"Soda didn't kiss me," Sandy managed to get out, her voice nervous and shaky.
Cherry gave a confused look. "What're you talkin' about?" she asked.
"It's come to my attention that you and Sodapop broke up cause you think that he cheated on you."
"He did. I was him kissing some blonde… oh my gosh, he was kissing you!"
Cherry felt her anger level rise to over ten. It was understandable in her case, thinking that her boyfriend cheated on her, then to be actually standing face to face with the girl he'd cheated with. She didn't have a word to say to the blonde, but at the same time, had a million and one words to say to her. She was very conflicted over what to do or what to say- while at the same time, she knew everything she wanted to do or to say to the blonde. She was completely overwhelmed by her sudden realization of what she'd know, had been told in the past, and had just been told.
"He was kissing you!" Cherry repeated angrily, "He cheated on me, with you- his ex!"
Sandy grew nervous. "Just please listen to me," she practically begged.
"Why should I?! I don't have to listen to a word you say, and quite honestly, I really don't wanna listen to you!"
-/-/-
Madeline and Dallas looked up suddenly when they heard a familiar voice begin to yell. The two looked up and away from each other, and in the direction of the two girls that stood a few feet away near a street lamp. Due to the dark and light contrast that was casting a shadow, it was a bit of a struggle to see the facial expressions of the two girls. But putting that factor aside, it wasn't hard to tell whose voice it was that was yelling at the other girl.
When the two heard what was being said- or more like what was being yelled- Madeline quickly stood up from her seat on the bench and rushed over to the girls. Dallas stood up as well and followed quickly in pursuit of his fiancé and the two other girls. She ran up behind and in between her sister and the strange blonde girl, whom she'd never met before.
"Ok, ok," Madeline interrupted as she stood between the two girls, "What's goin' on here?"
"She's the girl that I saw kissin' Soda at the DX," Cherry answered angrily, "Who also happens to be his ex."
"We knew this already, Cherry." Madeline then looked at their guest suspiciously. "What's going on?"
"I just need to explain to Cherry what really happened at the DX," Sandy explained.
"I know what happened," Cherry snarled.
Sandy shook her head desperately. "No, you don't."
Madeline gave her little sister a stern look. "Listen to her, Cherry. Just hear her out."
Cherry was silent for a moment before rolling her eyes and letting out a heavy sigh. "Fine…"
Sandy gave a grateful smile before she began to explain what really happened at the DX that day.
-/-/-
Soda ducked down behind the dirt wall of a hole in the ground he'd dug with a few other guys from his unit. His body shook slightly with fear, determination and pure adrenaline pulsing through his veins. He raised his right hand to keep his combat uniform helmet on his head as he glanced slightly over the dirt wall for a brief moment. He ducked down more as a bullet nearly cut his ear. He shut his eyes for a brief moment as he took a deep breath to recover from the shock, then reopened his eyes.
Ok, Soda thought nervously, I know I haven't been to church since Mom and Dad were 'round, but if you could somehow get me and the rest of the guys here out alive, I'll go back to church the first Sunday I'm back in Tulsa. I'm trusting you.
"Curtis!" someone yelled, gaining his attention, "Watch above and behind you!"
Soda leaned upward on his elbows as he turned around, gun ready and aimed in hand. He could see who the other man in his unit was talking about. The male he was looking at from across the other side looked only a year or two younger than himself. He couldn't help but wonder about the Vietnamese fighter who was staring right back at him. He aimed his gun at the young Vietnamese fighter, but couldn't find it in himself to pull the trigger. Not this time. He pretend that he was ducking down to avoid shooting the boy.
As he turned around, he fell flat on his face as a bullet ripped through his back from the gun of the boy he chose to spare.
-/-/-
"When I came back to Tulsa," Sandy began, "I had to see Soda. I just had to. Evie told me he was still workin' at the DX, so when I was ready, I went to go see him. The two of us were talkin'- more like I was just talkin', and he just stood there. I tried to apologize for what happened between us, but it didn't work. I was kinda all over the place, so I just kissed him. That's what you saw. What you couldn't really tell was that he didn't kiss me back. He just stood there, kinda in shock, I guess. I was freakin' out when I pulled away, and he just looked at me. I told him to say somethin', and he told me to leave. That's what really happened and what you saw."
