"Sorry about those girls Rose, they're all just jealous"
All though Soda and Steve had continued to assure her that she shouldn't listen to those girls, she didn't understand why they would ever be jealous of her.
They were in the garage now, and Rosalie made sure the door was closed once they had entered.
Steve walked over to a gray chevy pick-up, the latest car he was fixing up, and leaned against it.
"Now, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?"
He shoved his hands into his pockets and looked up at Rosalie, smiling, waiting.
Rosalie had though Steve a cold boy, who rarely showed his emotions, but right now he was proving her wrong.
She was nervous, unsure how he would take what she was about to tell him.
With a deep breath she started, "Steve," he nodded, "I have something I'd like to tell you."
She paused, gauging this expression, but only saw open curiosity for what she had to say, so she continued.
"I'm not sure about any of this, and I needed to tell someone."
She saw Steve's brow furrow slightly, but besides that he didn't move.
Rosalie sighed, "Okay, my Mom was seventeen when she got pregnant. She tried to tell her parents that she wasn't sleeping around, but they didn't believe her and kicked her on to the streets. You see, my mom was raped. No one would listen when she told them, because of who she claimed did it. You see, it was her brother's best friend who was already married with a baby son."
Rosalie stopped here for a second, taking a deep breath and taking in Steve's expression. He looked confused, but nodded for her to continue.
"I had never known, or cared really, who my father is. As far as I was concerned he ruined my mother's like, but the night before my mother left she told me a name."
Rosalie paused.
"I guess that should have been a sign that something was going on, she had never been willing to give information about him before."
She was quiet for a minute before quickly shaking her head and continuing, "Anyway, I didn't really think about it because I though that it would be nearly impossible to find hi, even if I had wanted to. However, I came here and I met this boy and he has the same last name as my supposed father's. It made me wonder, but I didn't really look into it, because surely there are many people with the same last name. But then I asked Pony and he gave me this boy's father's first name, and Steve it's the exact same name that my mother gave me."
During her rant, Rosalie had begun to talk faster and faster, and took a break to take a deep breath.
She closed her eyes before continuing, "I can't be sure, but when I look into the eyes of this boy, I realize how similar they are to mine and I wonder."
At that she opened her green eyes, to stare directly into Steve's matching ones. She stayed quiet to see how he would react.
She watched Steve stare into her eyes before they slowly widened.
"Rosie, this boy you're talking about, what's his name?" Steve asked quietly.
"What's his father's name?"
Rosalie took a deep breath before answering, "Randle, Steve and Jim Randle."
Steve sucked in a hard breath before blowing it back out again.
"Huh," was all he said.
There was a silence that lasted a couple of minutes, before Rose couldn't stand it anymore.
"This doesn't mean anything," she almost pleaded, "I might be completely wrong."
"No," Steve answered quietly, "I think you might be right. My Dad and Soda's Dad were best friends, that's how I meet the Curtis's. Plus, when my Dad gets drunk he rambles on about the mistake he made that made my Mom leave him, and I'm thinking that what he did to your Mom may have been the mistake."
He paused for a second.
"Also, how many Jim Randles can there be in Tulsa?"
Rosalie wanted Steve to be wrong, though part of her wanted him to be right as well.
"I look exactly like my Mom, Rosalie started softly, "Hair, nose, dimples, everything. The only thing that isn't hers are my green eyes."
"Your eyes," Steve continued, "that look a lot like mine, and exactly like my Dad's."
He paused, "Well, I guess our Dad."
"Huh," Rosalie repeated Steve's earlier remark.
"Yeah," Steve responded. "I'd bring you to meet my, uh, our Dad, but since my Mom left, he drinks a lot and when he drinks you really don't want to be around him."
He stopped then, a little pink blooming on his cheeks.
"But, I'd be happy to be your older brother, if you want me to be that is," he offered.
"I don't think I'd want to meet him even if he wasn't a drunk," Rosalie admitted, "It's just, I've always lived with out him, and I'll always hold a pretty strong grudge against him."
Steve nodded in understanding.
"However, I would be really happy to be your younger sister," she finished with a smile playing at the corners of her lips.
She walked slowly up to Steve then, and surprised him with a hug, which after his shock wore off, he retuned.
Just then, they were interrupted by Ponyboy, "Hey Rosie, we got to head-" he broke off when he saw the hugging pair.
"Uh, we got to go back to school now," he finished, the tops of his ears flaming red.
The pair abruptly broke apart.
"This isn't what it looks like, Pony," Steve started, a smile on his face.
"It's a long story," Rosalie continued, "We're explain it to everyone tonight, after school. Now, we should head to school before we're late." She made to move towards him before stopping. He turned back to Steve and quickly gave him a peck on the cheek.
"Bye Steve," she said.
He nodded back at her before she turned, and dragged a blushing Pony out of the garage.
