Chapter 25

Soda didn't answer Darry and instead lowered himself in his seat.

"I asked you a question! What note did I sign?"

"You didn't sign any note," Soda replied faintly.

"Well Lily seems to think I did."

"Can we talk about this at home?" Soda asked.

"No! We're talking about this right now!"

I thought about lying and saying that I had only been joking about the note from school, but I knew that Darry would be able to tell that it was a lie, and he was angry enough as it was. Besides, I wasn't really sure why Soda would lie to me about such a thing, and why he hadn't just shown Darry the note in the first place.

"Lily got a note send home the other day."

"What did it say?"

"That she didn't do her homework." He hesitated when giving up this information, and I realized that he was just trying to keep me out of trouble.

"Was the note for me?" Darry asked.

"Yes."

"How did you get it then?"

"She was just showing it to me, that's all."

"Then how come she thought I signed it?"

He didn't answer.

"I will pull this car over if you don't start explaining yourself!"

"I took it and said that I would get you to sign it."

"I can't believe this!" Darry cried. "You forged my signature!"

"I'm sorry," he apologized meekly.

"You know better," Darry said, his voice getting quieter. He sounded almost disappointed. "Why would you do that?"

"I don't know." Now Soda sounded upset. "I was going to show it to you, but you looked so tired after work, and I knew you would get mad at her, and then she would get upset, and I was trying to keep everything from turning into a war."

"I wouldn't have gotten mad," Darry said, and both Soda and I snorted.

"You're always mad at her," Soda said as non-threateningly as he could. "And if it's not her it's Ponyboy. I know it was wrong Darry, I do, but really does it matter if she didn't do her homework that much?"

"This isn't about Lily right now," Darry said, and I liked how for once things weren't about me. "This is about you forging my signature. I would be just as mad if you had forged it on a note for Pony or anyone else."

"I said I'm sorry," Soda said desperately. "What else do you want me to say." I could see how uncomfortable he was sitting there next to him. It was once in a blue moon that Darry got genuinely upset with him, and I knew that he didn't like the be the cause of someone's anger.

Darry didn't say anything else to him and for the rest of the ride home we sat in an uncomfortable and awkward silence. I understood why Darry was upset, but at the same time I didn't know how he could hold it against Soda. He had only been trying to save everyone from conflict.

When we got home Soda went straight into his room. Darry followed him right in and a moment later Ponyboy came out, closing the door behind him.

"What's going on?" he asked me, looking back towards the bedroom like he had just seen something very strange.

"I think Soda's in trouble."

"Soda?"

"Yeah."

"What for?"

"I got a note the other day and Soda saw it, so he said that he would take it and get Darry to sign it for me, only today I found out that Darry never got the note and that Soda was really the one who signed it."

Pony blinked a couple of times. "Is Darry really mad?"

"I think so, but he might not be because he didn't do it for a bad reason."

"He told me that he did it," he admitted, "but I didn't think anyone would find out."

"I didn't mean to tell Darry. I didn't even know."

"It's not your fault. You can't help doing something if you don't know. How did it go with that girl?" I couldn't help but notice his sudden change of subject.

"What girl?"

"The girl at the store downtown. The one you wanted to introduce to Darry."

I perked up a little. "It was pretty good. He liked her, and she liked him, and she gave him her phone number, only it turns out that Darry knew her all along because -" I stopped suddenly. "Hey! How did you know I went to the store for that?"

"Soda told me when he got home from work. He wanted me to come downtown with them but Darry wanted me to stay in case he couldn't find you and had to call home to let me know."

"But I didn't really take the bus."

"Darry didn't know that."

"Right." I sat down on the couch. "Sorry I got mad at you earlier. I didn't mean to."

He shrugged. "It's alright. Anyway what were you saying about the store? Darry knew the girl?"

"Oh yeah. They went to high school together. They weren't friends, but I guess he knows who she is because he was telling Soda about her in the car. They kept laughing about her but wont tell me what it is. I don't think Soda actually knows her, but he has to know who she is because he called her 'The Meg'."

"'The Meg'?" Pony asked. "That's all he called her?"

"He said her last name too but I don't remember it. "It was Right or Reed or something like that."

Pony though it over for a moment then said, "Reeves!"

"Maybe."

"Meg Reeves! That's who you took him to see?"

"I guess. Who is she?"

