The five all walked into the restaurant in the nearby city outside of Tulsa. There was a slight tension between the five, but that was understandable in this case. It was obvious that the younger engaged couple was nervous about the dinner as they walked in, and the same went for the older, married couple. The youngest- and now single- of the group just followed along with the group, trying to ignore the obvious tension that the other four had created in the car, and were now creating in the restaurant.
The restaurant host asked what name they reservations under, then led them to a table after hearing "Valance for five," as an answer. The group followed the host to a table in the main dining hall of the formal restaurant. They all sat down at the round table with five chairs and five place settings, a menu at each set and seating for the occupant. The group all sat down in each individual chair, both valance sisters sitting at both sides of their guest as to keep him from awkwardly having to sit next to either parent.
The group all exchanged short statements and questions as they looked over their menus. Once they all ordered their meals, they all sat awkwardly and quietly for a moment. After a minute, someone began to speak to fill the tension filled silence and to try and move past it.
"So," Mrs. Valance- Samantha- began and cleared her throat a bit, "Dallas, are you in college?"
Dallas already felt uneasy about how the night would progress based off of that question. "Uh, no," he answered honestly, "No, I'm not in college."
I'm already unimpressed, Mr. Valance- Daniel- thought. "Well," he tried, "You finished high school, right?"
Dallas' ears turned red out of embarrassment. "No, I uh… I dropped out."
Madeline felt her heart begin to pound in her chest and she grew hot. "You know," she tried, "Uncle Rob didn't finish high school."
"Yeah," Cherry insisted, "And look at him now- he's the head floor manager of the automotive plant."
"Not helping their case, sweetheart," Samantha reminded her younger daughter.
Dallas felt the need to speak up. "I got a job," he blurted out, "I work with the construction company right in town. And in the summer, I work at the rodeo."
Now the elder couple seemed impressed. "Really?"
Dallas nodded. "Yeah. A good friend a' mine helped me get the construction job, actually. Darry Curtis."
Daniel nearly choked on his drink. "Darry Curtis? Does he have any relation to Darrel Curtis?"
"Yeah, he's Mr. Curtis' oldest kid. I'm friends with him and his kid brothers, Sodapop and Ponyboy."
"You know him?" Cherry asked her father confusedly.
"Know him?" Daniel laughed, "He was my best friend growing up! We both fought in World War II together."
The other four at the table all gave looks of confusion and slight shock. Sure, the two Valance girls knew their father had gone off to fight during World War II, but he never told them anything about it. He'd been a soldier during the war until it was over, first enlisting the day it'd been announced the America was going to become active and an ally in the war. He'd only said this much about it to his daughters, and his wife never discussed it with him and them either, out of respect for her husband and his desire not to discuss those years.
Daniel Valance chose to never discuss his own war experience with his only two children. Before the current war had been going on, he'd planned to tell them about it when they were teenagers. But when the Vietnam War had begun and had continued to rage on as the two girls grew up, he decided they had enough war on their heads and in the news to deal with. They were living their teenage years with war all on the news and on the radio and in the newspaper; that wasn't the type of things that a teenager anywhere in the world should have to deal with. It didn't help that the times were already confusing for teenagers all around the world, so he felt that holding off on personal war stories would be a slight sanctuary for his daughters, just until the Vietnam War was over, wouldn't be such a terrible thing.
"You do know that he passed away," Dallas said gently, "Don't ya?"
Daniel nodded. "Yeah," he answered with a sigh, "I was at the funeral for him and his wife."
Cherry's eyes widened. "You do know who his other two sons are, right?" she demanded, "Darry's younger brothers?"
Cherry had been meaning to ask her father if he'd known Darrel Curtis, Sr. When he'd said that they were best friend, she had grown angry very quickly with her father. He didn't like people from the East Side- but Mr. Curtis was from the East Side. Her father had to have known that his best friend was from the East Side, didn't he? If he had known that about his "best friend", and if he did know about the other two Curtis brothers-she knew she would blow up.
Daniel seemed to grow irritated with her questions, but also saddened. "Yeah, I do," he answered, "His younger boy was one that killed Bob Sheldon."
All three younger people at the table felt anger rise up in them. They all knew all the little details about the event and got annoyed when people got the facts wrong about them, usually due to some kind of prejudice. It didn't help that the two sisters had gone over this with their parents and even their guest had the first time since they had all met. The group of young people all were sensitive about the event and took great offense when people got the details wrong.
And Cherry took the most offense to it.
"No," Cherry said angrily, "He didn't kill Bob that night!"
Daniel looked at his younger daughter in shock. "Don't use that tone with me," he warned, "I'm your father."
"Then get your facts straight 'bout that night! Bob and his friends all started to mess around with Ponyboy and Johnny, and they did anything they had to do to protect themselves- Bob was going to drown them or kill them!"
"Don't yell at me, young lady-"
"No! We've been through this enough times! You just refuse to believe that Bob wasn't as innocent as you all think that he was! You all refuse to believe that people from the West Side aren't so perfect, and the people from the East Side aren't all thugs! The two of you like to live in this little bubble known as the West Side, which you think is perfect, but in reality- it's not!"
"Sherri Marie Valance," Samantha warned angrily.
Cherry ignored it. "And you know what? People from the East Side really are better than people from the West Side! I mean, on the East Side, people have real emotion and opinions, not the fake and forced ones that we have from the West Side! There, people are genuine and free, and what're we? Secluded and fake. I've never realized this until a few years ago until that night that Bob died and I got to interact, for the first time, one on one, with people from the East Side."
"Are you quite finished?" Daniel asked impatiently.
Cherry shook her head. "No, Father," she growled, "I'm not, actually. I have something to admit to… two things, actually."
"Cherry, what're you doin'?" Madeline asked in a mix of a whisper and a yell.
"I had a boyfriend from the East Side and did for almost a year. Sodapop Curtis. And another thing, those boys who 'killed Bob', as you two and many others say, and Dallas over here- I paid for all of their hospital bills and treatments for all that happened after that."
Dallas' eyes widened for a moment. "You did what now?" he asked incredulously.
"Excuse me?!" Daniel nearly yelled.
"You snuck around with some boy from the East Side," Samantha angrily tried to confirm, "And went behind our backs to pay a fortune for something and didn't tell us?"
Cherry stood up from her seat forcefully and disruptively. "I did what I knew was right," she said unshakably, then slipped on her jacket and grabbed her bag, then stormed out of the restaurant without another word.
Madeline looked up at her parents. "You two really need to work on some of your parenting skills," she commented as she put on her cloak then looked at Dallas, "I'm gonna go and check on Cherry." He nodded as she walked out.
"I'll come, too," Dallas said and she nodded.
The only two left in the restaurant and at the table, was an awestruck Daniel and an amazed Samantha Valance.
The damn finally broke, Madeline thought, referring to the emotional buildup that her sisters had tried to hold back, that obviously just made its appearance and takeover.
I'm lucky about the fact that I was actually able to update this. I'm in the process of moving, which is making me behind in some school work, also looking for a job, and studying for my driving test, as well as applying for colleges in the very near future. Not to mention that I've finished writing a story here on fanfiction. Net, but am starting another by the end of December. So yeah. Very stressful.
But on the bright side, where we're moving is much better than where we were, and now I'm seventeen instead of sixteen since my birthday passed this month.
Anyway, I'll probably update in another four weeks. I apologize. If I update in two weeks, it'll be a miracle. Peace from all the hippies of the world.
