"I can see you didn't miss me too much," Steve commented.
"How can you tell?" Soda asked.
"Because you still cheat!" Steve flicked his cards towards Soda.
"You have one working arm, and I'm suppose to take it easy on you?" Soda laughed.
"This has nothing to do with that!" Steve laughed.
"Shh," Soda tried getting his laughter under control, "Keep it down. It's really late."
"What time is it anyway?"
"Almost three," Soda answered, "We're crazy for being up this late and for probably nothing."
"Not for nothing," Steve said, "A night like this has been long due."
"Yeah, I know."
"Let's go out for a smoke." The best friends walked out onto the front porch and took seats on the porch swing.
"I must have missed this a lot," Soda began as Steve took a puff off his cigarette, "I'm not even tired."
"It is a nice night," Steve agreed, "How many times do you think we've woken Darry up?"
"Probably a lot," Soda laughed, "He's probably just happy I'm not getting into any trouble now, so he doesn't want to yell at us." Soda was glad he made the decision that he did. He was happy not to be sneaking around anymore.
"Yeah," Steve smiled, "So how are you feeling about everything?"
"I don't know," Soda shrugged, "I said before that I wasn't expecting anything tonight anyway, because Dalton never did anything two nights in a row."
Steve nodded, "What has to happen for you to be sure he's not involved, and move on?"
"I don't think it will be easy," Soda admitted, "Part of me feels like I just need to hear it from him that he didn't do it and he isn't wanting to get back at me for ditching him. Not knowing for sure is really getting to me. I don't even know what he did when I didn't show up last night. Was he mad? Did he not care? Did he just throw me out of his mind and forget about me?"
"I don't know, man. After knowing what he did to that one guy, it's hard to figure out. Maybe we can talk to Tim and see what he says. He seems to know a lot about this guy."
There was a pause in the conversation as Soda didn't know what to say next about the matter. He looked down at Steve's arm. "Do you want me to come to the doctor with you?"
"Oh fuck," Steve said throwing his head back.
"What?" Soda asked, "What's wrong?"
Steve thought for a moment, and then started laughing, "Oh man, I totally forgot about that. That's at ten in the morning. I'm going to get no sleep."
"Ah man, I didn't know it was that early," Soda laughed, "What were we thinking?"
Steve shook his head, "Hell if I know. You don't have to come with, you can sleep."
"No, no," Soda put his hands up, "I'll go through that pain of no sleep with you."
"What do you think will be less painful? Pulling an all nighter or going to bed now for a little bit?"
"Honestly, I think just staying up is going to be our best option."
Steve tossed his cigarette, "Alright then we are playing a different game."
"Oh are you a sore loser?" Soda mocked getting up from the porch swing.
"Says the sore winner," Steve followed Soda back inside the house.
Soda yawned as he sat in the examining room. Sitting on the table was Steve, not anymore awake than Soda was.
"Why did we stay up all night?" Soda laughed, "We are getting too old for that I think."
"Who you calling old?" Steve said. Soda looked up and saw Steve with his arms crossed and his head resting on his shoulder. He couldn't help, but laugh at the site.
The doctor returned after looking over Steve's x-rays. "Well, Mr. Randle, you seem to be healing along just fine. We're going to go ahead and shorten the cast and take the sling off, so you can start moving your arm around some. A couple of weeks of that will do you good and keep your strength up."
"Thank God," Steve said. Soda watched as Steve's arm got wrapped up, but this time it was below the elbow, so he was able to have more range with it.
"Now you can do your own hair," Soda grinned.
"Ain't that a blessing?" Steve shook his head.
Walking out of the medical building, Steve and Soda walked towards Steve's car. Soda watched as Steve continuously bent and unbent his arm. He couldn't imagine how hard it would be to have your arm bent and stuck in the same position for so long.
"Have you really not driven your car since it got fixed?" Soda asked climbing into the driver's seat.
"I didn't really have the movement to do so," Steve said as he sat in the passenger seat, "Two-Bit drove it back to my house for me."
"Bet you can't wait to drive it again."
"Oh you know it," Steve looked out the windshield as something caught the corner of his eye, "What is that?"
Soda looked over towards the corner of the windshield and saw a white rectangle. "Is that a ticket?"
Steve opened his car door, slightly stood and reached over to grab it. He sat back down and closed his door as he looked it over. "There's nothing on it."
Soda took the paper and saw it was blank. "Do you think the wind blew it on the car?"
"I...don't know," Steve shook his head, "The wiper really had it held down. Someone had to have put it there."
"Just a blank paper?"
