Chapter 9: One Mistake

Pony and me continued to talk to Soda. It seemed like he was calming down a little.

"It'll be fine Soda. We can just hope and pray that the baby isn't his," said Ponyboy.

"I got it," I started. "Soda, we can get a blood test. Then we'll be sure alright."

Soda wiped his eye and say okay. Ponyboy continued to talk to Soda and I decided to walk towards the back and talk to Danny again. I glanced in his room, but he wasn't in there. I noticed it had been quiet back there for a while. I looked in Jack and Soda's room to see it empty also, but the window was open.

Where had they gone? I decided to go look for them, but I wasn't gonna tell Soda and Pony. We had too much drama anyway. I walked towards the door.

"I'm going to drive off for a minute," I said walking into the den.

"Need my car?" asked Ponyboy.

"Sure."

I really didn't have my license anymore. I decided that that would be one of the things I needed to do, as well as getting a job. Pony tossed me his keys and I walked outside. I got into his car and revved up.

I decided to drive to the park. That seemed like an obvious choice for them to walk to since everything else was a little far away. I was surprised as I drove up there. When I pulled over, I saw them getting into a little rumble. I looked over to see Houston untying a girl from a pole. I recognized that girl as Danny's girl, Maria.

I got out the car and walked up. As I walked up, some of the soc-looking kids started to run. One of them ran into a pole. I just had to laugh at that one. As I walked up, Danny explained to me what happened and I gave Maria a ride home.

"Thank you," she said.

We got into the car as Tim and Curly Shepard gave them a ride back to the car. Oh, did I forget to mention that they were there too. Sorry. Well they were.

As I drove Maria home, we had a little chat. Danny picked a pretty good girl. They used to be real hard to find when I was younger. All the greaser girls were just plain stupid, well, except for Sandy. But Maria wasn't a greaser girl. She was in between.

"So how did you and Danny meet," I asked.

"Well, he came up to me and introduced himself. To be honest, I thought he was just like all the other guys who tried to hit on me. But I saw him sticking for Houston, and I figured he must have been a pretty good guy."

"How was your first date with him?"

She smiled. She was reminiscing.

"We went to the movies. He was real polite and nice."

"What movie did you see?"

"An old movie called 'Rumble Fish'. It had Matt Dillon. It was pretty nice."

"Rumble Fish. I might have to see that. Is this your neighborhood?"

"Yes. It's the third house right there."

I pulled into her driveway and she got out.

"Thank you for the ride."

"No problem. Be good."

I watched her walk inside and then backed out. I drove to the house. I was getting tired. As I walked inside, I saw Cathy walking back to her room.

"Good night," she said.

"Night."

I went into the back and looked into Danny and Houston's room. They were both fast asleep. I remember once when I was younger, Pony said he thought people looked younger when they were asleep. I told him he was crazy. I looked at Danny. Nah. I still didn't get it.