Ponyboy POV
"You get the spilled cereal and I'll get this?" I asked as Darry took Two-Bit to cleanse himself from his sickness.
"Sure." It wasn't until I took an old t-shirt and began cleaning up the vomit had I realized what kind of offer I made with Steve. I cringed at the scent of the sickening throw-up and got up to throw away the shirt.
"He looks like shit." I threw the shirt away and Steve looked at me.
"Two things, watch your mouth and you're right. Ya know, I feel bad for him honestly." I sat down at the table as did Steve. He sighed and put his head in his hands. I saw that Steve still had a semi-full bowl of cereal.
"Are you gonna finish your cereal?" Steve shoved the bowl at me impatiently.
"Go for it," I smiled and began digging into the cereal when I noticed that about thirty minutes had already gone by ever since Soda had left. I swallowed a big bite of cereal and coughed forcefully at Steve to get his attention. "What?" Gladly, he got the hint that I wanted to talk.
"Where do you think Soda is?" His eyes widened at the mentioning of Sodapop and he scooted out from under the table.
"I don't know but I'll be right back though." Steve got up and walked over to the bathroom. He lightly knocked on the door, but when he got no reply, he knocked a little louder.
"What?!" Darry yelled. Then we heard Two-Bit groan and Darry say: "Sorry little buddy, forgot you had a headache…"
"Come here!" We heard the sound of Darry's feet scuffling on the bathroom door, then we heard him say: "I'll be right back Two-Bit alright? If you're gonna get sick again, try and aim for the toilet okay?" Darry opened the door, stepped out of the bathroom and closed the door behind him.
"Darry, we need to ask you something…" I said getting out of my chair. Darry stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked at me.
"What?" Steve took a deep breath and looked at Darry.
"Where the hell is Sodapop?" Darry slapped himself in the forehead.
"Damn, I completely forgot about Soda. Ya know what? Why don't you two go look for him? I'll be here if you need me, take a quarter or two if you need to use a payphone or something okay?" Darry leaned over beside Steve's ear and I could hear him try to whisper something. Darry's not very good at whispering. "Steve, keep an eye out for Pony okay?"
Steve nodded my head and motioned for me and him to head out. As soon as we stepped out the door we could both hear a faint scream that sounded like: "Get off of me you stupid socs! Rat assed bastards!"
I looked at Steve and he looked at me too. We even both said it at the same time:
"Soda…"
Sodapop had never been jumped before in his life, the only time he came close to being jumped was whenever he'd come to the rescue for one of us. Usually, he would be with someone so they were even with the socs, but as always, the socs feel the need to out number us all of the time.
Me and Steve were following the screams of Soda when we finally saw him laying on the ground surrounded by three or four socs. They were way out their territory. Steve and I were running full tilt sprint and when the socs spotted us just out of the corner of their eyes, they beat it out of there.
"Soda! Sodapop, you alright?" I yelled as the two of us approached my brother. The grocery bag full of medicines and other supplies was spilled out all over the sidewalk. I motioned for Steve to collect the belongings while I attended to Soda.
"Hey Pony… I'm okay." Soda sat up and smoothed out his shirt.
"You sure?" Steve held the bag and handed it to Soda when he got off of the sidewalk. I brushed Soda's hair out from over his eyes and noticed something.
"Nice shiner you got there Sodapop." He chuckled and touched his eye gingerly.
"Ya think I can hide it from Darry? I mean, with Two-Bit like this, he's already got enough worries." I patted Soda on the back and we all headed back for the house.
"You couldn't if you tried for you life."
When we were approaching near the house, we could all hear Darry yelling: "Two-Bit! Why do you have to do that out here?! You could've just done that in the house! Well… I guess this way it's easier to… well… never mind. Just let it all out." And when we got to the house, we were all too wondering why Two-Bit didn't just do what he was doing in the house.