Disclaimer: nnnoooooootttttttt mmmmmmiiiiiiiinnnnnnneeeeeee!
They didn't have to wait until tomorrow to find out if things were getting better. Soda woke up in the middle of the night with a start. He felt unbelievably hot. Tearing the covers off of his sweat soaked body, he started towards the bathroom. Being quiet, though, so as to not wake up Ponyboy who was sleeping next to him and Darry who was sleeping in the other room. He remembers that he has not been feeling too good for the past week or so. He dismissed it as a cold, thinking and hoping that it would be gone in a day or two. He realizes now that he was wrong. Soda reached the bathroom and looked into the mirror. He was not surprised to find his face a slightly lighter shade, he has gotten used to the pallor that it has recently taken on. Something that he was surprised about, though, was his flushed cheeks spotted light red with fever. He put a hand to his forehead and found it to be burning up. No wonder I feel so hot, he thought. He dampened a cloth in the sink with cold water and wiped his face off. He was still hot, but he felt a little better. He trodded back to bed and fell back to sleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. The following morning, Soda woke up to Ponyboy shaking him lightly.
"Come on Soda, wake up. You better get out of this bed or Darry and I'll skin you, ya hear?"
"I'm awake. I'm awake. Come on Pony, get off." After Sodapop sat up for afew seconds, Ponyboy was able to see what his brother looked like. But before Pony could say anything, Soda started to cough as he climbed out of the bed. When he was finally over the fit, his eyes were watering and his cheeks were even more flushed that before.
"Gosh Soda, are you okay?" Sodapop turned to face his brother, whose concern was evident in his eyes.
"Uh, yeah." Soda felt bad lying to his brother, but he knew that he couldn't tell him how he really felt because then he would probably be forced to stay home from work. And no work equals no pay, something that the Curtis family could not afford at the moment. Ponyboy took one last look at his brother, shrugged, then went off into the kitchen for breakfast, leaving Soda alone to get ready. Soda thought that he might feel better after a hot shower, so he went into the bathroom and took one. After he was done, he didn't feel as groggy, but he still felt sick. He even started to feel cold, instead of hot, despite the high temperature of the shower, and the one inside of him. Soda walked out of the bathroom fully dressed for work, but bumped into Steve who was waiting for Two-Bit and Pony so they could go to school together.
"Hey man, watch where you're going," joked Steve "Glory, you don't look so good Soda. You feeling alright?" Asked Steve upon further inspection of his best friend.
"Yeah, yeah. Just try not to let Darry find out, okay?"
Soda's POV
I was worried that everyone was going to see through me. I really didn't want our family to lose money on account of me, it just didn't seem worth it. Two-Bit finally came over so he, Steve, and Pony left for school. I was sitting on the couch waiting for Darry to drive us to work when I started to doze off. I suddenly woke up, though, when I felt a cool hand on my forehead. I bolted off of the couch, leaving Darry with a confused look on his face.
"At least let me take your temperature, you feel like you have a fever." said my older brother.
"Darry, no. I'm fine. Let's get to work or we're gonna be late." I finally got to work without Darry questioning me anymore, but I knew that he was going to be all over me when he got home. I was just glad that I had a little time to myself at work. Unfortunately, what was supposed to be a little time at work turned out to be a long time. It seemed like the longest day I have ever worked, and it didn''t help that I started to feel worse as the day progressed. When Steve came to work after school I was almost ready to throw in the towel, almost. I felt like I did something wrong because all day Steve kept an eye on me, it was kind of weird.
Well, the day finally ended and Steve drove me home then went home himself. He said that he couldn't stay over because he was supposed to cook dinner tonight. I felt kind of lost because Steve usually comes over after work, so I walked in the house and sat down on the couch.
"Soda, that you?" Called Pony from our room.
"Yeah, it's me," I yelled back and then started coughing immediately.
"You okay?" asked my younger brother with a concerned look on his face as soon as I was done. I just nodded.
"How was school today, Pony?"
"It was fine. I finished all of my work already cause they're not giving us a lot on account of Christmas break coming up in a few days."
"That's good. I bet Darry'll be happy to hear that."
"Haha, yeah. I hope. So how was work?"
"Slow and dull." I suddenly started to feel really tired and a little dizzy. Ponyboy started to walk back towards our room to read.
"Hey, Pony, it's Darry's turn to cook dinner tonight, right?"
"Yeah, why?"
"No reason, I just thought I'd take a nap before we ate." Pony nodded and headed back toward our room, and I followed him. Pony was sitting at the desk reading some book he said was for a book report. I laid down on the bed and tried to go to sleep. I was getting dizzier and I didn't want to risk doing anything else besides sleeping.
Pony POV
After about and hour and a half Darry came home. He fixed dinner and told me to wake up Soda so we can eat. Darry seemed kind of concerned about Soda, and I don't blame him, I was too. He never takes naps in the middle of the day.
"Hey Soda, wake up. It's time for dinner." I whispered as I was shaking his shoulder, but he wasn't waking up.
"Come on, Soda." Nothing.
A/N: Would this be considered a cliffhanger? Perhaps... I hope you liked this chapter. Same thing applies, suggestions are fabulous! Thanks!