A.N- Thanks to everybody who has reviewed including the guest reviewers I couldn't reply to. From now on, I will be posting once a week, probably on a Friday.

Hinton owns.

Kindness for Weakness

The day couldn't have been over quick enough.

Lily walked home as quickly as she could, ignoring Daniels' insults as he peeled past her in Saul Jones car. She could tell Ronnie about him, but running to her big brother every time she had a problem wasn't her style. Besides, he'd probably tell her it was all her own fault for hitting that cop anyway. But really, what was she supposed to have done?

The fuzz had bust into her house looking for Ronnie to start with, but when they'd only found Frankie in the boys shared bedroom, things had turned nasty.

Lily recalled seeing her fifteen year old brother on his stomach, wearing only a pair of briefs while two cops kicked out at him with steel cap boots. The thought still made her blood boil. Remembering the satisfying feeling of punching the cop in the mouth doused her anger slightly as she turned into her yard.

Ronnie was the only one home when she walked in.

"How's it going, little Lil?"

She hated it when he called her that, but she didn't bother to remind him.

"I'm half starved." She pulled open the near empty refrigerator and sighed. "Jesus, am I the only one who ever shops around here?"

She didn't blame her Mom. Her Mom shopped when she had the time, but that was rarely. She was too busy pulling double shifts down at the call centre so they would be able to afford food in the first place.

It was Ronnie and Frankie that pissed her off. Granted, Frankie was still in school but so was she and everybody still expected her to help out. Frankie was a smart kid, a hell of a lot smarter than Ronnie, but he was self absorbed the way most youngest kids are.

Ronnie donated a few bucks here and there, but that was as far as his help towards the household ever went. He was much too busy running with his gang, The Brumley Boys, to ever concern himself with domestic duty.

"If it bothers you so much, go do it yourself." Ronnie was flicking through a car magazine but Lily wondered if he could even follow the articles. He'd been wagging high school since she could remember and she knew he struggled with his reading and writing.

"Yeah, that's all I want to do after a whole day of working for free."

His blue eyes met her own and she knew what he was going to say before he said it.

"No-one to blame but-"

"-but me. Yeah, I get it. Change the record, why don't ya?"

Lily took out a cigarette and lit one up, joining her brother at the old formica table. It was covered in graffiti from both her brothers and their friends but she hardly noticed it now.

"So where's Frankie?"

"How the hell should I know?" Ronnie put up a hand to his perfectly styled light brown hair and patted it carefully.

Lily grimaced. He was so vain he made her want to puke.

"Oh, I heard you were at Bucks last night." Ronnie frowned. "I thought we talked about that."

Lily raised her eyes heavenward.

"We did. You told me not to go, I told you to shut the hell up."

"Lily." He finally gave her his full attention. "I don't care if you wanna get a little soused with your girlfriends. That's down to you. But not at Buck's. Buck's isn't for nice girls."

She blew smoke at him and laughed as he waved it impatiently away.

"Well, I'll be damned, Ron. When did I ever qualify as a nice girl?"

She was pissing him off, which was always glorious to watch but she was surprised too.

"I ain't saying you're nice. But you ain't a slut either."

Lily almost choked. That was probably the nicest thing he'd ever said to her.

"Tell you what, Ronnie. I'll do you a deal since I'm feeling generous. You give me some cash to buy dinner and I won't go to Buck's. How's that sound?"

He made a show of thinking it over but she knew he'd agree immediately. Her going to Buck's had less to do with his worry about her and more to do with what his buddies thought.

"Alright," Ronnie slid two dollars across the table and she scowled at them, unimpressed.

"I want at least ten."

"Who are you feeding tonight? The whole of Oklahoma?"

"Ten dollars, Ronnie, or Buck will start to think I'm part of the furniture."

"Seven dollars."

"Nine."

"Eight, and that's my final offer."

"Fine." She pouted as though he had won her over and held her hand out for the money.

Her brother was too stupid for words.

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"Hey, Buck," Lily's friend, Helen, cooed, as they crossed the threshold into the sleaziest bar on the East side. The tables and chairs were mismatched and the floor looked no cleaner than the dilapidated church Lily had worked on all day.

Buck nodded at them from where he stood in the doorway and in they went.

"So how's it going, L.P?" Helen leant on Buck's battered bar and gave Lily a smile. "I can't believe God finally figured out how to get you into church."

She was being a clown. She knew full well Lily was an atheist but Helen's parents were Catholic so she never missed Sunday Mass.

"At least I won't be the only one in church tomorrow," Lily responded.

"Yeah, but I'll be home within the hour. If I'm lucky, I might even manage to have a snooze." Helen pushed back her dark brown curls.

"You got a point there. But I'd rather work my butt off all day than listen to some stuffy priest for even five minutes."

The barman suddenly appeared in front of them and Lily ordered them both vodkas with coke, before she spotted an empty table in the far corner.

"Come on, let's go sit down."

Lily wove her way through the dancers, ignoring the stares her mini dress was inviting and yanking Helen along behind her. Helen had a tendency to fall for a winning smile or a cheesy line and Lily didn't want her to have to go to confession tomorrow.

"Hey, Lil." The voice was rough, and irritated, and she didn't have to look up to see who it belonged to.

"What do you want, Clive?"

Clive Harrison was broad and handsome with an arrogant smile. Lily wished she could muster a little more hate towards him.

"Helen, can you give us a minute?" He asked her friend.

Helen looked at Lily doubtfully until Lily shrugged and threw up her hands. Helen got up then, and Clive quickly swooped into her seat.

