I'm going to be doing much longer chapters now. I've been keeping them short and sweet but now I've pretty much set the stage for the rest of the story.The weekend after the musical, I was looking forward to just relaxing. I was exhausted from the constant rehearsals and nonstop practice. I had tons of work to make up and all week I barely got enough sleep to survive the next day. It was Friday, and as soon as I got home I laid down on the couch.
"...So the the superstar finally gets some rest." said Charlie, entering the living room and sitting beside me. I was about to move and make room for him, but he lifted my bare feet and pushed them out of the way.
"Yeah," was all I said, smiling as he took a sip of water from his glass, "What are you doing home?"
"I had the day off." Charlie stretched out, "I have a night class to take tonight, though. So I'll be leaving in a few hours. Could you stay home and watch David?"
I nodded. "I need to sleep though."
"I could watch David if you have plans," Mikey offered, walking in. I didn't say anything.
"Oh that reminds me. A boy called for you a few minutes before you got home from school. I told him you weren't home yet." Charlie said, looking at me pointedly.
"Who was it?" Mikey leaned forward, and I immediately straightened up. I knew what this was. He wanted to make sure it wasn't Sodapop, which I knew it probably was, since we'd been out a few times, but I hoped to gosh it really wasn't.
"I don't know. He just said that he had told Lucy he'd call." Charlie eyed me and Mikey. We were both staring each other down.
"Oh. I'll call him back." I leaned back against the chair, smirking at Mikey. He just shook his head in amazement at me.
I talked to Charlie a bit more, and Mikey kept looking at me suspiciously. I just ignored it. He was being petty and ridiculous, and it wasn't for my sake. He just didn't want to have to explain to his friends why his younger sister was hanging out with the no-good dropout who was supposed to be in his graduating class. Mikey was never worried about me, though. Only his reputation.
After a few more minutes, Mikey left for batting practice and a baseball game he had later on. I went upstairs to call Sodapop back. I dialed the number I had written down on a napkin from the last time we were together.
The phone rang and rang, echoeing slightly in my ears. I sighed.
"Hello?" a gruff unfamiliar voice answered the phone. I stuttered, startled.
"Uh, uhm, yeah is Sodapop there? It's Lucy" I asked quickly.
"Hang on." The voice spoke and I heard muffled calling in the distance.
A few moments later the phone crackled and Soda's familiar voice came on.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Sodapop. It's Lucy. I'm returning your call."
"Oh, hey Lucy!" he chirped and I could almost hear the adorable grin on his chiseled face over the phone.
"Hey." I paused "So, what did you want?"
"Oh, yes. I was wondering if you'd like to go out to dinner with me tonight. I'll take you to my favorite diner. Is that okay?"
I paused. This no longer sounded like we were simply hanging out. This sounded like a date, which was something I no longer did. I was contemplating when he spoke again.
"You can pay for yourself. We'll just be going as friends, right?"
It was as if he knew exactly what I was thinking.
"That sounds great, Sodapop." I smiled to myself.
"Alright, I'll be seeing you at around 7. Is that alright?"
"Yeah, thats perfect." I agreed.
Although I had been looking forward to chilling out and relaxing, I made an exception. I liked being with Soda, and I hadn't had the chance to be with him, so I figured it was worth not getting a nap.
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That night Sodapop picked me up at 7:30, on the dot. We drove in the car listening to Elvis and rock n roll, and then finally we pulled in at a small little diner. The neon sign on top of it said 'Mary's', and the 'Open' sign flashed.
Once we got our seats we looked around. It was dim inside, there was a bar with blue bar stools, and chrome was everywhere along with plenty of colorful signs and posters all around. It was honestly adorable, and we sat in a comfy little booth across from each other. After a moment Soda looked at me.
"What do you think?" he asked, looking me dead in the eye.
"It's really cute." I paused. "It's far away though, how'd you find out about it?" I recalled the half-hour drive it took to get here.
"My dad used to live around here when he was little. I guess his family always came here. He used to take me, Darry and Pony and mom here."
I nodded, and he looked at me for a second, then spoke.
"I remember one time we went, just the two of us. Me and my dad. It was my 8th birthday. We were sitting over there-" he pointed at the bar "-and I had my first banana split."
I chuckled, trying to picture Soda as a kid. Chubby little cheeks and the same innocent smile, boyish face.
Soda continued.
"I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. And when I came home-" he smiled, looking down "-my mom yelled as us because I made of mess of myself and was covered in ice cream." he laughed to himself. "My dad just told her it was my birthday. I could get as messy as I wanted. Golly, I loved my dad. I miss him."
