Soda

The road signs around this stupid place made no goddamn sense.

I sat at the intersection, drumming my thumbs on the steering wheel, and cussed. Again.

Maybe this was the universe's way of telling me I was doing something real dumb. Maybe I oughta turn around and head for home...

...And not see Joanne for another week, until she landed back in Tulsa. Dammit. I chewed on my lip, trying to second guess myself.

It was the phone that was driving me nuts, only being able to talk to her on the phone. I mean, at least at my end I could try and wait for a time when Pony and Darry weren't home, but I had never once been able to call Jo without someone in her family being around in the background. I wished we had some kind of real private phone, or that the cord was long enough for her to take the receiver out to the barn or something.

Some things couldn't be said over wires and miles. Some things needed two people to be together. I knew, I'd tried.

It had sounded so bad, when the words hung on the line between us—'the guy who hurt Evie is dead'. I hadn't been able to tell her that the cops were looking at all of us for it, but she was smart enough to work that out for herself. She took all of five seconds to ask me if everyone was okay.

What could I say, 'Not really, 'cause all of us got motive and ain't one of us with a good enough alibi...'?

That was another reason I hated her being away. It's easier to lie on the phone.

But mostly I wanted to just be with her.

I didn't know if I was coming or going, that morning when it all first kicked off. My knee was hurting like a bitch and I was on borrowed time, as far as Darry working out that I'd been at the stables. It wasn't even that I couldn't handle him being pissed about the horses. It was just that it was kind of the last one of Dad's rules still standing and since he never had that many for us, it felt like I was betraying him and Darry both.

On my way home that morning, I passed a couple of guys I knew, hanging on some corner, and they told me a guy had been knifed over at the Lookout. Word was, all the Kings had cast iron alibis, 'but everyone knows they hated Hennessey, so...'

So, I needed to get home.

I tried to run the last couple of blocks and that's what really screwed my knee. I was too late, Darry was already up—although of course I found out he hadn't been home either—but we didn't have time to get into anything before the Chevy roared up, then the cops, and everything started sliding into Freaksville.

I went from stressing about Pony not being home, to stressing about him turning up. Everyone else, including Darry, was looking at the blood on his hand and not hearing that every word coming out his mouth was bullshit, and not just the line he span for the cops.

As soon as Darry was convinced that Pony's skinned knuckles weren't some kind of mortal injury, I took Pony aside and practically shoved him into his bedroom. He scowled and slapped my hand off him.

"The hell's your problem?"

"Are you kidding me? You think I got a problem?" I hissed. I noticed that his window was open. Thank God he'd seen the cruiser out front and snuck into the house, to pull off his 'I just woke up' act.

Pony still thought I was pissed that he'd told Darry about me and the stables. "Seriously," he said, "do you not notice how much horses stink? You're lucky Darry ain't got a good sense of smell..."

Priceless. Fucking priceless. "Funny you should say that." I snatched away the T shirt wadded in his hand and sniffed it, then I grabbed Pony's chin and forced him to look at me as I inspected his pupils. He jerked his head back, cussing me out again, but I tossed the T shirt aside with a snarl. "Kid, I could get high off this T shirt right now. I'd say you're lucky Darry ain't got a good sense of smell."

A guilty look washed over him but then he was all swagger again. "So what?" Although his voice was considerably lower now.

"So what?" I fought back the urge to shake him. "So fucking what? Did you somehow not notice the cops wanna fit one of us for murder? Jesus, Pony, think! Every single one of us has got motive, but only one of us has got experience."

I immediately felt sorry for that because his expression got real sick. "I was acquitted," he breathed, sitting on the edge of his bed. I sank down next to him.

"I know. I didn't mean...I'm sorry, kid. It's just if the cops find out you was doing drugs with Curly Shepard..."

Ponyboy swallowed. "They believed we were here. All of us. They won't know to ask Curly anything."

Shit. Oh, shit. I had to force my tongue to work. "Yeah? What if I ask Curly?"

He looked away from me.

I remembered holding him, nights, after Johnny, after Dallas. Nights when he woke up in a sweat, babbling about Johnny and a knife, fighting his way out of water that wasn't really there. Nights when he wouldn't lie down and sleep in the first place, for fear of it all coming back.

