Author's Note: I'm writing this on Wednesday, April 27, 2005 but I probably won't be posting it until the following Saturday unless my mom is going to be gone for a long enough period of time for me to get it up since I'm not supposed to go online because we're expecting about 25 phone calls. Ah well. I have to go online now and find out who reviewed last time so I can do my replies, because my mom is at the store. RUSH RUSH RUSH. I'm going to be in Greensboro from 8:00 a.m. tomorrow to around 11:00 p.m. Friday night.

Contact Info: E-mails and reviews are favorites but there are other various ways in my profile.

Dedication: My BOB coach, because we're going to STATE competition tomorrow. Booyah babay. Booyah and baby are 2 of my favorite words if you don't know this already. Babay was actually something that I started saying when I had the Holes obsession.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Outsiders.

Replies:

xohugsndkissesox- I know, Two-Bit is such a sweetheart. I want to hug him! Thank you muchly, and I hope to be updating regularly after Friday since BOB will be over then.

CandieBabie30- Well thank you very much for that. It means a lot to me that you enjoyed both this story and it's prequel.

Horrorpop- I figured it was probably after the band the Horrorpops! I've only heard a couple of their songs off of my "Punk Rock Holocaust" DVD and the stuff I've borrowed, but from what I've heard they are excellent. Thank you muchly.

x fever x- You were certainly missed I know how Author Alerts are, once mine cut off for around 2 weeks and it took me forever to make up the stuff I'd missed, people thought I wad dead and stuff. I know, that scene was inspired by Ray and Rumble Fish and another story I'm working on, on That's funny as well because it made my arm thinking about it! Don't worry, I'm a dork as well. I'm the one who records the "I Love the '80's" episodes because the Brat Pack and random Brat Pack movies are mentioned. Well I'm really glad you love the story.

Story:

Aubrey's POV

As soon as the reunion between the two of us was over we headed straight for a motel, we couldn't afford a hotel room, and it began to rain bucketfuls seemingly spiteful to us. We both rushed through the rain to the nearest dilapidated motel we could find. It was called the "Alley Inn" the name even made me wrinkle my nose. Don't get me wrong, I'd lived in bad, roach infested places before but the "Alley Inn" was one of the worst places I'd ever looked at and it was way too expensive for such a shabby place. We had no other choice but to pay for a room there though. At first I'd thought maybe the two of us shouldn't share a room, thinking maybe it wasn't such a good idea but Two-Bit eventually convinced me that it would save us a lot of money, and that the two of us shouldn't be alone in a motel room as shabby as that in New York city.

The carpet on the floor, which I assumed had once been white but it was now a gray-ish, brown-ish color was torn in spots and being the klutz I am I kept tripping repeatedly until finally Two-Bit laughed and said "You're going to break your neck" and he picked me up and placed me on the bookshelf. The bookshelf seemed to be the only sturdy thing in the room because it actually held my weight. The only thing was it was so high up I couldn't get down without twisting an ankle or falling through the floor.

"TWO-BIT" I screamed. He laughed heartily and stared up at me sitting amongst the spider webs on the top of the bookcase. "There are SPIDERS up here!" I shrieked, I am deathly afraid of spiders, they scare me to death.

"There are not! They aren't SPIDER webs anyway, they are COB webs" he said pointedly, scratching his chin and glancing up at me, then flouncing onto the double bed in the room. There was only one bed I realized with a weird feeling in my stomach as I surveyed the tiny, very shabby room.

"Two-Bit! Please?" I begged him. He pretended to consider it for a moment, and then he shook his head.

"You look absolutely picturesque up there" he told me with a big grin. I laughed slightly to myself, it was hard to be angry at Two-Bit but I was trying. I couldn't having someone get the best out of me. Two-Bit sat on the bed for a while until finally he lay down and pretended to go to sleep, leaving me up on the bookshelf.

"TWO-BIT" I yelled finally and he smiled, sprang up from the bed and ran to the bookcase where he stood a little further back from it and smiled gallantly up at me.

"Jump" he practically squealed like a two-year-old.

"Are you crazy?"

"Jump" he told me again with a big smile, I bit my lip, braced myself and slid off of the bookcase, thinking lividly that I would probably fall and break a bone or something but to my surprise he did catch me easily in his arms. He held me there to him for a little longer than he needed to and my heartbeat seemed to skip a beat. I smiled, and wrapped my arms around his neck.

"You should have chosen the Honeymooner's suite" someone was saying, as they peered into our room from a crack in the wall. I screamed, and Two-Bit screamed and the person at the hole in the wall screamed.

"What in the world?" I questioned as I scrambled out of Two-Bit's arms and ran to the hole in the wall.

"There is a hole in the wall, and you are keeping me from doing my work well" the man explained. I sighed and turned around to face Two-Bit as I rolled my eyes.

Two-Bit's POV

I sighed and wiped the hair out of my eyes as I stared gloomily at the pillowcase tacked to the wall over the hole where our room person was staying. I could hear Aubrey attempting to sing while she took a shower. She may have been a nice girl and everything, but she couldn't sing worth a flip. Of course, I wasn't the best singer in the world, but at least I could carry a tune. Not that it really mattered or anything because I'm not very shallow, but you couldn't help but notice. The motel was filled with loud sounds bursting through all of the cracks in the wall, and even going up through the ceiling.

For example the person in the room below us was blaring the Beatle's newest release, and I was busy holding two pillows over my ears and trying to block out the noise coming from all directions, and that includes the noise of Aubrey.

The fact that there was only one bed in the room was actually my fault, while Aubrey was muttering to herself about the mess of the motel and running her finger along the grimy front desk I told the clerk we only needed one single bed. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't thinking anything dirty, I just figured we could use the body heat. OK so you don't believe me, rightfully because I could care less about body heat.

