I'm so bored so I wrote this. I dnt know if its any good. I just wanted to show that Mark was drifting away from Pony as well as Bryon. Theyre all moving forward while he's content where he is.

Even though I don't see him as much, sometimes Two-Bit got on my nerves. Especially when he came over our house to tell up the latest about whose been in trouble. Just a couple of days ago, while Darry, me and Soda were sitting on the dining table eating, Two-Bit waltzed in and announced that Mark was almost arrested for stealing the principal's car to drive down to his probation officer to tell him that he aint going to steal cars no more.

Of course I knew all of this. I was there when it happened. Mark even tried to take me with him but I had to do other stuff and said I couldn't go. Thank God.

While Two-Bit told us, I could feel Darry's eyes on me. He didn't like Mark from the start and always said he was trouble- and he was to some extent but he was also a really nice guy.

This time when Two-Bit came over, he told us that Charlie had been shot dead and that Mark and Bryon were involved. This set Darry off.

"You are not going anywhere near that Mark again, do you hear me?" he shouted and then followed Two-Bit and Steve out to the police station to find out more. He'd known Charlie for a while, since they were kids.

It didn't make a difference to me anyway. I hadn't seen much of Mark lately. He usually went out with Terry at the Ribbon on days I had to work or had an assignment for school. He didn't really understand the importance of getting good grades. I needed them to go to college and get out of this place.

After a week or maybe more, Mark came into the drug store alone. He looked pissed off about something. I thought maybe it had to do with Charlie's death. Mark and Bryon had been at Charlie's bar and when they left they were attack by some out-of-towners. They had a gun and they killed Charlie when he was defending Mark and Bryon. Mark didn't even mention it. Instead he sat on the counter, swinging his legs and smoking a cigarette.

"What's happening?" I asked. The silence was getting to me. I never felt awkward around Mark before but he just didn't seem like himself.

"Nothing, nothing" he said, "I just didn't have anything to do. Your brother, Soda, told me you were at work. I thought I'd just drop by. I'm meeting Terry later"

"Yeah?" I said with a shrug. It occurred to me then that we really didn't have much to say. But it didn't bother me.

After a long silence, I said "I heard you guys got Charlie's car"

"Yeah Bryon has it. The police thought Charlie would've wanted that. Bryon, of course, takes it out every night with that Cathy chick" he said her name with such disgust that I winced.

So that was the problem- Mark was jealous of Cathy. I tried to think of a time that I'd ever been jealous of a girl that was going with any of my friends or my brothers but I couldn't think of any. Girls just didn't get in the way of our friendships.

"They going steady?" I asked

"Yeah, they're really hitting it off great" he said sarcastically, jumping to the floor with a thump.

He turned to me and said "I'll cya around ok. I never see you much anymore" and walked out.