Author's Note: I felt so bad about making you wait that I sat down and squeezed out another chapter. Hooray!

Disclaimer: I forgot last time, whoops. It's all S.E. Hintons. Good grief.

Chapter 9

I stood outside her door in disbelief at what I had just done. I don't know what came over me. I really don't know. What in the world had possessed me to whisper in her ear and kiss her hand? I heard the door lock and the bar of light disappeared from the bottom of the door. As I walked down the flight of stairs to the street my thoughts turned from my indiscretions to how beautiful she'd looked with the blanket wrapped around her shoulders, her hair spilling down her back, and her soft smile illuminated by the falling stars. Her enrapture with the stars had given me a chance to just look at her. Not in a perverted way. I couldn't do that to her. I had just examined her face, her slim fingers clutching the edge of the blanket, admiring the tilt of her chin and the way her lips tipped upwards. I thought about her volunteering at the orphanage. I could see her playing games with the kids, fixing hurt knees, and cradling the little girl she had been so worried about. She truly was lovely, inside and out. When I got home I was bombarded with teasing.

"'Spose you boys ought to get to yer movie." Sodapop drawled, hooking his thumbs in his belt loops. "I'm gonna walk this little lady home, or wherever she wants ta go."

"Oh Darry," Steve said in a shrill voice, "You go on to your movie." He leaned against Soda, clasping his hands over his heart.

"Naw, little lady, I want to go with ya and protect ya from those big bad Socs."

"Oh Darrel...How can I ever thank you?"

"Well now, I don't 'spose that you'd want to invite me in?" I tackled Sodapop onto the couch.

"HEY! Oof!" He shoved me hard so I was on my back and he was on top of me. "What was that for?" I grunted and shoved him off me onto the floor. He kept a good grip on my arms and pulled me with him. We rolled and wrestled for a while before we both were sprawled on the floor panting. Steve came to stand over me.

"So what'd you do over there Darry?" I swung my arm out and brought his feet out from under him.

"ACK!" He hollered, landing in a heap next to me.

"That'll teach you to make fun of a lady." Sodapop said on the other side of me. Steve just groaned.

"Why were gone for so long, Darry?"

"Shouldn't you be at a movie?"

"Nah, too boring."

"I though you like girls in bikinis."

"I can only take so much of them. Anyway, what took you so long?"

"I was watching the meteor shower."

"With the girl?" Steve asked. I sat up and pulled Sodapop up.

"What if I was?"

"Is that all you did?" Steve gave me a crazy grin. I stood up and dusted myself off.

"Yup."

"Oh." He looked disappointed. I went into the kitchen.

"You weren't thinking that Darry would do anything else, were you Steve?" Soda asked loudly in mock seriousness. I stuck my head out of the kitchen to glare at them.

"Who? Him?" Steve jabbed a finger at me, "Never!" He pretended to look aghast.

I rolled my eyes and went back in the kitchen. I could imagine them sharing grins, much like they had earlier that night. Thinking about earlier made me think about Angel again and seeing her pinned up against a wall with Paul Holden's fist aimed at her face. Anger washed over me like a wave. Paul and I used to be good friends; I'll even say best friends. But then we graduated and things changed. We'd had plans to go to Oklahoma State together the next fall, but my parents died in a car wreck a few scant weeks after graduation. I had to grow up overnight, and it was hard. Instead of practicing for fall football, I was working two jobs.

When September rolled around, Paul went to college, and I stayed home with my brothers. They needed me and I wouldn't let us be separated. Paul didn't understand. He thought that I should let them go to a boy's home and go on with my life. He knew about my intense desire to get off the wrong side of the tracks and make something of myself. He couldn't see how much my brothers needed me. He didn't hear Ponyboy screaming in the middle of the night, terrified to go back to sleep. He didn't see Sodapop crying when couldn't tie his tie for the funeral because Mom had always done that for him. He didn't understand how I felt my brothers couldn't make it without me. He said I was stupid to give up my dreams for them.

He'd gone on to college without me and became the captain of the football team. Every now and then I'd read about him in the newspaper and how he'd lead Oklahoma State to victory again and again. He would be a junior this year. He was studying to become a doctor the last I'd heard. I doubted if he'd actually become one, he changed his mind like the wind changes directions. But he was in college, doing what I could've done, and I was stuck here, roofing houses, letting my dreams collect dust. And that wasn't going to change anytime soon.