Disclaimer: Same as other chapters: I own nothing. (except Sunny, Gary, and Vince.)
Authors Note: Well, the reviews I got for the last chapter were awesome. Very nice predictions ;) Let's see if they play out!
Chapter Nineteen: He's… Gone?
The next morning, I woke up and looked over at Ponyboy and Soda's bed, and neither of them was there. I groaned knowing that meant thatI had to do the dishes with one of them. Darry was always the first one up. So, I got up, grabbed some clothes and went into the bathroom to have a shower.
After my shower, I put on my eyeliner, dried my hair, and put on the clothes I brought to the bathroom, which were these really tight leather pants that used to be my mom's when she was my age, or maybe even younger. I also put on a red shirt with the Coca-Cola logo on it. When I went into the living room, Ponyboy was doing the dishes while Soda laid on the couch. Darry was gone.
"Where's Darry? And why are you two home?" I asked.
"It's Saturday, and my day off. And your too, I think," Soda said. I walked over to the calendar and saw that indeed, somehow me and Soda had the day off that Ponyboy had off from school, Saturday.
"Sunny, you have to help me do the dishes," Ponyboy said.
"Sure Pony," I said and grabbed a towel.
"Are you wearing Mom's pants?" Ponyboy asked.
"I could be," I said and kept drying the dishes.
After the dishes were done, I sat on Soda's legs on the couch and Ponyboy sat on the floor.
"Do you guys know where Dally is?" I asked. Ponyboy and Soda's eyes went really big for a second, then they casually said, at the same time,
"Tim Shepards," I looked at them suspiciously.
"Well, I'm going over there to see him," I said, getting off Soda's legs.
"No!" They both yelled, and jumped up, blocking the door.
"Okay, guys, what the Hell is going on?" I asked.
"Umm, It's uh… It's all of our days off! Don't you wanna hang out with us?" Soda asked.
"Uh… sure…" I said, still suspicious of what was going on. We went back and sat down in the living room. We decided to play a game, so Soda pulled the coffee table closer to the couch and Ponyboy went to the closet to get a game.
"I only see a deck of cards," Ponyboy called from the closet.
"Well, that's okay, bring 'em out," Soda said. Ponyboy walked into the living room with the deck of cards and set them on the table.
"What do you guys wanna play?" I asked them.
"Anything…" Pony mumbled under his breath.
"What was that?" I asked him, suspiciously again.
"Um, I said, uh, crazy eights, let's play crazy eights," Ponyboy covered himself. I raised one eyebrow at him.
"Alright," I said and dealt the cards.
About and hour later, I had won against both of them about 50 million times, so I decided to go to Tim's and look for Dally.
"Okay, now I'm going to see Dally," I said, walking over to te door.
"No! You can't!" Soda yelled.
"Why not?" I said, frowning at them.
"Because, uh, Angela is… um, PMSing, yeah, she has PMS, she's really grumpy," Soda said.
I looked at them both, eyebrows raised and a skeptical expression on my face. It was silent for a second.
"Besides, don't you want to uh, come see a movie with us?" Ponyboy asked.
"Yeah, a movie, let's go," Soda said.
"Fine," I said, rolling my eyes and bending down to put on my shoes. However, I couldn't find my shoes, so I had to put on some kind of black high tops that I found that could have been anyone's.
"Okay let's go!" Soda said, and him and Ponyboy practically dragged me to the movie house.
When we got into the movie house, the movie that was playing was this very boring movie that was one of Ponyboy's favourites, so we'd already seen it about a million times.
Halfway through the movie, I snuck out without Pony or Soda noticing and went outside to have a cigarette. While I was smoking, I saw this ring store across the street. I looked in the window, admiring all the diamond rings. I frowned in confusion for a second though, when I saw a familiar-looking guy in there. He was turned away from me, so I only saw his brown leather jacket.
"Oh my God!" Interrupted my thoughts. I looked over and saw Soda standing outside the movie house.
"Soda, doesn't that guy look l-" But got interrupted again by him tackling me, right to the ground. In the middle of town, right on the sidewalk and all.
"Soda! What the fuck are you doing! Get off!" I yelled.
"Let's go back inside!" He said, getting off me, but picking me up and throwing me over his shoulder. He walked backwards too, so I couldn't see the ring store.
What the bloody hell is going on here? I questioned inside my head, while telling Soda to put me down.
He eventually did put me down, but not until we got back into the movie house and he put me down in between him and Ponyboy.
"You two better tell me what the hell is going on today," I angrily whispered to them in the darkness.
"Nothing, nothing's going on at all, look, look at the movie, a guy just fell down!" Soda whispered back, and laughed a very fake laugh at "the guy falling down", making a bunch of people around us turn around, look at him, and go, "Shhh!"
When the movie was over, we walked home, and Soda walked beside me In a way so that I couldn't see the ring store.
