When it was lunch time, Two-Bit and Steve went out in the back parking lot and the four of us went over to the little neighborhood grocery store to get cigarettes, Cokes, and candybars. That store was a perfect grease hang out and that's what we usually had for lunch. The Socs were causing too much ruckus back in the cafeteria, throwing silverware and stuff like that.
Needless to say, that they'd try to blame it on us greasers. It was hilarious because we don't eat in the cafeteria. I even had a few run-ins with some of the girls there that were Socs, who were just as mean as the others. But after all the hell that we've been through, I honestly didn't give a damn about them.
Pony and I were sitting on the fender of Steve's car. Both of us were smoking. Pony was having a Pepsi and I was drinking a Dr. Pepper. While Two-Bit and Steve were talking up some girls, Pony and I just observed them from afar.
I took a long drag of my cigarette as I looked at them. "Hey, look who's coming." Pony said, nudging me in the ribs. I looked at him for a minute before looking ahead.
About three Soc's walk up to us after they drove up. For some reason, we didn't feel afraid of them. Neither did we feel mad. Nothing.
"Hey, you're the boy and girl that killed Bob." one of them said. "So? What the hell is it to you?" I spat, taking another drag of my cigarette, not in the mood to deal with these assholes. "He was a friend of ours. And we don't like nobody killing our friends, especially low-life greasers." the same soc said, grabbing at me by my arm.
Pony didn't like that the Soc touched me so he tossed his cigarette away, broke the end of his Pepsi bottle and held it by the neck. "You take your hands off of my sister, get back in your car, and go before you get split." Ponyboy threatened, his voice showing that he wasn't playing around.
This action spooked the Socs a bit, and they backed up. That one Soc had a hold on my arm still. "I mean it. Get your hands off of her." Pony threatened again, "We've had about all we can take from you guys." That Soc let go of my arm and Pony pulled me behind him.
Pony started towards them, holding the bottle like how Tim Shepard holds a blade. He held it away from himself, in a loose but firm hold. They saw that Pony meant business because they retreated to their car and drove away.
Pony turned to face me as a form of concern after the way that Soc grabbed me. "I'm fine, Ponyboy." I tell him, and a hand on his shoulder. That event didn't go unnoticed by Two-Bit and Steve.
"You really would've used that bottle, wouldn't you? Especially to defend Bexley there." Two-Bit said, who had been watching from the store doorway, "Steve and I could've backed you guys up, but looks like we didn't need to. You'd have cut them up, huh?"
"Yeah, I guess so. No one's gonna touch Bex, not while I'm here." Pony said with a sigh. "It was no sweat, really. Hell, anyone else could've done it." I shrug, my hands in my jacket pockets. "You two shouldn't get tough. Both of you aren't like the rest of us. Don't try to be." Two-Bit chastised.
What the hell's the matter with Two-Bit? Dally said that if we become tough, we wouldn't get hurt. Get smart and nothing can touch you.
Pony then leaned down to pick up the glass from the bottle that he broke. "What in the world are you doing?" Two-Bit asked, breaking into our thoughts. "Picking up the glass." Pony answered him. "You don't want anyone to have a flat tire, do you?" I piped in in a smart ass tone.
Two-Bit couldn't help but grin at us. I bent down and helped my brother pick up the pieces of glass and we put them in a trash can. As I said, none of us wanted anyone to get a flat tire.
When we got home, I tried getting started on that paper Mrs. Symes asked me to write. Pony and I had no other choice because Darry made us. However, we both had a hard time getting started.
Thinking about our parents was too much for me to handle. I could've written about our mom but I couldn't. I tried to write about Soda's horse that he had a while back, Mickey Mouse, but none of it was clicking.
Pony was also having a difficult time in trying to write his paper. He couldn't find a theme that'd work well in his eyes. I started to write down our names, Darrel Shaynne Curtis Jr. Sodapop Patrick Curtis. Ponyboy Michael Curtis. Bexley Lynn Curtis. Damn it, it was aggravating.
"Hey, did the mail come yet?" Soda called from the front door, slamming it behind him. That's what he does whenever he comes home from work. Ponyboy was in the bedroom, and I was in the bathroom.
