A/N: Thanks for the reviews!
Chapter 2
As soon as I heard Darry yell I shot to my feet. The last thing I needed was for him to know that I was crying. I turned on the tap and splashed cool water on my face. It did little to disguise my red face, but it looked better than nothing. I wiped my snotty nose with the sleeve of my shirt and then, in an attempt to hide my face, pushed my hair in front of my eyes.
Darry had stopped banging on the door, but as soon as I opened it I ran smack into him.
"Sorry," I muttered, hoping that he would leave me alone. He didn't though. Darry would never let anything go. He always had to get to the bottom of things.
"Whoa there little girl," he said, stepping in front of me. "You okay?"
"I'm fine."
"Really?" he asked disbelievingly. "'cause Pony told me you've been in there since he got home from school."
"After he got home," I corrected. I was still looking down at the floor but it was getting harder to keep my face away, as Darry was beginning to crouch down.
"What's wrong?" One thing about my brother was that he never asked things gently, he just came straight out and expected a straight answer. Even if he was a little (or even a lot) intimidating, I wasn't going to give in with the answer he wanted. I hated it when he knew I was crying, or even sad, and I didn't need him trying to figure out what the problem was. That said, I knew that I would have to give him some sort of answer, and, since I was still a little upset with Pony Boy, I decided to share that with him.
"I'm mad at Ponyboy," I said quietly. I know it was a mean thing of me to do, especially since Pony had never really become upset with me that way before, but at the time I was upset too.
"Why are you mad at Pony?" he asked, in a voice that said he didn't really believe I could be upset at him.
"Because this morning, he yelled at me."
"And that's why you're cross?"
"No, that's not all. He threatened me too."
"Oh yeah?" It almost sounded like he was enjoying this. "What'd he threaten to do?"
I had to think about that for a moment. If I told him why Pony was upset, and that I had ruined his homework, things would probably backfire on me. But if I went back now and said that Pony hadn't really threatened me, not only would he give me heck for lying, but he would still want to know the real reason why I was crying.
"Lily?" he snapped, breaking my thoughts. "I asked you what he threatened to do."
I had to come up with something quick. "Uh, well, he wasn't really specific, but he told me that he would, you know, do something bad to me in front of all my friends."
Darry stood back up and this time I couldn't help myself. I had to look at him to see what his expression. There wasn't much to it, just the same old hard look he always had, except that now his right eyebrow was slightly raised.
"Pony threatened to do something bad to you?"
"Uh huh."
"In front of your friends?"
"Yep."
"Doesn't sound like Ponyboy."
"He surprises me too sometimes."
"He really threatened you?"
"I said yes."
"Why?"
I'd thought I had been able to save myself some trouble there, but apparently I was wrong.
Now I really did have to give myself up.
"I sort of ruined something of his," I admitted quickly, and looked away again. There was no use in my lying. Darry could always see right through me.
"What did you ruin?"
"An essay," I blurted out, then slipped by him and rushed down the hall over to my bedroom door.
"Get back here!" he called. It didn't take much for him to catch up with me, and when he did he grabbed my arm and spun me around to face him.
"Let go!" I cried. He did, but only because I was cornered between him and the wall.
As I tried to get past him again he snapped, "Calm down!" I did as I was told. "Now listen to me. Ponyboy works hard in school, and it ain't fair for you to go ruining his work. If you are going to do it though, you've got to face the consequences. If that means Pony yells at you or threatens you, then you just have to deal with it."
"And what if he hits me?" I asked.
Darry rolled his eyes. "If that ever happens you can tell me, and we'll talk." I knew he doubted that he would ever hit me, and really I did too, but sometimes I couldn't help but fear what people said to me.
I wasn't surprised when Darry sent me to my room. I had expected at least a small lecture about ruining the essay and all, but he didn't say anything about it. Part of me wished that I had told him the truth about crying, or that he had demanded to know what was wrong with me; at least then it would be off my chest. But another part of me wasn't even sure what was wrong, so instead I went into my room without a fuss.
My bedroom wasn't much to look at. Actually, it wasn't a bedroom at all. It was a closet. Bigger than the closets in my brothers' bedrooms, it even had a little window, but it was still a closet. It had just enough room for my bed and a dresser, but that was about all it could hold. I didn't mind though. It was sort of comforting having my own little space. It felt safe.
Once when I slept over at my friend's house, she had to check every inch of her bedroom before turning off the light. She had to search under her bed for anyone that might be hiding, but I didn't have a problem with that, because I didn't even have a bed frame. It was just a mattress on the floor. She searched through her closet too, but the most I had for a closet was a rod that ran across one corner of my room, where I hung the clothes that didn't belong in the dresser. Anyway, I only owned two dresses and a skirt, and one of those dresses was on the floor. I had left it there earlier when I'd changed clothes. My mama had always made me change my clothes after school, and Darry was the one who'd decided I should keep that up. Once I had thought it was because he wanted to treat me like a baby, but later I realized that it was because we couldn't afford to replace the ones I had if anything happened to them.
