[A/N. Again it has taken me a long time to update and I have no real
excuse: only my own laziness. I just uploaded a chapter of one of my other
stories and am going to try this weekend to write/upload another chapter of
all my stories- whether or not I can do this is another thing..]
THIRTEEN:
"PONY!" Darry bellowed up the stairs the next morning. "Are you getting up?"
Lying in bed I grinned to myself- this sounded just like the old days. I sat up and drew back the curtains. The day was overcast but the sun was struggling to break through. Somehow I always thought it had to be sunny when there was a wedding and cloudy when there was a funeral. I made the mistake of commenting on this one day when I was about thirteen. Soda had snorted. "Pony there are enough people in this town alone for there to be a funeral and a wedding on the same day- so who gets precedence with the weather?" There was no response to that! With a sigh I got up and dressed and then went downstairs. Darry was all dressed and ready in his suit, sipping at a mug of coffee and nibbling a piece of toast. Soda had his shirt and pants on, but no jacket and the shirt was untucked. Two-Bit was already over, and he was dressed properly too, but I reflected with an inward grin, no amount of proper clothing could make Two-Bit look anything but a greaser. Not that he wanted to be anything but a greaser. Some people were happy as they were. That thought struck me like a two-tonne truck- did I want to be something else? Before I could think about this any further Soda spotted me and waved me over towards the table.
"Sit Pony, sit. I'm about to serve my famous waffles." He instructed.
"Can't say no to that." I said, taking a spot at the table. "Dar, aren't you having any waffles?"
"Hmm? Oh, no Pony. Just coffee and toast. I don't seem to have much of an appetite." Darry said.
"He'd have even less of an appetite if we'd been allowed to give him a bucks night." Two-Bit muttered.
"I'd be naked tied to a post somewhere if you'd given me one." Darry corrected. "Anyway, Helen and I both decided we didn't need something like that. Heck the wedding is enough of a celebration for us."
"Darry," Two-Bit said as though he'd said this on countless occasions, and was speaking patiently to a little child who couldn't understand things very well. "The wedding is a celebration for you two together. A bachelors party, or a hens night in Helen's case, is a commiseration of your last night of singledom."
"As I've said before," Darry responded in the same tone as Two-Bit had used. "I don't want to commiserate because for me this isn't the end of the world."
"Yet." Two-Bit replied and I saw Darry frown. But before he could say anything Steve burst into the house calling "Good morning all!"
"Just in time for waffles." Soda said to him, as he heaped them onto plates. He handed me mine, and I poured honey over it. In my mind honey and waffles go together and there is nothing anyone can say to dissuade me from this opinion. I eagerly took a huge mouthful. They were better than I remembered, but then it had been a few months nearly since I'd had them. I took another mouthful before I'd even finished the first and then, without me having any idea how it could have happened, I spilt some honey down the front of my shirt. I didn't even realise until Darry made a noise and managed to choke out "Pony- your shirt!"
I raised an eyebrow and glanced down at my shirt to discover the stain. "Hell." I snapped jumping up from the table and lunging for a cloth to wipe at the stain. "I don't know how that happened."
"Probably from eating like a pig?" Steve offered and I shot him a dirty look.
Darry was shaking his head. "Great Pony, just great. Do you have another white shirt somewhere?"
"This might come off." I said by way of answer. Unfortunately no amount of scrubbing got rid of the stain, only dulled it slightly. But it was still obvious.
"I've got another white shirt upstairs, but it's got a hole under the armpit. You'd have to keep your jacket on all the time." Soda offered.
The idea of being stuck in a jacket was pretty unappealing, but there was no alternative and I nodded my head.
"At least wait until your finished eating first." Darry said with a sigh. "Otherwise you're just as likely to spill something on the other shirt too."
Steve snorted. "Pity you don't have a bib for him hey Darry?" He asked.
I rolled my eyes and sat back down to my waffles. I wondered whether Steve had always been this annoying and rude, or whether the fact that I'd been away made it more obvious to me? Nonetheless I was pretty careful eating the rest of the waffles. Even though the damage had already been done I was determined to eat neatly.
*****
Darry's one extravagance in terms of the wedding was to hire cars to take both us to the church as well as Helen and her bridal party, and then to take us to the restaurant were we there was to be a sort of reception. Darry explained to me that because it was happening in a rush, and because they didn't have a hell of a lot of money, it was easier to have a small reception rather than the more elaborate ones many people have. "Besides," He added. "It's not like we've got a lot of relatives who we'd need to invite or anything, and Helen's relatives are not a huge bunch either." That sparked my interest slightly and I asked how many of Helen's friends or relatives would be at the church and the reception. Darry looked thoughtful for a moment. "Well there's her parents, her sister and her best friend who are both the bridesmaids, her sister's kid who is the flowergirl, her brother, and a few friends and her grandparents and Aunt, Uncle and cousin." He replied. I thought the church might look a bit lopsided then, but didn't comment. After all if Darry didn't want to invite a lot of people who was I to complain?
