Author's Note: HA! I did it! So I've reposted this what...Three times? You don't mind, do you?
Raine: I like fluff. Fluff makes the world go 'round. I want to hear YOUR fluff. I can't wait till you get back and Luke tells you how he feels after a whole week--I think, was it just a week?—without you at his beck and call every single day. I LOVE RAISING HELEN! I must've used up a whole box of tissues during that movie...
Sodapop's#1gurl: I'm working on getting them together. More stuff has to happen first though. They will, just not yet. Don't you hate getting all flustered like that? I want to melt into the floor every time I act like a blabbering idiot in front of the crush of the week. It's just awful!
nextbigthing: YOU ROCK TOO! Thanks for the interesting review! I hate when my computer acts up. My dad just installed this new antivirus that makes it so SLOW! Ugh, I just want to throw it under a Mack truck sometimes...
Disclaimer: Oh I wish!
Chapter 10
Darry's POV
I banged on the door again and glanced down at Sodapop anxiously.
"Hang on Pepsi Cola, just a minute." I pounded on the door and yelled her name. "Angel! Oh please, Angel, come quick..."
I raised my fist again and almost knocked Angel on the head. She had a robe draped around her shoulders with a camisole and a pair of pajama pants under it. She shoved her hair out of her face and looked at me with bleary eyes that cleared up and registered shock when she saw Sodapop.
"Oh my..." She breathed before ushering us in. "Set him on the bed. What happened? Wait, no, don't tell me. I'm not sure I want to..." She trailed off and disappeared into the kitchen.
Steve jerked the blankets off the bed so Soda could lay flat on his back before I laid him down. She looked over her shoulder and her eyes widened and she went deathly pale before she ran to the kitchen with me and Pony following her. She grabbed paper towels and threw a bowl at Ponyboy telling him to fill it with warm water. Then she ran to the tiny bathroom and grabbed hydrogen peroxide and bandages out of the medicine cabinet, muttering under her breath.
"What do you use? What do you use? Um...ointment...What kind? What kind? What kind?"
I put my hands on her shoulders and told her to breath. She drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. She then, broke away from me and grabbed a shoebox that had all sorts of medical supplies in it. She turned and flew out, then ran back and grabbed a few washcloths. She ran to where Sodapop and Steve were and groaned softly. "Oh my gosh..."
Soda looked really bad. Okay, he looked awful. His face was beat up almost beyond recognition, one arm was cut to shreds, and his shirt was torn and bloody. There was blood seeping into her sheets and I made a mental note to thank Steve for moving her blankets.
"Oh my, oh my, oh my, ohmy, ohmy, ohmy...Okay, we need to cut his shirt off...Oh my." She grabbed scissors out of a cup full of pens and pencils. "You do it. I can't..."
She handed me the scissors, shuddering. Gently, I lifted the shirt away from Sodapop's chest and cut it away from his body. I heard Angel gasp. He had dark, greenish bruises coving his chest and small gashes everywhere were spewing blood. I glanced at Steve, whose face was contorted with rage and then past him to where Angel was bathing Soda's face. Tears were pooling in her eyes and falling down her cheeks as she dabbed the cuts on his face. She rinsed the cloth out in the bowl Pony had placed on the bedside table and the water poured out red. She glanced up and met my eyes. I needed to get her out of here. She couldn't take this.
"Ponyboy." My voice was rougher than I meant it to be. "Little buddy, there's a grocery store a few blocks away. Take Angel down there and get Dramamine, aspirin, gauze, medical tape, and rubbing alcohol, okay?" He nodded and grabbed her hand, gently pulling her away from Soda. She stood up and leaned against him. He went red and looked at me. I jutted my chin towards the door and nodded at him. He was a really good kid.
Angel's POV
I was numb when Ponyboy led me out of my own apartment and down to the grocery store I had spent a Sunday two weeks ago popping in and out of from sheer boredom. Now Ponyboy was pulling me along, glancing back at me every now and then with a worried look in his eyes. He was pale too. Something the far recesses of my mind told me to snap out of it and take care of a kid who was bound to be hurting and scared right about now. I gave his hand a squeeze.
"He'll be okay, Pony." I hurried up so I wouldn't be trailing behind him like a lost puppy. He let go of my hand and grinned.
"Are you kidding me? That's nuthin'." My eyebrows rose with my realizing it. "I know, it looks really bad, but head wounds always bleed a lot. He'll be fine." His grin faltered a little bit. "He has to be okay. He just has to."
I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye. That kid had lost a lot in his short life. Fifteen and he'd lost his parents and two boys that were almost his brothers. What was worse he'd seen two of the people die. I couldn't imagine. And this was his brother he was talking about so nonchalantly. He was a tough kid. One tough kid.
When we got to the grocery store I snapped into action. I love to shop, even if it's for little things. We were in and out of that place in a flash. Except I had to give Ponyboy the money to pay for the stuff, because they wouldn't serve anyone without shoes on. But after he managed to mumble through the clerk flirting with him shamelessly we had been in there less than ten minutes.
When we got back Soda was sitting up and wincing as Darry cleaned a cut on his forearm. Two Bit was there and he and Steve were sitting on my kitchen counter surrounded by beer bottles. I immediately went over to them and promptly took the beer out of there hands and dumped their contents down the sink. I handed the empty bottles back to them and told them the next time they brought alcohol near me I would break the bottle over their head. After that I went over to Darry and Soda, who was looking at me with amusement. Soda's grin turned into a grimace when Darry pulled out a needle from my shoebox first aide kit.
"Did you get Dramamine?" Darry asked. Ponyboy threw him the bottle. "Four of 'em. Now."