I thought about him throwing up at the sight of blood these days.

But I also thought about him holding it together until he'd seen Evie taken care of. He didn't lose it then, not until she was out of his care. And when he told us about Hennessey, when he spilled Evie's secret, it was because he wanted us to deal with it for her. Teach the bastard a lesson. What had he said to her, 'Let us do it for you' or something?

Shit. Oh, shit.

"If you weren't with Shepard, how'd you hear about it?" I could barely hear my own question.

"I heard. That's all that matters. I heard an' I got back here in time." There was color rising in his face

"You do anything else? Apart from the MJ? You didn't take no pills?" I'd seen a guy one time, so hopped up on speed that he walked out a window at Buck's. Upstairs.

Pony had flinched, when I started the questions, but he shook his head. "One joint, 's'all. And some wine."

"Wine?" I couldn't help a little snort. "Now I know you weren't at Shepard's. Where the hell you drinking wine?"

Pony shoved himself back up the bed. "It don't matter. I wanna get some sleep. Can you just leave me alone?" He made a good show of punching his pillow into shape to get comfortable.

Back out in the front room, Darry and Steve had agreed it ought to be business as usual. Everyone was going to work, like it was just another day. We didn't want the cops to think any one of us was acting freaky. But it was beyond difficult. All I wanted to do was get to Jo. I felt like she was my answer to everything. But she wasn't home.

There was no time at all, when things went straight to Hell and Steve was arrested, to make a call, because I was supposed to be looking after Evie. But all I wanted to do was talk to Jo, so bad. Properly, be able to see her face, hold her hand. And... call me any kind of pansy, but I wanted her to tell me everything was going to be okay. And I didn't even know then that the world had only just started screwing with my head...

Fuck.

I stared at the signpost, like I could force it to change just by glaring. How could I have been on a perfectly straight road for three miles, nothing but fields and trees either side of me, and the fucking sign post for Sequoyah now be pointing in the complete opposite direction?

A rusty old truck wheezed up behind me, engine popping something awful as it idled. I squinted at the old guy driving it, in the rear view, then I swallowed my pride and climbed out, walking over to his open window.

"You lost, son?"

I nodded. I hadn't been going to say that, quite so plain.

"Thought I didn't recognize your vehicle. Where'd you wanna be?"

Hell, I knew most of the cars around the neighborhood, but I couldn't say I'd pick out every single unknown one. I told him I was looking for the Harrison farm. Then I corrected myself, "Uh. I guess it's the Harrison farm still..." I went blank on what Jo's step dad's surname was, but the old guy grinned.

"You ain't so far wrong. Take a right here and then watch for the turning when the road bends left, in about a mile."

"Thanks. Uh, by the way," I gestured at the hood of his truck, "your carburetor needs looking at."

"That she does," he agreed happily.

So, I watched for the turning and I saw the sign said 'Harrison Farm' –even thought the mailbox said both Harrison and McBride— and I eased onto the gravel road and pulled up between a couple of barns and a wide, two, no, three story house, with a wraparound porch.

And then I was stuck. This was as far as I'd got in my head, when I made the decision, when I couldn't stand another single second of everything at home pressing in on my head until I wanted to scream. Scream, or run to Jo.

There was movement, people approaching from right and left, and I realized I couldn't sit there like a dummy, so I climbed out.

"Help ya?" said a rangy guy with thick leather gloves on. He rubbed at his nose with the back of one of his hands as he studied me. The kid with him wasn't looking at me at all.

"Cool car!" he exclaimed with a grin.

"Yeah. It ain't mine, it's borrowed." I felt I should explain, then I turned to the older guy and just as I said, "I'm looking for Joanne," a dark haired chick in a cute green dress came down from the porch.

"Hey there! Are you...Sodapop?" She was tilting her head as she inspected me, like she already knew the answer. I nodded. She broke out into a smile.

"Well, how about that. I'm Audrey, that's Sam an'—"

"GARY! Joey's boyfriend is here!" the kid yelled towards the nearest barn.

