~Chapter 29~ Hiya peoples! Here's chapter 29! Oh goody..right? Right! Yep. I only own the people that S.E. Hinton doesn't own. Well obviously I own them if S.E. Hinton doesn't..I mean I own them unless I stole characters..but yeah..I'll shut up now, I think! Yeah I will. ROTFL!! Ok..you guys think I'm nuts, am I right? Probably..but hey guess what..thats ok! Thanks to everyone who reviews on my story..I know I say this in everyone one of my chapters but that's ok..cuz then more people review..actually probably not..but yeah! Here's the stupid story cuz your probably tired of listening to me babble and go on and on about stuff that you don't care about.
(****Soda's POV****)
Darry was right. If I loved Riley I should go help her, and anyway I wanted to know why she just left like that when she loved me. "Ok, Darry, I'm gonna head out. I need to find her, because you're right, I do need to help her and fix our screwed up relationship with each other." I stood up. "I mean if you'd even call what we have a relationship," I muttered and walked out the door, not waiting to see if Darry said it was ok if I left or not. She couldn't have gotten very far could she?
Maybe she had went to Buck's Place. Her and Buck had talked before. I personally didn't like Buck and neither did Darry or Ponyboy, but for some unfathomable reason Riley did. She seemed to like everybody, she was just that kind of person. Another reason she could have gone to Buck's was because he always had an open bed and I knew she wouldn't have gone home and her side was hurting pretty bad, so she would probably want to lay down somewhere.
As I walked towards Buck's place, I kept pushing a question out of my head. I didn't even want to think about that question, but it just wouldn't go away no matter how hard I tried not to think about it. 'What if she went back to get the gun?' That was the question that would not get out of my head. She could kill herself, and probably would if that was where she had went.
Buck's place was an old building, that looked like a bar with broken windows and a porch. Although the porch just consisted of concrete steps and one lonely little beat up green chair. I opened up the screen door and knocked on the ugly brown wooden one. I could hear loud music blasting from the inside and I could hear lots of people talking, very loud. They were drunk, I think. It had just turned seven o'clock PM and Buck was already having a damn party. Hell, it wasn't even dark yet.
"Whattya want?" I saw Buck standing at the door after he opened it.
I pushed him out of the way. "Let me in." He just looked at me like he was stoned, which I wouldn't be surprised if he was. I looked around and saw no sign of Riley. All I saw was a bunch of girls who were drinking and laughing and flirting with the guys.
Buck walked away from me. I grabbed him by the arm. "Buck, listen to me now. Is Riley here?" He shrugged.
"Who's Riley?" I rolled my eyes. Ok, he probably actually was stoned.
"Riley. The girl that talked to you before, the Soc, with the long curly blonde hair, skinny, really sweet, pretty, and nice?" I questioned, hoping it'd jar his memory a little so he could tell me something useful.
"I don't know who that is." He said and went right back to the party. Ok, that wasn't helping. I guess I'd just have to look for her myself. I looked in the room with the pool tables first. She wasn't there. Then I checked all of the other down stair rooms and she wasn't there either. Hopefully she would be upstairs in one of the bedrooms. I hoped she wasn't doing what I thought she would be doing if she was in a bedroom.
"Riley?" I said as I opened a door. There laying on the bed was a girl and guy, one on top of the other. I shut that door as fast as I could. Riley obviously wasn't in there, since that girl wasn't her.
I was running out of hope when there was only one room left to check. She hadn't been in any of the other rooms and I doubted she'd be in this last room, but there was no harm in trying, right? Right. Slowly I opened the door, expecting to see what I had in all the other rooms, well most of the other rooms. People having sex. But that's not what I saw in this room.
Sitting on the bed with her legs curled under her was a girl who looked about eleven years old. She had short curly blonde hair that reached her shoulders and she was skinny too. Her eyes darted to me and then back to the bed, where she was staring at nothing blankly. Those eyes looked so familiar.
"Are you ok?" I wondered at the realization that she was scared. She didn't answer me but only stared at the bed. That's when it hit me, that I knew who's eyes those were that I was seeing in her. Her eyes were exactly like Riley's. Daphne..thats who it was. I had seen her before. I slowly walked over to the bed and sat down next to her.
She still looked at me, afraid. Did she think I was going to hurt her? And what was she doing here? "I'm not going to hurt you don't worry." Slowly she nodded, not sure whether to believe me or not. I picked up her hand and ran my fingers across it to let her know that I really wasn't going to hurt her and that I just wanted to make sure that she was ok.
She shivered and I threw my arm around her shoulder, just like I always did to Ponyboy when he was cold at night. "Daphne," I said slowly and she looked at me shocked.