Steve shrugged, "Let's just get out of here." Soda started the car with shaky hands and drove out of the parking lot. They were silent for the first bit of the drive. "Are you worried?"
Soda awkwardly chuckled, "I'm trying not to be."
"You're thinking Dalton?"
"Well yeah," Soda was constantly checking the rear view mirror, "It's kind of hard not to."
Steve kept his eye on Soda. He watched as Soda nervously looked in the mirror to check if any cars were following. He watched as one of Soda's legs slightly bounced. He watched as Soda tapped the steering wheel. "What do you want to do tonight?"
Soda sighed, "I don't know. We can't stay up all night again."
"Nope. Hey, want to just get out tonight? Let's go to the drive in or something with Two-Bit and Dal," Steve suggested.
"Man, it feels like I haven't done that in a long time."
Steve laughed, "Me either. I told you I didn't go out much. Two-Bit would keep me company at home sometimes."
"Oh God, how did your dad like that?"
"He went out a lot," Steve smirked.
When Steve and Soda returned, Soda went straight upstairs to take a nap. Steve decided to snack on something before he caught up on sleep. While he sat outside on the back porch, he heard the door open and close and Darry sat next to him. "Well you must be healing good," Darry said.
"Yeah, thank God," Steve said pulling some chips out of the bag.
"So are you two good now?"
Steve nodded, "Yeah. I'm glad we are too. Soda didn't need to be in that mess."
Darry sighed, "I told Soda he didn't have to tell me what he got into as long as he promised not to get back into it. But I don't know if that's the right choice." Steve slowly chewed on the chips as he heard Darry speak. He knew Darry was tossing between asking for information. If Dalton really wanted to get back at Soda, then Steve would want to tell Darry. Their was a chance though that Dalton wasn't going to bother with Soda though. Steve didn't want to tell Darry about the drugs or about the shooting, have Darry go yell at Soda, and then Soda be mad at Steve for talking. Soda was livid at Steve when he told Darry about the betting at the drag races. Steve didn't want to risk that again, not when they had just made up.
"Can I ease your mind at all?" Steve asked.
"Should I be worried? Should I know something?" Darry asked.
Even though Steve wasn't 100% certain if Dalton was still around or not, he wanted to keep Soda's trust. "I don't think there is anything to worry about. Soda is not doing anything anymore and he won't do it again. Everything is okay, I promise."
Darry nodded, "Okay. I'll try to let it go then." As Darry walked back inside, Steve could only hope he was right.
The evening hit, and after much needed naps, Steve and Soda hit the town. They met up with Two-Bit and Dally outside of the drive-in.
"Hey look who's here," Two-Bit said.
"About time we get out and do something," Dally said.
"Damn right," Steve said, "What are we doing tonight?"
"Want to walk in the town?" Two-Bit asked, "Hit a couple hot spots and see what everyone is doing." The four greasers piled into Steve's car. Soda drove to the hot parts of town, and parked right outside of it. It was easier to walk around the town than drive through it. They hit a couple of diners and goofed off with other greasers. Soda was having a lot of fun. He was glad to be out with his friends again. He had been thinking about that term a lot, friends. Dalton was coming off as a friend, but he dropped Soda from his life in an instant. Steve didn't. Even though they weren't talking, Steve wouldn't have continued to fight with Soda if he didn't care.
While Soda and Two-Bit played at a billiards table, Steve and Dally had some sodas and fries watching the two goof off.
"So what happened to Dalton?" Dally asked.
Steve shrugged, "Soda just ditched him one night. He had Soda drug dealing."
Dally looked at Steve, "Are you kidding?"
"I wish I was," Steve shook his head, "Things went too far and Soda just ditched him a couple nights ago and came to my house instead."
"Wow," Dally said.
"Soda's worried though that he's going to try and get back at him. What do you think?"
Dally thought for a minute, "I wouldn't underestimate him."
"So what do we do? Soda won't relax about all of this until he knows Dalton is just gone out of his life."
"Maybe he needs to get his ass kicked again," Dally shrugged.
"I would love to do that," Steve said. He watched as his best friend laughed during the billiards game. Him and Two-Bit trying tricks that were only going to get them in trouble. It made him smile though. "Do you think Shepard would hunt him down?"
Dally slowly nodded, "You don't want Soda to know?"
"Probably best if he doesn't. Want to go see if he's around?"
"Yeah, let these two knuckleheads hurt each other."
Dally and Steve got up from the table, told Two-Bit and Soda they'd catch up with them later, and went to find Tim Shepard.