Now he had that same goofy grin on his face that Soda had earlier. I tried to find out from him who she was but he wouldn't tell me. I would have kept asking too but the sound of Darry's voice was starting to escape from the bedroom, and boy did he sound upset.

"Sodapop Curtis don't you dare!"

Pony and I exchanged glances and I wondered what could Soda could possibly have said to upset Darry so much.

I could not make out exactly what Darry was saying to Soda and got up from the couch to get closer. Ponyboy reached for the back of my dress and held me back.

"Let go," I told him.

"Leave them alone," he said nicely. "You wouldn't like it if we listened in while Darry yells at you."

"I guess not," I agreed, sitting back down. "Do you listen when he's mad at me?"

"No," he said, "because when he's yelling at you he's not yelling at me."

"And when he's yelling at Soda he's not yelling at either of us."

"I don't like it when he yells at Soda," he said, somewhat defensively. "What did Soda ever do to him?"

I didn't know how to answer that, and thankfully I didn't have to ponder the question for very long because almost as soon as he finished asking it there was a knock on the door.

Pony went over to answer it first, but I followed right behind him. We didn't have to open the screen door though because it was just Two-Bit, standing with his back to us.

"Two-Bit?" Pony asked.

Before turning around he looked over his shoulder cautiously. When he seemed satisfied that whatever it was he was looking for wasn't there he faced us properly.

"Why are you knocking?" I asked. He never knocked.

"Is it safe to come in?" he asked quietly.

"Can you hear the yelling from outside?" Pony asked.

"Yelling? No. What yelling?"

"Darry's yelling at Soda," I informed him.

"Great," Two-Bit said. "I guess it's not safe to come in. He's that mad, huh?"

"Not about the store. I don't think he cares about that."

"Then what is he mad about?" he asked, finally opening the door and coming inside.

I explained once again why Darry was mad, adding that I didn't think it was fair. It didn't seem to bug him too much though, because he just parked himself on the floor and leaned against the back of a chair.

"But he's not mad about the girl?" he wanted to make sure.

"No."

"He got her phone number," Pony told him.

"Did he?" he asked as though he knew he would.

"It was Meg Reeves." Pony said this like he would know what he meant.

Two-Bit's eyes went wide. "I knew she looked familiar! She must have done something with her hair. No, she was just wearing different clothes the last time I saw her. And a lot less of them too!"

"What?" I asked, but Pony hushed Two-Bit before he could say any more about that.

"Who is she?" I asked, thinking maybe I could get Two-Bit to tell me even just a little bit about her.

"A girl who used to go to my school," was all he offered.

"But how come everybody knows who she is?"

"We just happen to know everybody," he kidded.

"Why won't anybody tell me about her."

"Darry can tell you about her," he said.

"He won't."

"Ask him again when you're alone," Two-Bit urged me. "Maybe he'll tell you then. Oh and ask him how well they knew each other."

"Why? How well did they know each other?"

"Ask your brother," he said, then added, "maybe not today though. He doesn't sound like he's in the best mood."

Two-Bit went quiet as the door to the bedroom opened and Darry came out. Without looking at us he headed of into his own room. The three of us in the living room remained silent as Soda joined us and took a seat next to Ponyboy on the couch.

I don't think any of us knew what to say, and then finally Soda ended the quiet streak.

"I think he just grounded me." He didn't say it like he was upset, but more like he couldn't actually believe that it had just happened.

"For how long?" Two-Bit asked, turning it into a joke.

He shrugged. "I think he said a week."

"A week!" I cried. "That's nothing. I've been grounded for three weeks before!"

"So have I," Soda reminded me. "I'm practically seventeen. I've done my time."

"Could be worse," Two-Bit tried to help. "He could have, I don't know, beaten you."

"How could that be worse?" Soda asked. "At least I could still leave the house."

"You still get to go to work," I asked, "don't you?"

Soda laughed. "Yeah. He can't ground me from there."

"I wish he could ground me from school," I stated.

Darry came out of his room a while later and asked to speak with Soda in the kitchen. This time I didn't care what Ponyboy said, I was going to listen to what Darry had to say. The second Soda was in the kitchen and had his back turned to me I snuck up behind him and hid behind the wall. Out of the corner of my eye I could see that Two-Bit and Ponyboy were motioning for me to get away, but I just ignored them.