I picked up a hanger and carefully hung the dress on it. Sometimes I wished that I had more outfits to chose from, but most of my friends still wore the same clothes for a couple of days at a time anyway. Wasn't really a dress person anyhow. I liked pants, but most of all I liked my overalls. I had owned them for two years already, but they were still too big for me.
After I'd hung my dress up I spread my quilt out over my mattress. The sheets underneath were still a mess, but it wasn't as though I had to make my bed. I was doing it by choice. After making it thought there wasn't much else for me to do, so I sat down to think once again. It was the first day in quite awhile that I had had so much time to myself, so it was only natural that someone would walk in and disturb me without so much as a knock.
It was hard for me to keep from smiling when I saw Soda standing in my doorway, dressed in a pair of jeans and his work shirt. Without even being invited in he hopped over to my bed to sit down. He underestimated the distance to the shallow mattress though, and wound of falling on his back and smashing his head against the wall.
"Soda?" I cried. "Are you okay." I was pretty scared when he didn't move from the wall, and put my hand on his head. "Soda?" I was about ready to call for Darry when he opened his eyes and sat up. He grinned real wide and charming like, so of course I couldn't stay mad at him.
"I thought you were hurt!" I said, nearly laughing.
"Nah," he threw his arm around me. "It takes more than a smacked head to hurt me." He paused a second. "What about you though? I heard that you've been crying all day."
"I was not! Who said I was?"
"Darry."
"Well he lied to you."
He snorted. "When was the last time you knew Darry to tell a lie?"
I shrugged.
"Come on," he urged. "What was wrong? Did something happen at school?"
"No."
"Then what?"
"It doesn't matter."
"Sure it does."
I shook my head. "I'm not telling." I crossed my arms playfully, knowing that he would take it as a joke.
"Well if you won't tell me," he said slowly, placing his hands on my side, "then I'll have to tickle it out of you."
My protests came out as a loud squeal, and the same sounds continued escaping my mouth until I was laughing like mad.
"Please!" I begged. "Stop! Soda - I can't - I can't breath!" He knew it was just a trick though, and kept on tickling me, until finally I blurted,
"I need makeup!"
He stopped then and there, and moved back a little. "What'd you say?"
"I need makeup," I repeated boldly.
He grabbed hold of my chin gently in one hand and moved my head from side to side. It looked to me like he was examining it just as I had earlier in the mirror.
"Huh," he said eventually. "I don't see any pimples." He tilted my head back a bit. "Nope, no wrinkles, no dark spots under your eyes. The cheeks seem rosy enough, and those eyes, well, they aren't like any other eyes I've seen before. Now why would you want to go putting makeup on a pretty little face like this?"
"I don't know," I muttered. "To fix it."
"Oh," he said as if he understood. "Well I guess you do need some makeup then, to fix things." He started to stand up. "I'll go ask Darry if he's got any you can borrow."
I giggled. "Darry doesn't wear make up Sodapop."
"He doesn't? Well I guess you're gonna have to wait until you're a little older to wear it."
"But I need it now!" I didn't mean to sound so hysterical about it.
He sat back down and gave me the most serious look that I had ever seen him give.
"Lily, you're still a little kid. You don't need anything to cover up your face, and they wouldn't let you have it on at school anyhow."
"They might."
"You know they wouldn't. Anyway my baby sister isn't gonna be out looking like a tramp, I'll tell you that."
There. He had to go and call me a baby, didn't he? Well I would show him.
"I'm gonna get makeup," I said, determined. "And I'll wear it too, whenever I feel like it."
Soda looked away, then looked back at me. "Keep up an attitude like that," he said, "and maybe I'll just let Ponyboy go ahead with those so called threats of his."
"You heard about that?" I cried, forgetting all about the cosmetics.
"Yeah. What's gotten into you two anyway? You used to get along okay together. Now you're accusing him of threatening you."
"Accusing? He did!"
"Yelled at you in front of all your friends too, right?"
"Yeah."
"When?"
"This morning?"
"Where? You two never see each other past the front yard."
"For your information it was on the front steps."
He laughed. "So what, two of your friends might have been there?"
I didn't say anything in response. I knew that I was wrong, but why would I admit it?
"Did Pony even yell at you?" he questioned.
I had to step in there. I couldn't have Soda thinking I was a liar.
"He really did! I mean I know why he did it. I would be angry if somebody wrecked my work, but he didn't have to get mad at me in front of my friends."
"I know," he nodded. "Maybe apologize and get over this though. And eat some food."
"What?"
"Supper," he explained. "I smell food cooking. He stood quickly and yanked me to my feet as well. "Let's go eat."
Sometimes Soda could be sweet, others he was even a little scary, usually he seemed cheerful, and he could always put a smile on my face. But after being nice and acting really grown up, he could be such a teenager.