Chapter 10

Shelby ran to the door frame and screamed loudly, "TWO- BIT! Two-Bit I'm sorry!" She sobbed into the darkness. But we all knew it was no use when we heard his old cars noises burst into the sudden silence of the house.

"Two-Bit!" She cried, barely being able to cough it out through all of the tears. She ran outside and I followed, I could feel Steve, Soda and Darry follow. Shelby was standing on our front lawn staring at the shrinking tail lights of his car. She burst out and dropped to her knees. I fell down beside her and wrapped my arms around her, Sodapop dropped down on the other side and I felt his arms around her too. Darry dropped behind her and me and wrapped the two of us up in his strong arms. The three of us were sitting there like that; I felt a wet spot on my shirt from Shelby who was sobbing into my chest. Steve ruffled Shelby's hair.

"It's gonna be okay kiddo," Steve said to Shelby. Shelby nodded but didn't look up, or stop sobbing for that matter. "I better go see how he is..." Steve mumbled and looked at us one last time before he turned and got into his car. Darry scooped Shelby up and Sodapop and I backed off so he could pick her up. She was still sobbing and gasping for breath.

"I should just go home...I'm screwing everything up... and now Two-Bit!" She screamed, not making much sense and pointing down the street to where Two- Bit had fled. When we walked into the house Darry watched as Shelby and me kissed and hugged as she sobbed into my chest.

"We'll talk about this tomorrow." Darry whispered to me as him and Sodapop went to bed. "You two can talk for ten minutes then I want you to go to bed." He shut the lights off and I led Shelby over to the ramshackle couch which we both flopped down on. Shelby lied down across my lap with her head on the armrest. My face was relatively close to hers and she was talking to me quietly twirling her fingers in my hair.

"You know Two-Bit has treated me more like a father than anyone I have ever known. Alls he did since I got here was tried to make me comfortable, get me feeling like Tulsa was home and look what I put him through!" Shelby hissed looking at me with her eyes wide and glazed with tears. I stroked her cheek with my thumb.

"Now I aint got nowhere to stay either," She said with a huff. "You know you can always stay here..." I began but was cut off by Shelby again. "Ponyboy don't say I can stay here...cause yeah I can stay here but this isn't my home...it can be my house but it just aint my home. I belong with my real family, and as of now the only real family I got is the Mathews." Shelby said, I could tell her eyelids were getting heavy and she was beginning to doze off.

"Its going to be okay Shelby, I promise." I said after I had gotten up and laid Shelby down on the thin pillow Darry had left out. I combed her hair back with my fingers and kissed her lightly on the lips. I didn't know why I thought I could promise her this, because truthfully I didn't know if it would be okay. But I knew I couldn't let anything more happen to her. I shut off the last light in the house and climbed into my springy bed beside Sodapop who was already dead to the world.

I felt myself being stressed thinking and trying to comprehend at what had just happened. Two-Bit was mad at us...Two-bit! The best buddy you ever had, the coolest, most laid back guy you could meet. He was smooth and didn't care about anything because it was all one big joke. Shelby was different, maybe Two-Bit joked with Shelby but when we walked in the house I saw the look that was in his eyes. It was the same look that I hadn't seen in Darry until the night we were in the hospital with Johnny and Dally. I saw the look he had given Shelby when she said we were dating, like he was hurt. Like someone had just slapped him across the face.

I know now that Shelby was way more to Two-Bit than just his kid cousin, who tags along and he can cut up every time he gets the chance...Shelby was more to him that any of the gang could tell. I fell to sleep feeling restless and confused about what tomorrow would bring.

"Ponyboy, Pony get up now!" I heard being screamed into my ear, I tried to roll over to get away from the deathly voice but I realized the voices hands were shaking me back and forth and keeping me from rolling away.

"Alright...I'm up." I growled even though I had no intention of getting out of my warm bed.

"Ponyboy get up, you've slept in enough and we need to talk before Shelby wakes up." I opened my eyes to find myself face-to-face with Darryl.