"Cars are here." Two-Bit yelled.
We all made our way out the front to the two cars. Helen and her bridal party were taking two cars over from her parent's place, although as I'd discovered earlier that morning she virtually lived at our place already. Most of her things had been moved in before.
"I coulda' just dressed up the Ford." Soda commented, but Darry shook his head.
"I don't think Helen would have been too impressed Soda." He replied.
We all piled into the cars- Darry, Soda and I in one, and then Two-Bit and Steve in the other. Soda and I were Darry's best men and it reminded me a little of when Soda had married Sandy a few years back. Hopefully though this marriage wouldn't end up the same as that one!
As we drove Darry finally related to me the tale of how he met Helen, and it was actually quite boring. "It was when you were sitting your SAT's actually Pony, but it wasn't until after you went to college that we started to date seriously. It's really a pretty boring story though I'm afraid. The boss asked me to go over to this house to do a quote on extending it. They wanted to build on a games room, where they could have a bar, and perhaps a pool table. That house turned out to be Helen's parent's place. And that's how I met her." He shrugged. "And then we exchanged numbers but we never were able to really get together due to conflicting timetables so to speak until a few months back.and the rest, well the rest is history."
"A games room?" I repeated confused. "I thought Helen was like us- I thought she was a greaser?"
"Like us." Soda muttered with a strange look on her face, and then louder he said "She is."
"We don't have no bar and games room." I argued. "Socs do though."
"Her father got a lot of money from a car accident." Darry explained. "And he decided to do something his children and the rest of the friends and family could enjoy and have fun in."
"Oh, okay." I replied, and then I saw that the car was turning into the gates of the small church in which the wedding was to take place. "We're here Dar- all ready?"
"Sure." Darry replied, ever unflappable. If it were me marrying Mandy I'd be a bunch of nerves, but that's Darry for you.
[A/N. The wedding and reception will go in the next chapter, and I guess after that Pony better get back to college, where I have a feeling a few surprises are awaiting him...]
THIRTEEN:
"PONY!" Darry bellowed up the stairs the next morning. "Are you getting up?"
Lying in bed I grinned to myself- this sounded just like the old days. I sat up and drew back the curtains. The day was overcast but the sun was struggling to break through. Somehow I always thought it had to be sunny when there was a wedding and cloudy when there was a funeral. I made the mistake of commenting on this one day when I was about thirteen. Soda had snorted. "Pony there are enough people in this town alone for there to be a funeral and a wedding on the same day- so who gets precedence with the weather?" There was no response to that! With a sigh I got up and dressed and then went downstairs. Darry was all dressed and ready in his suit, sipping at a mug of coffee and nibbling a piece of toast. Soda had his shirt and pants on, but no jacket and the shirt was untucked. Two-Bit was already over, and he was dressed properly too, but I reflected with an inward grin, no amount of proper clothing could make Two-Bit look anything but a greaser. Not that he wanted to be anything but a greaser. Some people were happy as they were. That thought struck me like a two-tonne truck- did I want to be something else? Before I could think about this any further Soda spotted me and waved me over towards the table.
"Sit Pony, sit. I'm about to serve my famous waffles." He instructed.
"Can't say no to that." I said, taking a spot at the table. "Dar, aren't you having any waffles?"
"Hmm? Oh, no Pony. Just coffee and toast. I don't seem to have much of an appetite." Darry said.
"He'd have even less of an appetite if we'd been allowed to give him a bucks night." Two-Bit muttered.
"I'd be naked tied to a post somewhere if you'd given me one." Darry corrected. "Anyway, Helen and I both decided we didn't need something like that. Heck the wedding is enough of a celebration for us."
"Darry," Two-Bit said as though he'd said this on countless occasions, and was speaking patiently to a little child who couldn't understand things very well. "The wedding is a celebration for you two together. A bachelors party, or a hens night in Helen's case, is a commiseration of your last night of singledom."
"As I've said before," Darry responded in the same tone as Two-Bit had used. "I don't want to commiserate because for me this isn't the end of the world."
"Yet." Two-Bit replied and I saw Darry frown. But before he could say anything Steve burst into the house calling "Good morning all!"
