Soda was pumping gas when we got to DX, so I had to wait for him to finish up.

"Hey Pony boy!" he shouted cheerfully, awaking me from my thoughts.

"Hey Soda," I said, only half paying attention. I loved my older brother, but some days I was just in a thinking mood. It was on those days that I didn't appreciate his cheerfulness as much.

"You doin' okay?"

"Yup."

"Want some Pepsi?" He didn't even have to wait for my answer. He just got up and headed into the store to get a few bottles. I had to grin at that, because my brother knew me all too well, and he knew what would cheer me up. Glory, I loved Pepsi.

I hung out at the DX for a while before deciding to take a walk by myself. Soda gave me a look before I left that clearly said, you'd better no get jumped. I just shrugged it off and started walking. The air was cool, almost too cool. Somehow, I liked it, though. There was a freshness to it that I needed to clear my head more.

The doorbell resonated through the house when I pushed it. I heard the pitter-patter of a little kid's feet running. Stephen answered the door.

"Who are you?" He asked in a less than polite voice.

"Uh, I'm Ponyboy Curtis. Is Sarah home?"

"Why should I tell you?" Man, this kid was snotty. It was really getting on my nerves.

"Look," I tried to sound nicer than I was feeling, "I'm Sarah's friend. You've seen me before. Come on, just go get Sarah."

"I don't wanna," he started to shut the door in my face, but a taller person appeared and caught it above his head.

"You're not answering the door anymore, little man," Jake said. I was so relieved to see him. "Come on in, Pony. Sarah's in the kitchen." He gave Stephen a glare that would have scared me out of my skin if I were that age, and he scrammed before either of us could say another word. "Sorry," he muttered, showing me the kitchen then dashing off up the stairs.

"Ahem," I cleared my throat in the doorway of the kitchen. "Hi."

She turned, her hands covered with flour from making some sort of dough, a look of surprise on her face.

"Hi, Pony." She said quietly.

I felt kind of awkward just standing there. I could tell that she did too, because she was staring at her feet.

"Um, how're you doing?" Somehow we couldn't look at each other. I was afraid she might be mad at me, though for what, I didn't know.

"Well, uh," she finally stopped fighting with her lie, "Pretty crappy." Her huge brown eyes quit staring at the floor and rose to look at me. "How are you?"

I nodded slightly. "Whew... I'm alright." I gave her a lopsided grin. Then I turned serious again. "Um," I took a step towards her. "You gave me quite a scare... last night."

"I'm sorry, I-I just was really..."

"Hey, it's okay." I was just close enough. On an impulse, I pulled her into my chest. "I was just afraid of losing you. I couldn't take that, girl." I whispered in her ear.

She didn't say anything for a while. "Make me a promise," I begged.

"Hmm, what?"

"Never do that again."

Her big chocolate brown eyes stared up at me. "I promise."

We let go, and she went back to the counter to her dough. (There was now flour all over my shirt.)

"So," I drawled, "Whatcha making?"

"Bread," she smirked. "Here, wash your hands and help." A flabby piece of dough was shoved in my face.

"Alright, alright."

She told me what she wanted done with it and for a while everything was silent except for the sound of the dough thumping on the counter. I took the time to think back, remembering Johnny and Dallas once again. Two gallant greasers just trying to make it on their own. It was then that I understood the meaning of 'Only the good die young.' Even though Dally wasn't someone you'd classify as 'good,' he was a rare find in this world. People with as much cunning and guile as that teen had don't just show up on everyone's doorstep. His character still scared me, but I had the utmost respect for him. No one like that can just walk into your life without making an impression. I sighed contentedly.

"What are you sighing about?"

"Huh? Oh, nothing. Just thinking."

She laughed at me. "There's just something capturing about thoughts, isn't there?"

"Oh yeah," I grinned to myself. There was yet another long pause.

"Olivia's going to be okay," she said quietly, like she couldn't believe it herself.

My heart did a leap in my chest. "That's awesome!" I was almost shouting. "Is she coming home soon?"

"Probably by the middle of next week," she was starting to seem really excited. "She's a lot weaker, but it's not permanent. I'm sure we'll have her back to normal in no time. I guess they've gotta monitor her brain waves for a few days without all the other tests now. But soon you'll be able to come see her over here again."

"Man, that makes my day," I said, relieved. "Is she still in the ICU?"

There was a sigh. "Unfortunately, yeah, just because she's so little and anything could go wrong. It's just precaution, I suppose, but it's not fun. There are so many sad stories up there. I wish you could just see all the tragic stuff that those kids up there are going through."

"That's awful."

"Yeah, it is. But there's a lot of faith up there. It's an amazing place."

I just nodded to signify that I had heard and understood. The rest of the afternoon, we just hung out. Brie came in after a little bit, and we played some cards. Then she went out somewhere, and Sarah and I just sat in the living room talking. It was one of those deep and pointless conversations that have absolutely no origin and no stopping point.

"Hey Pony," Sarah said randomly.

"Yes?"

"Thanks. For yesterday, I mean. You saved my life, pretty much."

"Yeah... Guess that makes me a hero now, huh?" I smirked.

She narrowed her eyes at me. Then a pillow met me square in the face, and hard.

"Hey! What was that for?" I tried to look innocent. The pillow then found a new face, harder than before. She held on to it this time, smarter than before, knowing that I could hit harder.

"Um..." I wasn't really sure how to put it. "In all seriousness, I, uh, well. I don't know what I would have done if I hadn't got there in time. I mean, well..." Too deep. Way too deep for me to explain.