He smiled at me, but I saw this horrible flash of sadness in his eyes, something I couldn't explain. I couldn't imagine it. To have both your parents taken away at the same time, than you'd be left alone, to fend for yourself and provide for yourself, constantly afraid that social services would tear your family apart if something went wrong. It just didn't seem fair.
"I understand. It's hard. I haven't seen my Dad since I was 13." I told him. I didn't like to talk about this but I wanted to tell him. To let him know we had something missing, even though my loss was not nearly as tragic as his.
Soda looked up suddenly, cocking his head. "What? You never told me this."
I shrugged. "It's not a big deal, really."
"It's not a big deal you don't have a dad?"
The waitress came by, suddenly.
"Hi welcome to Mary's, what can I get you to drink?" she was snapping her gum. She was young, and looked bored, like working here was the last place she wanted to be.
"I'll have a Coke and-" Sodapop looked at me.
"A Coke." I looked at the waitress
"Two Cokes." She wrote on her pad. "I'll be right back." She walked away quickly.
Soda turned his attention back to me. "So wait, what?
"He ran off on us when I was thirteen. Left with another woman and just disappeared. I haven't seen him since. I don't care to." I shrugged. "He's just another example of why I gave up on guys. Men are all animals."
The waitress came back with our Cokes, setting them down in front of us along with two straws. We both thanked her, but Soda cocked his head.
"Really." he stared at me with such a straight face it was comical. "You mean there's not one guy who's pretty much your best friend that you're hanging out with right now or anything?"
I took a straw and twisted it out of it's wrapper. "I mean, there is this one guy..." I paused, looking up at him. "Fine. You aren't an animal." I said, and placed the straw in his Coke.
He chuckled, his eyes lighting up. "But your dad's not the only reason you gave up on boys, right?"
"Yeah."
"Well who was it?"
"I mean, I've had a few boyfriends before, and I'm not innocent, I've broken hearts, but there was this guy I was hanging out with. It sucked. I'd known him for months." I stopped, and looked up at Soda, who seemed really interested in everything, nodding for me to continue. So I did.
"We weren't even dating, and then he ended up just playing me. He lead me on. I had to get over a guy who was never my boyfriend, and it made me mad. Yeah, we were never officially together, but we talked about everything. We had everything in common. We got so close. It broke my heart when I found out about this other girl. He chose this obnoxious, trashy girl over me. And it made no sense. And I felt horrible."
Soda looked at me. "I've had that happen before. It sucks. You feel awful."
I shook my head. "It doesn't matter."
We were interrupted once more by the waitress taking our orders. After she had left, I took a deep breath.
"Why'd you give up girls, Soda?"
He sucked in a breath, biting his lip. "Oh boy. Well this is quite the long story-"
"We have time." I said.
He shook his head. "There was this girl I'd been seeing. Sandy. We'd been together for years, I loved her more than anything. I've dated a lot of girls, but I'd never met anyone quite like Sandy. She just understood me. And she was funny and beautiful and wonderful in every way. Earlier this year, things were going great. I wanted to marry her. I told my brother, Ponyboy I was. I wanted to get a better job so I could buy us a place to live. We could start a family. I thought I had my whole life figured out."
He stopped. I wanted to prompt him to continue but he did without me offering.
"Than one day she came by my house. She said she had to talk to me. Her parents were sending her to live in Florida with her grandma. I asked her why, I didn't want her to leave. She gave me this look, and said she was pregnant."
My mouth dropped open. He looked at me.
"That was my reaction too. I'd fooled around with Sandy, I knew it was possible, but it had only been a few times. I told her I'd help take care of it. That it was ours, it was the right thing to do." his eyes narrowed suddenly. "Than she said something I never thought I'd hear. Maybe from trailer trash but not from my girl, not from Sandy. She said it wasn't mine."
"Oh, golly, Sodapop-" I started but he wasn't finished.
"I remember staring at her. Than I have no clue what crossed my mind, but I told her I'd take care of it. Back than, I wanted her, that's all I wanted. Looking back, I realize I was desperate. I would have never wanted to. But with Ponyboy and Johnny gone, everything familiar was being torn away from me. And I wanted to hang on to something tangible. And it was Sandy."
He paused. "And once she was really gone, I was so sad at first. She was my future, everything I wanted. When did she do it? With whom? How often, how long had this been going on without me knowing about i? I wrote her letters, trying to tell her how I felt, but she would send them back, unopened, unread, uncared for. I meant nothing. Than I got mad. How could she have done that to me? After everything. She lied to me. I was so disappointed. I lost all respect for her."
