One Week Later-
The hospital room was eerie, Alana thought. She wondered how many people had died in it, but then quickly pushed that thought from her mind. She was alone on the room, her mother having just left.
She looked at her brother, with his cut and bruised face, the tubes running from his nose and arms. She held his hand in hers, rubbing in gently.
"The keep telling me to go home, Two Bit, but I'm not going anywhere. Not till you wake up." She told him. "This is all my fault. I should've told you about Steve. I just didn't want you to be mad at me." Now that she thought about it, the whole thing was stupid. She should have been up front with her brother when he asked what was going on between her and Steve. None of this would have happened.
"Hey." A soft voice brought her out of her thoughts. Steve was standing in the doorway. "I brought your homework."
Alana had been excused from school for a few weeks and Steve, Beth, or Pony were taking turns bringing her homework to her at the hospital. Steve brought it most the time, because he spent as long as the nurses would let him in Two Bit's room. He didn't want to leave Alana. A few nights before, he came in the middle of the night. He'd gotten into it with his old man. The nurse on duty cleaned his cuts for free, though.
"Hey." She said, making room for him to sit down.
"Any change?"
"No."
Two Bit was in a coma, as far as the doctors could tell. He'd ran a STOP sign and another car smashed into him. He hadn't been wearing his seatbelt and was thrown through the windshield. His right leg was broken and he was suffering some head trauma, but other than that he was okay. Except for the fact that he wouldn't wake up. The doctors were encouraging Alana, Mrs. Matthews, and all of their friends to talk to Two Bit.
"Act likes he's awake, doing the things he normally does. Treat him like you always do."
"Hey, buddy." Steve sat down and patted Two Bit's arm. "How ya doin'? We sure miss you a lot. Grace said she'll be by later."
Grace, Two Bit's girlfriend was nearly as upset about this as Alana was. She was spending a lot of time at the hospital too and she and Alana were getting to know each other pretty well. Alana hoped that Two Bit stayed with this one. She was a keeper!
Steve slipped his arm around Alana. "Everything's gonna be okay, Alana. I promise."
She laid her head against his chest. "I hope so."
"It will be. He'll come round in time. We just gotta keep talking to him, acting like nothings wrong." He looked down into her face. She looked peaked and pale. "I'm gonna run and get you a burger."
"I'm not hungry."
"You need to eat, babe."
"Steve, I said I wasn't hungry." She snapped, then immediately felt bad about it. "I'm sorry."
He shook his head. "It's okay." Normally he wouldn't take that off a girl, but he thought he could cut Alana some slack. "I understand. You're…you're under a lot of stress."
She smiled sadly. "I'm lucky to have such a sweet boyfriend."
Steve smiled in spite of himself. Over the past few years' girls had called him a lot of things, but sweet was never one of them. It felt good to be nice. He and Alana hadn't even done anything yet, besides kiss. Not that he didn't want, because, well, he did, but it didn't seem right now, after Two Bit. After Two Bit woke up…well, who knows?
"How about that burger, huh?" He tried again.
Alana rolled her eyes. He wasn't going to give up, she could see that. "Fine." She said. "A bacon cheeseburger. And, uh, grab me a Pepsi, too will ya?"
"Sure." Steve was relieved that she was finally agreeing to eat something. "I'll be right back."
Alana could hear him out in the hallway, talking to someone. A few seconds later, Grace appeared in the doorway.
"Hey." She said, pushing some of her long blonde hair from her face. "No change?"
"Nope."
Grace took the chair on the other side of Two Bit and took his other hand.
"Hey, hon." She said to him. "How are you? Well, that's a stupid question, isn't it…?"
Alana tried to tune out Grace's one-sided conversation. She studied her brother's girlfriend. She was a pretty girl, Alana had decided, with her blonde hair and blue eyes. She was short, barely taller than Alana (who, at only 5'0, was used to that) and kind of quiet, which was surprising. Two Bit normally liked his women to be as loud as he was.
