changed, so I could go to sleep as soon as I'd finished. Once I was changed I sat down on my bed, quickly writing. I could do the punctuating and spelling tomorrow in Math class. My hand was sore from writing but I wanted to finish this. As I was writing my name at the top of the pages I heard the front door open and slam shut. I breathed a sigh of relief. I had my bedroom door open and I waited for Steve to go past so I could ask where he'd been.

But after a few minutes he didn't go past. And now I could hear him talking to our dad.

"Where've you been?" dad asked.

"I was at Soda's house." Steve said calmly.

"Soda's? Who do you think you're kidding? Where've you really been?" Oh, he was getting angry alright. Steve sighed.

"Ok, I was at Darrel's house." he said. They were silent for a second. What are they doing? I got up off my bed and walked to my bedroom door. I could see into the kitchen from here. I kept my body hidden behind the doorframe, peeking out into the kitchen. They were staring at each other from either side of the kitchen. Then dad began to walk, towards the lounge room. But stopped when he got to Steve. They stared at each other a second longer, until dad hit Steve over the head. It wasn't a hit as if to say 'you do stupid things but I still love you'. No, it was a real hit. The smack of his hand on his head so loud it echoed inside my head. I jumped when he hit him. I quickly went and sat back on my bed. I hadn't seen a thing. Steve mumbled something and I heard him walk into the hallway. I saw him walk down to his room, rubbing his head and trying to act tough. I don't know why, he had no one to impress.

I waited until I heard the TV volume be turned up and then I went to see Steve. Yeah, I knew he was alright. Well, he wanted me to think he was alright. But I wanted to know what he was doing at Soda's house. I knocked on the closed door and went in even when he didn't reply. He was sitting on the edge of his bed staring at the wall.

"Hey." I said leaning against the door frame.

"Hi." he mumbled.

"Where were you?" I asked. He looked up at me. You gonna say something? I thought.

"At Soda's, I told you." he said. He rubbed his head a second and then saw me watching him. He took his hand away and too his shoes off. "What do you want?"

"What happened to your head?" I asked. He gave me a look that said he wanted me dead, either that or out of his room.

"Me and Soda were playin' around. That's all." he stood up and came over to where I was standing. I stood back from the doorway. "Bye." he said and shut the door. And for once he didn't slam it. Yeah don't get dad angry, I thought as I walked back to my room. I turned off the light and climbed into bed.

The next day, Wednesday March 20th, both Jane and Brenda were absent again. I really don't think Jane was sick but she's not the type to skip a class either. So I don't know why she was away. But it didn't matter. As long as I could spend the 50 minutes of Math class perfecting my English essay, I didn't care that they were absent. By lunch I wasn't in such a great mood. After being pushed around a little in between classes by Ralph and having a few people whisper and point at me, I wasn't feeling so great anymore. And now that I think about it, I did care that Brenda and Jane were away. I needed them here. English was the last period before lunch hour. I was starving and since my locker was right by my English class, I was outside on my way to the bleachers before I knew it.

It was the same as yesterday, only a few people outside, two of them I recognized as Two-Bit and one of Steve's other friends. They didn't see me and I made sure of that, walking quickly along to the bleachers and hiding behind them again. But today wasn't the same as yesterday. There was already someone else here. His name is Ryan. He was sitting maybe ten feet away from me and I ignored him. Just pretend today is the same as yesterday. I'm alone and no one is going to walk by on the streets either. But as hungry as I was I couldn't eat a thing. I could feel him watching me. He wouldn't look away. Come on, Ryan what are you gonna say? I thought. Or maybe I was just being silly and he wasn't really looking. I quickly glanced at him, just in time to see him look the other way. That doesn't exactly mean he was staring at me.

Oh who cares! Just stop thinking about him. But I couldn't. He was there and I didn't want him there. I wanted him to be out with his friends, playing football or whatever it is he does. No one walked past the school, so it was just us. Just us. Anything could happen. I mean we were hidden behind the bleachers; no one was going to come behind here. And if they did, they'd probably leave after seeing us. I'll just tell him to leave, I thought. I couldn't embarrass myself since we were the only two here. I spent the next few minutes trying to calm myself down and convince myself that I wouldn't look stupid telling him to leave. Finally, I did it.