"This is stupid, you know that right?" He was giving her that dumb smile of his and she wished it didn't have such an effect on her insides.

"What is? Asides you, I mean?"

He looked annoyed but he didn't give up.

"You know we're gonna sort this thing out, don't you, Parker? We always do."

His assured tone riled her up at least. He was so damn full of himself, so sure that she would forgive him.

"I can't say we've ever been in this position before, Clive. Not that I'm aware of anyway."

Lily bit her lip as she tried to block out the image of Clive dancing and feeling up some chick from the West side, some naive little girl who had decided to slum it for the night.

"She was just a stupid broad that I don't even know. And I was out of it, you know I was."

Yeah, that was a great excuse. Alcohol was the most frequent excuse Clive used, and frankly, Lily was sick of it. But he was her first. Her first everything. The first guy to take her on a date, the first guy to kiss her properly and the first guy to tell her he loved her.

He'd stood up to her brother too, and his stupid gang, and that was when Lily had fallen head over heels for Clive Harrison. And after four months, she'd let him have her. In the back seat of his car with his hot breath on her neck and his rough hands wound into her dark blond hair.

"Come on, Lil, I'll make it up to you." He stroked her arm across the table and she slunk back at the feel of his touch.

"Drop dead, Clive. We're done, okay? And if you don't leave me alone I'll send my brother round to deal with you. You got that?"

He smirked, but he was on edge, she could see. And she couldn't really blame him. Ronnie and the Brumly gang scared most people.

"Gimme a call when you've calmed down, okay?" Clive stood up and gave her that sexy smile of his. Lily narrowed her eyes and called him something unrepeatable before he walked away.

"You okay?" Helen was back and Lily nodded and downed her drink.

"Get me another, will ya, Helen? And make it a double."

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Soda hadn't wanted to go out. He was tired and he was irritable and he was as hungry as a wolf by the time he got home. He told Darry he'd lost his sandwiches and Darry believed him. He had lost damn near everything he owned at some point. In reality though, he'd given his sandwich to some girl who looked like she needed it a whole lot more than he did.

Lily Parker. She was a tough little thing; she'd give Sylvia Green a run for her money and that was saying something. But Soda didn't need a carbon copy of Sylvia in his life. He had enough trouble on his plate.

He wasn't comfortable working for Henley's team, what with all the evil looking characters in there. He could tell from the looks and the sneaky comments that they were sizing him up, seeing what bothered him, wondering if he was some punk kid they might use to their advantage. Soda had kept his head down and tried not to pay any attention. No more trouble, Darry had said, and Soda knew there would be no second chances.

But Glory, he hated it when people took him for soft. It happened a lot too, and while Darry blamed it on his good looks, Soda knew it was because he was a nice guy. Too many people took kindness for weakness. That was why he hadn't stepped in to defend the chick at the church; although in normal circumstances he would have told the guys bugging her to lay off. He couldn't invite any more trouble.

"You're gonna spend the whole weekend working and you don't even want to come out for a-" Steve stole a look at Darry. "-Milkshake."

Soda wasn't even a drinker before the whole Sandy fiasco and though he had never been royally drunk, a few beers now and then felt good. Steve was savvy though. Darry didn't mind Soda drinking in moderation but he didn't like the idea of him in a bar. Let alone the bar Steve wanted to go to.

"Why don't you take Evie out somewhere? Or Two-Bit for that matter." Soda was unlacing his boots, his voice weary. He wished Steve would just shut up and leave him alone.

"Steve's not my type," Two-Bit called from the sofa. "I prefer blondes."

Soda sighed at the same time Steve scowled.

"What the hell is the matter with you, Soda?" Steve's voice was low, almost inaudible but Soda could hear him just fine. "When are you gonna stop moping after Sandy and start being you again?"

He hadn't said the words out loud before now but Soda knew he' d been thinking them for months.

"It's bad enough that Dally and Johnny are gone, but you're still here, Soda. Why don't you start acting like it?"

The conversation was only meant for the two of them. Two-Bit was straining to hear without success and Darry had gone into the kitchen. That just left Ponyboy, who was reading in one of the chairs, totally oblivious to what was going on.

Soda looked into Steve's scowling face and felt a flood of guilt. He'd been avoiding Steve and Evie since it had all gone down because both of them reminded him of Sandy, but he hadn't realized until now how much Steve was bothered by it.

"Okay," he mumbled.

"You're coming?" Steve's scowl turned into a look of surprise.

"I need to take a shower first."

"Where we going?" Two-Bit sat up, suddenly alert.

"Out," Soda responded unenthusiastically. "You wanna come, Pony?"

All three of them looked over at Ponyboy, who was staring at him blankly.

"Huh?"

"Do you want to come with?" Steve repeated sarcastically. He used to hate Pony hanging around them, but since everything had happened-the fire, Johnny, Dally- Steve didn't seem to mind anymore.

"Uh-sure. Where we going?"

"You're not going anywhere, little man." Darry breezed back in from the kitchen, holding a cup of coffee. "You've got that Trig test tomorrow and if you fail because you're out with these hoodlums-"

"Okay, Darry." Ponyboy sighed but he didn't argue. He'd got pretty good at listening to Darry recently.

"And Sodapop, no later than midnight, okay? You've gotta be up for community service first thing."

A curfew. He'd never had a curfew before but now Darry was treating him no better than he did Ponyboy. But what could he say knowing that Darry would also be up early. He was working his only kind of community service, fixing up a house to pay off Soda's attorney.

"Sure," Soda mumbled, ambling off towards the bathroom.

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