"Soda I'm sorry I yelled like that." Darry was apologizing. I couldn't believe it. He hardly ever apologized, and usually found some way to justify his reason for losing his temper.

"It's alright," Soda said quietly. "I shouldn't have said what I said."

"Look I'm not going to ground you. I know you're sixteen but you work hard for this family. Next time something like this comes up though could you let me deal with it. I don't even want to think of how much trouble could have come of this if her teacher thought that note was forged."

"I know. I'm sorry, and I guess I wouldn't have minded being grounded that much."

"At least you'd have had Lily to keep you company."

"What!" I cried, and then shut my mouth quickly.

Soda took a step back and seemed surprised to see me standing there. When I entered the kitchen I noticed the big smile that had across Darry's face.

"Why am I grounded?" I asked.

"For eavesdropping," he informed me.

"That's not fair!"

"I'm just kidding you. I knew you were there the whole time. But you're lucky I don't ground you."

"I know."

"You're off this time, and it's only because I'm in a good mood again." For someone in a good mood Darry didn't sound very happy.

For someone who had just been in a rather unexpected fight with his brother Soda seemed quite happy, because the second the phone rang he ran to answer it like he was ready to go ahead make last minute Friday evening plans.

Alone in the kitchen with Darry I decided to ignore Two-Bit's earlier suggestion and ask about Meg again.

"How come everybody knows who Meg is?"

He thought it over., while pouring himself a glass of milk. "I guess she's just really popular."

"But even Two-Bit knows that you know her. How do you know her?"

"I told you we went to school together."

"Did you ever talk to her at school?"

"Not really," he said, then admitted, "We did see each other a couple of times outside of school."

"Did you like her then?"

"Yeah," he said, "I guess."

"How well do you know her?"

Darry chocked on his milk then, which I thought was kind of strange because it didn't seem like a very good reason to spit out your milk. "What do you mean?"

"That's what Two-Bit said. He said 'Ask your brother how well he knows Meg'. How well do you know her?"

"Not very well," he said quickly before going out into the living room.

I followed after him.

"Two-Bit," he said.

"Yeah?" Two-Bit asked from the floor where he was now wrestling with Soda.

"Would you like to be the one to explain the facts of life to my sister?"

"Huh?" Soda let Two-Bit out of the headlock he had him in and they both moved away from each other.

"What are the facts of life?" I asked.

"Two-Bit is going to explain them to you the next time he tries to get you to ask me about how well I know certain people." Though Darry was saying this to me, the entire statement was directed completely at Two-Bit.

"Hey don't try and pass that off to me," Two-Bit retorted. "It's your department. Besides, you have more experience than I do. You could probably explain things better."

"What are you talking about?" I asked. "What does the facts of life mean."

Two-Bit looked at me seriously. "Well, when a Darry and a Meg love each other very much-"

He was cut off by Darry smacking him none too gently on the back of the head.

"Hey!" he cried. "What'd you interrupt me for? Although, you must be used to getting interrupted when you're in the middle of something important. You are used to it, aren't you Darry?"

"Yeah and I bet you're used to it too," Darry said, not in a goofy voice the way Two-Bit had but in a cold voice, like he wanted him to shut up.

"Darry?" I asked.

"What?"

"Why won't anybody tell me what the facts of life means?"

"That's it! Two-Bit's going to tell you."

"All right," Two-Bit agreed, getting to his feet, "but I have to warn you Darry, my descriptions will be graphic, and I will not be held responsible for any new terms this girl learns from me."

He came over to lead me away from my brothers, but Darry just ended up shoving him back to the ground. Well, it wasn't really a shove, but Two-Bit managed to make it look like one.

"You just keep your mouth shut if you know what's good for you," Darry threatened, but I didn't really understand why he was angry when just a moment earlier he had been telling him that he had to explain things to me.

"Is anybody going to tell me?" I asked finally.

Darry sighed. "I was just kidding. The facts of life can't be explained. It's just something you learn as you get older."

"That's what the fifteen-year-old mommy's parents told her," Two-Bit spat, and this time it was Soda who smacked him on the back of the head.

"Get out of my house," Darry ordered him.

"But, but I'm watching TV."

"Fine," Darry said. "You can stay, but if you say anything else I'm going to throw you out."