"Why are you here?" I asked my voice was pretty quiet and shaky. At first, I didn't think he'd heard. But he surprised me when he turned to me, smiling and he answered.

"Relaxing." he said and he leaned back on his hands with his legs stretched out. I rolled my eyes and stared back across the road. My stomach was grumbling and I tried real hard to leave my sandwich in my bag. But it was hard. I pulled it out and quickly took a bite. I was about to take another but instead I stopped.

"Why aren't you with your friends?" I asked. Again, I thought he hadn't heard. As much as I wanted to talk loud, make myself seem tough, I couldn't.

"I don't have any." he said. Oh yeah that's right, mock me.

"Whatever." I muttered. I didn't want to talk to him anymore. I hoped he'd get the message he wasn't wanted. But he didn't and he stayed where he was. Maybe he was dared to sit and talk to me all lunch hour. There was yelling from the football field. Someone scored. As the yelling died down Ryan stood up and walked past me.

"Want a coke?" he asked. Yes please, I thought. I didn't want to say yes, it seemed rude. But I didn't want to say no, because I did want one. So I shrugged. "Alright." he said and he walked around the side of the bleachers and disappeared. I didn't wait for him to come back. I wasn't sure what the time was but I wanted to go and calm down. I stood up, dropping the rest of my sandwich and dusted off my skirt. I put my bag on my shoulder and walked around into the sunlight. I couldn't walk through the football field since they were still playing. So I went around it, and it seemed to take forever. I could see a group of guys up ahead and I wanted to turn around and go the other way. But I would've looked silly then. So I continued on. Outside I looked confident, inside I wanted to die I was embarrassed. When I was a few feet away from them, I realized, it was Steve and his friends. I wouldn't' say anything, I decided. And as I walked by I smiled a little at Steve and didn't look at the other guys.

It felt like I'd been walking for hours but I finally made it to the bathrooms.

After school, I had gotten home a little later than usual; the teacher had kept us back. But I didn't care. Steve wasn't working today and that meant he'd be home. I wouldn't be alone. I closed the front door quietly and went right on to my room. I quickly changed into an old pair of pants that I wear around the house and left my top on. I was looking around in the kitchen for a book I had left in there. And as I stood up from looking under the kitchen table he was standing there. Soda. He gave me a heart attack.

"H-hi." I said, wanting to leave because I felt my face turning red.

"Hey." he said, "How you doing?" he asked, picking up one of Steve's magazines he had left on the table.

"Alright." I said. We stood in a silence for a few moments before I walked past him and into my room. I shut the door. I can't believe he saw me like this. Oh sure, he was good-looking. I wouldn't date him. He was my brother's best friend! But still. . . I breathed for a minute. Concentrated on breathing.

"Want a coke?" Soda yelled. Coke. Ryan. . Ryan! What did he think when he came back and I wasn't there? He won't ever talk to me again. Of course he won't want to. He had to talk to me today. He was dared by his friends. He won't even sit next to me in class if the last seat left was beside me. Why do I care if he doesn't talk to me?

It was midnight. My dad wasn't home yet. I was worried. I couldn't sleep. It was just me and Steve, who was sleeping. I peeked out of the kitchen window which, if you looked from the perfect angle, you could see the front of the house. No car. Where must he be? I turned around to get a drink as Steve came in. He didn't scare me, though I thought he was sleeping.

"What're you doing?' he asked.

"Nothing." I said quickly. "Just getting a drink." I went over to the cupboard and got two glasses. I filled them with water and offered one to him. He took it and flicked through the magazine on the table. "Where's dad?"

"I don't know. Don't care." he said. He finished his water and slammed the glass on the table. He hadn't shown any signs of pain on his head. I wanted to ask him about it but decided not to. He was already angry, a little. "Hey, um, you know Daniel and Ralph?" he asked. I rolled my eyes. Yeah, unfortunately I know them.

"Yeah." I said. He still didn't look at me.

"They tease you?" I felt myself just go down. Ok I didn't actually fall but I just felt myself go to this level I hadn't gone to many times before. Where I felt worthless.

"Yeah." I said my voice cracking. Why do you wanna know?

"Yeah." he said. He looked up at me, my eyes now watery. "Sorry." he said and he turned walking down the hall and I heard him shut his bedroom door.

I don't own Steve, Darry or Sodapop.