The four all stood awkwardly facing each other. The awkward tension that filled the air was so thick that, most likely, a chainsaw probably wouldn't be able to cut through it. It was no question as to what had cause the tension to form, but rather a question as to do or what to say to one another.

Dallas and Kathy looked around at the two they were with then at each other, both with looks of genuine annoyance on their faces. She rolled her eye s at the unnecessary silence, and he ran his hands over his face as he let out a sigh. The two others were still silent and awkwardly looking at each other, unsure of what to do or what to say. The two who had accompanied to make sure nothing bad happened stood annoyingly, not really wanted to "interrupt" what the two were in the middle of.

Kathy cleared her throat, gaining the attention of those around her. "Soda, Dallas," she greeted, "How 'bout we all sit down and you two can order."

"Yeah, sure," Soda agreed quietly and the group all sat down.

After the two males ordered their food, the group all sat in another awkward silence. To those around the teenage hangout diner, the group was a sight to see. IT was a bit odd to see the two bad boy, one of the most popular Greasers, one of the most popular Socs, and a girl who wasn't as known through the town all sitting together in a booth. It was known that Dallas and Soda were friends, and people knew that Cherry had been hanging around with Greasers the past summer, and that Soda and Cherry had been seen together a lot during the summer- but it was still a bit odd to see those of the group altogether sitting in a booth together out in public.

"So," Dallas begin in a rough and slightly annoyed voice, "Uh… how's it goin'?" He seemed to even doubt himself.

Both Cherry and Kathy raised their eyebrows at him. "Really?" Kathy asked, unconvinced at his efforts.

Dallas let out an exasperated sigh. "Ok, you know what? We all know why we're here, even though none of us wanna be. So Sod and Cherry, you two get to talkin', that way we can all leave. How's that work for everyone?"

Everyone was quiet for a minute or two before anyone said anything else. "I feel awful," Soda sighed, looking at the redhead.

Cherry came to attention and looked up at him. "What?" she asked confusedly.

"We'll just be in the next booth if you need us," Kathy commented quietly as she and Dallas slid out from the booth and moved to the mepty booth behind them.

Soda let out another sigh. "I said I feel awful."

"About?"

"What I did. What I put you through this summer."

Cherry looked down as her fingers fumbled with each other. "I t was pretty teribble, ya know."

"Yeah I know. I have it on pretty good grounds that it was downright shitty."

"Why'd you do it?"

"I don't really know."

"Yes you do."

Cherry was partly right. Soda only partly knew why he'd done what he'd done. When he'd done it, he'd been going off of an idea that would count as "flying off the seat of your pants". He really did have feelings for her, and he knew she like him too at some point- but after she got amnesia, would it be the same? For either of them? He had to find out what it would've been like- or at least what it might've been lie, or similar to it- to have been together with her. That was the whole thing about what happened in the summer. He explained all that he knew and remembered about the reason he'd done what he'd done, in which she listened patiently and quietly.

Once he was done, Cherry ran her hands over her face and let out a heavy sigh. "Ok," she sighed.

Soda gave a confused look. "Ok?" he asked in an unconvinced tone.

She nodded. "Ok… am I happy 'bout what you did? No, not at all. Would I have done the same thing? No way. Did you lose a good amount of my trust at all? TO be honest, yeah, a lot. I couldn't go one for hours about this…"

"I don't blame ya."

"But in all honesty, in some weird way, I find it almost flattering how you did all this just to date me."

Soda gave a weird look. "Really?" he asked.

"For some odd reason," Cherry admitted a bit embarrassingly.

Cherry really was a bit flattered by his reasoning. Of course, thought, she was still mad that he'd lied to her to so much and she could never condone what he did. She was honestly and truly confused about her feelings and opinions about the whole incident, once she thought about it. It was also a bit confusing to her. But at the same time, there were things that she was sure about- like how he had to earn back her trust.

She was also sure that she was willing to give him that second chance to earn it back, cause she knew that he really did like her, and the she really did like him.

"So where does this leave us?" Soda asked in a quiet voice after a minute of silence passed between them.

"I don't know," Cherry honestly and with a sigh.

"I really do like you. A lot."

"I like you, too. But based off of this summer's events, I kinda have trouble fully trustin' you at the moment."

"Like I said, I don't blame you."

"But," Cherry continued, "Hear me out. Now look, maybe I'm crazy for doing this- but I'm going to give you another chance."

Soda gave a look of confusion. "What now?" he asked confusedly.

"For some reason, I'm willin' to give you a chance to prove to me that I can actually trust you."

Soda gave an excited look as he smiled. "Really?"

Cherry really didn't know why she still like him, or why she was giving him another chance. She knew that it was a bit risk to take, both mentally and emotionally, but for some reason, it was one risk she was willing to take. She knew it would take a while for her to fully be able to trust him again, and she hoped he could understand that. She felt that she would never understand why she even allowing for this all to begin.

Soda was in complete shock at what the redhead had said. To say that he wasn't expecting what came out of her mouth would be a completely understatement. At first, he didn't know wat to say in response. Once it had actually clicked and processed in his head what she had suggested, eh could only smile in complete and utter choked. He couldn't believe his ears.

"Yes," Cherry answered surely, "I'm willing to give you another chance to earn back my trust."

"Damn," Soda breathed out, "Just… now I question why you're so crazy to do it?" His voice was teasing.

She smiled playfully. "I do too. I guess I just like you too much. SO you wanna start over?"

Soda smiled at her and nodded. "I'd like that."

There's only one more chapter left of this story. Thank you all for reading this story. There may or may not be a sequel after it about Steve and Evie's daughter Layla, but be on the lookout for it. I'm not 100 percent sure if I'll do it, but I will think about it. If it does happen, it'd probably be called "Layla", and mostly based off of the song "Layla" by Eric Clapton, like the character was named after by me (not in the story since she was born in 1968, and I'm pretty sure that song came out in 1971, but definitely the 70s).

I'll probably post the last chapter next week.

Hope you liked this story. Peace from all the hippies of the world. =^-^=