"—this is Chris," Audrey finished the introductions with a roll of her eyes. I said 'hey' and felt my smile fade out a bit under the flat stare that Jo's oldest brother was giving me. Audrey started chattering about surprises and 'driving all this way' and how pleased Jo was going to be and then there were two hard faces staring me down, because Chris's yell had brought out another guy in scuffed jeans and plaid work shirt.

"The hell?" the newcomer said, to the kid. "I thought you meant that other fucker." Which kind of threw me.

"This is Sodapop," Audrey told him. "Stop being an idiot."

"Tulsa Sodapop?"

I couldn't help myself. "How many you know?" I asked, pleasant enough.

He snorted. "Fair enough. Joey never said you was coming."

"It's a surprise!" Audrey seemed very taken with the idea.

"Sure is. Seeing as Joey ain't here." Sam pulled off a glove and stuck his hand out. I shook first his, then Gary's hand and neither one of them cracked a smile. The kid smiled, but kept his hands in his pockets.

"C'mon in, Sodapop." Audrey beckoned me towards the house. "You must be hungry? Thirsty?"

I looked at Sam. "Whaddya mean, Jo ain't here?"

"She went into town, she'll be back soon."

Shit. That hadn't ever been in my imaginary reunion scene. I tried to tell Jo's sister that I'd just wait by the car but I found myself being dragged into the house. Gary and Chris followed, although Sam called after them,

"That feed order stowed?"

Gary waved a hand at him, which seemed to stand for 'yes', and then we were in the kitchen. There was a huge table in one corner, with benches around two sides under the windows, like a booth in a diner. I got stuck on one end as Audrey set lemonade and cookies in front of me. She kept beaming at me like I don't know what, which made it all the more freaky that Gary just stood against one of the cabinets with his arms folded, staring me down.

I was grateful that the kid kept the conversation going, asking about the Chevy and how come my friend let me borrow it, 'cause he sure wouldn't let anyone drive his car, if he had one of his own.

Because Steve could see I was going out of my mind and if I didn't get to see Jo I was likely to do something so far beyond stupid it would make stupid look genius...

I told him Steve didn't need the car for a couple of days.

"Some kind of drag racer, ain't he?" was Gary's first contribution. "So Joey said."

"Yup." I wasn't about to give him Steve's life history.

"Joey said you ride bronc."

I gave him a small shrug. "Used to."

"Said you quit over some injury." A small smile showed what he thought of that. Audrey hissed his name, none too subtly.

"I did. I'd go back, but now I can't afford to lose any work, by being laid up. I got responsibilities," I told him shortly. Let him make whatever he liked out of that. Before he had a chance to respond, Chris—who'd been craning his neck out the window—shot out of his seat with a cry of,

"They're back!"

Audrey tried to call him back, but he was away and down the steps before we all made it out onto the porch. Jo climbed out the passenger seat of a station wagon, as Chris hopped about pointing at the Chevy, saying 'Look, look,' and then she turned towards me and burst into tears.

I had two seconds of feeling like the world had just folded in on top of me, when Jo launched herself into a run and was rocketing into my arms, laughing and crying all in one.

"Oh! I thought it was Steve!" she babbled, as she kissed me and hugged the breath out of me. "I saw the car and thought Steve had come to tell me they'd arrested you."

God. I still had to tell her. She knew Steve was okay, that they'd released him, but that was all I'd had the guts to say, last time on the phone. Not yet, though. Not yet.

I set her back on her feet, tucked her hair behind her ear where it was coming loose from a ponytail she never wore at home, and let myself look at her. "Sorry. I never meant to scare you. I just wanted to see you. I missed you."

"Oh, I missed you!" Jo said, hanging onto my hand and going to hug me again.

"Jeez, Joey. Get a room alrea—Ow!" Gary yelped at the end of his snarky comment and I turned my head just in time to see Audrey's hand slide back into her pocket.

"Thank you, Gary, go fetch the groceries out of the car, please," said a different voice and Jo jumped. She smiled, though, as she said,

"Oh, yeah. This is my mom. Mom, this is Soda."

"Well, thank goodness for that. I thought it was kind of an enthusiastic greeting for the encyclopedia salesman..." Jo's mom's comment blew me away. I had to make Jo let go my hand, to hold it out to shake, as I stuttered that I was pleased to meet her.