"Well I'll just shut up then," he agreed, but only two seconds later he was shooting his mouth off at Soda and Ponyboy about something he had heard earlier in the day.

It seemed a little strange to me when Darry chose that Friday night to go out. Two-Bit was the one who suggested it, having actually invited Ponyboy to go out with him. Soda wanted to go but for some reason suggested that Darry go instead, and offered stay home with me. I wanted to go along as well but didn't bother telling anyone that. Even though I didn't get to go I was kind of happy to see that Darry did, but I wasn't really sure why.

The second they were out the door Soda turned to me. "What do you want to do?"

"I don't know. What do you want to do?"

"I don't know. We could make cake."

I shook my head. "We always make cake."

"I like cake." He sounded somewhat insulted. "We can watch TV."

"We always do that too."

"We could play hide and seek," he suggested, but did not sound like he wanted to play it at all.

"I'm too old for hide and seek."

"Since when?" he scoffed.

"I don't know. And there aren't enough people to play."

"Yes there are. One to hide and one to seek. You could hide and I could - I don't want to play anyway."

"Good. What are we going to do?"

"I don't know. I'm the only one who's come up with anything. You try and think of something."

"Fine." I thought for a while, and then finally it hit me. "Let's play Bloody Mary."

"Bloody what?" he asked. "I don't want to make mess tonight. We're going to have to clean it up after."

"No!" I laughed. "It's not a messy game."

"What is it then?"

"It's just a normal game. Two-Bit told me about it."

"If Two-Bit told you about it then it can't be normal."

"Just listen! You have to stand in front of a mirror with the lights of and say Bloody Mary."

He had a blank look on his face. "Are you sure you don't want to make cake?"

"Yes! Come on Soda I never played it before."

"When did you hear about it?"

"Today."

"Fine. But it doesn't sound like much of a game. You stand in front of a mirror and say Bloody Mary. What happens next?"

"You didn't let me finish. You have to spin around while you say it, and then she's supposed to show up in the mirror."

"Then what? Does she give us an idea for something better to do?"

"Soda!"

"Okay, okay. What really happens?"

"Two-Bit said that she comes and rips your face off."

"I hate to break this to you Lily but either he hasn't tried it or it doesn't work."

I was beginning to get frustrated with him. "He already told me that he never tried it."

"Okay then."

"We need candles," I decided when Soda finally agreed to try it out.

"Did Two-Bit tell you that too?"

"No. But we have to have the lights off and things are always scarier with candles."

"Okay, if you want them."

I had to think about where I could find candles, and for the life of me I could not come up with any place in the house that we kept them.

"Why don't we just do it without candles?" Soda suggested.

"That's no fun," I complained. "I know. How about we just light a bunch of newspaper on fire in the sink. Then we can just turn the water on when it gets too big."

"How about no," he shot me down. "If we burn the house down Darry will have a heart attack. Where'd you get an idea like that anyway?"

"Mary Alice and I tried it at her house with her sister's old colouring books."

"Why?"

"We wanted to roast marshmallows."

"Are you - who though of - did it work?"

"I don't know," I said secretively. "What do the facts of life mean?"

"Hey, I remember where we have candles!" He ran from the room quickly, leaving without any answers.

It turned out that the candles were in Darry's closet, of all places, but Soda couldn't really tell me what they were doing there. He just set them up on either side of the sink.

"Well this is good," he said when he saw me in the bathroom. "You're not even tall enough to look in the mirror."

"I don't think I have to be as tall it," I said. "I probably just have to be able to see it."

"But how does it count as standing in front of a mirror if you're not standing in front of it?"

"Well I'll just stand on a stool." I pulled the stood up to the sink.

Soda closed the door and turned the lights off, then took a spot next to me by the mirror. There wasn't much room for us, and even with the stool I was still much shorter than him.

"What do we do?"

"We say Bloody Mary and spin around."

"Okay. Bloody Mary," he started, and spun around. When he saw that I wasn't spinning turned me and made me spin too. "Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, you're not saying it, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary."

I joined him in the chanting halfway through, and we must have gone through it about twenty times be fore I got dizzy from spinning and fell off of the stool. I grabbed the shower curtain on my way down and ended up landing on my feet.

"Lily!" he cried and flicked the lights. "What happened?"

"I fell," I laughed, still holding on to the curtain in order to keep my balance.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I didn't see anything, did you?"

