Disclaimer: I do not own The Outsiders or the lyrics to 'Mr. Brightside' by The Killers that I have used in the chapter title.
Saturday, April 9th, 1966
After having to spend an hour sitting next to Steve in math on Thursday before chatting to him for a while when waiting for Kathy in the hopes that he would think everything was back to normal, Anna had very quickly decided that yesterday had been the best Good Friday and day off school ever.
That was, until Evie had called, begging for Anna to come along on a double date the following night.
She had said no immediately but, as usual, her cousin had managed to talk her into it, just like she always used to. Words of things being a little awkward on their last date and how much she would love her favourite cousin forever had spilled from Evie's mouth and Anna had given in.
She hated the thought of being on a date with them, but couldn't say that finding out things had been a little awkward on their first date hadn't pleased her. She couldn't find it in herself to be happy for them, but she did want them both to be happy … she would just prefer if that didn't happen with each other.
And now, because she couldn't say no to her cousin, she was sitting in a booth at the Dingo opposite Steve, who had his arm around Evie, and next to Sodapop, who was doing his best to entice her into conversation with him.
"Sorry, what?" she asked, turning away from the sickening couple in front of her to face Soda.
"I asked how your driving lessons were going."
"Oh, I haven't had any more," she said, attempting to get into the conversation and ignore Steve and Evie. "Steve's been too busy helping me with math and Danny, well, I won't be taking a lesson from him ever again, I don't think."
Soda grinned. "You should just feel lucky that Stevie even let you drive his car. I hardly ever get to drive his car."
"So I've heard," she said, picking up a fry from her plate.
The conversation seemed to end there and Anna felt a little bad. Soda was doing his best to keep some kind of conversation going with her and she was acting as if being there next to him was the very last thing she wanted to be doing.
Which, in all honesty, it almost was.
There was no need to be taking that out on Soda, though. They'd endured plenty of these stupid double dates together in the past and, though they had never been on them as more than friends constantly being set up to satisfy Evie's love of double dates, they had always managed to have a bit of fun.
However, Anna figured this time was a bit different. Liking a guy you were on a double date with was a good thing - so long as it was the guy you were being set up with, not the guy dating your cousin.
"You okay?" Soda asked, leaning closer.
Anna looked at him and wished for a moment that it was him she liked rather than Steve. He was so damn handsome. While they would occasionally flirt and got along well enough, she had never had any romantic feelings for him. There was no way she could deny how good looking he was, though, and she figured if she had to suffer through tonight, at least it was with someone handsome.
"I'm fine," she said and grinned.
"You sure?" he persisted. "'Cause you've been playing with that same fry for about five minutes now."
She dropped the fry. "I have a bit of a headache."
"Are you okay?" This time it was Evie asking.
Looking up, she found both Evie and Steve scrutinizing her. Briefly she wondered if Steve had gone back on the promise he had made in math on Thursday.
"Don't tell Evie what I said about the two of you, okay?" she had asked him.
Steve had looked pissed off. "You really have to ask?"
Their talk hadn't been mentioned again, and after that Anna had done her best to make things seem normal, despite how hard it was. Looking at him now, she instinctively knew that he hadn't said anything, and that he wouldn't say anything.
"I'm fine," she repeated. "I promise."
Evie watched her carefully for a moment. Anna stared back, unflinchingly.
"Okay," she said, looking away from Anna and back at Steve, "should we get going then? The movie starts in half an hour."
Anna nodded in agreement and they all got up to go.
"You sure you're okay?" Steve asked as they made their way outside. Evie and Soda were behind them, talking about the movie.
Looking up into Steve's eyes, Anna just nodded.
"Is it your dad?" he asked and she decided then that her attempts at acting normal around him yesterday must have been successful or he would have been asking if he and Evie were the problem.
"No," she told him, "like I said, just a headache."
Steve nodded and they reached his car. "If it gets too bad, let me know and me or Soda will take you home."
She nodded again, wishing, not for the first time, that Steve would just go back to being a jerk. It would make not liking him so much easier.
XXXXX
The movie was terrible; some stupid cowboy movie, the kind Anna had never been particularly keen on and wasn't doing anything to keep her interest tonight.
The weather wasn't much better - only the middle of spring yet unbearably warm for nine at night - and she was glad she hadn't bothered to bring a sweater with her.
But worse than the movie and the weather was the company. Soda was doing his best to keep her in good spirits, and was actually doing a reasonably good job with his jokes and cheery conversation, but Anna continually found her eyes straying to the couple sitting a few rows ahead of them.
Steve would slip his arm around Evie's shoulder and Anna would frown in their direction; Evie would lean her head against Steve's chest and Anna's lip would almost bleed at how hard she was biting it; Steve would lean in to whisper something in Evie's ear, causing her to do that stupid giggly thing and blush, and Anna would burn with jealousy while her stomach clenched.
"You and Steve fighting again?" Soda asked suddenly.
"No, why?"
Soda grinned at her. "You know how the saying goes … If looks could kill …"
Anna laughed, again pleased that Soda was both good looking and fun. "We ain't fighting."
