Continued…
I stood there for a minute, taking in the situation.
Mark should be alright, I've seen worse. But it should've been me.
"Ponyboy?" I turned to face Cathy. That's when I got a better look at her face. She smiled and I forgot to breath.
"Are you ok?" she was concerned.
"Me? Yeah I'm fine"
"And Mark? Is he ok?"
"What? Mark? Yeah he's going to be fine"
I felt my ears redden. "They're, ah, they're both in the ambulance" I said. She nodded.
By then everyone had gone back to the party as though nothing had happened.
I studied Cathy's face for a while, maybe a little longer than was necessary. She looked so worried that I said "how bout we go get Bryon from the hospital"
"How?"
"Well, how did you get here?" I asked
"Bryon has a car"
"Great! We could take it to get him from the hospital"
"Yeah, but we don't have the keys"
"I could hot wire it"
She stared at me in disbelief but didn't say anymore. I went to work like Mark had told me. Some of the stuff I'd learnt from Steve and Soda anyway.
The car got started and we were on our way. I could see her looking at me suspiciously from the corner of my eye.
I took a quick look at myself in the rear view mirror. I looked like a JD with my lip cut and my face bruised.
She probably thinks I'm a creep.
I still couldn't work out what a nice girl like her was doing with Bryon. Some guys have all the luck.
"You're M&M's sister right?" I said to break the silence. I knew M&M from school. He was a good kid and always asked me questions about how I train for the track team.
"Yeah I am"
"Ok"
It didn't seem like she really wanted to have a conversation so I kept quiet.
It was dark by then, but there were no stars in sight. I realised I'd forgotten to watch the sunset and almost cussed myself out loud.
"What's wrong?" Cathy said. I'd forgotten she was there.
"Nothing. I had to do something today but I forgot to do it, that's all"
"Can't you do it when you get back?"
"No, I can't ever do it today unless, unless I travel back in time or something"
I was thinking about that a lot lately, travelling back in time. I could go back and save Johnny and then Dally wouldn't've died either. I could even go back to stop Mom and Dad from getting killed. But right then I just wanted to see the sunset. I hadn't missed one since Johnny died. It was like a ritual.
"Do you think Mark will be ok?" she asked
"Yeah. He always seems to get through things alright"
"Yeah", she sighed.
"So how long have you been going out with Bryon?" I wasn't going to ask her about that but I knew I'd regret it if I didn't.
She was obviously surprised by the question but said "this is our first date"
"So, he's not your boyfriend"
"No he's not my boyfriend" she said with a laugh and sat up to see what I was going to say next
"So why don't you give me your number then?" I felt too confident right then to regret asking. I'd never asked a girl for her number before. Usually they just give it to me. But I knew Cathy wasn't like that, that's what I liked about her.
"Sure" she said with a shrug and wrote it down on a receipt paper from her pocket, then handed it to me.
By then we had reached the hospital.
When we found Bryon, he actually seemed pleased to see me.
"I brought your car, I figured you wouldn't have a way to get home. Is Mark going home?" I said
Bryon said that Mark had to stay in bed for a couple of days and then come back to the hospital to get the stitches out in a couple of weeks.
"Help me get him in the car"
I took one of Mark's arms and put it around my shoulders. He looked grogged up and he slurred when he spoke.
"hey, hey, hey Ponyboy, what are you doing here?" he said.
We got him into the car. I sat in the back with him and let him lean on me. Bryon and Cathy sat in front.
Bryon suddenly turned back and said to me "how'd you start the car with no keys?"
Cathy turned too. "Yeah, how did you?" she said as though she didn't know.
I could feel my ears redden. "I hot-wired it. Mark showed me how to weeks ago"
Bryon almost laughed on hearing that. "Don't make it a habit" he said.
"I never done it before" I shrugged.
*Bryon dropped Curtis near his house. He hated to just take Cathy home, but there wasn't much he could do. Mark was singing to himself in the back seat. He had a good voice, but he had picked a lulu of a song. Cathy pretended not to hear it.
Bryon walked her to the door. "I'm really sorry about the way things turned out", he said.
She grinned. "So am I – but thank goodness Mark isn't hurt any worse than he is. I had a really good time, I really did, especially driving to the hospital with Ponyboy."
He looked at her quickly. She was teasing him to make him mad. "Not really" she continued. "He's not my type- too quiet"
"That's one thing I'm not", Bryon said. He wanted to kiss her, some girls will kiss on a first date, some wont. He decided to play it safe and not kiss her. Besides, the porch light was on and there were four of five little faces peering out from behind the front-room curtains. "I'll call you" he said finally. *
* is an extract from the book (pages 55-6)