Chapter 28:

Ponyboy's POV:

I stayed up late in bed reading, while waiting for Sodapop to come home. Darry would come in to check and see if I was sleeping but I just shut the light off and acted my way through it every time I heard footsteps coming my way.

At about 11:00 I heard someone coming up the stairs. I shut off the light, sliding onto my side trying to regulate my breathing when the bedroom door opened. But it didn't close that time. Instead, someone came in and sat on the bed next to me. I knew it was Sodapop immediately because, despite his large amounts of energy, he tried to sit as carefully as he could so he wouldn't wake me, Darry was too rough to be able to accomplish that.

"Ow! Damn it!" He hissed under his breath, still trying not to wake me. I sat up and turned on the lamp, making him jump, "Jesus Pony!... scared me"

"Sorry," I glanced at the arm he was tending to that was gushing blood in three evenly spaced lines, "Sodapop, what happened?"

"Evie had decided to get her nails done before she came to see us," he laughed, "pointy." I chuckled. There was no way Sodapop couldn't take a problem and turn it into something enjoyable.

"Your leg?" I asked glancing at his jeans that were stained red on his left calf.

"She was wearing heels" We both laughed and looked at each other before saying the next word at the same time,

"Pointy!" We rolled on the bed laughing at our coordination. Even though we knew we were louder than we needed to be at 11:00pm we still weren't gonna stop. We laughed for a good 2-3 minutes until Sodapop shakely shushed us back into control, still laughing slightly himself.

"So did Steve make it out alive?" I asked whispering, finally in control.

"Yeah, he's gonna need a few stitches in his shoulder where she got him with a broken Coke bottle, but he'll be okay" I remembered the look on Cherry's face when Evie tried to get her with, most likely the same, bottle. Soda smiled at me, holding back laughter. It was something about feisty girls that made Sodapop laugh, and I couldn't help but laugh or smile when Sodapop was too, so all the events that night were inevitable.

We heard footsteps coming from Darry's room and I wasn't surprised. I was actually more shocked that he hadn't come earlier. I quickly shut off the lamp and pretended to sleep again while Sodapop just continued changing out of his 'war clothes'. Darry wouldn't care as much if the noise was coming from Sodapop only.

"Hey little buddy, did you just get home?" I heard Darry whisper from the doorway.

"Yeah, I figured I'd change-"

"What the hell happened to you?" Darry interrupted, returning to normal speaking level. So he finally noticed the pants… and the arm… and the bruise already forming on his face from where she had smacked him earlier. I knew that if I wanted to keep my sleep convincing, I had to pretend to wake up at the sound of his voice. I shifted, turning to watch the scene.

"Nothing Dare, Evie just got mad at Steve and I for sittin' with the Soc girls"

"Oh. Is she still as crazy as ever?" Darry cracked a rare grin

"You know it" Sodapop said, another smile already forming on his face. We all started laughing, even Darry. Evie had always been a little crazy, and it was nice to finally sit back and laugh about something funny as a family. I couldn't remember the last time I had done that.

"Alright guys, get some sleep. Especially you Ponyboy, I know you've been up reading this whole night waitin' on your brother" Like I mentioned earlier, Darry doesn't miss a beat.

"Alright" I mumbled, defeated. Soda and I sat in bed staring at the ceiling together when he finally looked at me.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing"

"I know there's something wrong I can see it on your face"

"Nothing. And Sodapop, It's dark in here, You can't see a thing."

"Don't doubt my talents" he playfully scolded, "Is it about Johnny?" Damn it! How could he do that?

"What?"

"You know… whatever's bothering you"

"...No"

"So something is bothering you?!" I sighed, he was bound to win anyway, might as well get it over with.

"Well, it's just you said Johnny was screaming in pain right?" Sodapop hesitated before he answered. I wasn't sure if he knew where I was going with the question or he just didn't want to talk about Johnny in pain.

"Yeah… yeah, he was hurtin' real bad"

"How come I didn't hear it?" Silence. If I hadn't known better I would've thought he had fallen asleep, but with his energy, it took Sodapop forever to go to bed. That's why he liked to sleep late, to make up for all the hours missed trying to fall asleep.

"Well Ponyboy, to tell you the truth… I just don't know" I knew it was true coming from Sodapop, after our talk about the whole 'Sandy situation', I knew he'd never lie to me again.

"Why didn't you guys take me with you?"

"Ponyboy, that night was long for all of us. We figured we'd let you sleep. I haven't heard you have a nightmare in a while we thought that after the stressful night, sleep was the best thing for you. Your body was probably so exhausted from the day, it kept you from hearing Johnny" I hadn't thought about it that way, but Sodapop always knew the right thing to tell me.

"Thanks Soda"

"Hmmmmm" Then I fell into another nightmare-less sleep.

Ahhh! Getting closer to ch 30 everyday! Hope you guys are liking the story. I know there are a lot of conflicts in this FanFiction, but the request I received was very specific on how long they wanted it to be and I intend to get there, even if that means old conflicts have to be resolved and new ones have to form mid-story. Thanks for Reading and Reviewing (33 reviews! WOW!) Stay Gold!