"Now?! Shelby doesn't get up this early!" I mumbled. Darry rolled his eyes and grabbed my arms pulling me up and out of bed. He practically dragged me out of the room and into the kitchen where I seated down on the opposite side of Darry and Sodapop with both of them looking at me.

"Jesus Christ Ponyboy!" Darryl hissed at me. I just looked at him sadly. I didn't feel guilty and I couldn't believe that they were doing this to me. I dug my finger into a missing chunk in our table, which was suddenly interesting to me.

"Didn't you think about this at all Pony? I don't even think you are thinking about this now...Shelby is Two-Bit's cousin. She's down here with him, not you. Two-Bit just wants to spend time with her and keep her safe; you guys just can't date after what happened last night." Darry said looking down at the table and then up at Sodapop who looked as though this was his fault and he was about to bawl.

Shelby walked into the kitchen and smiled. She ruffled her hair, "Hey boys," She greeted us.

Darry smiled and nodded then he wiped it clean and cleared his throat,

"Err...sit down Shelby" Darry said. Shelby looked at Sodapop and then at me and sat down. She smiled at me as she sat down. She turned to Darry.

"I reckon this is about last night huh?" Shelby said seriously.

"Yeah... I was just telling Pony some stuff. I think you should go apologize to Two-Bit and...I think it would all be resolved quicker if you and Ponyboy stop dating before you start." Darry said looking at Shelby trying to hide how bad he felt inside.

"What why? I have nothing to be sorry for, teenagers date, and I like dating Ponyboy...doesn't he want me to be happy?" Shelby asked, now digging her nail into a chip in the table as well, but keeping her eyes steadily on Darry.

"Shelby...you and Pony don't even know each other, you don't have to date, and you're not old enough to know that it's Ponyboy that makes you happy..." Darry said as if he knew everything.

"Neither do you, it is Ponyboy, I'm never as happy when I'm not with him." Shelby said slowly.

"Listen you two are being ridiculous! You're just two fourteen year old kids looking for fun, but this isn't a love story its real life your going to forget about this after a week. Its just puppy love and this is one of our best friends we are talking about!" Darry said getting mad again. I couldn't believe he was acting like this; he had no idea how we were feeling.

"Come on Dar, you don't know if that's all this is..." Sodapop said defending our love. Darry gave Sodapop a look that said, 'Come on! You're kidding me!'

"He's right Darry, we aren't just kids anymore! Look at Sodapop; he started dating Sandy when he was fifteen!" I yelled pointing at Sodapop.

"Yeah and look how that turned out!" Darry screamed. I felt hurt by that and so did Soda. I saw it in his eyes, but he was grown up now and he knew it didn't turn out as planned.

"Just stop it...this is enough. If you think you're grown up now then you should handle this like adults and with responsibility. No more of this 'love' junk, this stops here and I don't want to bring this up again!" Darry yelled. How could he try and ruin my life like that?

"No Darryl! It doesn't end here. Shelby makes me happy and I haven't been happy for a long time now, you know that! I know that deep down you can tell this is more than puppy love, you just always want everything to stay the same, and you never want change. But things are changing Darry and they are changing for the better! After Dally and Johnny died I never thought I could be happy again. I thought life was just going to get worse, and I know you and Soda were thinking the same thing! Then Shelby came and I felt happy, happier than I ever thought I would be again. Life is finally starting to come back together and you're going to try to take Shelby away. But I love her and I'm not letting you! So stop it, JUST STOP!" I yelled and I had a hard knot in my throat that was make my eyes sting and I was afraid to swallow. I couldn't take the stares anymore and I could hear Shelby sobbing again beside me. I took her hand and yanked her up as I ran out the door.

I didn't know where I was going and to tell you the truth I didn't care. Shelby was too special for me to lose and I wouldn't let them take her away. We ran all the way around about 4 blocks before Shelby let go of my hand.

"Please Pony just stop!" Shelby sobbed. She was crying real hard and she was shivering because I hadn't realized how cold it was outside since I was running. It must have been hard for her to run that long, I always ran about that long with track and even I was out of breath. She looked at me gasping, coughing and crying all at once. She was sweating but I could tell it was a cold sweat.

