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Panic immediately shot through every nerve in Ponyboy's body as he quickly did the first thing to come to his mind and elbowed whoever had grabbed him right in the gut which caused a gasp of pain from his 'attacker' which freed him from the tight grip Pony had been placed in. Spinning around, ready to nail the person, Ponyboy's eyes widened in surprise once he saw who it had been.

He was staring at the face of his buddy, Curly Shepard.

"Damn," Curly said while rubbing his mid-section as a grin came over his face. "A bit on the edge, aren't ya Baby Curtis?"

"Curly," Pony muttered, relief washing over him as he got out of his defensive stance. "Yeah, well, if you had been jumped by some socs a few nights ago you'd be 'on the edge' too."

"Were you walking alone?" He then laughed a little while shaking his head. "What a dumb shit."

Instantly annoyed, Ponyboy gave him a dirty look.

"Hey, I already get enough of that crap from Darry, I don't need to hear it from you too."

Spinning on his heels, he turned to walk away but Curly followed after him and the two walked down the sidewalk together.

"You should have been carrying on of these with you," Curly spoke as he pulled a switchblade out of his pocket and flipped it open. "Had it been me, I would have stabbed one of the sons of bitches."

"Or had it taken away and used against you," Ponyboy responded while eyeing the blade.

"That never would have happened."

"Yeah, cause you're so tough," the younger greaser gave a small laugh as he was only half kidding. He knew full well that Curly was the spitting image of his older brother, Tim. "Anyway, what have you been up too?"

"Funny you should ask. I'm helping my older bro put together a bridge wars competition."

"Bridge wars?" Pony's brows furrowed in bewilderment. "What the heck is that?"

"Never heard of it?"

"Obviously not. Where in the world is there a bridge around here?"

"It's a few towns over," Curly answered as he then began to explain, "It's about twenty feet off the ground, maybe more, built over this lake. What happens is two guys at a time go up and try to knock the other off with these long bo-staff things. I'm not surprised you never heard of it, after some kid got hurt a couple of years ago, it'd stopped taking place."

"So the whole point is to try and knock another person off this huge bridge?"

Curly grinned.

"That's the idea? You interested?"

"Only if I had the chance to throw you off."

"Like you ever could. And if you're serious, it's going to cost you to get in."

"How much?"

"Sixty bucks."

"Sixty bucks?" Ponyboy said incredulously as his eyes widened in disbelief. "You're insane!"

"Hey, you play, you pay," Curly shrugged. "There's gonna be a bunch of guys gettin' in on this. The winner keeps it all. So, you want in?"

"Sure, I'll just pull a hundred bucks out of thin air and use it so I can be thrown off a bridge. Sounds like something more up Dally's alley."

"Well, as it just so happens, he's doing it. You can't be too surprised about that, can you?"

"No, I can't."

The two of them continued to talk for another minute or two before heading off his different direction, the conversation ending with Ponyboy wishing Curly luck on the whole thing before sprinting off towards his house. He knew he wasn't past his curfew but the last thing he wanted was to give Darry any kind of reason to yell at him or even speak to him for that matter. He was just going to get home and head straight for his room. Back at the Curtis house, the oldest brother had been slumped in the recliner ever since arriving home after a night at the bar. He was waiting for his brothers when the screen door opened and Sodapop walked through.

"Hey, Pepsi-Cola," Darry muttered, almost miserably.

Darry's tone instantly caught him off guard.

"Darry? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

His last word were slurred. Soda came over and dropped down on the couch as he looked over his brother with worried eyes.

"Have you been drinking?

"Maybe a little," Darry responded while a shrug of the shoulder.

"Why?"

Drinking was something Soda knew Darry didn't do. He couldn't to stare at him, wide-eyed, maybe even with a little fear in them as he waited for an answer. It was a simple question but Darry just remained silent.

"Darry?"

The older boy could tell Soda was starting to get mad. After another long minute, Darry finally muttered;

"Ponyboy hates me."

Sodapop sighed heavily.

"You know he's going to get over you hitting him."

"No, not just that. Well, probably for that, but he hated me before the other night. Two-Bit told me he thinks I want to stick him in a boys' home. I just didn't want him to get hurt, he doesn't use his head...I couldn't stand it if anything happened to him,"

Darry was just babbling at this point which showed just how much he had to drink tonight. Sodapop lowered his eyes as he stared at his feet. He hated to see his brother like this. Darry then exhaled deeply before saying;

"I'm now starting to think that a boys' home isn't such a bad idea."

Sodapop's head snapped up as he stared at Darry in shock.