I could hear that he hadn't taken off his jacket and thrown it on the couch, taken off his shoes, and went to the kitchen for a glass of chocolate milk, it's the same routine every day. He doesn't like wearing shoes whenever he's home.
Then he did something rather funny, I saw him walk by the bathroom. When I went into the bedroom, I saw him flop down on the bed and he started to smoke. Pony and I were confused considering he rarely smokes.
The only time he does it if something's bothering him or when he wants to look tough. He was not doing it to impress us. "Soda, is something the matter?" I asked in concern.
He shook his head at me. "How was work?" Pony asked, looking over his shoulder. "It was fine." Soda said. Pony and I exchange looks for a moment, feeling a bit off.
I figured that Soda didn't want to be bothered so I left the bedroom while Pony continued drawing horses. The dishes hadn't been done so I figured that's what I'd do.
Soda cooked dinner tonight and everything surprisingly came out right. It's odd because he usually tries something different. One time he cooked green pancakes. Green, let me tell you, you're almost never bored when you have a brother like Sodapop.
Supper Soda was quiet tonight and he didn't eat much. It was weird considering he's a chatterbox and a bottomless pit. Darry didn't seem to notice so neither Pony nor I said anything.
When dinner was over, Pony, Darry, and I got into another argument. It was about the fourth one this week. The first one was about the papers that we were supposed to be working on.
Usually Pony and I would stand there and take the ream from Darry, but this time, we were yelling right back at him. "What's the deal about our schoolwork?" Pony shouted.
"Yeah, Darry. It won't make a difference considering Pony and I are gonna have to find a job once we're out of school! Soda is doing just fine since he dropped out! Can you lay the hell off of us?" I yelled, raising my voice at my older brother.
"Listen to me, both of you. Neither one of you are going to drop out. With your brains and grades, both of you can get enrolled into college. But schoolwork's not the point. Both of you are living in vacuums so both of you are gonna have to cut it out. Johnny and Dally were our buddies too. You don't just stop living just because you lose someone. I thought you two knew that by now." Darry said.
"Darry, it's not that easy! You didn't watch both of them die right before your eyes!" I snapped at him. "Don't get smart with me, Bexley. Look, you don't quit. If you two don't like the way I'm running things around here then you two can leave." Darry continued.
Ponyboy went tight and cold. I did too. "You'd like that, wouldn't you?! You'd like me and Bex just to get the hell out! Well, it's not that easy, is it, Soda?" Pony snapped, saying that for the both of us.
However, I looked at Soda. Instantly, I calmed down. I saw that his face was pale and his eyes went big with a pained expression. I couldn't move…
"Soda? Are you okay?" I said, now concerned for him. "Don't… Oh, you guys…" he started but he snapped, "Goddamn you, guys! Leave me out of this!" He then jumped up suddenly and bolted out of the front door.
"Soda, wait!" I yelled, following him to the door but stopped when I saw him half way down the street. Rubbing my face, I felt profoundly guilty. 'What the hell are we doing?' I asked myself.
I hear Darry pick something up from the table. "It's the letter he wrote Sandy." Darry said blankly, "Returned unopened." So that's what's been bothering Soda… Pony and I didn't even bother to ask him about.
We hadn't paid much attention to Soda's problems. We all took it for granted that he didn't have none. "When Sandy moved to Florida, it wasn't Soda, Ponyboy, Bexley. He had told me that he was in love with her." Darry continued.
"Guess she didn't love him back. Where did Soda go?" I asked, still holding my head in my hand. "Darry, you don't need to draw us a picture." Pony said.
"He wanted to marry her but she just left." Darry said, looking at Pony and I. I could feel his eyes on me. "Why didn't he tell you guys? We didn't think that he'd tell Two-Bit or Steve. But we thought he told you everything." Darry wondered.
"Maybe he tried." Pony said. Soda tried countless times that he wanted to tell us something but turns out we were day dreaming. He would always listen to us, no matter what he was doing.
"He had really missed you guys. He cried every night that week you two were gone." Darry said slowly, "Both of you and Sandy in the same week." I was worrying about Soda, I had to make sure that he was okay.