"I'm...I'm sorry." I stuttered chattering, "I-I-I don't know why I ran out of the house...I wasn't thinking I guess." I managed to get out. Shelby just looked at me, her eyes were blood shot and I suddenly realized how young we really were. I saw us how the adults around here saw us. As two kids not really knowing what we were doing. Young and naïve. We were outside by ourselves now and we had nowhere to go unless we give up on dignity and just go back to my house.

I walked over to sit next to Shelby up against the chain link fence. We didn't talk for a long time, we just sat there. I could hear Shelby's breathing slowly become more and more regular until I couldn't hear it anymore.

"Have you noticed that things always seem to be getting harder and harder for us?" Shelby looked over at me, when I didn't answer, just looked, she continued, "It shouldn't be this hard. Nothing should be this hard." She finished and looked ahead at the empty road. I reached into my back pocket and I felt my wallet. I remembered I had some money in there still from the movies.

"You wanna get something to eat?" I offered. I didn't know about her but I was starving.

"Sure, why not?" Shelby said and stood up at the same time as me.

"Wanna go to Jacks?" I asked her. It was a usual greaser hangout. Partly because of the good food, and partly because of the cheap food.

"Yeah" Shelby said shortly, rubbing her bare arms and staring at a group of teenagers. There were two tall guys and one shorter one. I had seen all three of them from school before. The shorter and tallest ones were both wearing leather jackets and the other was wearing a jean jacket. They had the slouches of greasers and the look to them. Each of them had a cold hard laugh and dark hair. They were all smoking and leaning against a beat up car with the hood dropped low.

"I'm going to go ask those guys for a smoke, I will be right back." Shelby said slowly and left me near the end of the parking lot to run over to the guys. I heard them yell something at her as she came at them and the tallest one wrapped his arm around her shoulders. Shelby squirmed out from under the arm and got a smoke from the smallest one. He smirked at her as he handed her one and I think he muttered something to her and gestured over to me. I heard Shelby speak and then the rest of them laugh. Shelby turned and stalked away, when she got to me she grabbed the back of my neck and kissed me intensely. Leaning back slightly and I felt all eyes on us. When Shelby let go she stood up and looked how I felt. Where had she learned to kiss like that?

I felt woozy on my feet and my head was light and spinning. I had a weak smile on my face that probably looked as ridiculous as I felt. Shelby was wearing a similar grin. She looked back at the boys faces and then back at me. I was still floating on air as we setting off to Jacks with our fingers linked together. Her small feminine ones tangled with my long clumsy ones.

I felt more nervous than I ever had with Shelby. Maybe because before we were just hanging out and now we were on a date. Well not officially, but it sure felt like one, especially after that kiss.

When we got in I could feel the smoke enclose me, even though it was pretty much deserted it was still smoky. Sure I smoked too, but this was too much.

I led us to a two seated table near the window where the sun poured into the dirty windows and tables. Even though we were supposed to go up and but the food I really didn't feel like getting up again yet. I just wanted to sit here and relax. Because this, surprisingly was the most relaxed I had been since when me and Shelby walked to the park. Shelby was looking at me, I could tell out of the corner of my eye. I looked over at her and she looked away blushing. I started looking at her again, but pulled my eyes away before she noticed.

"Well whadda ya want?" I asked her finally, knowing I would get what Dally used to bring us all the time, bacon sandwiches.

"Um..." Shelby pondered, squinting to see the price sign. "A chocolate shake," She finally answered. I thought about questioning it, but decided better of it and I walked over to get some.

I looked back at Shelby who was slouched in her chair looking at her nails, when I was in line and I wondered too why things were so hard for us. I wasn't going to give in and let Darry win. I wasn't about to let his words twist me into believing that we were in the wrong. Nothing that felt so right can be wrong.

...sorry for the shortness. I just really needed to get that chapter over with so I can get into the next chapter, which is going to be really long from the looks of it. I am currently writing it, I'm not sure how long it's going to take, hopefully not too long kay? I love you all who reviewed my last chapter( pretty please review this chapter, it really makes it all worth while!