Soda nodded but looked sceptical. Thankfully the first movie had finished and the half hour break between movies was beginning. Anna decided to use this time to get away from the happy couple for a bit.
"I'm just gonna head to the bathroom," she told Soda who nodded.
Getting out of her seat she quickly headed to the small brick room that held two toilets and a mirror and was always crowded with girls fixing their makeup or gossiping about boys and other girls.
Ignoring the two empty toilets and the girls in front of the mirror, Anna leaned against one of the sinks and sighed. Knowing Steve and Evie were practically back together was bad enough, and having dinner with them at the Dingo was just as bad, but watching them practically cuddling at the Nightly Double was gruelling.
Taking a breath, she quickly pulled herself together and walked out of the brick room, ready to face the rest of her night watching Steve and Evie being sickeningly cute. She was more than half way back to her seat when she glanced down the small gap between the entry and the concession stand and her stomach plummeted.
There was Evie, her back pressed up against the wall of the store with Steve leaning over her, his mouth attached to hers as though both their lives depended on it.
Anna couldn't look away. She wanted to, God how she wanted to, but she couldn't tear her eyes away. Her mouth opened and she felt as though all the air had left her lungs as Evie's hands threaded into Steve's hair and Steve's hands …
Oh God! She took a shaky breath and pressed a hand to her stomach as Steve's hands roamed all over Evie. Touching, groping, stroking; Anna was sure she was going to throw up just looking at it but she still couldn't look away.
Instead she just stood there, people bustling around her as if she wasn't even there, watching her cousin making out with the guy she liked. The guy who, as she watched him with Evie, she realised just how much she really, really liked.
She felt sick. She wanted to run, she wanted to break them apart, she wanted to -
"Hey!" Her eyes flew away from Steve and Evie as if it was them who had called to her, catching her watching them, and not Soda. "What's going on?"
Anna swallowed and looked at him. "I have to go," she said, and took off as fast as she could without making even more of an idiot out of herself.
XXXXX
"C'mon," Steve said, grabbing Evie's hand and leading her into the little nook between the concession stand and entrance.
She obliged with a small giggle, and Steve smirked. Their kiss last weekend had been fairly low key and since then he had been hanging out for something proper. The little alcove they were heading into wasn't exactly ideal, but he had been wanting this kiss for so long now that Steve didn't care. He just wanted to kiss her.
"Steve," Evie whispered as she backed up against the wall of the concession stand, Steve looming over her, "anyone could see us here."
Steve raised an eyebrow. "Do you really care?"
She shook her head and he smirked again before leaning in.
Her lips were just as soft as he had remembered and he was hit with the memory of her mouth the moment their tongues met.
Steve moaned softly, resting his hands on her hips and deepening the kiss. It had been too long, not just since kissing Evie, but since kissing anyone, having any physical contact with a girl. There had been the almost kiss with Anna, but that had only been almost.
Steve drove that thought out of his head and kept his mind firmly on kissing Evie. The little memory of that almost moment with Anna, even if it had been kind of intense, shouldn't be entering his head, especially not now.
With the fingers that were winding their way through his hair, Steve needed no more encouragement in keeping his mind on the girl he was kissing.
Quickly pulling her body closer to his, he slid his hands from her waist and up her back, before letting them skim down her sides, ghosting over the sides of her breasts. Evie moaned into his mouth, letting him know she appreciated his actions.
Deciding not to let her giving mood go to waste, he trailed one hand to her lower back and over her hip, pressing himself even closer to her while his other hand slipped under her blouse, lightly touching the skin on her stomach.
"Steve," Evie gasped, pushing him away, "we have to stop."
Steve looked at her and swallowed, knowing she was right. "Yeah."
She gave him a quick grin. "But we should definitely continue that another time."
Steve smirked and wrapped an arm around her shoulders as they made their way out of the alcove, spotting Soda almost immediately as he looked from them to something near the entrance.
"Hey, what's going on?" Steve asked as they reached them.
Soda looked at them and at the entrance again. "I dunno," he said. "Anna just took off."
"What?" Steve and Evie both asked at the same time.
Soda shrugged. "I just came up to her, said 'hey', and she took off. Said she had to go."
"What the hell did you do to her?" Evie screeched.
Sodapop looked indignant. "I didn't do nothin'," he said angrily and Steve knew he was telling the truth. Soda wouldn't do anything to upset Anna; they were friends.
Evie ignored him and turned to Steve. "You have to go find her," she said.
"What?" Why he had to go find her, he was unsure, but at the same time he did want to make sure she was alright.
"You two are friends now," Evie said. "In fact you're probably closer with her than I am these days."
Steve actually agreed, but had a feeling that doing so out loud wouldn't impress Evie all that much. "I don't know."
Evie stepped closer and lowered her voice. "She came to you the other week after her dad … well, after they fought. She didn't come to me. Please? Please go make sure she's okay?"
Steve nodded and glanced at Soda who was giving him a strange look. "Stay with Soda," he told Evie.
Heading out the entrance, he kept an eye out for Anna and wondered what the hell was wrong with her. She had said that nothing was wrong with her dad and that she just had a headache, but Steve firmly believed it was something more than that. Anna was a tough chick, it had to have been something big to make her just take off.
