Ok ya'll another chapter up for ya! Thanks for the reviews…as always leave more:)

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"My brother is a rosebud crossbred with a car wreck"

---Jewel

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Soda:

Groggily, I turned over in the bed. It had been good to sleep in for once. Coincidentally, Darry and I both worked the second shift today, meaning we didn't have to be in 'til noon.

Stretching out, I realized I had more than enough room in the bed to do so; I was on Ponyboy's side. He wasn't there.

I frowned trying to remember if I had heard him come to bed. Steve and I had arrived home at about 1 a.m. and Pony still had not been home.

Must've been a late movie.

Pulling on jeans and I t-shirt I found Steve crashed in our living room. "Steve, man, wake up." I kicked my foot against the edge of the couch. He sat up sleepily and rubbed his hair. "What time did Pony get in last night?"

A brief look of annoyance crossed his face. Then, yawning he cocked his head and said, "I don't think he did."

"You sure?"

"Not really. I basically passed out here."

"Figures. You drank enough."

Steve smiled wryly and thumbed in the direction of Darry's room. "I drank enough? Man, I think you better check out your other brother. I definitely remember him coming home." Hauling himself off the couch he made way to the kitchen and turned on the faucet.

I chuckled to myself. Darry coming home after me? That was a first. As Pony and I grew older he had become more sociable and even went out of his way to have fun once in a while.

It was also a first that I had to be the one to wake him up for work that morning.

I had never done this before and I tried to think of a creative way to bring a hung-over Darry around to the morning sun.

Jumping on his bed wouldn't work the way it did with Pony. Kicking him in the head the way I woke Steve up definitely wouldn't work.

Steve handed me a glass of water. "Here, hit him with this."

I shoved it back toward him. "Hell no."

Instead, I settled for throwing on his bedroom light, yelling "Up and at 'em", and exiting as soon as possible. A few minutes later, Darry entered the kitchen and grumbled, "Morning. Thanks for getting me up." Steve and I sat just sat at the table grinning at each other.

"What?" Darry asked exasperatedly.

"Darry, we did toy with the idea of waking you with this," I raised the glass. "But then decided against it for…let's just say the sake of self-preservation."

"Wise choice, little man." Smiling, Darry poured himself a cup of coffee and sighed.

"Headache?" Steve queried.

Darry rubbed his temples. "Big one." He frowned as if disappointed in himself.

"Better get a hold of the aspirin before Pony does," Steve joked, looking pleased with himself.

Darry and I both shot Steve nasty looks. That was still a sore subject with us; we both knew Ponyboy still ate aspirin like candy. He never seemed to break that habit.

Steve coughed and suddenly became interested in the morning paper. "Where is Pony anyways?" Darry asked me.

"I'm not…sure. He went to the movies last night and I didn't see him this morning."

"He come home at all?"

I looked at Steve. He shrugged. "No clue."

My eyes shot worriedly up towards Darry's, whose jaw suddenly tightened. In a tense voice he said, "I'm going to shower." Leaving us in the kitchen, I heard him mutter something about "…giving me an ulcer…"

We tried not to worry so much about our younger brother, now that he was getting older and seemed not to attract as much trouble as he had a year or so ago, but we still couldn't help it.

"Don't worry Soda. He's fine," Steve reassured me, pulling the paper to him. "Probably stealing hubcaps and other acts of juvenile delinquency that kids his age do."

"Please don't remind me," I snorted. That was all Darry needed.

The front door slammed just as the phone in the living room rang. "I got it," Two-Bit yelled out. " 'Ello?" He answered in a cockney, British accent.

"Soda, what's another word for 'despondent'?" Steve asked me.

"Huh?" Steve was now working on the daily crossword puzzle. "Like I would know," I shrugged him off, trying to hear who Two-Bit was talking to.

"…you last night? Ok, ok, chill. I'll put him on. One sec." Two-Bit leaned into the kitchen. "Soda-it's Ponyboy." Getting up I took the phone from him, moving into our living room. Two-Bit plopped into my seat at the table.

"Pone? What's going on?" I asked.

Two-Bit looked on puzzled. "He's sure wound up," he told Steve.

"Soda?" Ponyboy squeaked.

"Yeah, it's me. Where are you?" I swallowed anxiously, he sounded afraid.

"I did something you're not going to like. In fact, you'll probably hate me for this…"

"Ponyboy," I cut him off urgently, wanting to get to the point, "I could never hate you-"

"I took your draft letter," he bleated out.

"Wha-? I didn't even know I had one." My stomach sank. Steve, lifting his head narrowed his eyes slightly and began tapping his pen on the kitchen table.

"You did. It came yesterday. I also took your driver's license. You'll have to get a new one. Sorry, I know how you hate the DMV." His laugh came out unsteadily.

A picture was being painted in my mind. Connect the dots. Solve the puzzle, Soda.

Weakly, I slipped into Darry's recliner. Please don't let it be what I think it is, I thought. "You didn't-?" He couldn't have.

"I'm sorry Soda, I'm not going to let you go. It's the only thing I could think of," he said apologetically.

For a second I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. Then exploding, "So help me God Ponyboy tell me where are right now. God damn it, I don't know what the hell you think you are doing!" My voice cracked and I took a shuddering breath.

He paused, clearly caught off guard at my yelling. I heard the kitchen table chairs scrape back but I ignored it.

Ponyboy's voice lowered, "I gotta go. I love you Soda. Tell Darry too." As an afterthought he added, "Don't bother to stop me, I leave in five minutes."

Then he hung up.

A tightness in my chest had begun to brew.

This is not happening.

"Soda?" Steve's voice brought me back into focus. He and Two-Bit peered at me apprehensively. My pale face displayed my shock but I couldn't voice it. I barely heard Steve call out for Darry.

I said nothing to them as I sat in the chair holding the phone.

I still hadn't said anything by the time Darry took the phone out of my hand and said "Hello?" into the dead receiver.

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