Aubrey's POV

The next morning Two-Bit and I headed out into the blustery streets of New York City, and the first place we walked towards was the old alley way where Dallas and I used to hang out when our parents were being idiots which was a majority of the time we spent in New York city. Neither one of us had ever had anyone but each other while we lived there. Don't get me wrong, my mom was a great person but she was too pre-occupied with her husband to think about anything else, even a kid. She thought more about Annie, my sister, than she thought about me anyway. I guess I was lucky to have Annie for the time that I had her because she was probably the cutest, sweetest child I've ever encountered.

Annie was one of those people that you never truly find two of, she was a one-of-a-kind and I was so fiercly protective of her that I don't think any kid in our half of the city would get around her when they knew I would hear about it. I also had Dallas who was just as protective of my kid sister as I was.

Dallas also had an older brother, his name had been Sam or something like that, and he had been a real sweet guy. He was 5 years older than us though so he didn't really have too much to do with us, except walking us places so we wouldn't get jumped. Sam had been killed in a shoot-out when he was only 16. Dallas had been really sad about it, but he had never truly gotten a chance to grieve over his brother. Dallas was another one of those kids who never had a mom, but not because she left him but because she died of a fever when he was only a month or two old. I'd always felt sorry for Dallas.

As I walked through those streets with Two-Bit's arm around me I felt sorry for myself. I felt sorry for myself because I knew that I wasn't completely happy with Two-Bit there beside me. Don't get me wrong, I loved Two-Bit so much it hurt my ribs to think about it, but Dallas was the one I'd been with in New York and I wanted him there, and I knew that he'd never walk those lonely, yet busy streets with me again.

I also felt sorry for myself because I didn't have Annie anymore either. That little sweetheart had been ripped away from me just as easily as if she was a piece of paper tumbling down the gray, bustling streets. That was when I got the sudden urge to visit the place where my sister had been buried, I had only attended the funeral for a short five to ten minutes when my sister was buried because we had to leave shortly after, but I'd been there many times with Dallas. The cemetery had sort of been a hangout for the two of us, it had been our sanctuary. The cemetery was the first place that Dally and I had kissed, and the first place we'd experimented with alcohol, and the first time we'd experimented with each other.

The cemetery was also the place that Dallas's mother and brother were buried. Now that Dallas was in a cemetery back in Tulsa, Oklahoma I felt a terrible, deep pang in my chest for him. He was there when his whole family, well except his bastard of a father, was buried in New York and he was so far away. But I remembered that Dallas had changed in the few years I was away from him, and he probably wanted to be buried near Johnny like he had been than to be taken back to New York.

As Two-Bit and I climbed the solitary hill that Annie was buried on he tugged on my hand reassuringly and kissed my cheek. I felt a warm feeling travel from the tip of my ears to the tip of my toes with his kiss. Finally we reached the solitary stone angel, it was the last thing my mother had spent her money on. We'd almost starved to death on the way back to Tulsa because we had no money left over from Annie's lonely funeral. Just staring at the grave made me begin to shake and before long Two-Bit was holding me up and stroking my hair from behind me.

"Are you OK sweetie?" he asked me finally as he stared as if transfixed at the grave ahead of him. It featured a small picture of my sister, and an inscription along with her angel. There were no flowers on my sister's grave.

"I think so" I choked back waveringly, "She needs some flowers" I pointed out, as I stood there shaking.

"Wait here and I'll get some" Two-Bit said running off towards the right, and I wondered vaguely if he would steal flowers from another grave or find somewhere to pick them. I sat down with a thud in the grass and sat there thinking. It was rare to find grass in this part of New York and I touched the silky smoothness of it with my hand. Grass wasn't so rare in Tulsa, Oklahoma and I realized then how much I would miss it if I never went back. Two-Bit came back though at that moment and interrupted my thoughts. He came with a small boquet of roses and a tulip. He put the roses on Annie's grave and handed me the tulip.

"Here you go" he drawled, smiling childishly.

"They're my favorite" I said, caressing the petals lovingly and not meeting his eyes. He took my chin in his hands, rubbing his fingers through my hair lovingly, and I locked eyes with him.

"I know" he answered, kissing me ever so lightly on the lips, sending a warm shiver down my spine. I grasped his hand in mine and the two of us began to walk back towards the motel.

"We're going back to Tulsa in two days Two-Bit" I informed him as I rested my head on his shoulder. He entwined his arms around my waist and kissed me on top of my head.

"I was hoping you'd say that. New York is nice and all, but it's nowhere as nice as home" he whispered into my ear, sending yet another shiver down my spine.

Two-Bit's POV

When we reached the motel we found a message awaiting us at the service desk, it was short but it was to the point.

"Aubrey and Two-Bit: If the two of you don't get your butts back to Tulsa by this Monday I will make salve out of both of you. I can't believe you didn't tell me before you went. Caroline and I are outraged and we were worried. Also, Ponyboy didn't tell on you, I found out from the guy at the train station. Darry"

I groaned. "Oh God, now we've got him to put up with. It's gonna be a mess when we get back home" I said with a grimace as Aubrey and I stumbled up the stairs.

"Oh well. I wouldn't have it any other way honey, I wouldn't have it any other way." She told me with a grin and for the first time in ages she made the first move and kissed me lovingly on the lips. I grinned blissfully for the rest of the trip.

Author's Note- I hope this one was long enough for you. I tried to get it long enough so that you wouldn't be too upset when I don't write until Saturday or later. Hope you enjoyed this cutesy-ish chapter. Two-Bit is adorable eh? Oh and who has seen the video for "Untitled"- Simple Plan. Gorgeous just gorgeous. Sorry about that.