Chapter 3
When Emily got off from work that afternoon she was surprised to find Soda waiting for her, "Hey, what are you doing here?" She asked him watching him with a confused expression on her face.
Soda hesitated, "Had to, no one else to pick you up, Two Bit is too sick, Steve couldn't leave the shop, and Darry's at work, and well, no one trust Pony to drive…and…" he stopped.
"Dally can't, because he's not here," she said softly and he hesitated opening his mouth to say something, but she quickly said, "I can walk you know…really, it's not that far."
"I know, there's just been some problems with Socs lately and none of us want to take a chance, you know they'll jump on the opportunity to jump a girl," he paused not wanting to say 'girl greaser', "a girl who's the sister of one of the greasers… we just worry that's all."
Emily sighed and shrugged. "Alright, well let's get going, I have to make dinner tonight, provided Two Bit will stop throwing up long enough to eat."
He held the door open for her, and when she got in he went around to the other side and got in as well. "You know if you ever need help taking care of him when he gets drunk you can call us, you shouldn't have to do it alone."
"I know," Emily answered and looked out the window, "But…sometimes I think it embarrasses him, and well I don't mind, I've gotten used to it. It's just the drinking has gotten worse since…" She paused letting her sentence trail off.
Soda nodded, "Well if you ever need to get away you know the door to our house is always open, night or day, although if you come at night, you probably won't get as nice of a greeting." He smiled at her quickly before turning his eyes back to the road.
"Don't worry I wouldn't interrupt at night except for a real emergency, and then I wouldn't expect a really good welcome."
Soda nodded. "Pony said thanks for the book, he's been holed up writing all day, not sure what though although I'm dying to read it. Darry told Pony he'd make sure I don't read it."
Emily laughed, and shrugged, "Oh speaking of Darry, here's his aspirin…I hope his back is feeling better, it's supposed to be extra strength or something, not sure it'll help, but it's better than nothing." she set the bottle down next to him on the seat.
He picked up the bottle, slipping it into his coat pocket. "Thanks. I'll give it to him when I get back."
She opened the car door and slid out as she grabbed her bag. "Thanks for the ride Soda. Tell Darry and Pony I said hi."
Sodapop nodded and paused for a minute. "Need me to come in with you? See how Two Bit is doing?"
"I think I'll be okay, he's probably just asleep anyway, and he'll most likely be in a really crabby mood because of his hangover. I'll call or come over if I need help or anything." She shut the door to the car, and waved goodbye to Soda as she walked up to the door and opened it, walking inside.
Soda stayed where he was for a moment, and watched her until she got inside, then backed out of the driveway and headed towards home.
Emily set her things down on the kitchen table, and opened the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of water. As she opened it, she walked into the living room to find her brother sitting on the couch, staring blankly at the television set, which appeared to be off. "Hey," she said walking over to the couch and sitting down next to him putting her feet up on the coffee table. "Have you been sitting here all day?"
Two Bit looked over at her, and shook his head. "Nah, I was asleep most of the day, hangovers are nasty, never drink."
"Don't worry, I won't, you do enough of that for the both of us," she commented dryly as she took a sip of the water and then offered it to him. Two Bit took it, drank some and handed it back. "Soda is worried about you, you know. We're all upset, and we all miss them a lot, but it's not good for you to sit here all day drinking and staring at a blank television set."
"I'm fine," he said forcing a smile as he looked over at her. "Just a little hung over is all."
"Don't lie to me Two Bit Matthews," Emily said with a frown, "I'm you're sister. Soda is one of your best friends. We want to help. We're all going through the same thing right now."
Two Bit paused for a minute, and seemed to get choked up. "No, we're not." He turned his gaze from hers back to staring at the blank television set.
She fell silent, not sure what to say in reply. After a few minutes of staring at the same blank television set, she cleared her throat. "I think you need to get out of here. Call up Amanda go get something to eat, see a movie, take a walk….do something; anything but just sitting here. I bet she's worried about you, you haven't called in a few days, and everyone knows that you guys used to talk at least twice a day."
"Maybe later," Two Bit responded. "I don't really feel like talking to her right now- besides, she's probably happy that Dally is gone, he used to scare the hell out of her."
"That's not true," Emily said with a frown, "you know her better than that. She wouldn't want him to die just because he scared her." She sighed softly. "Look, if you don't want to go do anything with her, go do something with Soda. Or Darry. Or Steve. Or go visit Ponyboy. And if you won't do it for yourself, do it for me, I'm sick of cleaning up your beer bottles and watching you sit on this couch like a zombie."