"Guys, let's go after him." I said, wanting to catch him. Darry and Ponyboy agreed and we started to chase him to the park. We were gaining on him, but he had a head start.
"Circle around and cut him off!" Darry called. "Okay!" Ponyboy said, speeding up his pace. "We'll stay behind him!" I called, pumping my arms to make myself run faster.
Even out of shape, Pony was the best runner. By the time Darry and I caught Soda, Ponyboy had used his body weight to knock Soda down. That seemed to knock the wind out of both of them.
I skidded to a stop in front of my brothers as they laid their gasping for breath. "Pony, you should have gone to football instead of track." Soda said, sitting up. "Where the hell do you think you're going?" Pony said, waiting a minute before sitting up.
"I don't know, man!" Soda shrugged, standing up. "Soda, why the hell did you take off like that? You scared me." I asked. "I'm sorry it's just… I can't stand hearing you guys fight. It's just sometimes I have to get out…" Soda said, sounding like he was on the verge of tears.
"It's like I'm the middleman in a game of tug o' war and I'm caught in the middle of it." Soda continued. Darry gave Pony and I a startled look. We all come to realize that it was hurting Soda… and he took off because of it.
He was telling it true. Darry, Pony, and I were playing tug of war with him. My heart was breaking at the thought of it hurting Soda and none of us knew just how bad it was. "But when you guys try to get me to take sides, I… I can't do it. It'd be a lot easier if I saw all three sides. Darry hollers too much and tries too hard and takes a lot of things too seriously. Ponyboy, Bexley, both of you don't think enough." Soda says, getting me to look directly at him, I was sitting next to him.
I feel myself starting to choke up with profound guilt. "You two don't realize just how much Darry's given up just to give both of you the chance he's missed out on. He could've put the both of you in a youth home and worked his way through college. Listen, I'm telling you guys the truth. I only dropped out because I'm dumb. I really did try in school, but you both saw how lousy my grades were. You two don't want to be like me anyway." Soda preached on.
I bit my lip and tried my best to keep my sobs stifled. "I'm happy working in a gas station. Trust me, neither one of you guys wouldn't ever be happy doing something like that." Soda said before looking at Darry, "And Darry? You gotta stop yelling at him and her for every little thing that they do, man. They think differently than you do." We saw the pleading look in his eyes.
"It's bad enough having to listen to you, but when you start trying to get me to take sides…" Soda said, tears in his eyes. That hurt me in ways I couldn't understand. "We're all we got left. We gotta stick together against everything. If we don't, then we don't have anything. If you don't have anything, then you end up like Dallas… and I don't mean dead, either. I mean like he was before. Worse than dead… So please…" Soda said, starting to cry, "Don't fight anymore…"
Darry looked worried as hell. Darry was only twenty years old, that he wasn't so much older that he couldn't feel and hurt like the rest of us. He did give up a lot just to provide for us.
"Soda… Oh glory, were so sorry…" I said, leaning up to hug him. I started to cry also, just letting out my emotions. He didn't hesitate to hug me back. "We're not gonna fight anymore…" Darry softly said.
"Ponyboy, don't you start crying too. There's enough bawl-babies in this family." Soda said tearfully. "I'm not crying…" Pony said, sounding like he was. After a minute, Soda and I broke the hug.
"No more fighting. Okay, Ponyboy? Bexley?" Darry said. "Okay." Ponyboy said, meaning it. "No more fighting." I said, wiping my tears away with my hand.
Sure, we're still gonna have our problems, we wouldn't be siblings if we didn't. No more fighting… Neither one of us wanted to hurt Soda anymore. Soda would always be the middle sibling, but that didn't mean he had to keep getting pulled apart. He was pulling all of us together.
"Well, I'm cold. How about going home?" Soda said. "Race you guys. Bexley, you're surely gonna lose." Pony challenged. "Oh, no, you won't!" I laughed.
It was surely a nice night for racing. The air was clear and cold. The stars lit up everything below us since the moon wasn't out.
The only sound we heard was the sound of our pounding feet on the concrete and the scraping of leaves on the street. The four of us ended up finishing the race, neck in neck. Looks like we all wanted to stay together.
