She's feeling frisky
He's feeling good
I guess the whiskey is doing what it should
She's got the cigarettes
He's got the light
And when the sun goes down
They'll start a little fire
Ain't no use in trying to slow her down
Cause he's running with the fastest girl in town
-Miranda Lambert
"Hey, Darry, can I use the truck tonight?" Sodapop asked.
"Sure," Darry said. "Why, you got plans?"
"Nope," Ponyboy spoke up. "He just wants to sit in it in the front yard for awhile."
Darry nudged his youngest brother with his foot. "Can it, smart ass."
"Can it what?" Pony asked, causing Darry to throw his wadded up napkin at him.
It was later the same day and the three brothers were sitting at the dinner table. Ponyboy had fixed supper; fried chicken with mashed potatoes and corn.
"Yeah, I've got plans," Soda said. "I … um … have a date."
Darry's eyebrows shot up, but he tried to sound nonchalant. "Really? Anyone we know?"
"Nope." Soda shook his head. "Just a girl I met."
"Does she go to Will Rogers'?" Darry asked. Again, Soda shook his head. He hated deceiving Darry, but he knew his brother would flip if he knew how old Ruth Anne really was.
"No, I met her pumping gas at work," he answered finally.
Darry nodded; he was dying to ask more questions, but didn't want to pry. "Just take it easy on the gas, little buddy," he told him.
Soda nodded. "I will," he promised.
After supper, he took a quick shower and dressed in a pair of dark jeans and a white t-shirt. He combed his hair back, thick with grease.
"How do I look?" he asked Pony, coming out of the bathroom.
Pony was stretched out across the sofa, a thick book in one hand, a half-eaten banana in the other. Soda silently marveled at his little brother's increasing appetite.
"Looks real good," Pony said, glancing up from his book.
Soda sat down in the arm chair to put his shoes on. "What that you're readin' there, kiddo?"
Pony glanced at his book. "It's called 'In Cold Blood'. It's a true crime novel."
"Oh…" Soda wasn't completely sure what a true crime novel actually was, but he wasn't going to tell his brother that. "So … You talked any more to Marnie?"
Ponyboy sat his book down and shook his head. "Nope," he replied. "But … uh, AJ told me that Tim Shepard was layin' it on pretty thick with her last week...and he took her to The Dingo for a soda tonight."
Soda smirked. He liked Tim well enough, but he couldn't imagine a sweet girl like Marnie running around with him. "You found another girl yet?"
Pony shrugged. "I been flirting with every girl I can in front of her. I was tryin' to flirt with Belinda Adams yesterday, but she just gave me a weird look and walked off."
Soda grinned. "Them Adams girls act like their shit don't stink. Remember a few years back, Darry dated the oldest one. What was her name? Eileen?"
"Carlene." Darry came into the living room. "Her name's Carlene. She works at the hospital now, remember? She was one of Johnny's nurses."
"I don't remember." Soda stood up. "Well, boys … don't wait up." He grinned and tipped his fingers in a mock salute. Darry snorted and waved him off.
"Behave yourself, Sodapop," he said. Soda grinned.
"I always do, Dar."
Soda drove the old pickup to the address that Ruth Anne had given him. It was an apartment building downtown; a small, modest-looking place. She had said her apartment was on the second floor, that it was 2B.
Soda climbed the small stairs, passing a couple of guys with Beatle hair cuts. He located 2B and took a deep breath before knocking on the door.
A few seconds later, a young woman who he assumed was Ruth Anne's roommate answered the door. She was probably the best looking girl Soda had ever laid eyes on. Her hair was long and dark brown, curling loosely to her shoulder blades, and her eyes were wide and doe-eyed.
"Can I help you?" she asked.
"I'm … I'm here to see Ruth Anne?" he asked. Her face split into a smile.
"Oh … so you're the one." She opened the door wider to let him in and Soda saw she was clad in a tiny, pale pink bathrobe … and not much else. "Sodapop isn't it?"
He nodded. "Yes ma'am."
The woman laughed a throaty laugh. "Listen at him; yes ma'am." She held out her hand and he shook it. "I'm Lexi, Ruthie's roommate. She'll be out in a few minutes. You just make yourself at home, sweetie."
He sat down on the sagging sofa and Lexi sat opposite of him. She crossed her tan legs and try as he may, Soda couldn't help but let his gaze travel up the length of them. He hoped that Lexi didn't notice, but when she laughed again, he knew she had.