As much as he didn't want it to be, he was thought it might still be him and Evie making her uncomfortable. She had seemed good and her normal self yesterday, maybe a little quieter than usual, but nothing major. Now she was taking off during a double date with the two of them. To Steve it just made sense that that was the problem.
Looking around as he reached the footpath in front on the drive-in, he saw her heading down the street and hurried to catch up with her.
"Hey!" he called and she turned to look at him.
"What are you doing?" she asked when he caught up with her.
"Checking on you. Evie's worried Soda did something to upset you."
"Hardly," she muttered and started walking again.
"Wait," he said, grabbing her wrist and letting it drop when she tensed straight away. "What's going on?"
She turned back to him and shrugged. "Like I said earlier; I have a headache."
Steve didn't know whether to believe her or not.
"Seriously," she said, "it's just a headache. Soda didn't do anything to upset me and I'm not even as bothered by you and Evie as I thought I would be."
Steve raised a sceptical eyebrow. "Really?"
"Really. Although you two are so cute it's a bit sickening, I just wanna go home and sleep off this headache."
Steve didn't quite believe her about the headache, but found that he did think she was telling the truth about not being bothered by him and Evie.
"Okay. Wait here a minute and I'll go get Evie and -"
"No," she interrupted. "I don't want to ruin your date. I'll just walk home."
"Not a chance."
Anna stared at him and he stared right back, not even considering letting her win this one.
"Fine," she finally gave in. "Can you ask Soda if he will walk me home?"
"You sure you don't want a ride?"
She nodded. "The fresh air might help my head."
"Okay, wait right here. Don't go anywhere."
"I'll stay right where I am," she complied and sat herself down on the pavement.
Steve nodded, continued watching her for a moment, then took off back to Soda and Evie.
XXXXX
"So, how long have you liked Steve?" Soda asked as they walked down a quiet street toward their neighbourhood.
Anna looked at him. "I don't like Steve!" she said, but was sure the look on her face and the defensive tone of her voice proved otherwise.
"Okay, how long have you been in love with him then?"
She stared at Soda, stunned. "I don't love him," she said, confused about what she was feeling but knowing at least this was true.
Soda grinned. "Maybe not, but you do like him. Don't even bother denying it again," he said quickly when she tried to disagree with him, "not after your reaction to seeing him with Evie."
Anna sighed and worried her lip. "Maybe," she said quietly.
She fought back another sigh and pushed away the image of Steve leaving her alone on the street and going back to Evie. She had told him to do so, after all … but it still hurt.
"So, how long?"
"Since his date with Evie last week," she said, forcing a grin. "Pretty bad timing huh?"
"Definitely," Soda agreed.
"I don't think it would have made any difference had I realised earlier though," Anna said, voicing what seeing them together had made her realise. "Steve doesn't see me that way, whether Evie's in the picture or not, he doesn't see me like that."
She frowned again, hating how true her words were.
Soda didn't say anything and Anna was pleased. Telling someone how she was feeling was a relief, even if it was Steve's best friend, but sometimes it was better to simply talk, without advice being given.
"You won't say anything, will you?" she quickly asked, realising that she was indeed telling Steve's best friend that she liked Steve.
"I ain't gonna say anything," Soda said. "But it must have been pretty bad, seeing them together tonight," Soda continued.
Pictures of Steve with his hands all over Evie's body flashed in front of Anna's mind and her stomach churned.
"It wasn't nice," she said, continuing at the look Soda gave her. "Okay it was actually pretty damn horrible."
Sullenly she sat herself on the edge of the sidewalk and crossed her arms over her knees.
Soda nodded, looking thoughtful as he sat next to her. "You must really like him huh?"
Anna nodded. "I think so. I mean, I knew I liked him, and I knew I suddenly thought of him as really, really good looking, but …"
"But?" Soda prompted.
"But seeing him like that with Evie, the way he … it actually hurt, Soda. It made me feel sick seeing him touching someone else like that, even worse my own cousin." She turned to Soda, frowning as she voiced what she was beginning to realise. "It made me realise that I don't just like him and want to kiss him every chance I get. In fact, I don't just like him at all; I have real feelings for him and I want to be with him."
Her eyes grew wide with her words and Soda looked back at her calmly.
"Shit!"
He nodded. "It ain't the best situation to be in."
"Do you have to be so damn calm?" she asked, getting up to stand in front of him. "This is bad!"
Soda stood up and grabbed her shoulders. "I know it ain't good," he said, "but do you think freaking out about it is going to help any?"
Anna shrugged under his grasp. "I guess not."
"Exactly." Soda turned then and kept an arm around her shoulder as they started home again. "It's a real shit situation and it's making you feel like shit, right?"
Anna nodded.
"But the only thing you can do is accept it, because I'm pretty sure it ain't about to change."
Anna nodded again, knowing Soda was right. She had feelings for Steve; stressing herself out about them wasn't going to change that fact.
A/N: Thanks to RileysMomma for beta-reading.
Thanks to everyone who's been reviewing. Keep them coming, I really appreciate them. Also a big thanks to the perfect imperfection who went out of her way today to give me my 100th review.