She smiled back at me, said the same went for her and then she was shooing everyone inside and organizing where I was going to sleep.

"No, I couldn't, I didn't expect...I mean, I know I just landed on you an' all." I tried to protest, but apparently since I had to stay for dinner it would be too late for Mrs. McBride to feel comfortable about me driving 'all that way' home in the dark. And apparently that was the cue for Audrey to insist that Jo didn't need to help fix dinner, because she oughta show me around the place. Which was totally what I wanted and needed. I could care less about seeing the farm, but I needed to be alone with Jo.

She walked me down to a stand of trees that followed the bank of a creek, holding my hand tight the whole way, until we reached the water and she turned to me and said, "What's the matter?"

I loved that she knew me. I hated that I would ever worry her.

I sat down and waited for Jo to join me on the grass. I took a deep breath. And I told her. I told her that Steve's dad was dying, so Steve had that to deal with, on top of the craziness about his dad confessing to try and save Steve. And when she was shocked and asked me if that meant Eddie was going to die in jail, I fought down the feeling that I was going to hurl and I told her, no, because,

"Sandy did it."

Jo stared at me. Actually said, "Did what?" like the two things we were talking about couldn't be connected.

"It was Sandy. She stabbed the guy. Killed him. Said she did it because he hurt Evie." The sick feeling was coming back again. I made an effort to clear the picture that kept coming into my head, of Sandy with a blade in her hand. "They arrested her. She confessed. She had...evidence. Case closed."

Jo was frozen with her mouth open.

"There's more to it, of course. She got in with the River Kings, their leader put her up to it, but he's likely got himself an alibi, so it's all on her..."

"She said she did it for Evie?" Jo interrupted me quietly.

I nodded. "Evie said she was...spaced out. Like, high or something. She ain't right in the head. Kept talking about them being best friends—"

Jo gasped. I grabbed her into a hug.

She'd just made the connection that had freaked me out so completely; the realization that if Sandy was deranged enough to defend her 'best friendship', it could so easily have bounced back on Jo. This is why I'd needed to see her with my own eyes, see she was okay. I breathed in the smell of her hair and told her,

"I'm sorry. All of this craziness, you didn't need to be mixed up in any of it. With any of us. Didn't I tell you deserve better?"

"Whoa!" Jo shoved me back at arms' length. "You shut your trap, Sodapop Curtis! None of this is your fault. I'm sorry I haven't been around for you." She frowned mightily. "You must've been so worried for Steve...If only I didn't promise to be here for Audrey's and then Mom's birthdays...And, oh! What if Sandy had decided she wanted you back? She might've hurt you, when you said no..."

Privately, I thought that would have been another thing to put Jo in danger, but mostly I was just mighty relieved that she wasn't telling me to fuck off back to Tulsa.

"Are you okay? Like, for real?" Jo put her hand on my face. "This must all have been so freaky."

I pulled her back towards me. "I love you, do you know that?"

"I love you too," she said, leaning in to kiss me. God, how I missed her. Finally, finally, that sick feeling—which I could maybe now let myself identify as 'scared'—was drifting away.

A loud splash made both of us jump, just as Gary's lazy drawl announced, "Mom says five minutes 'til dinner." He came out of the trees behind us, pitching another stone down into the creek.

Jo jumped up on her feet. "You better not be spyin' on me, creepoid."

"Why? You doin' anything you oughtn't?" he challenged, with a pointed look at me. I stood up, but Jo scoffed:

"Oh, please. I ain't even wearing boots."

The off-the-wall comment made no sense to me, but Gary's face went purple and Jo shrieked with laughter and ducked behind me as he made to run at her. Then, to my surprise, he grinned and waved a hand like he was dismissing her.

"You'll keep," he threatened with a smile, turning back through the trees.

"Boots?" I asked quietly, as we headed back. Jo got a fit of the giggles and said she would tell me some other time.

Dinner was pretty freaky, half loud and half butt-clenchingly quiet. The 'loud' was mostly Chris and the others squabbling over second and third helpings, the 'quiet' mostly what happened every time Mr. or Mrs. McBride asked me a question. That seemed to be the cue for Jo's brothers and sister to stop whatever they were doing and all focus on me. At least Sam had gone back to his own house, I was thinking, just when the last brother showed up, half way through the meal.