"How do you know my name?" Her voice sounded weak and I barely recognized it as hers. Last time I had seen her, her voice had been really cheerful and bubbly. There was definitely something wrong with her and I was going to find out what it was.
"I'm a friend of your sister's, Riley's friend." I yawned a little. "What are you doing here and don't you remember me?"
She looked a little stunned at the fact that I was Riley's friend. "I-I-I'm not supposed to tell anyone why I'm here. No. I don't remember you." I frowned a little. Ok, that hurt a little that she didn't remember me. Usually no one forgot me, everybody usually remembered me because I was usually always smiling or grinning or laughing.
"Well, I'm Sodapop Curtis. Now will you please tell me why you're here?" I asked for the second time.
She was still acting scared of me. " I can't. I promised him I wouldn't. He said he'd hurt me if I did say something. Please leave, he'll hurt me if he sees me talking to you, especially since I'm not supposed to talk to any guy except him." I tilted my head in confusion. Who was she talking about? And whoever she was talking about had to have done something bad to her otherwise why would she be so afraid of me?
"Ok," I muttered getting a little frustrated with her. "I'll leave but just tell me who 'he' is and what he did to you."
"Then you'll leave?" She wondered. Damn, she was smart for an eleven year old if that's how old she was. I nodded my head.
"I promise." I wasn't really going to leave. Ok, so I was going to leave but I was just planning on taking her with me. "So what did he do to you and who exactly is he and once again..what the hell are you doing here?" I rubbed her head softly as she began to sob, obviously remembering or thinking about something.
"I-I ran away because my dad beats me, and I didn't have anywhere to go. No where. So I came here, I saw a lot of people coming in here so I did and Buck. He told me I could stay here as long as I did what he told me to. I said ok. He raped me and he's worse then my dad at the beating part. He told me that I can't tell anyone why I'm here and that I can't talk to anyone. He'll kill me if he sees me talking to you so leave. Now, please." She was still sobbing. Right at that point she reminded me so much Riley, that I wanted to call her Riley and cradle her in my arms telling her that I loved her. I was shocked. Buck? I knew he was a bastard but to do that to a little girl. That was just sick.
I stood up and stormed out of the room. Buck was gonna be sorry about what he did to her. He'd regret it. I ran down the stairs two-steps at a time. Usually I wasn't like this. I had an even-temper, but I couldn't stand somebody doing that to the love of my life's sister. "Buck Merril, get your sorry ass over here right now!" I yelled over the loud racket once I was standing there looking around and didn't see him.
Within a few minutes he was right in front of me. "What the hell do you want, Curtis?" He looked irritated at me.
"You are a fuckin bastard Merril." I punched him right across the jaw. He swayed back a little and then punched, missing me by a mile, I guess he really was drunk or stoned. By now everyone in the room had stopped to watch us. I swung at him again while screaming at him. This time I hit him right in the gut and he groaned. Of course he swung right back and this time he didn't miss. He hit me right in my left eye, then he swung at me again, because I was caught off guard trying to gain the feeling back in my eye. He hit my ribs and that hurt like hell.
"Now why the hell are we even doing this?" He screamed at me. I walked up the stairs swaying back and forth a little, obviously hurting. I walked to the last room and just pulled Daphne up off the bed and carried her down the stairs and right out the door without Buck noticing.
When we got outside I couldn't see out of my left eye, and I couldn't feel my ribs at all, just everytime I moved it hurt. "Are you ok, uhh, Soda?" She asked me, still unsure of whether she should be scared of me or not.
"Oh yeah, just great." I snapped at her and she pulled away from me a little. I noticed that I still had her by the wrist, she was probably thinking that I was going to hurt her. I let go of her wrist. "Sorry," I muttered. "Come on."
"I can't. I have to stay here. He'll hurt me if I don't."
"No. He won't hurt you no more. Come on, we're gonna go to my place. I'll take you to your sister or home or wherever you wanna go that's not Buck's tomorrow. But right now we're gonna get home and go to bed." I was tired, hurting, sad about Riley, and pissed at Buck. Daphne looked at me a little sad now.
"I'm sorry. Please don't hit me." She winced as if I was going to hit her.
"Oh, honey, I'm not going to hit you. You didn't do anything wrong." I suddenly felt bad for snapping at her.
"Yes I did. I let Buck do stuff to me." I wrapped my arm around her shoulder again.
"No, you didn't let him do it. He just did it and you couldn't stop him. Now come darling lets get you to my house." She just nodded now. I think she was pretty scared. She seemed to have no clue of what was going on. All she knew was that Buck did something bad to her, and abused her, that I was hurt, and that I knew her sister and wasn't going to hurt her. I don't think everything had really sunk in yet.
