Sodapop
"Soda? Sweetheart it's time to wake up," I heard a soft voice call, and I woke up to see Presley sitting up in bed, her red curls in a mess around her.
"What? What time is it?"
"It's almost seven, did you sleep through your alarm?" She asked curiously and I furrowed my eyebrows, trying to remember.
"I don't remember babe… Shit." I said, resting my arm over my face. I felt absolutely exhausted, we brought in a new horse last night (let me just say it's really stupid to get a new horse in the middle of your family reunion) and DJ had told the twins a scary story and they were scared to fall asleep so I had to stay awake with them until they fell asleep (they talked me into letting their dogs sleep on their beds to help protect them).
"It's okay Soda, the horses won't starve if they're fed a couple hours late. I don't have any lessons today, I promise it's okay." I nodded and sat up, leaning over to kiss her,
"We have your doctor's appointment today… Do we want the gender to be a surprise or did we want to know?"
"I want to know… Incase we need time to prepare."
I knew she not only meant prepare a nursery, but to prepare ourselves mentally incase it was another girl.
I kissed her again before pulling the covers back. I moved so I was sitting on the edge of the bed and I stretched, rubbing my face tiredly.
"Do you have any lessons scheduled for today?" Presley asked and I shook my head,
"I figured it would be too busy so I had 'em reschedule."
Our property had two barns- one for English, on the East side of the property, with top of the line amenities, and a barn on the West side of our property for Western Riding. Presley had a impressive record when it came to English- she had won the Grand Prix numerous times (I watched her win her last one not too long ago) and she is even an ex-olympian. However she and her horse didn't have very good luck in the Olympics, he hadn't been feeling well, his leg had been tender and he kept refused a jump- which had gotten them eliminated. The town was still proud (her family and I were extremely proud that she had accomplished her dream, even though she hadn't medaled) and after the last Grand Prix she decided to start teaching and sharing her talents.
When I started working at the barn it had been a strictly English barn. After I'd been running the barn for a couple years I proposed the idea of having a Western barn as well- Western lessons were hard to find now a days. Even though the riding styles were very different and each was frowned upon by the other, having them on complete separate sides of the property (with separate entrances) made it work. We both spent the majority of our day teaching lessons- some kids worked to pay for their lessons which meant less mucking and stone searching for Presley and I.
"Are you and the boys going out tonight?" She asked, getting up and dressed. I went over to my dresser and nodded,
"Yeah, I think we're going to the bar off Alen Street, I'm going to DD babe, I think Darry is too. Are you and the girls doing something?" She nodded,
"Charolette invited us over." I smiled and pulled on my clothes, going to the kitchen where Mom was cooking,
"Good morning you two sleepy heads." She said playfully. I grinned and kissed her head,
"Good morning Ma, breakfast smells delicious." She playfully swatted my hand with her spatula and I reached to get a piece of bacon from behind her,
"Presley you'd better keep a handle on this husband of yours." Presley giggled and got out some drinks for breakfast, the twins came downstairs sleepily (besides Presley and I the only thing that would get them out of bed is bacon). Audrey came in holding Harrison, who still looked to be sleeping in her pink flannel. God I couldn't wait to have another baby.
"Good morning," She said, happily handing Harri to Presley.
"Morning, did you sleep okay?" I asked, already helping myself to fruit. She nodded,
"Yes thank you."
"Is Ponyboy up?" Presley asked and Audrey smiled but shook her head,
"He could probably sleep until noon if I don't wake him, but he's hardly been sleeping so I thought I'd let him sleep in… And Maddie wanted to snuggle with him so I left her in there with him." We nodded and Mom put her spatula in the sink,
"Help yourself children," She said, getting the plates out of the cupboard. We all made our plates and started eating,
"What time is your doctor's appointment today?" Mom asked and Presley finished chewing before wiping her mouth,
"Nine, then we're going to get groceries after."
She nodded, "Okay, I'm meeting the girls down at the guild, I'm sure the boys would love to come." I glanced over at my sons as they nodded excitedly. I knew that the older women had an endless candy supply that my sons surely appreciated.
I looked at Audrey, "Are you going to be okay here alone while we're out?"
She nodded, "My mom wanted me to call once we were all settled in and I'm sure between Harri and my tablet I'll keep occupied."
We nodded before going to get ready for the appointment. We ended up getting there half an hour early and we sat nervously in the waiting room,
"Presley Curtis?" The receptionist called and we stood up,
"Exam room 1 hun."
