I took that opportunity to stand up and take everyone's plates off of the coffee table. I froze and dropped the plates, pain ripping through my body. Fuck. "Ponyboy! Take it easy god damn it!" yelled Soda as he stood and dragged me back to the couch for the millionth time this week. "Don't think you're getting off easy. I'll finish my interrogation right after I clean this shit up." He said. Cherry bent down next to the couch and tried to stretch my legs across her lap. I moaned and folded them against my chest. She rubbed her hand across my calf.
"I'm sorry baby." She whispered. "Sleep. I'll be back tomorrow." She said, pulling a blanket over me. I fell asleep in an instant.
…
My eyes flew open in a panic, reliving the events of this morning. I was drenched in sweat and my throat burned as if I had been screaming for a long time. "Pony, you're okay, you're safe." Soothed a voice. "You were having one of those dreams again. Here, take these." Said the voice again. It was Darry. He pushed two little white pills into my hand and then pressed a cold beer into the other. I looked at him in confusion. "It's okay, the pills are just Aspirin. The beer will calm your nerves." He explained. I popped the pills into my mouth and chased them with a long swig of alcohol. I sighed, feeling refreshed, and settled back against my pillow. Darry took the drink from my hands and took a swig for himself.
"Hey Darry? What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be working?" I asked, my voice slurred with sleep.
"Nah, I took the day off." He said.
"That's nice." I whispered, already drifting back to sleep.
"Hey, what happened this morning?" he asked tentatively.
"Nothing, Soc tried to hurt Cherry and I handled it." I said.
"Pony, were you hurt?" he asked.
"Sorta but I'm fine now." I said.
"Ponyboy what happened?"
"Ah screw it." I sat up and tugged the blanket off of me.
"Fuck! Who the hell did this to you? I'm going to rip their fucking heads off!" he screamed after looking at my stitched-up torso, punching the wall behind me.
"Darry…" I started.
"Don't! Don't talk to me! I... I... I gotta go." He said, becoming unreadable. I closed my eyes as the door slammed. I sighed, letting out a breath of air. I hobbled into the kitchen and threw open the refrigerator door, finding exactly what I was looking for. A cold, brand-new six-pack of beer. I grabbed one greedily and popped the top off with my teeth. It was gone in seconds. I reached for another. That one was gone sooner than the first. After the second, I began to feel a slight buzz. When I popped the top off of the third one, I took a second to feel the weight of the cool glass bottle before throwing it back. Before I knew it, I had drunk the third beer too. I felt sluggish and uncoordinated, my movements out of control. I began to stand, knocking at least two pictures off of the wall. I trudged down the road for five miles until I reached the red door of Cherry's house. I barged right in. Cherry jumped up from the couch where she was sitting on while reading her book.
"Cherry." I said.
"Ponyboy, are you okay?" I said.
"Just fine." I said, my words slurring together.
"Ponyboy! You're drunk! Again. I can't handle this anymore!" she yelled.
"C'mon baby. You know I love you. Show me you love me. Right now." I said while roughly grabbing Cherry by the waist. I lazily slid my hand up her thigh as she wriggled under my grasp.
"No! You remember what happened last time we did this." She said, rubbing her stomach softly. "Can we at least talk about what happened?" she said softly.
"No! I just can't right now! There's too much going on for me right now!" I screamed.
"Is that what you want me to tell this child when he asks why he doesn't have a father? That his father had too much going on? That he was too "busy" for us? That he was too busy drinking to care?" She screamed back, crying now. She starting pounding her fists against my chest angrily. "Get out! Get out! I don't want you here!" she screamed again.
"How dare you accuse me of being a drunk and not being able to support a family! How dare you! You don't think I want to be a part of this child's life? I have been here through everything with you and you with me! You don't know how fucking hard I work every day! You wouldn't anyway, everything is given to you! You don't want me to be in your life anymore, is that it? Well wish granted, you ungrateful little bitch!" I snarled. "Go find someone else to put up with your shit! Someone who wants to be a father at almost fifteen years old!" I yelled behind me as I slammed the door. What did I just do? I heard heart-wrenching sobs coming from inside. I didn't turn around. Instead I went to Jay's.
Jay's was the sleaziest, most disgusting bar in the world where the worst people hung out. Jay's also had the cheapest drinks and no one cared how old you were. So I ordered shot after shot and beer after beer. I groaned and laid my head down on the bar. I was in the middle of my third beer and my fifth shot when I started to feel sleepy. I had already had those three beers before I came here. I dropped the beer onto the bar and it spilled everywhere. I couldn't see straight anymore. Then everything went black.
I woke up, my head pounding. I groggily opened my eyes and squinted against the light. I was still at Jay's. My stomach turned and I scrambled to the bathroom. I just reached the toilet just in time to violently empty the contents of my stomach into this little basin. I sat there, barfing, for a solid five minutes. Once I finished, I leaned against the stall door, shaking. Sweat was beading across my forehead. I tried to wipe it away but my arm buckled. I smiled despite myself. Happy birthday to me. I am officially fifteen. I struggled to my feet and stumbled around and out the door of the bar, passing some Greasers on the way. Sharp daggers of pain shot through my head with each jarring step I took. The loud shouting and fighting of the other Greasers made my headache even worse. I had to stop once more to puke on the side of the road. Ugggh. I'm never drinking again. I walked home, dreading what was to come. I stumbled up the stairs and into the house to find two very angry men. Soda and Darry jumped to their feet when I entered. Soda come over and slammed me against the wall. Soda did! "Knock it off Soda, I have a raging headache." I yawned.
"Have you been drinking young man?" yelled Soda.
"Yeah. But who cares, it's my birthday." I said, waving him off.
"I don't even know you anymore!" Soda said backing away from me, repulsed.
"Soda, come here." Darry demanded. "Ponyboy, we have something to tell you. Sodapop and I have been looking into reform schools for you. If you don't knock this shit off and clean up your act right now, you're going to this school right here." He said, handing me a brochure. I laughed and they looked at me with shocked expressions. They thought that I would sober right up when I saw that brochure. Well I knew something they didn't.
"Ha! You can't do that. I have a family of my own now." I said blandly.
"What?" Soda said, already knowing the answer.
"Yep. Guess who's going to be a father in eight months." I said with a sad, still kind of drunk smile.