"But Darry, I'll be out for hours!"
"Down four, right now."
"But---!" Ponyboy appeared at my elbow with a beer bottle. When he saw the look on my face he told me it was filled with water. I took a swig of it suspiciously before I let Soda have it. He swallowed them all in one gulp and leaned back.
"You know it takes 20 minutes for those to kick in." He told Darry.
"I know. Lay down."
"What?"
"Lie back down and close your eyes." Soda rolled his eyes and lay down. "You know, you're arm's bleeding too, you know," he mumbled, "someone turn off the light, huh?" I turned on a small table lamp and turned the overhead light out. "Thanks..." Soda mumbled, his eyes closing.
"Darry, c'mere."
Darry's POV
She pulled me over to the table where the lamp was and made me sit down. She then gently, with steady hands, began to clean my arm up. Her touch was soft, like butterfly wings.
"What happened?"
"Socs." She nodded.
"How'd this happen?" She motioned to the cut on my arm
"I walked up with Ponyboy and Steve when they were kicking him on the ground—I think he has a couple of broken ribs—So we ran up and started beating the heck out them. They had a blade...I guess he got me."
"How many were there?" I shrugged and hissed when the cotton ball soaked in rubbing alcohol touched my cut.
"Hold still, would you?"
"I think there were five."
"Why was he alone?"
"He's been off in his own world lately. He lost his girl awhile ago and he's still hurting from that. I never saw someone who was so in love..." Her eyes, which had been staring intently into mine, dropped down to my arm again. She placed a wad of gauze against the cut and taped it to my arm.
"All done." Her voice was soft. "It's a little deep, so be careful for a few days, would you?" Her hand lay lightly on my forearm. I put mine over it. She withdrew hers quickly and turned away from me.
"He's asleep now. You'd better stitch him up."
While I sewed up the worst of Soda's cuts she sank onto an overstuffed chair in a corner of the room. By the time I was done she was asleep. Two Bit was sitting against the wall and I couldn't tell if he was awake or asleep. Ponyboy was in the middle of the floor, lying on the blankets Steve had taken off Angel's bed. Steve was no where to be seen. I sighed and pulled a straight backed chair over to the bedside and reclined in it. I wondered briefly if she would mind that we'd all spent the night before I fell asleep.
When I woke up I didn't know where I was. I saw Two Bit leaning against a wall across the room and Ponyboy sprawled out on a pile of blankets in the middle of the floor. My neck ached and I was stiff all over. I was sitting in a chair next to a bed with Sodapop in it. Memories of the night before hit me like brick. I groaned and looked at Sodapop more closely. He had a real shiner on his left eye and his lower lip was spilt. There was a large cut from his temple all the way to his ear, but you could only see about an inch and a half of it. Or at least, that's all you'd be able to see, once the bandages came off. A door smacked closed behind me as Steve went on Angel's small balcony. Angel was curled up in an over stuffed chair, clutching a blanket that I'd thrown over her. As if on cue she opened her eyes, arching her back and stretching her arms above her head. Then she saw Ponyboy on the floor and Two Bit propped up against the wall. She shook her head in confusion.
"Morning sunshine," I said softly. She almost fell off her chair as she spun around to look at me.
"What—? Oh...Right, I remember now." She stood up and walked over to the bed. "How is he?"
"He'll be fine. His ribs'll mend up nicely if he don't move around too much. We'll take him home today."
"But if he shouldn't be moved..."
"I didn't say that. He'll be fine, don't worry."
"He can stay here for a few days...Until it's safer to move him."
"I'll take him home this afternoon. Right now, I need to get to work." Her eyes widened and she gasped.
"Oh no! What time is it!" She looked at her watch, another gasp. "Ten minutes!"
And she was off. Grabbing a skirt out of the closet and a green button up shirt off of the back of a chair, she disappeared into the bathroom. Three minutes later she was out, a toothbrush hanging out of her mouth and trying to put on a black shoe.
"Udder de bed shere's a dew like dis, gab it fo me, ill oo?"
"Huh?" A drowsy Two Bit and I asked at the same time. She spat out the toothpaste in the kitchen sink.
"A shoe like this one, under the bed, find it for me."
I bent down to look and she hurried to the kitchen.
"Hey, who made coffee?" She asked.
"That would be me." Steve came in off the balcony.
"Thanks." She grabbed two mugs and filled one of them with coffee and paused. "You don't drink coffee, do you? Sorry, forgot. What about..." She frowned and paused. "What about an apple?"
"Sounds good to me."
"Did you find that shoe?" I handed it to her. "Thanks. Here." She handed me an apple from a bowl on the counter. She bent down to strap on the shoe and grimaced. "Run in my nylons, drat. Oh well."
"Hey, Angel?"
"Hm?" She stood up and took a sip of her coffee.
"You've got four minutes."
"Crikes! I've got to go! Good morning Ponyboy, sorry to wake you! Bye!" She ran out the door and the stuck her head back in, "Don't forget to lock up!" And the she was gone. Steve nudged me to the window and I got a glimpse of her peeling out of the drive and practically hitting a mail truck. The mailman shouted out her and I heard her yell "sorry!" before she vanished down the street.
"You've got to get to work Dar," It was Soda. "You too, Steve." I sighed; my truck was parked six blocks away in an ally.
"C'mon Steve, let's get outta here. Two Bit? Go get your car and bring these two home, okay?" Two Bit saluted me.
"Sir! Yes sir!"
"Don't forget Darry, your company picnic is this afternoon!" Soda hollered after me as Steve and I left the apartment.
"Thanks Pepsi Cola!"