"Thanks Mary," She said, and we went into the exam room. She sat in the chair and reached to take my hand in hers,
"What if something is wrong with the baby?"
"Shh… You know we have to think positive baby." She swallowed hard and squeezed my hand.
"Hey guys!" Doctor Reid said excitedly, we'd been with her since our very first pregnancy and she knew it had been hard on us.
"So this is your second check up, the first one being to confirm that you're pregnant?"
Presley nodded, resting a hand on her bump nervously, "Right. We're hoping to find out the gender today if it's possible."
"Okay, perfect." She started the ultra sound machine and Presley lifted her shirt up. I saw Doctor Reid give her stomach a second glance and I started to feel sick. I knew something must have been wrong.
"This is going to be cold okay?"
Presley nodded and shivered a little when she put the gel on, and Doctor Reid grinned,
"Well you two, congratulations, you're having a boy!"
"Seriously?" I asked, squeezing Presley's hand in mine tightly, tears filling my eyes.
"Yep, right here is the baby's penis," She said, pointing to the screen. I looked at Presley and tears were running down her face. I reached to rub her back and the doctor performed a routine check up before smiling,
"Do you do a lot of riding now Presley?" She shook her head,
"I stopped as soon as the pregnancy test was a positive."
"Okay great. I don't think you need to take a bed rest again this time, but definitely no riding and let's say nothing to bumpy for the rest of your pregnancy. Also, I don't want a lot of physical activity for the next little while until we run some tests and make sure that you're stable." We nodded but we couldn't take our eyes off the screen.
"Well that's all for me guys, I'll see you back in the next couple of weeks okay?" We nodded and Doctor Reid left, and Presley stood up shakily. I hugged her tightly and she started to cry,
"A boy… A healthy baby boy…" She said between sobs, and I rubbed her back.
"I know baby… We're going to be okay… Our little boy is healthy and he's happy." She wiped her eyes and grinned at me, and I couldn't help but grin back.
There was a soft knock on the door and Mary smiled, "Sorry, I just need to make sure that you two aren't…"
"We aren't… We're just happy our baby is okay."
Mary grinned, we'd been coming to Doctor Reid since we first started trying, "That's amazing, I'm so happy for you two." We smiled and walked out hand in hand, getting in the truck. We drove to the grocery store.
We stopped in the baby aisle and she looked up at me, "Should we start… Stocking diapers and food?" I thought about it, we didn't stock with the twins, we'd stocked enough with the first three babies that we didn't need too, but having twins meant that we quickly went through whatever we had.
"Yeah, let's stock up baby." I said, putting two bulk boxes of diapers on the cart. She grabbed a couple bulk sizes of formula before we started shopping.
"Sodapop?" We heard someone say quietly while we were grabbing a roast, and I looked at Presley curiously before turning to see a blonde woman standing there,
"Yes?" I asked awkwardly. This is a small town with only roughly fifteen hundred people. It wasn't very often we got tourists either.
"It's me… Sandy."
"Oh, hey, how's it been?" I asked, leaning against the cart. She glanced back at a cart that had three little kids in it and smiled,
"Good… How have you been?"
"Great, this is my wife Presley, Presley this is Sandy." Presley smiled and shook her hand, but I couldn't help but smirk when my wife didn't offer any kind words.
"Well… It was great to see you Sodapop, I'm glad to see that you're doing well."
"Yeah you too Sandy. Have a great day."
She went back to her cart and I saw a man that I assumed her husband walk over. I leaned to kiss Presley, before we continued shopping.
When we got to the snack aisle there was a young girl talking with her mother,
"Mom please, I want to do riding lessons," She said quietly. We recognized them as Taylor and her Mom Julia, they had come for a tour of our barns not to long ago.
"Sweetheart I said no. We can't afford horse lessons right now."
We waited for a couple minutes before continuing, smiling at them, "Hi Julia, hi Taylor!" I said, and Julia smiled at us,
"Hello Sodapop, Presley," She said, looking up from her paper. I knew what that paper was- a budget keeper. We used the same thing when Mom and Dad died.
"We've been doing a lot of research… And we've found that there is a way for Taylor to ride." Presley said. Julia swallowed hard,
"I'm sorry?"