"Um, not a lot's been happening." Grace was saying. "Natalie and Sara want me to tell you hi. My mom's getting remarried, but you already knew that, didn't you? You'll be awake by that time, so you can be my date to the wedding. I'm the Maid of Honor; I have to have a date..."
Alana felt like she was intruding on a date or something, but what could she do? Grace didn't seem to mind, so Alana didn't do anything. She just sat there, occasionally rubbing her brother's hand.
"Here's your burger…" Steve burst back into the room, carrying a greasy bag. "Oh, sorry, Grace."
"It's okay." Grace said, smiling sadly. "I know I'm babbling; it just feels so weird, trying to pretend that everything's o-okay." She sounded like she was going to start crying at any second.
This made Steve nervous. He'd seen this happen once before. Grace had started to cry and that got Alana going and the next thing he knows, he's got two sobbing chicks on his hands. Uh, yeah, not fun.
"Everything will be okay." He reassured both of them. Anything to keep them from crying. He could handle one girl, but two? Where was Sodapop when he needed him? Soda could cheer anyone up.
Alana was picking at her burger and fries.
At least she was eating.
The next day, the scene in the hospital room was exactly the same, except this time Soda was with them. He had swung by after work with one of those dorky balloons.
"Two Bit'll love this." He said, tying it to the bed. It was a big blue one with 'Get Well Soon!' written on it in fat, yellow letters. "It just say's 'Two Bit Matthews', doesn't it?"
"I thought it said 'Get Well Soon'." A voice from the door said. Everyone looked up to see Ponyboy and Beth. "Any change?"
"No." Grace shook her head, leaning back in her chair. "I hate this, you know? Why won't he wake up?"
"It could be months before he wakes up." Alana said. "It could be years."
"Thank you, Miss. Doom and Gloom." Pony said, plopping down in a chair. "That's the optimistic, upbeat, kinda attitude I like to hear."
Steve shot him the finger. "Shut up, moron."
"Let's not fight, please?" Beth begged. She pushed some of her brown hair from her face. "Please?"
"Yeah." Pony nodded. "Sorry, Alana."
"It's okay." She said. She nudged Steve.
"Oh, uh, I'm sorry too." He said. "I guess."
Alana rolled her eyes at Sodapop, who grinned. He was used to it by now.
"This is stupid." Steve said after a few minutes. "Can't we like, just throw some cold water on him or something?"
"That won't work." Ponyboy shook his head.
"But it would be really funny." Soda said. "You know, if he was awake."
"Which he's not." Alana pointed out.
"He will be." Grace said. "Soon. I know it."
Alana shook her head. As much as she liked Grace, she just didn't see how she could be so upbeat about this whole thing. It just wasn't fair! Her brother didn't deserve this! He was so full of life and it killed her to sit here and watch him just lying in that bed, not moving. It wasn't fair at all.
"How do you know that?" Soda was questioning her. "Are you psychic?"
"Yes." She nodded. "And you better watch what you think, or I'll tell everyone."
"I'm so scared." Soda rolled his eyes. "Hey Darry!"
Darry had just entered the room. "Hi everybody." He said. "Any change?" He asked Alana.
'Why does everyone insist on asking that?' She wondered. "Nope." She said out loud.
"Only seven visitors at a time." A nurse said to them.
Alana counted quickly. "Darry makes seven." She said.
"Oh." The nurse walked on and Alana figured that Darry was so big; he took up the space of two people.
"So, Grace," Soda said. "You can read minds, huh? Can you read Steve's mind? What's he thinking about Alana right now, huh?" He grinned. "Is he thinking about her naked?"
"Soda!" Steve said loudly. "You're sick, man."
Alana rolled her eyes. "I'm not having this discussion." She said.
"Thank God." Two Bit murmured.
Author's Note: I know this chapter is short and I know it's another cliffhanger, but I don't have much time. I'm working on another Outsiders story as well, to be posted after this one's finished. I don't have a name for it yet, but I'm working on one. So watch for it, okay?