Soda's eyes were filled with the sadness again that I saw when he had been talking about his dad.
"Soda." On a whim I reached out and touched his hand lightly. "Sometimes people will surprise you Soda. They'll end up being the last thing you thought they would be."
He nodded. "I know, I know. That makes so much sense."
Talking about Sandy made me realize how pathetic I was for thinking Brad was a big deal. Soda's problem with Sandy made my situation look amazing.
"But Lucy." he looked up at me, grinning. "You can't give up on all guys. Because where will that get you? You'll get over Brad, I know you will, and I really hope you will. You're a great girl. And any guy who can't see that, and doesn't want you is a goof."
I felt my face get hot, the rush of blood to my cheeks was overpowering. Nobody had ever said anything so sweet and simple and honest like that to me. "Thanks, Soda." I looked down.
"So don't give up. Because yeah, I gave up for awhile, but lately I've been thinking it wouldn't be so bad if I let my guard down and fell in love again. I'd like to have a wife and a family." He leaned back in his seat and smiled at me.
Golly. It took a moment for me to recover.
I shrugged. "I don't know. I could live on my own."
"It'd be quite lonely." he tilted his head, eyes dancing, laughing.
By the time we were done eating and talking, it was late and practically no one was in the diner. They were playing some music, some doo-wop, and I hummed along.
Soda paid and we walked outside into the parking lot. "Come over here." He lead me to a little wooded area that had a small bench and clearing that was covered by a canopy of trees.
We sat down on the bench.
"So you never told me you were in the musical, or that you could dance." he leaned back against the bench, shifting to face me.
"I was. I do." I smiled, humming still to the music that was being blasted in the parking lot. I could hear from over here. It was nice.
"Hmm, I've never danced before you should show me some moves." He stood up.
"No, bad idea." I stared at his hand which was now extended towards me.
"Come on, dollface."
"Never." I gave him a skeptical look.
"Please." he pouted.
I sighed. "Fine." I stood up, ignoring his hand.
Just as I stood up the song changed. It was a ballad, a slow song, and I shrugged. "It's a slow song now, I can't slow dance."
"I can." Sodapop smiled, taking a step towards me. "I'll teach you."
"I'll break your foot." I exclaimed. I'd step all over them, being the klutz I was.
"Hmm, on purpose, or on accident?" He tilted his head.
"It depends on how much longer you insist on this."
"Well I'd definitely rather have it be on accident." He reached out and pulled me close, his hands on my waist.
My first instinct was to pull away. But it was Sodapop. We were just friends, and for some reason I couldn't force myself to beat it out of there. I felt like I had to stay.
I recognized the song now, "In The Still Of The Night" by Dion. Soda must have too, because he hummed along with the melody, swaying back and forth.
In the still of the night
I held you, held you tight
Because I love, love you so
Promise I'll never let you go
In the still of the night
I took the time to notice how my face came right to his shoulder, how he smelled like leather and something else I couldn't put my finger on. I just knew it smelled good, and it took all my willpower not to bury my face in his neck and stay there. But friends didn't do that, and we were only friends.Oh I remember
That night in May
The stars were bright up above
Oh I hope, and I pray
To keep your precious love
There were a bunch of things about Soda that I never noticed. You couldn't see it until you were up close. His eyelashes were long, super long, that's what made his big brown eyes stand out and sparkle so much.So before the light
Hold me again
With all of your might
In the still of the night
His skin was so warm against mine, and I turned my head upwards to look at him. His cheek was touched mine, soft and smooth against my own, and I felt that awful blush creeping up again as I looked down again.As the song came to an end, I thought about our night, and everything we had told each other, how good the food was, how he paid- wait what?
"Soda!" I exclaimed, pulling away. He looked startled.
"What?"
"You paid!"
A cocky grin spread across his face. "Yeah, I'm surprised you didn't notice. I kept you busy enough for you not to, though."
I sighed "Not fair! You said we'd split!"
He shrugged. "Come on, Lucy. It was my treat."
I went to object, but I didn't. Instead, he took me home in the old truck I had begun to feel comfortable in. Okay, this might be my favorite chapter so far! What do you guys think? I couldn't stop writing it! I'm starting to love this! Lol. Shoutouts to a handful of my awesome reviewers and loyal readers! alley925 The rest of you are all awesome too! I'll put you on this list next time! xD Please tell your friends about this and spread it around! Its going to get great! Please READ AND REVIEW! I won't post the next chapter until I get 5 reviews!
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