"What?! Are you crazy?!"

"I obviously suck at this. I'm not good at making you guys happy. Ponyboy obviously doesn't like the fact that I'm his guardian now."

"Darry, this is the whiskey talking."

"I didn't drink any damn whiskey."

"Well whatever it you drank has got you talking crazy. Now go sleep it off."

Darry rolled his eyes but luckily didn't argue. He got to his feet and the room swam before his eyes as he staggered a little. He reached out to grab the wall but Soda quickly moved forward and grabbed him so he could help him to his room. Darry threw him a halfhearted grin that wasn't returned. Once they reached the bed, Darry collapsed down on it, Sodapop right beside him. He looked at his older brother with a serious expression as he tried to his best to make him feel better about his whole situation.

"Darry, you're upset, he's upset, but this will pass. You two guys, listen to me, trust me on this...this will change. Feelings will change. These are very angry feelings right now, this is an open sore. And you know how open sores heal? This is going to change. What I suggest is you guys give the next few days to cool down. Let's not even bring this up. Pretend that none of this happened."

Darry just gave him a look and Soda playfully rolled his eyes.

"Sure, we'll know in the back of our minds it happened. So let's do this, we'll all go back to hating Two-Bit next week."

That finally gave Darry a much needed laugh as he nodded.

"Yeah. And I won't drink anymore."

"Good," Soda said with relief. "I don't want you guys feeling uncomfortable. And in a sense I take some blame for all of this, now this has gone overboard. and I'm contributing if I allow this to go on. I see that Pony is deeply hurt and I see that you're deeply hurt."

"And I don't trust myself now because I crossed a line I never thought I would cross," Darry admitted.

The two brothers continued to talk for a few more minutes, Soda even managed to get another laugh or two out of Darry before he had finally laid down and fell right to sleep. Sodapop didn't mind comforting Darry on this whole thing since he had worked so hard to take care of him and Pony. He hated seeing him like this, thinking that he was a failure because that was the last thing he was. He just hoped now Ponyboy would listen to reason. Once he left Darry's room he walked over to the bedroom he now shared with his younger brother and was relieved to see him there, changing out of his clothes.

"Hey, Pony-" Soda began but the younger boy cut him off before he could continue.

"Soda, would you mind sleeping in your own room tonight?"

Raising his eyebrows in surprise, Sodapop continued to watch Ponyboy as he seemed to really pay him no mind. Soda had been sharing a bed with Pony for months now because of the nightmares he had shortly after their parents had died.

"Uh...yeah. You sure you'll be okay?"

Ponyboy stopped what he was doing to glance over at him.

"I'm not a baby, Soda."

"I know, I just..."

Soda trailed off as he could see by the expression on Ponyboy's face and his tone that he was bothered about something. He decided not to push things any further.

"Okay. Maybe if you're awake early enough you can help me out with breakfast."

However, Ponyboy didn't respond. Soda watched him for only a second longer before shutting his door and making his way to his own bed, figuring that whatever was now wrong with Ponyboy would be gone by the morning. What Sodapop didn't know was that Pony had been right outside the screen door and had heard what Darry had said.

"I'm now starting to think that a boys' home isn't such a bad idea."

He had walked off after hearing that and had a cigarette to calm himself down before finally heading in the house to see that his brothers had gone off to Darry's bedroom, Sodapop probably having to do his best to talk him out of it. So Darry did want to stick him in a boys' home. He had known it. He had always known it. Darry didn't want him there.

"Well, if you had such a problem with me, you don't have to have it," Ponyboy angrily said as he threw himself down on his bed.

Right then, Ponyboy decided he wouldn't give Darry the opportunity or the satisfaction. He was going to run off someplace and take care of himself. Someplace without any greasers or socs. Maybe he could convince Johnny to come along with him. Ponyboy just needed some money to get himself started. That's when Curly offer of that 'bridge wars' competition then entered his mind.

'You can't do that. Darry will skin you alive if he finds out,' A voice in in his head, that sounded an awful lot like Sodapop, like he was still lying here beside him spoke.

"So let him try," Ponyboy said out loud as he rolled over on his other side, agitated. "I don't give a hang what Darry does. He's never gonna find out."

It may have not been the best plan, but it was the only thing he could think of at the moment in order to quickly get himself some money. He just needed to come up with the sixty dollars to get himself in. He had been able to save up and put aside twenty dollars when the gang gave him money for his fourteenth birthday, how in the world was he going to come up with the other forty? That question kept him tossing and turning for most of the night, or at least that's what he tried to tell himself. It was that, not the absence of Sodapop laying right next to him.