He did what Pony always does with his books and slung a pile of them carelessly on the counter top, reaching for a bread roll before he was even in his seat.

"Hands!" said his mom, as Audrey jumped in with a full introduction of me and my 'wonderful' surprise appearance.

From the sink, where he was dashing his hands under the faucet, Pete blinked, making it seem like he hadn't even noticed me at the table. "Oh. Hey, man," he greeted me, reacquainting himself with the roll and a spoonful of chili.

"You learn any more today, 'bout putting us out of business?" Gary snarked, snatching the last roll before Pete could reach it.

"Not 'out of business', just 'different'," his brother said levelly. "You can't argue with the figures. An' I'm telling you, small time operations ain't gonna survive-" he ignored Gary's growling objection to being called 'small time', continuing, "Ain't we got the land here, prime hunting, fishing? People are gonna pay for all that, tourism's the way-"

"Vacations? Farm vacations?"

"Tourism, doughnut-brain. People are gonna pay..." I lost the rest of Pete's argument as Jo leaned in and whispered to me, that since he'd started taking courses at the agricultural school, the boys were butting heads over what the future of the farm should be.

At least we were sitting next to each other. That was about the most comfortable part of the meal. That and the way Mrs. McBride had her eye on everyone at the same time, chipping into conversations, defusing arguments, distributing what was left in the various serving dishes. I couldn't stop myself smiling as she halved the last baked potato, to shut up Chris's complaint that it 'wasn't fair he never got the last piece'. She caught my eye, realized what I was doing and gave me a kind of puzzled look.

I reached for my water glass and gulped some down.

Later, when she tried for the hundredth time to press another quilt into my arms, 'just in case', Jo groaned, "Mom..." until she left us on our own in the upstairs hallway.

I'd been shown where the bathroom was. Had the girls' bedroom and her mom's room pointed out to me. There was no reasonable excuse left, for me not to climb the last set of stairs.

Except Jo kissed me, of course.

"Okay, Tulsa, how about you put her down and let us all get some sleep." Gary appeared on the half landing above us.

Jo pulled a face at her brother and left me to deal. Without Sam at home, Gary was the one with a spare bed—the other room across the narrow attic hallway housed Pete and Chris and frankly I'd rather have been sleeping on the floor in there.

"Some people gotta work early, get in here and lemme turn the light off," Gary griped, closing the door behind me and helpfully shoving me towards the other side of the room. His idea of helpful meant that I nearly lost my balance and I couldn't help myself squaring up to him, as I spun back on my toes and faced him. He had maybe an inch on me, no more.

"What's your problem, man?"

"My problem—man— is, I don't like greasy fuckers feeling up my little sister."

No shit? "Look," I tried, "you oughta know, I got real respect for Jo—"

"Yeah, right. Well, you oughta know, I'm a real light sleeper, so don't be getting any ideas about sneaking down to see her."

"Oh, why would I even need to, when she can do what the hell she wants—" Don't say it, don't say it, Jesus, how stupid was I?

Gary went very still. "Do what the hell she wants in Tulsa? Is that right?" I held my breath—too late—as he took enough of a step to get me backed against the wall. He's gonna hit me, went through my brain and my fists closed automatically. "You got some fucking nerve, city boy." Don't hit him first. He's Jo's brother. Don't hit him first.

"I love her." The words were out before I thought it through. Story of my life. Gary's eyes narrowed as he tried to work out if I was bullshitting him. I shrugged. "You can do what you like, man, you ain't gonna change that. She's the most important thing in the world to me."

He twitched backwards, just enough that I relaxed my hands. He still looked mighty suspicious, but he climbed into bed and turned his back on me without another word.

A/N: Okay, so this covered quite a lot from 'Our One Rule', chapters 21, 23 and 24 to be precise, the fake alibis etc. But I wanted to keep the focus on Soda and Jo, so I hope you approve of it this way. Out of interest, if you didn't read Evie's stories, but are reading this (Ow, spoilers!) is it making sense?

And Pony's alibi? Yeah. So Soda picked up that something was off, but he's not full on psychic... ;)