CHERRY'S POV

After that, I asked Soda if he could take me home, and he didn't hesitate to say yes. I wasn't shocked at that considering he didn't wanna take me to Buck's in the first place, and I honestly wished I had listened to him about not going.

We walked to my house carefully and quietly and mostly in the dark parts of the street with little or no light at all. It's not that I was embarrassed of him, I just didn't want someone to jump out and hurt him. He didn't seem to mind, considering I had good intentions, but probably cause while we were still on the East Side we did the same thing. We couldn't drive back cause I'm pretty sure it was Steve's car, and he was still at Buck's with Evie and everyone else.

We finally came up to my house and walked between mine and the neighbors. "Tuff house," Soda mumbled and looked up at it from the ground.

I let out an embarrassed chuckle, "I guess… it's more than necessary, but my parents felt the need to show off or something I guess. I mean, it's only four of us so…"

He held in laughter. "It looks like you could fit 'bout three of four families in there."

I couldn't tell if he was serious or if he was joking, so I just gave a small smile. "I guess so… please be careful on your way back, alright?"

He nodded. "I will, don't worry." He turned to walk away then turned back to face me, "Would it be bad if I kissed you goodnight?"

I let out a chuckle then shook my head. "It wouldn't be bad at all."

"I must seem like a real idiot right now."

"Why's that?"

"Cause I just asked to kiss ya, but while we were at Buck's, I just went for it." Before I could say anything, his lips were pressed against mine and his hand was placed where my head met my neck. He pulled away and smiled, "Like that."

I knew my cheeks were red, but in a good way. I tried to bite back a smile but knew I was failing miserably. "Goodnight Soda," I said quietly through my smile.

"Goodnight Red," he said quietly then walked off.

I started to climb up my little secret ladder that led to my bedroom. I slid my window open and climbed in. I thanked my lucky stars as I got in that my door closed. I quickly finished climbing in, closed the window and locked it, then changed into pajama pants and a tank top. I tied my hair back into a ponytail and undid everything I had done to get ready for Buck's hours earlier.

Right as I was about to get into bed, someone knocked on my bedroom door. I got up cautiously and when I opened it, Madeline stood there with an evil smile in place. "Can I help you?" I asked her with an annoyed tone.

"I just wanted to say goodnight to my dear sister, Cherry," she shrugged, "Or should I say Red." She smiled again and turned to her room then went inside, closing the door.

My eyes widened when she walked away. I closed my door and slid down to the ground against it. I rested my elbows on my knees and my head in my hands. I am so dead, I thought. I didn't get any sleep the rest of the night, worrying about what she would do.

SODA'S POV

I held in anything I wanted to yell till I got back to the East Side, and that's exactly what I did till I got there.

The minute I set foot onto the East Side, I jumped up, both fists in the air yelling, "Yes!" I guess I was louder than had planned or expected to be cause I saw lights in houses that were about five blocks away turn on their lights and more dogs were barking and howling than usual. I saw people start to walk out their houses but before anyone got the chance to see me I hid behind a mailbox on the corner of the street. I didn't come out till I saw most of the lights turn off again and acted like I had just got back and knew nothing about the yell.

I got back to my house as soon as possible. When I got there, my smile was still in place from when I left Cherry at the side of her house. I'm not sure if she saw my smile or not, but it was there. "Well you're sure happy," Darry chuckled when I walked in, "And nice yell before."

"You heard that too? How'd ya know it was me?" I asked.

"I think I should know my own brother's yell after nearly eighteen years." There was tease in his voice.

I rubbed the back of my neck nervously and let out an embarrassed chuckle. "Sorry 'bout that."

"Don't worry about it… anyway, I thought you were all at Buck's?"

"Cherry had to get home so we left early."

"How's it goin' with her?"

"Well ya know how you told me it was hard to get to the other side when you dated that girl Esther?" He nodded. "I agree with you one-hundred percent."

"It's all worth it, though."