Back at him, they kept not letting me leave all day long. They really were starting to make me angry.
Much later, I mean when it was already dark outsider, Darry came hom from work, and he burst in the door, looking very flustered. The three of us walked over to him.
"Darry, what's wrong?" I asked.
"Yeah Dar, what happened?" Soda asked, in a voice that I thought sounded somewhat like a line in a play.
I looked him suspiciously before turning back to Darry.
"Darry, talk to us," Ponyboy said.
"It's… Dally. He's… gone," Darry said, breathing hard from running or something.
I was shocked, I almost fell over.
"What do you mean, he's gone? Where did he go?" I asked.
"I don't… know," Darry breathed, straightening his composure.
"Oh my God," I said. I immediately ran to the phone and picked it up. I called Johnny. Surprisingly, Johnny answered. E said his parents weren't home.
"Do you know where Dally is?" I asked him.
"He's not at your house?" Johnny asked.
"No, do you know where else he could be?" I asked.
"No, I don't, sorry Sunny," Johnny said.
"It's okay, come on over here if you want," I said in a worried voice.
"Okay, bye," Johnny said.
"Bye," I said and hung up the phone. With shaky hands, I dialed Two-Bit's number. His mother answered first, then he got on.
"Two-Bit, do you know where Dally is?" I asked him. His answer was, of course, no.
So, I told him he could come over too. I called everyone, I called Steve, and he didn't know either. Soon though, the whole gang was over at our house except for Dally. I called Tim Shepard, even, but he wasn't home, so I figured Dally wouldn't be there.
I paced nervously around the living room, with the whole gang in there, nobody even sitting down.
"What am I gonna do?" I asked, to everyone I guess.
"I don't know," Someone said, but I was too distracted to look up and see who it was. I guessed it was Soda though. I was deep in thought. Then I knew what I had to do.
"I'm going to look for him," I said.
"You're, you're gonna what?" Darry asked.
"I'm going to look for Dally," I said loudly and started to put on my shoes.
"If you find him, bring him back here," Darry said as I headed out the door.
I hadn't even brought a jacket, and the air outside in the night was freezing. I ran down the sidewalk though, trying not to concentrate on the cold, but on finding Dally. A party was going on at Buck's place, so I ran across the street and knocked on his door.
"Hi Sunny," Buck answered, surprisingly sober. I thought he always got drunk along with everyone else at his parties. Apparently not.
"Hi Buck, is Dally here?" I asked him.
"No, but he was looking for you earlier I think," Buck said.
"Alright, thanks," I said and dashed out of the light of the doorway. As I kept running down the sidewalk, the only thing I could hear was Buck closing the door, my panting, and my feet against the pavement. It was still and quiet outside, and cold.
I didn't know where I'd find Dally, if he wasn't at Tim's, Buck's or our house. I quickly checked his house, but all the lights were out and no one was home, so I guessed he wasn't there.
I checked the lot, he wasn't there either.
Finally, I came to the forest at the edge of town. I bent down and rested my hands on my knees, breathing heavily.
I was almost crying out of fatigue and not knowing where Dally was.
When I straightened myself up, I looked straight up at the water tower about a hundred yards away. At ran my gaze up the tower side, with a ladder on it, until my sights rested at the top where a figure stood at the top of the tower, leaning on the railing, looking out at the town. The figure was silhouetted by the black of night and the moon.
Maybe whoever is up there knows where Dally is, or maybe… that is Dally… I thought wishfully.
I slowly walked over to the tower. When I got there, I put my hand on one of the ladder bars and tugged on it to test its stability. I figured it was safe enough if the person on the water tower had climbed up it.
So, I did it too. I grasped it with both hands, put my foot in and climbed the ladder. It felt like it took forever to climb the ladder. But, I finally got to the top.
I saw the figure, looking directly at me. My eyes adjusted and I saw who it was.
"Dally?" I asked.
"Yeah Sunny, it's me," He said.
"What are you doing up here? Everyone's looking for you, I just looked all over town for you," I said.
"I was waiting for you," He replied.
"Why?" I asked. He walked over to me and kissed me softly on the lips which turned into a hard passionate kiss. When we pulled away, he told me I looked beautiful. I looked down at the leather pants and the very old coke t-shirt. I didn't think it was anything special, but he was very sweet.
"I was waiting for you, because I want to ask you something," He said quietly.
"What?" I whispered. Then, all of a sudden, it started to snow, just like on the day we got together. Dally and I both looked up at the sky and smiled at each other.
He pulled a small black box out of his pocket, and got down on one knee.
"Oh my God…" I whispered.
"Sunny, I love you more than I've ever loved anyone or anything, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. So, Sunshine Curtis, will you marry me?" He asked, opening the box to reveal a perfect diamond ring.
A tear fell from my eye, followed by another, as I responded with a whispered, shaky, "Yes."