Out of Food

Later that night at the Curtis house

Steve and Soda walked in, just off work. Soda ran in and kicked off his shoes like always, then stopped suddenly.

"Uh.. guys? What happened to the lights?"

Two-Bit popped up from behind the couch. "I'unno. What happened?"

"I mean, why are they off?" Soda explained.

"The lights are off?"

Soda covered his face with his hands. "Two-Bit, you're kidding right?"

"Yes, yes I am! This has all been a big joke!"

"Funny."

"Isn't it though?"

"No. No it's not."

Soda walked into the kitchen and flipped on the lights. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Steve and Two-Bit arm wrestling. Two-Bit was trying to cheat by using his other hand to pull their fists over to his side, but Steve wasn't budging, other than squeezing Two-Bit's hand so tightly that Two-Bit was whining about not having the money to pay for a broken hand.

"Shouldn't try to cheat then," Steve growled playfully.

Soda sighed. It'd been a long day, all he could think about was Sandy and try to figure out something to do.

The door slammed and Darry walked in. He looked over the mess in the living room and his eyes grew wide in horror when he looked at Two-Bit.

"Two-Bit! Put your pants on!"

Two-Bit jumped. He hadn't seen or heard Darry come in. He ran to get his pants, hopping as he tried to get them on while running back to the living room.

Darry tossed his workbelt on the kitchen table. "Hey Two-Bit, heard some crazy rumor about you drinking up our shampoo. That right?"

"No, man. I keep telling everyone, it was beer. Beer that Pony hid from me."

Darry rolled his eyes. "Uh huh. And the Easter Bunny wears red tights."

"Hey, you don't know that. Nobody knows that."

"What?" Darry demanded. "And shouldn't we get your stomach pumped? That shampoo-"

"Beer."

"Whatever. That 'beer' couldn't have been good for you. We should really take you to get checked."

"Naw, Darry. No need to relive bad memories." A year ago, Two-Bit accidentally drank some furniture polish. Darry made him go to the emergency room. Two-Bit was at St. John's for two days and complained the whole time that he only got ugly, brunette nurses. He swore they gave all the pretty blondes to the old guys that were gonna die.

"Ok, well, whatever." Darry sat down in his chair and picked up the newspaper. "Anyone seen Pony?"

"I just saw him in his room, doing homework I think," offered Steve. He didn't mind Pony too much, now that Pony went places on his own. He never really had a big problem with Pony, just hated that he was ALWAYS there when him and Soda went somewhere. It's hard to pick up girls when your best friends kid brother is there.

About an hour later, they heard Two-Bit yelling in the kitchen. "Hey! You're out of food!"

Darry yelled back, "Then go to the store and BUY SOME MORE!"

"Too lazy for that," Two-Bit murmured. "I guess I'll just eat this burrito.."

"What burrito?"

Pony came running in. "Hey Darry, have you seen my socks?" He stared at the object in Two-Bit's hands. "Are those my socks? Don't eat my socks!"

Two-Bit threw them back in the fridge. "I didn't!"

"Why were my socks in the icebox!"

"Uhhh. . ." Two-Bit grinned at Pony and took off running through the house.

Darry just laughed and shook his head. He still hadn't figured out if these stunts that Two-Bit had been pulling lately were accidents or if Two-Bit was just trying to get Pony to pay more attention to him than his sister. Pony definitely payed Kara plenty of attention.

The screen door gently creaked closed and Sandy tiptoed in, Aaron asleep in her arms. Soda rushed over and offered to take him but Sandy shook her head. "There's a few bags of food in the car, can you get those?" She quietly carried Aaron to Darry's room - he had given it up so she and Aaron could have a room to themselves - and laid him on the bed.

Soda brough the 4 bags of groceries in and set them on the kitchen counter. Pony started digging through the bags first. "Hey, there's stuff here for Spaghetti, Tacos.. Oh, man, chicken! and potatoes.. and corn.. Hey Sandy, I love you!" he called.

Sandy walked in, scowling at Pony for being so loud. "Shhh!"

Pony furrowed his eyebrows at Sandy. "Geez.. sorry. This isn't exactly a quiet house, if you don't remember."

"Yeah, I hope Aaron's a deep sleeper," Soda added.

Sandy shook her hands next to her face. "Well, whatever. I closed the bedroom door so maybe that'll make it a little quieter in there." She had grabbed one of Darry's long sleeved shirts and was tying it around her waist as an apron. Half an hour later she was setting the table with plates, taco shells, meat, lettuce, diced tomatoes, onions, and hot sauce. The boys dived in and cleared the table of food within 25 minutes

[a:n] took me a while, huh? sorry for the long wait. i've always got things running through my head and its just a matter of fitting them together with other ideas and picking what to use when. plus i finally finished reading the book i was in, and i haven't gotten too far into the next one, so my mind is (mostly) uncluttered. for a while at least. i'm writing this on a go, instead of writing it all by hand and typing it up later. hope ya like it. oh, and thanks to everyone who's reviewing.. i suck at doing personals, so, thanks :)