Disclaimer: I do not own Two-Bit or any other character from The Outsiders, something I also do not own.
The second the door closed behind me, Simon was in front of me, anger blazing through his eyes. "Are you hurt?" he asked in a low, dangerous tone.
I shook my head.
"Do you know what time it is?" he asked, his voice rising slightly.
I nodded.
"Did you get lost?"
I shook my head again. I hated the feeling of helplessness I got whenever Simon got angry with me.
"Then where the hell where you?" he shouted so loud that I jumped back and hit the door.
"Well?" he impatiently asked.
"I-I was talking to Matty by the park in the woods," I said, knowing full-well how stupid it sounded.
Simon just gave me a disbelieving look and walked away from me a little. I took my chance to inch further into the room, hoping to be able sneak away to my room. No such luck.
Simon spun around and said, "Oh no, we're not done with this. Tell me, what was so important that kept you occupied seven hours after I told you to be home?"
I looked down at the floor. I didn't know what to tell him, so I tried to change the subject by asking, "Where's Josh?"
"Never mind where Josh is," he snapped as he took a step towards me, "I asked you a question, now answer it!"
"Well, I asked you a question too!" I responded. I knew I was testing his patience, but I also knew that no matter what I did or said he would only get angrier.
"God, Andrea I'm so sick of this. You think that Josh is the only person you have to listen to; that as long as he's around you can ignore me completely! But he's not here to defend you now so forget about him and tell me what the hell you were thinking tonight!"
"I don't know," I whispered as I tried to hold back tears.
In one swift movement, Simon furiously slapped me across the head. I fell backwards, colliding with the wall and I slid down it so I was sitting on the floor. I looked up at Simon, too frightened to do anything else. For a moment he just towered over me, staring with an unreadable expression on his face. Then he turned and walked out the door.
I could feel tears pouring down my face. My head throbbed from being smacked so hard, but that wasn't why I was crying. I was crying partially because not even an hour ago I had thought that Simon would never hit me and I felt betrayed that he did, but for the most part I was crying because in a moment of an epiphany, I understood what Matty was trying to tell me earlier and I knew exactly what life must be like for him.
For Matty, life must be terrible. I don't know how he handles coping with the pain of what his parents must do to him. I saw how he was last night; it's slowly killing him. I now understood why he left Catholic school. His grades fell because of all the pressure he was under and all the stress he had from home. I just hope he never ends up like Sasha.
Sasha's mother left her and her dad when she was young. Sasha technically lives with her father, but she never sees him because he's always out on a date with some woman. Sasha was used to being abandoned and has been hurt so much in her twelve years that truthfully, I think somewhere along the lines she stopped caring about what would happen to her. I think that's why she's always getting into trouble.
I have no idea how long I was sitting on floor, crying my heart out for my friends. I might have stayed there for the remainder of the night and possibly the whole day if it hadn't been for Josh.
I didn't see him come in, but suddenly he was kneeling beside me, one hand on my shoulder and his other hand under my chin, forcing me to look at him.
"What happened?" he asked gently.
The events of the night came rushing back to me and for once in my life, I found myself unable to answer Josh. He and Simon were really close. What if he didn't believe me? What if I was wrong to trust Josh just like it was wrong to think that Simon wouldn't hit me?
"Andrea?" he prompted, "Come on, whatever it is you can tell me. You know that."
The sound of concern in his voice was enough to convince me to trust him. "Me and Simon had another fight…" I trailed off.
"That's it? Listen, Simon has a lot of stress in his life right now, and sometimes he just gets frustrated and takes everything out on you. Don't let what he says get to you. He doesn't mean to be like that," he paused and then softly said, "There's more to it than that, isn't there?"
I nodded. He gave me a look that clearly said 'continue'. I looked away from him and quietly said, "He hit me."
I looked back at Josh. The look on his face was pure shock. Once he recovered from the news, he stood up and helped me up.
"Go to bed and stop worrying about Simon. I'll talk to him,"
"You don't have to," I said quickly, afraid he'd be angry if he found out I stayed out so late past curfew. To me, making Josh angry or upset was the worse thing I could possibly do.
"Where were you, anyway?" I asked him.
"Out with Jamie," he replied.
Jamie was Josh's girlfriend. She had light brown hair and hazel eyes. She came from a wealthy family, but didn't act like it. Most rich people I know are conceited and like others only for their social status, but not Jamie. She was kind and considerate of others. I thought she and my brother were perfect together.
"Are you in love in her?" I curiously asked him.
Josh smiled, "Yeah, I am."
I smiled back. I was glad that my brother had somebody to make him so happy. He deserved that. He's normally a happy-go-lucky kid, but lately he's been under as much stress as Simon since his grades have been even worse than usual and he's been spending a lot of time working.
He yawned and glanced at his watch. "It's late, we should both go to bed," he told me.
Being such a light sleeper, I woke up a few hours later to the sound of my brothers voices floating all the way from the kitchen. They were speaking quietly and I couldn't make out exact words so hurriedly changed clothes and crept down the hall to eavesdrop.
"… I spent all night thinking about it. I just don't know what to do," Simon's voice murmured.
Curious as to what he was talking about, I bent down next to the air vent in the hall to hear the echo of the conversation.
"Well, I liked her and everything but if she's causing you so much trouble, maybe you should. After all, she has been kind of annoying lately," Josh said.
Who's she and maybe he should do what? I wondered.
"Yeah, I thought that, too… but how do you think Two-Bit will react? After all, they may not see each other everyday but they seem pretty close," Simon's voice echoed.
My heart was pounding. Maybe they were talking about… but surely they couldn't be thinking about…
"Good point. Two-Bit sure looks out for her, but he can't stay mad at you, you remind him too much of dad," Josh told him.
"Now I do, but if I do get her out of the picture then he'll think of me as the opposite of dad. Dad would never do this"
By now I had figured out what they were talking about: me. Simon wanted to get rid of me, but is afraid Two-Bit wouldn't think of him the same way if he did. I thought about what Josh said. Was I really that annoying to him? I knew I bugged Simon, but I thought Josh was different.
"You're not going to tell her anything about this, are you?" Simon asked.
"No way," Josh responded, "It's your decision and I don't want her mad at me..."
I couldn't sit there and listen to their conversation any longer. I decided to do them and myself a favor. They obviously didn't want me around and I didn't want to stay. Without a second thought, I left my house without glancing back. I had no idea where I was going in the early hours of the morning, but I didn't care a bit. Anywhere was better than staying there.
I eventually decided to find Matty. After all, he was the only person I could think of that could understand what I was going through. Or maybe it was the other way around. Either way, he was the now the only person I could trust. I just hoped that it wouldn't lead to another dissapointment.
Author's Note: Thanks to those who reviewed. I would really appreciate reviews for this chapter. Hint, hint.
Oh, I forgot to add this last chapter... I know a lot of reviewers were wondering about Ponyboy and Sodapop. Don't worry, they have not been forgotten. More about them will be revealed as the story progresses.