Wednesday I couldn't sit still in school. The excitement was hardly containable. The teachers noticed, and they were getting annoyed with me since I'm normally calm and quiet. I just kind of ignored them and stuck to my wild, crazy, day-dreaming attitude. That school day could not end fast enough.

Instead of walking the mile and a half, I decided to run. It was faster, and I had no patience to take my time by walking. Two-bit was using his car to pick up some blonde, so I couldn't drive it. As soon as I reached our house, I bounded up the steps and threw my books inside the door. Now all I had to do was wait an hour or so. I got down to some homework, but it was hard to concentrate.

Soda came home early, and I was on him as soon as he got in the front door.

"Are you ready? Can we go now?" I was nearly bouncing off the walls.

"Settle your butt down, kid." Soda was laughing at my wildness.

I sat down on the couch. "Okay."

"Lemme get out of these greasy clothes. I ain't goin' to the middle classer's territory lookin' like a bum."

"Well then go!" I jumped off the couch and chased him to our bedroom. I was about to come in too and make sure he wasn't going slowly. Before I had the chance, I was face to face with our door. I just snickered and went back into the living room to wait.

A few minutes later (they seemed like a few hours) Soda came out of the bedroom, clad in a pair of blue jeans and a red shirt that say 'Buckeyes' across the front. The shirt had been Darry's. Mom's brother in Ohio had given it to him a few years back. It looked pretty good on Soda. I planned on wearing it one day, whenever I could get it without Soda looking.

"Can I drive?" I pleaded.

Soda gave me a reckless grin. "What the heck? Sure. Now, ain't you ready yet?"

"Just give me the keys."

I revved the engine and we were off down the bumpy road. Soda turned on the radio, and we blared it the whole way there. By the time we got there, he and I were laughing and singing along (off-key, of course) to the radio. I was almost giddy with excitement.

Brie answered the door, and grinned when she saw that Sodapop came along too.

"Hey guys. Sarah and Olivia are in the living room. Come on. Nice shirt, Soda."

He got a little red. "Huh? Oh, this? I don't even know who the Buckeyes are."

She laughed. "There a college football team in Ohio."

"Oh."

She shut the door behind us, then started walking to the living room. We followed her cautiously. I felt a little awkward, because I wasn't sure what it would be like. Soda never felt strange in any place. He had already made himself at home as far as I was concerned.

Sarah was sitting on the couch, Olivia's head in her lap. She was stroking it, but looked up when we walked in. I was taken aback when I saw Olivia. There were pieces of her silky hair missing, and she just looked paler and weaker than normal. It kind of shook me up, because the feeling I got reminded me of when I first saw Johnny after we saved those kids in the fire. A chill went down my spine.

"Hey," I whispered to both of them. Her eyes had been closed, but they opened when I spoke. They still had their sparkle of a little girl who loves life. I knew then that she would be okay.

"Hey Pony, Soda, have a seat." I tried not to make any quick movements as I sat on the other side of Olivia. Soda was already on his way down to the floor. He and Brie sort of knew each other, and they hit it off pretty well. I knew that nothing would happen between them, though, because Soda still wasn't over Sandy. Part of him never would be over her.

There was an awkward silence for a few minutes. Then good old Soda made one of his classic remarks.

"Don't worry. This isn't an awkward silence. It's just the human instinct to stop and listen for danger." He was grinning like a chessy cat, and I was tempted to tackle him then and there, but it wasn't our house, and I wasn't sure how it would go over. The girls immediately cracked up, and I could help by laugh along, because Soda really did know how to break the silence.

"Where do you come up with this stuff?" Sarah asked when the laugher subsided.

"Oh, you know," Soda waved his hand casually, "I have connections."

"What he means is that he gets them all from Two-bit," I piped.

"Hey! Who asked you?" He made like he was going to get up and tackle me, but then spontaneously stopped and settled back down. The sisters exchanged glances and rolled their eyes. I smirked to myself, amused by the way that we all seemed to get along pretty well.

I started subconsciously playing with the little feet right beside me. She had fuzzy slippers on, and I felt them rub up against my hand when I stopped playing with them. I looked over, and the little bright eyes were staring at me. She smiled when I looked over. I couldn't help but grin. She was a pretty goofy little girl, and she had me wrapped around her finger without doing a dang thing.

Somebody said something, but I was only half paying attention.

"Pony?"

"Oh, uh, what?" I looked up. Everyone just kind of cracked up at me. "What gives?"

"We've been trying to get your attention for a while now," Brie told me.

I felt my ears get hot. "Oh."

"I was just suggesting a little game of cards," Soda drawled, his mischievous look plastered on his movie star-like face. I knew what he was thinking.

"No way, Soda," I said with finality. If I played another game of Mao in my life, I would go absolutely insane. That card game was the weirdest thing ever, and I didn't get a bit of it.

"Gotta deck of cards?" Soda was consciously ignoring me. I was about to jump off that couch and strangle him. Before I even had the chance, there was a tiny body placed gently on my lap, and I immediately forgot about hurting my older brother. She was so frail, yet tough as nails. I was comfortable there, holding her and playing with her feet.

"Get over here, kid," I snapped back to reality at Soda's request.

"Man, I'm busy."

"I said get over here. Don't make me move you..." I knew by the look on his face that he was joking. I stuck my tongue out at him, but then slowly got down on the floor, Olivia in tow.

"The kid's on my team." I announced.

"The way you play Mao, you'll need her help," was the sarcastic remark from Sarah.

I gave her a look of merciful recklessness. "Do you know how lucky you are?"

"Nope, and I don't intend on finding out." She quipped. "Standard, Cambridge, five card Mao..." I rolled my eyes. I hated this game.