Cherry stood there looking at the blonde- not much different than how Soda had looked at her that day after she kissed him. Her mouth was slightly ajar. Now, she really didn't know what to say or what to do, no questions about it. She just stood there speechless and motionless in response to what she'd been told.
"You kissed him?" Cherry tried to confirm.
Sandy nodded, embarrassed. "Yes, I kissed him. He didn't kiss me, and he didn't kiss me back, either."
"Why'd you kiss him?"
"Honestly, I don't really know. I was just really anxious and I wasn't thinkin'."
Cherry looked down sadly for a moment, then back up at the girl in front of her. "Why're you telling me all this?" she asked in a quiet voice.
"Cause I heard that you broke up with him," Sandy answered with a slight shrug, "And I knew it was all my fault. I've made a lot of mistakes in my life that can't fix, so I decided that this was one I had the chance to fix."
Cherry was silent for another moment. "Well, thanks for tellin' me all this. And I'm sorry I was so cool to you before."
Sandy waved it off. "I don't blame you for it. If our roles were switched, I would've been the same way."
"I guess I should apologize too, huh?" Dallas said a bit awkwardly, "But I still think it was real screwy that you cheated on Soda when you two were goin' out."
Madeline looked at him with daggers in her eyes so that, if looks could kill, he'd be in a pool of blood on the concrete. "Dallas," she growled.
Sandy gave a slight smirk at him. "Defense number on: you and Sylvia, Dal'. Case closed." Her argument made his ears red with embarrassment. That was one thing about Sandy- she was never afraid of the big, bad Dallas Winston.
Madeline smiled a bit at the blonde. "I like you," she blurted out, causing slight laughter from the other three present.
By now, Cherry had calmed down from the whole situation. But even though she was now clear about the situation as a whole, that didn't help the fact that she felt absolutely foolish. There were a few reason she felt this way, in fact. One was the way that she'd acted the whole time, another reason was how she'd felt the entire time.
The thing she felt most foolish about was the fact that she'd broken up with Soda based on false information, and her own stubbornness to listen.
Cherry thought back to what she'd said to her parents in the restaurant. She accused them of making accusations of a thing or an event without knowing all of the facts and details. I just did that this whole time, she thought, making her afraid and disgusted, That makes me no better than them. She ran her physically sick, and the cold weather and temperature didn't help anything.
"I need to go home," Cherry muttered shakily and in a quiet voice, her face getting pale, "This is all too much for me right now."
Madeline nodded understandingly and in concern. "I'll walk home with you," she stated, "You comin' with us, Dal?"
"Yeah," Dallas nodded.
As the three all bid goodbye to the blonde, they left a note on the older Valance couples' car saying that they'd all gone back to the house. As the blonde separated from the group, she quickly stopped them and ran back up to the three.
Sandy hugged the younger Valance sister. "I hope it all works out with you and Soda," she said honestly and with a genuine smile, "I also hope that sometime, the two of us could be friends."
Cherry gave a weak smile. "I hope so, too," she agreed, "Let's meet together before you leave town."
"Sounds good."
The blonde gave one last smile before walking in the opposite direction and the three continued back to the West Side.
This story is almost done. I actually like this story, so I didn't have to cut it short at any point.
Oh by the way, just so you know- SODA ISN'T DEAD. The whole thing I added with him getting shot in the back, I got that from the North and South trilogy by John Jakes, my favorite trilogy series, by one of my two favorite authors. In the third book, my favorite character, Charles Main, gets shot in the book. I won't say if he lives or dies, but I will say that John Jakes likes to torture me with trying to kill off or make Charles live all the time in the whole trilogy, I swear. Anyway, it's after the Civil War and Charles was trying to help his Native American enemy; he'd been travelling with a Native American as a trader and they had an enemy named, Scar, or Man Ready For War, if I'm right. But Charles is a pure soul and decided that he was gonna help him when he was hurt, but Scar shot him in the back when he wasn't looking. I screamed when I read it, and I was like "DON'T YOU KILL MY SON!" But if you watch "Timeless", you'll see that Wyatt is literally Charles, especially in the fifth episode when they were all at the Alamo and Wyatt was having PTSD and was a poor little depressed child and got the bowie knife from Jim Bowie, cause Charles always carried a bowie knife in his boot so the two of them are my sons.
Anyway, so that's where I got that from. Like I said, this story is almost over. Next time I will update will be somewhere in between two to four weeks from now. Peace from all the hippies of the world.
