Ok, so here is the next chapter. Sorry that its been a while, but I was having writer's block, AND had little to no time to write. But its here now! Yay! And…I am happy. I guess. And hungry. But crescent rolls are good. Anyway, I want to give a big shout out to my friend whom I will call Seasons. Seasons really helped me with a big decision that will occur probably in the next chapter. Which will be AWESOME! But its not this chapter. This chapter is kinda boring. So sorry, but it had to happen. Please enjoy it anyway.

TWO-BIT'S POV

I looked at the clock. 5:00AM.

"Where are you going?" the Soc asked sleepily.

"What do you care?" I snapped, pulling on my shoes and jacket.

"I could tell the teacher, grease," Guy tiredly shot back, still trying to wake up.

"But if you do, Soc, I'll beat you so hard you won't know left from right," I growled. Guy gulped and I opened the door and almost slammed it behind me, catching it at the last minute when I remembered what I was trying to do.

Sneak out.

I hadn't slept at all last night….knowing every minute was one more minute that whoever took Pony had to kill him…every minute was that many feet that the kid could be farther away.

"Two-Bit? What are you doin' up so early?" I heard a familiar voice ask from behind me. I turned around to meet a head of red hair. I thought about lying to her and about telling her the truth. I weighed the options of both.

"I couldn't sleep," I said. It wasn't a lie. I arched an eyebrow. "What are you doin' up?"

"Same thing. Are you goin' somewhere?"

"Yes. Bye, Cherry," I said quickly and walked down the hall.

"Wait!" Cherry called after me.

"Yeah?"

"Where are you goin'?" She asked, walking quickly to meet my pace.

"Out."

"Okay," she said slowly, getting the point that I wasn't about to tell her. She turned to go, only to be stopped when I grabbed her shoulder.

"Cherry, don't tell dig?"

She looked at me for a moment before shrugging me off, ignoring the question. I glared at the back of her head. What is up with her? I thought, walking out the front door. I don't know why it occurred to me or why I noticed it. I guess Ponyboy had begun to wear off on me. But it seemed like she had been caring less and less about what happened to us. Specifically to Ponyboy. I didn't know why. I didn't care. She was a Soc.

I walked out and flipped my collar, trying to block as much as the wind as I could. Suddenly, I realized that I didn't have a clue what the heck I was doing or where I was going to start. I tried to remember where we had gone the previous day. I only could remember bits and pieces and for once in my life I wished I had paid attention to the teacher.

V^V^V^V^V^V^V

STEVE'S POV

"This is a mistake," Soda mumbled. He was getting antsy and I knew that the worry and lack of sleep was starting to catch up to him.

"Relax, buddy," I said as we pulled into the hotel parking lot.

We had gotten a room at the hotel pretty quickly. We went with the cheapest option, considering that Darry had just gotten a ticket and they were a little short on money as it was.

"We shouldn't be here," Sodapop stated. Darry and I looked at him.

"What?"

"We shouldn't be here. We should be heading to Chicago," Soda said, his voice getting a little bit louder and more desperate with every word.

"Man, calm down. None of us are in any shape to drive, what just happened being witness to that," I replied, standing up.

" But Darry's not the only one that can drive. I can drive—," Soda ranted, pacing in front of the television.

"No. You can't," I stated, standing up.

"What does that mean?" he was shouting now.

"You're too tired and…and upset…and goodness knows that I'm in no shape to drive either!" I said, my voice rising as well.

"Steve—,"

"Sodapop," Darry broke in, speaking for the first time since we had left the accident. "I would rather spend a couple hours at least attempting to sleep than have you dead on the side of the road."

"But we can't just sit here! We're wasting time!" Soda cried, frantically looking between me and Darry for any sign of support.

"A couple of hours isn't going to help at all if we're all dead on our feet anyway," Darry spoke.

"What you really mean is that you would rather risk Pone getting killed because we spent a couple of hours making no progress on the slight chance that we might get in a car wreck. You're just paranoid because you fell asleep at the wheel and that suddenly means that none of us can drive," Soda replied, glaring at Darry.

Darry looked like he had just been punched in the gut. He looked down the floor.

"No, that's not it," I said desperately.

"You don't even care about the kid, Steve. What do you care?" Soda snapped. My eyes grew huge.

"Soda, I –"

"Soda," Darry cut in quietly, and I was thankful. A few more rounds and I knew that fists would probably be flying. "You're tired. Try to get some sleep."

Soda rolled his eyes, but crawled in bed anyway. Darry took a deep breath, walking out to the little balcony right outside our room. I hesitated between following him or staying behind. I glanced through the glass door at Darry, who sitting on the chair staring at the moon. I sighed and followed him.

"Darry?" I asked, concerned, as I slid the door closed behind me. Darry was Superman. Superman wasn't suppose to have a breaking point.

Was he?

"Yeah, Steve?"

"You okay?" I asked, feeling awkward.

"Yeah," Darry said automatically. I nodded and we settled into an awkward silence, filled only by crickets and passing cars.

"Soda's asleep," I stated, desperate to say something to fill the silence. Darry nodded. "He didn't mean what he said. You know that, right?"

Darry was silent for a moment. "Yeah, I know."

"He's just tired…and worried." I continued.

"I know," Darry repeated.

"And you are too," I added. Darry managed a weak laugh.

"Yeah," he agreed. He was silent for a moment. I sat down on the other chair. "But maybe…Soda was right."

"Darry—,"

"I'm serious Steve. Maybe Soda was right."

"You know that's not true."

"I don't know if I know anything, anymore." He was silent for a while.

.

.

.

"I didn't even get to say goodbye to him, Steve," Darry nearly whispered. He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. I was shocked for a moment before recovering.

"Dar, you're life's been hectic for the past week—,"

"That's not an excuse," Darry cut in.

"Muscles, it's not like you're never gonna see the kid again," I said casually. I didn't know if I actually believed that or not. "Don't beat yourself up over it."

". . . thanks." Darry said after a moment, meeting my gaze for the first time since the accident.

"Any time, Superman."

"You should try to get some sleep. Ya dig?"

"Shoot, man. I slept most of the way here anyway," I answered, forcing a smile. "You're the one who needs some shut eye."

Darry groaned. "Yeah, you're probably right."

"You're not going to fall asleep, are you?" I asked, knowingly. "Don't worry about drivin', Dar. I got it, tomorrow."

"I can drive," Darry argued. His determination made me laugh.

"No, really, Dar. I got it. Besides, I doubt that Soda's gonna get much sleep either."

V^V^V^V^V

Turns out, I was right.

V^V^V^V^VV^V

Okay, sorry to those who thought Sodapop was out of character. Maybe he was. But I kind of liked it. Please let me know if you think that I got it all wrong, if you agree with my different view of how Soda would handle it, anything else. Next chappy will probable be interesting. PLEASE REVIEW!

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I will result to drastic measures! I could kill Ponyboy, you know…..