"Just in time for waffles." Soda said to him, as he heaped them onto plates. He handed me mine, and I poured honey over it. In my mind honey and waffles go together and there is nothing anyone can say to dissuade me from this opinion. I eagerly took a huge mouthful. They were better than I remembered, but then it had been a few months nearly since I'd had them. I took another mouthful before I'd even finished the first and then, without me having any idea how it could have happened, I spilt some honey down the front of my shirt. I didn't even realise until Darry made a noise and managed to choke out "Pony- your shirt!"
I raised an eyebrow and glanced down at my shirt to discover the stain. "Hell." I snapped jumping up from the table and lunging for a cloth to wipe at the stain. "I don't know how that happened."
"Probably from eating like a pig?" Steve offered and I shot him a dirty look.
Darry was shaking his head. "Great Pony, just great. Do you have another white shirt somewhere?"
"This might come off." I said by way of answer. Unfortunately no amount of scrubbing got rid of the stain, only dulled it slightly. But it was still obvious.
"I've got another white shirt upstairs, but it's got a hole under the armpit. You'd have to keep your jacket on all the time." Soda offered.
The idea of being stuck in a jacket was pretty unappealing, but there was no alternative and I nodded my head.
"At least wait until your finished eating first." Darry said with a sigh. "Otherwise you're just as likely to spill something on the other shirt too."
Steve snorted. "Pity you don't have a bib for him hey Darry?" He asked.
I rolled my eyes and sat back down to my waffles. I wondered whether Steve had always been this annoying and rude, or whether the fact that I'd been away made it more obvious to me? Nonetheless I was pretty careful eating the rest of the waffles. Even though the damage had already been done I was determined to eat neatly.
*****
Darry's one extravagance in terms of the wedding was to hire cars to take both us to the church as well as Helen and her bridal party, and then to take us to the restaurant were we there was to be a sort of reception. Darry explained to me that because it was happening in a rush, and because they didn't have a hell of a lot of money, it was easier to have a small reception rather than the more elaborate ones many people have. "Besides," He added. "It's not like we've got a lot of relatives who we'd need to invite or anything, and Helen's relatives are not a huge bunch either." That sparked my interest slightly and I asked how many of Helen's friends or relatives would be at the church and the reception. Darry looked thoughtful for a moment. "Well there's her parents, her sister and her best friend who are both the bridesmaids, her sister's kid who is the flowergirl, her brother, and a few friends and her grandparents and Aunt, Uncle and cousin." He replied. I thought the church might look a bit lopsided then, but didn't comment. After all if Darry didn't want to invite a lot of people who was I to complain?
"Cars are here." Two-Bit yelled.
We all made our way out the front to the two cars. Helen and her bridal party were taking two cars over from her parent's place, although as I'd discovered earlier that morning she virtually lived at our place already. Most of her things had been moved in before.
"I coulda' just dressed up the Ford." Soda commented, but Darry shook his head.
"I don't think Helen would have been too impressed Soda." He replied.
We all piled into the cars- Darry, Soda and I in one, and then Two-Bit and Steve in the other. Soda and I were Darry's best men and it reminded me a little of when Soda had married Sandy a few years back. Hopefully though this marriage wouldn't end up the same as that one!
As we drove Darry finally related to me the tale of how he met Helen, and it was actually quite boring. "It was when you were sitting your SAT's actually Pony, but it wasn't until after you went to college that we started to date seriously. It's really a pretty boring story though I'm afraid. The boss asked me to go over to this house to do a quote on extending it. They wanted to build on a games room, where they could have a bar, and perhaps a pool table. That house turned out to be Helen's parent's place. And that's how I met her." He shrugged. "And then we exchanged numbers but we never were able to really get together due to conflicting timetables so to speak until a few months back.and the rest, well the rest is history."
"A games room?" I repeated confused. "I thought Helen was like us- I thought she was a greaser?"
"Like us." Soda muttered with a strange look on her face, and then louder he said "She is."
"We don't have no bar and games room." I argued. "Socs do though."
"Her father got a lot of money from a car accident." Darry explained. "And he decided to do something his children and the rest of the friends and family could enjoy and have fun in."
"Oh, okay." I replied, and then I saw that the car was turning into the gates of the small church in which the wedding was to take place. "We're here Dar- all ready?"
"Sure." Darry replied, ever unflappable. If it were me marrying Mandy I'd be a bunch of nerves, but that's Darry for you.
[A/N. The wedding and reception will go in the next chapter, and I guess after that Pony better get back to college, where I have a feeling a few surprises are awaiting him...]