"Oh, don't worry about, honey. Hell I'm used to it," she told him.
"Lexi, are you teasing my date?" Ruth Anne came out of the back then, dressed in a short skirt and a blouse, her blonde hair hanging free. She looked very pretty. "Soda, you ignore her. She's nothing but a big flirt."
Lexi grinned. "My charm is my lifeline." She looked back at Soda and winked. He felt a blush begin to rise on his face.
"Ready to go?" he asked Ruth Anne, standing up.
"Yep," she said.
"Don't do anything I would do!" Lexi sang as they headed out the door.
"I'm sorry about her," Ruth Anne said in a low voice as they walked down the stairs together. "Lexi, I mean. She's my best friend, but… well; she's a bit much if you don't know her."
Soda smiled. "Yeah, I noticed. What did she mean when she said that her charm was her lifeline?"
Ruth Anne rolled her eyes. "Lexi is a dancer at the Pink Pony."
"Oh." Soda felt his eyes go wide in spite of himself. "That's… wow."
The Pink Pony was a gentleman's club. Soda had never been inside, you had to be eighteen to get through the door, but he had passed it plenty of times. He knew girls danced topless inside, but he had never met one in person. He was kinda of excited now to brag that he had.
He held the truck door open for Ruth Anne as she climbed in. She smiled.
"I guess chivalry isn't dead after all," she said.
"Nope."
It was a casual date, so they had decided to go to the bowling alley.
"I love to bowl," Ruth Anne told him. "But I hate wearing the rented shoes."
Soda laughed. "What? Why?"
"It's so gross!" she said. "I don't know who else might've worn the size six and a half shoes."
"Yeah, but they spray them with that disinfectant stuff," he replied.
"I know, but still," she laughed. "Call me weird, but it still bugs me."
"Okay," he grinned. "You're weird."
"Shut up." She shoved him playfully.
Soda laughed and thought to himself how much fun he was having with her already. He honestly hadn't felt this good since Sandy left.
Sandy. He still got a small pang when he thought of her, but it wasn't quite as bad as it used to be. He hoped, with Ruth Anne's help, maybe he was finally getting over her.
Meanwhile, back at the Curtis house, Ponyboy sat his book down and sighed.
He was trying to keep his mind off Marnie, but it wasn't working. He had never felt about a girl like he felt about her and it killed him that she didn't like him back. And now she was out with Tim.
"What's the matter with you?" Darry asked, looking up from the TV. Pony shrugged.
"Nothing," he lied quickly. Darry cocked his eyebrow.
"Yeah right. You've been walking around here with your lower lip dragging the ground for the past week. Now what's up?"
Pony looked at his eldest brother. Darry had just as much experience with girls as Sodapop, if not more. Maybe he could help.
"Um…well, you know Marnie?" he asked.
Darry grinned. "You mean that pretty little hippy thing that you've been mooning over for the past two months? No, I'm not aware of her at all."
Ponyboy smiled. "Yeah…well, I kinda…you know…"
"Have a huge crush on her?" Darry supplied. "Yeah, I know."
"She doesn't like me back, though."
Darry snorted. "Please. That girl is head over heels for you. Everyone knows it but you."
"She said we were just friends!" Pony insisted, and then gave Darry a play-by-play of the conversation. When he was done, Darry felt like banging his head repeatedly into the coffee table.
"She said you were a good friend, dumb-dumb, not that she just wanted to be friends," he explained.
"Is there a difference?" Pony wrinkled his brow, confused.
"Of course there is!" Darry practically shouted.
"Well, then how come Soda didn't tell me when I talked to him about it?"
Darry took a deep breath. "What exactly did Sodapop tell you?"
"Well, he said that I have to flirt around with other girls to get Marnie to notice me," Pony told him. "So that's what I've been doing, but it doesn't help at all and now she's out getting a soda with Tim Shepard!"
Darry sighed. "Well, yeah, if she didn't like you like you like her, then that might work, but Marnie does like you, so all that's gonna do is hurt her feelings. She thinks you're not interested, so she agreed to go with Tim."
"So…what should I do?" Pony asked finally.
"Well, have you considered…I don't know…asking her out?"
Pony chewed his lip. Could he do it, he wondered. Could he ask Marnie to be his girl? She'd been a little gushy over Tim Shepard; how could he compete with that. When he asked Darry, his brother shrugged.
"Only one way you can find out, kid," he told him. "Just ask her."