I smiled, "Definitely… I uh, kissed her tonight…"

I chuckled. "Whatever… so where's Ponyboy?"

He nudged his head toward the shared bedroom. "He went to bed about twenty minutes ago."

"Kid's been sleeping better, even on his own. He hasn't mentioned no bad dreams in a long time."

"Yeah… I think he's finally fully adjusting, which is good. Speaking of sleep, you should go get some too."

"Alright… night Darry."

"Night Romeo," he laughed, and I couldn't help but laugh at his comment.

…next morning…

"Ponyboy, c'mon we gotta get up. You got school and I got work," I yawned and shook Ponyboy a little bit by his shoulders. He stirred and yawned then we both got up. I went to the bathroom to shower then went to change for the day.

Darry, Ponyboy and I all met up at the dining room table for breakfast, which Darry made today. No one was at the house yet, which was a rare thing, but that could've been cause it was Monday and still early and knowing these characters, none of us liked Monday mornings. "So how'd ya sleep, Ponyboy?" Darry asked while we ate.

He glanced up then back to his food, "Alright."

Darry sent me a look, quietly asking me the same question. I nodded and mouth, "He seemed to." He nodded and we all continued with whatever conversation we could think of.

"Hello Curtis brothers!" I heard Two-Bit call through the house and heard the front door open. He came to the dining room, Steve and Johnny following in behind him. We all said our good morning's and hello's. I jumped up and walked over to Two-Bit and Steve, "Can I talk to y'all outside real quick?" They both nodded and walked outside. I explained to the jokester of the gang and my best friend about what Evie and Kathy had been doing the night before at Buck's to Cherry. I also explained that Kat had been trying to help Cherry but the two wouldn't listen to her and wouldn't knock off their little antics. Hearing about Kat made Two-Bit calm down a bit though, considering Kat was his little sister. "Can you two just try to convince them to give Cherry a chance? She's not like most Socs," I told them with a desperate tone.

"Evie won't be so easy," Steve sighed, "But I'll try… but only cause we're friends."

"I can talk to Kathy… maybe even get Kat to help me talk to her," Two-Bit shrugged.

"Thanks. I'm just worried 'bout Red cause when she was telling me this stuff last night, she looked like she was 'bout to cry, she was so upset. She said she was tryin' so hard to fit in with them to get them to like her, but they just kept playin' games." I let out a small sigh.

"Don't worry your pretty little head about it, we'll talk to them."

"Talk to who about what?" Dallas asked as he walked up to the house.

"Just somethin' that happened at the DX," Steve lied, which shocked me, considering how he felt that Cherry was a Soc.

He nodded. "Why'd ya leave early last night, Soda? You never used to."

"Uh… Cherry wasn't feelin' good, so I took her home."

He scoffed a bit and let out a small chuckle, "I knew she wouldn't be able to handle Buck's… Maddie never could neither." He mumbled the last part then went into the house, leaving the three of us standing there with confused and questioning looks on our faces.

Ooooooooh he mentioned Maddie. *insert evil smile here* by the way, remember about Maddie, also in the beginning about someone anonymously paying for Johnny's treatment about the letter and them trying to find the person, cause that may be coming up somewhat soon.

Oh my gosh it's Thursday, second episode of wayward pines tonight :)

Which reminds me! Yesterday I watched "Red Dawn" from 1984 with my mom and I remembered Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey have a little thing going on, especially in one scene (not saying any spoilers for those who haven't seen it, I swear) and yesterday during the day I saw a video by watchmojo. com and it was "movie couples where the actors didn't get along" (not exact title, but like that) and apparently Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey didn't get along too well on set of "red dawn" or "dirty dancing", he said that she was too silly most of the time or something, but they must've reconciled at some point cause the voice person in the video said she was real upset when he died back in '09… but that fact totally killed those movies for me, that they didn't get along

Anyway, hope you liked the chapter! Peace from all the hippies of the world! =^-^=