I couldn't believe that Riley had been worried about Daphne all along and she had been here, right here, close to my house. At Bucks. And I knew Buck was a sleazy guy but how he could do that to a little girl was beyond me. When we arrived at my house she finally said something. "I remember you. You're that greaser that Riley never shuts up about." I grinned a little, as much as I hurt. I was about to say something but she went on. "Yeah, Riley says that she loves you and that she wants to be with you no matter what. She said she doesn't care that you're a greaser, she just likes the way that you treat everyone." She smiled a me.
"I love her too." Daphne nodded.
"That's good."
"Yeah, now come on." I said yawning and opening the front door. She stood there unsure of what to do. I pushed her inside. "Go on, no one's gonna hurt you anymore." The minute I walked in she hid behind me, like a shy little baby. I guess the site of Darry had scared her, maybe she didn't know anyone else was supposed to be here. I'm not sure.
"Soda," Darry's mouth dropped open. "what happened to you?" I moaned as I removed my shirt. It hurt to even move my body because of my ribs.
"I got in a fight with Buck Merril. I beat him up, but he didn't exactly stand there and let me as you can tell. I think he broke some of my ribs or busted them or something cause' they hurt like hell." Just at that moment Riley strolled in from the hallway. I looked at her and my mouth dropped open. What was she doing here? She looked at me.
"Soda, I'm sorry. I do love you. I do. I ran out like that because I don't know. It was just weird. I mean you not trusting me one minute and then the next minute you did trust me. But it confused me. I'm ok though now. I talked to Two-Bit and he helped. And then I talked to Darry. He told me that you went out to find me." She looked at me and I smiled a little.
"I love you too." I said.
"Now why the hell did you get in a fight with Merril?" Darry asked interrupting our conversation.
"To make a long story short…" I moved out of the front of Daphne. "This is why." I pointed to her.
Darry looked at Daphne. "You got in a fight with Buck because of a little girl?" He wondered and looked at me odd. "Soda, is there something your not telling me? Like do you have a kid?" My eyes grew wide.
"Oh god. No, Darry, its nothing like that."
"Daphne!" Riley cried and ran over to her. I nodded at Darry when he realized that 'the little girl' was Riley's little sister that was missing.
"Riley." Daphne said softly and smiled a bit.
"Whats wrong Daph? Where have you been? Oh god I'm so glad you're ok." Riley hugged Daphne and I smiled. It was good to see Riley smiling and being happy. I hadn't seen that in a long time. Daphne just shook her head and shrugged.
"Can I go to sleep? I'm tired." She said and looked at me with pleading eyes. I nodded.
"Uhh, she can go sleep in my bed. Pony won't care if she sleeps next to him." I said to Darry who nodded and took Daphne to mine and Pony's room to give me and Riley some time alone.
"Soda, I'm so sorry for everything." She smiled at me and a tear slid down her cheek. But they weren't tears of sadness, I could tell that she was happy now.
"Its ok, Riley."
"Hey can I ask you some questions about where the hell you found my sister at?" I laughed a little and nodded my head.
"Ok, but first, let me do something with your ribs, you guys helped me with my damn side which still hurts horribly, so let me help you." I nodded my head as if to say sure why not. She left and within a minute she was back with tape. She taped my ribs and then wrapped gauze around them. I didn't ask her where she got the tape and gauze from but I'm pretty sure we didn't have any in our cabinet. She probably got them out of her purse or something although I'm not sure why she would carry that.
"Thank you." I kissed her softly and she kissed me back.
"So where was my sister?"
I sighed. I wasn't looking forward to telling her. "At Buck Merril's place. She told me that she ran away and well Buck told her she could stay at his if she did whatever he told her too." Riley cussed under her breath.
"Please tell me that he didn't Soda. Please." She begged.
"Unfortunately..I can't tell you that. He did, Riley, I'm sorry. She said he beat her and raped her." At the word raped Riley gulped a little and grew a little pale. I put my arm around her.
"Soda, no. How could he do that! She's only thirteen years old!" I shrugged a little. She was thirteen, to me she looked younger. Maybe we shouldn't be letting her sleep next to Ponyboy, I thought.
"I don't know Ri. He's just a sick perverted bastard. That's how he could do that."
"Yeah, well I'm gonna go over there tomorrow."
"Riley, no you can't. Look what he did to me. He would do something worse to you. Don't go over there please. Promise you won't." She shook her head no.
"I can't promise you." Damnit Riley, I thought to myself. I love you don't go and get yourself killed.
~A/N~ Hiya! Or I should say Bye but yeah! What did you guys think of this! It was to long and boring wasn't it? Most likely! Lol..should the next chapter be my last one or not? Please Review!! Thanks!! This is my longest chapter yet!