"Gee, thanks for the sympathy," Two Bit said dryly.
Emily gave him a slight smile. "No problem. That's what little sisters are for, right?"
Two Bit grunted slightly and ran his hand through his hair. "If you want me to go out, I'll go out, but I won't like it."
"Fine by me," She replied with a shrug. "I'm not going to require that you like it, I'm just going to require that you get your butt off this couch. We can go see Ponyboy if you want, you haven't been to see him in a few days…. Let me just get changed out of this awful uniform." She handed the bottle of water to Two Bit to finish, and stood up, and went into her room. A few minutes later she came back out in jeans and a t-shirt. "Alright, let's go. We'll just walk, it's not far."
Two Bit stood up and shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans as he followed his sister outside. As they walked, Emily tried to think of something to say to him, but it was clear by his expression that he wasn't really in the mood to talk. She bit her lip and stared straight ahead. She had never seen him this upset and for so long before. Granted, he had reason to be upset, they all did, but this was very unlike him.
When they reached the Curtis's house a few minutes later, Emily knocked on the door and waited for someone to answer. After a moment the door opened and she saw Soda standing on the other side a piece of chocolate cake in his hand. "Little late for breakfast," she teased with a smile as he opened the door to let them in.
"Nothing else in the house," Soda said with a shrug. "Besides, cake is good for any time of the day."
"Is Ponyboy here? Two Bit and I thought that we would come by and say hello…we haven't seen him in a while."
"Yeah, he's in his room, still writing. Like I said, I don't know what he has to write about though," Soda replied with a shrug as he set the plate with the piece of cake on it on a table, and led the two down the hall. "He might not be too talkative; he's been pretty quiet lately. He's been having awful dreams lately so he's pretty tired." Soda knocked on the door gently. "Pony? Emily and Two Bit are here to see you…" When he got no response, he opened the door slowly. "Go on in," he said softly to the two of them.
Inside, Ponyboy was sitting at a desk, which he had pushed up against the window, a pencil in one hand, the notebook that Emily had given him lying open in front of him. "Hey Pony," she said as she walked into the room, Two Bit following.
"How ya doin' kid?" Two Bit asked as he watched the back of Pony's head.
After a few minutes Pony turned around, a tired worn out look on his face. "About as good as can be expected."
Emily nodded. "Soda tells me that you've been holed up in here all day. Why don't we go for a walk or something? You probably haven't eaten much, we could stop and get something to eat, a burger or something; just the three of us, you, me, and Two Bit."
"Well, maybe it would be good to get out of here for a little bit," Ponyboy replied, and smiled slightly, "Then Soda won't be hovering around my door trying to figure out if I'm okay or not."
She laughed. "That's what brothers are for." She looked over at Two Bit who was staring idly out the window, past Ponyboy's head.
Pony followed Emily's gaze for a moment, and then stood up and grabbed his jacket off the bed. "Come on, let's get out of here." He slid the notebook that Emily had given him in the back pocket of his jeans, and left the room.
Emily followed him out, followed by Two Bit. "See you later Soda!" She called as the trio left the house, letting the rickety old screen door close behind them.
"Where are you going?" Soda asked as he stopped in front of the screen door to look out at them.
Pony shrugged, "Just out. Take a walk; get some food….just out."
"Want me to go with you?" Soda asked, a slightly worried look on his face.
"He'll be fine," Emily commented, cutting in. "We won't be gone too long. Besides, we're just going to stay around here- we won't go too far, and Two Bit is with us in case we need anything."
"Alright then, I'll see you guys later. Call if you need anything." He watched them for a moment longer then went and sat down in front of the television, turning it on.
"He doesn't need to watch me every minute," Pony said as he shoved his hands in his pockets and started walking.
"He's just worried. You've been through a lot, not that we all haven't but…" She shrugged and let her sentence trail off. "He just doesn't want anything to happen to you, that's all."
"I think I'm going to go home Emily," Two Bit commented after a few minutes of walking. "I'll meet up with you guys later."
She frowned slightly. "Are you sure? I thought you were going to get out of the house for a while."
"Maybe later. Right now I think I just want to get some sleep." At her frown he gave her a slight smile, "just tired from the hangover that's all. Don't worry kid." He reached out to mess up her hair, and Emily, used to it, stepped back avoiding his hand.
"Alright…I'll be home later. If you change your mind you can come and join us."
Two Bit nodded. "Sure." He nodded at Pony. "See ya later Ponyboy."
