Missing...

Bright red hair caught my eye as I turned to the voice. Cherry Valance... Since Johnny's death, it seemed like she had avoided me. There was always an awkward silence between us. I suppose there really wasn't anything to talk about. Just sunsets. And I didn't notice them very much anymore.

"Hey, Cherry," I said.

"I just wanted to say hi. Saw you walking and we haven't talked in awhile. How are you doing?"

How was I doing... Wasn't that a question for the ages. 'Well, Cherry,' I thought. 'Two of my friends just died. I'm just peachy, how are you?' To her credit, though, Bob had also died... So we were sort of in the same boat.

"Pretty good, thanks. And you?"

She paused for a moment. I took that time to look her over. She still looked like the same beautiful Cherry Valance. Cherry the soc. Yes, she was still a soc. Why did I still see her like that when I knew there was more to her? Probably because that mask she put up to fool everyone was quite convincing. This was the first time she'd ever talked to me while we were at school.

"I'm okay," she said. She wasn't. I knew she wasn't. If she wanted to say she was, though, I'd let her. I knew how she was feeling. Losing someone close is always hard. That's one of the constants in life. It always hurts.

"That's good. So, how's cheerleading?"

"Oh, it's--"

Cherry was cut off as someone ran into her. The boy rattled off an apology then ran off after his girlfriend who was walking away at a rapid pace. They were in my biology class. Those two had that kind of relationship that was always on-again off-again. Well, when the boy ran into Cherry, she ran into me, sending the two of us and our things flying to the ground. I wasn't carrying my booksack today, so my books went everywhere. I scrambled around, picking up my things and Cherry's at the same time, her doing the same. We finally got everything in order, and stood back up.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, Pony, I'm okay," she sighed. "That Marty's just a creep sometimes. Espically when he's fighting with Mary."

I looked up as a car horn beeped. Two-Bit and Steve were sitting at the corner, waiting for me.They waved at Cherry, though I knew neither of them really were that glad to see her. They blamed the socs for Johnny and Dally's deaths. We all did, somewhere deep in us. Cherry was a soc, no matter how much she helped us or how many sunsets she looked at.

"I'll see you later, Cherry," I said as I started towards the car.

"Pony, I--" I turned to look at her, but before she could speak, another honk interrupted her.

"What?"

"Nevermind, Ponyboy."

I shrugged and ran over to the car, then hopped in. Even though I ran track, I didn't like to walk home. There was always a chance of getting jumped by socs.

"Wanna go to a movie," Two-Bit asked. It was the first time we had been to the movie since that night at the drive-in, or even suggested going to see one.

"Yeah."

When we got to my house, I ran inside and dropped my stuff off. I told Darry where I was going, which was okay with him since it was a Friday night and we weren't going to do anything anyway. Soda was sitting on the couch, reading the same magazine he'd been reading for three weeks for lack of better reading material. He'd came down with the flu bug and been confined to the house.

"My yearbook's on the bed if you wanna look through it," I told him. "Know you'll get a laugh about what everyone wrote me." Soda had always been popluar in high school despite his greaser state, and his yearbooks were filled with friendly comments and girls' phone numbers. Compared to his, mine was as good as empty.

"Yay," he cried, jumping up and running to our room. "I can look for the next girl I can pick up!"

Darry and I laughed. We both knew that Soda wasn't really going to look for girls in the yearbook. Not seriously, anyway. He hadn't been on a date since Sandy. One day, he would date again. Perhaps one day he will get over her. I know Darry prays for it just as hard as I do.

"Hey! There's no yearbook in here!"

"Soda..." The car horn honked outside. I sighed. "Soda, just keep looking! I've gotta go!"

Steve ran in the door and back into our room to find Soda. I knew he wasn't going to hang around me all night, even if Two-Bit was willing to. He never did like me, and probably never will. I ran out to the car. Two-Bit took off to the drive-in.