He shook his head. "No." He opened the bathroom door and looked like he was ready to leave.

"You want to stop?" I asked.

"No, but I think it's supposed to be just one person at a time. The other is supposed to wait outside."

"I thought you hadn't heard of this," I remarked, letting go of the curtain.

"I haven't," he admitted, "it just makes sense that you do it alone."

"Why?"

"I don't know. It's supposed to be a scary game. How can if scare you if you're with someone?"

"I don't know." It did make sense that we should be alone in order to be scared, but I didn't know if I liked the idea of being scared on my own. "You can go first."

"Why me?"

"Because you're older."

"But it was your idea. Besides if you get your face ripped off I can take you to the hospital. If I get mine ripped off you can't do anything for me."

He had me there, but I didn't really like the idea of having my face ripped off.

"I'll go first," I agreed in the end.

"Be careful," he said. "Don't fall off the stood again. If you get dizzy stop."

"I will," I promised, and watched as he walked out the door. I went and closed the door behind him, braced myself, and shut the lights off. The candles offered me enough lights to find my way back to my stood, where I climbed back up and gazed at myself in the mirror. It was somewhat creepy the way the light only shone on parts of my face, and it felt kind of like I was a skeleton. I had held a flashlight up to my face this way before, but that wasn't nearly as creepy as it was with the flickering flame.

I swallowed hard before beginning. The first "Bloody Mary" came out rather softly, only because I was embarrassed to be talking out loud in an empty room. The second "Bloody Mary was a bit louder, and I was being careful not to spin around too quickly.

The more and more I said the name the faster my spinning got and the louder my voice became, only out of the growing fear I had that something might actually happen to me. Each time I passed the mirror I tried to see if anyone had shown up yet, but never saw anything more than the reflection of the wall behind me.

I ultimately wound up spinning so fast I knew that I would fall over if I didn't stop. The next time I saw the mirror I grabbed hold of the sink and stopped myself, looking directly into the mirror. Now the only thing that I saw was my reflection, just as I had before, with the candles flickering on my face and whatnot, but for some reason I scared myself into thinking that my face was bright red, which it was really not.

The scream that came out of me was one that would come out of someone who was about to be murdered, but I was so frightened by own imagination that I could not move away from the mirror nor could I stop looking at my reflection.

Within moments the door had flown open, the lights were on and Soda was in there comforting me. With him in there things didn't seem so bad, but he wanted to know what had scared me so much.

"What did you see?" he asked, like he almost believed that there was something there.

"Just my face," I admitted.

"What else?"

"Nothing else."

"Well how come you were screaming?"

"I don't know. It was scary. You try it."

"No. We're done with this game."

"That's not fair! I had had to do it and I'm way younger than you!"

"You didn't have to try it."

"I know but I don't want to be the only one who did it."

"You said you didn't see anything."

"I didn't, but maybe you will."

"Fine," he agreed. "I'll try it once, but then we're going to stop it for good."

"Okay," I said, happy that he was going to give it a go.

Once he was inside of the bathroom I was a little scared again, only because I was alone and could see everything outside of the house. Not that anything bad from outside came inside, but it was still scary just being by myself.

Soda was in there for quite awhile and I could just barely make out the sound of his chanting. I was really starting to get scared at this point but when I heard his voice slowly getting louder I realized that he was alright. Then, without any warning, I heard a blood curdling scream. Next thing I knew the door had flown open and my brother emerged from the bathroom.

"We're never doing that again!" he told me. Behind him I could see that both of the candles had been blown out, and though I didn't mention it to him I wondered if he had been the one to do it. After all he didn't have much time between chanting, screaming, and rushing out of there to blow them out.

He grabbed hold of me and took me all over the house, where he turned on every single light switch before grabbing a blanket out of his bedroom, heading into the living room, and wrapping it around us on the couch.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked, finding this slightly funny.

"Nothing," he said, his voice sounding more or less normal.

"How come we're hiding under this blanket?"

"I'm cold."

"What did you see in the mirror."

"Nothing. Don't ever play that game again."

"I won't."

"Promise me you won't."

"I promise. I didn't really like it anyway."

We ended up spending the rest of the night on the sofa watching the TV, though I fell asleep before the others got home. They ended up waking me up just from their loud talking, and though I was still half asleep I was sure that I heard Darry ask why there were candles lit in the bathroom.