Pony said goodbye, and watched him walk away. Emily looked down at the ground, a little upset. "I don't know what's wrong with him. He's never acted like this before. All he does is sit on the couch at home and drink."
"Well, like you said, we all have been through a lot," Pony commented as he kicked a stone that was in the middle of the sidewalk. "Everyone deals with it in their own way I guess."
She nodded and fell silent for a few minutes. After a moment she sighed, "I just wish he could deal with it in a non-destructive way."
Pony made no reply, mostly because he did not know what to say. He continued to kick the stone as he walked. "Let's not talk about this," Emily spoke up finally, even though they weren't technically talking about it, each was thinking about it. "Soda tells me that you have been writing a lot, and he's dying to know what you're writing."
He nodded. "I know. And maybe someday I will show it to him."
"Fair enough. If you finish that notebook up, let me know and I'll get you another one from the store."
As they continued to walk, they both lapsed into silence again, and the rest of the walk continued in that manner.
When she got home, Emily looked walked into the living room, surprised to see that Two Bit was not sprawled out on the sofa. "Two Bit?" She called as she knocked on the door to his room. When she received no response, she opened the door, and realized that the reason that she did not receive an answer was because he wasn't inside. Sighing with frustration, she grabbed a piece of paper and wrote him a quick note, explaining that she had an extra shift at work that night and wouldn't be back until late. She left it on the table and quickly changed before hurrying out the door.
A few hours later, Emily finished work, exhausted and ready to go home and lay down. She finished closing up, waved goodbye to her friends, and left to walk home. As she walked down the street, she wished that she had asked Two Bit to come and pick her up in the note she had left. It was almost pitch dark, and not being able to see everything around her was making her a bit jumpy.
Fifteen minutes later she had arrived home, not surprised that there was no car in the driveway, she knew her mother usually worked late. She pushed open the gate and walked up to the front porch, where she dug around in her bag for her house key. For a moment she considered knocking on the door, but realized that that would involve Two Bit get out of bed to come and open the door, which was not likely to happen, even if he still was awake. She finally felt her fingers brush across something metal, and she grabbed it. A moment later she had unlocked the door and turned on the light in the kitchen. Too tired to get anything to eat, and convinced that if she looked she wouldn't find much in any of the cabinets or the refrigerator, she was about to go into her room and go to bed when she realized that the note she left on the table hadn't been touched. The pencil was still sitting next to it, exactly how she left it.
Leaving the kitchen, she walked into the living room, which showed no signs of anyone having been there since she had left. She looked around for a moment longer, and then walked over to Two Bit's door, and knocked. Again she received no answer, and she took the liberty to open it herself. The room was dark, but the light that came through the window was enough to show her that Two Bit was not in bed. Emily ran a hand through her hair, and sighed, torn between going to bed and just letting it go; there had been nights when he hadn't come home before, and trying to find him. Normally she would have just gone to bed, trusting that he would be back by morning, or mid afternoon, whenever he woke up at wherever he had been, but this time was different. The fact that he had not been acting like himself lately was enough to convince her that she should try and find him before going to bed.
The most obvious place to start, at least to her, was with his friends. Picking up the phone, she curled up in a chair, and dialed Steve's number. After ten rings no one had answered, and she hung up. She stared at the phone for a moment before she dialed the Curtis's number. It only took five rings for a groggy, annoyed voice, to pick up on the other end. "Yeah?"
"Darry?" She asked, taking a guess, even when they weren't tired and annoyed all the brothers sounded the same.
"Yeah, who is this?" he asked, an annoyed tone in his voice still.
"It's Emily… I'm sorry to wake you." She bit her lip, hoping he wasn't too mad.
"Emily?" It took a moment for Darry to focus and realize who he was talking to. "You do realize it's two thirty don't you?"
"Yeah, I know… Sorry about that. It's just I was wondering if you had seen Two Bit tonight."
Darry shook his head. When he realized that she couldn't see him, he responded, "No I haven't. He hasn't been around here tonight, why?"
"He never came home this afternoon….he was supposed to go out with Pony and I, but he said he'd rather go home and sleep, and I haven't seen him since. I'm worried, the funeral is this afternoon and he hasn't been acting like himself lately…I just don't want him to do anything stupid."
Darry was now almost fully awake. "Give me about ten minutes. Soda and I will come over and help you look for him."
"Thanks," she said and hung up the phone. She stared at it for a few minutes, and then rested her head against the back of the chair, and closed her eyes. Although she was exhausted, she could not keep her eyes shut, and finally abandoned the idea of resting for a few minutes, and instead went to the window to watch for Soda and Darry.