"Well, there are many riders at our barn that work during the weekends and some nights after school to offset the cost of riding. We know our lessons aren't the cheap but there's a good reason for that. If you and Taylor are willing, we'd like to offer her a job at the barn. She would work for us for about a month, and then that month will cover a beginner riding package. The only thing that you would need to pay for would be the accessories, which aren't cheap either but with the cost of lessons waved it's certainly manageable." Presley said, and Taylor started to grin.
Julia swallowed hard, we knew she was a single Mom- she lost her husband in the war earlier this year, "We… We can't accept that…"
I gently rested a hand on her arm, "We want to help you… And if this is the way we can help then please let us. We can tell Taylor really wants to ride and I think she may be a natural."
She wiped her eyes before hugging the both of us tightly. Presley smiled at Taylor,
"Do you know what type of riding you want to do?" Taylor nodded,
"English… I know it's more expensive but I want to jump." Presley smiled,
"Why don't you and your Mom come by tomorrow and we'll look through my old gear and we can see what fits you, okay?"
She nodded excitedly and hugged Presley tightly. After making plans for them to stop by tomorrow we finished our shopping and went home, Pony was awake and in the kitchen eating cereal, the girls were sitting in the living room and Audrey was reading to them.
"Hey," Pony said, standing up to help us bring in grocery bags.
"Hey, how did you sleep?" I asked, starting to put food into the fridge.
"Great man, I haven't slept that well in years." He said playfully and I grinned. We put away the rest of the groceries,
"So what do you say, you mind taking us on a tour of the barns? Maddie wants to see the horses." I nodded and so did Presley,
"Yeah sounds great to me, we'll take the truck." I said grinning. Usually to get from one side of the farm to another we used horses, but Presley wasn't allowed to ride horses or the wagon. I grabbed the keys and we all went out to the truck. Pony had Maddie sit between the two of us in the front and Presley, Audrey, and Harri sat in the back.
"Okay so we'll go to the English barn first, Presley can show you what she does and then we'll go to the Western barn… Maybe we could get the girls on to a horse." Audrey grinned,
"That would be amazing!"
We went to the English barn and showed them around, Presley brought them into the outdoor course and showed them the advanced course. We had students coming from all over the south to train, the ones that came during the day were usually extremely well off families that had their children home schooled and were able to focus on riding.
"Wow, this is intense," Pony said, taking Maddie into his arms and he started to walk the course. Then we loaded back into the the truck and went to the Western barn. The girls got really excited when I suited up a pony, bringing them outside into the arena. Ponyboy lifted Maddie on and I gave her a small lesson (essentially I just told her to hold onto the pony's mane and I walked her around the arena). Presley took a couple pictures for our social media pages, and then we realized the time.
"We're going to be late." I said, getting everyone back into the truck.
When we got back to the house Mom was just pulling up and she waved, unbuckling the boys out of their car seats.
"Hey, I thought you'd be gone by now." She said and I shook my head,
"We're going to be leaving in the next couple of minutes, we got distracted at the barns." She nodded,
"Well I thought that the kids and I could watch some movies tonight, maybe play a couple board games and order some pizza for dinner."
I smiled and kissed her head, "Thanks Mom. Are you sure you're okay watching four toddlers?"
"Of course. I had five of my own, I will manage Sodapop."
We nodded and went to get changed,
"Do you have any cash on you to leave for pizza?" Presley asked me and I went to the jeans that I was wearing earlier. I pulled out forty dollars,
"Will this cover it?" I asked and she nodded, pulling on her dress,
"It should. Thanks babe."
We went downstairs and said goodbye to our kids and we started the drive to Darry's house. When we got there the guys pretty much came out as soon as we pulled up so I kissed Presley (Pony kissed Audrey as well) and they left to go inside.
"How many seats do you have?" Darry asked,
"I've got six, I'll DD."
He nodded and got the keys to their car, "I will too. I'll follow you man." I nodded and Two-bit, Steve, and Johnny climbed into my truck. I knew that Dallas was likely talking business with Darry, Darry had offered him a promising position that he likely couldn't turn down. I start the drive to the quiet bar we normally went to.
"Hey boys," The bartender said and I grinned,
"Hey Henry. Can I get four beers, two cokes, and a water please?" He nodded and the we all grabbed our drinks, going to sit at one of the tables.
"So Johnny you and Elena planning on having more kids?" Steve asked, opening his beer. Johnny nodded,
"We are actually, we just wanted to settle in here and get out jobs back up and running before we started trying."
"Wow, good for you guys." Ponyboy said, and I looked over at him,
"Are you and Audrey trying?"
He shrugged, "I don't think so. Half the time with our jobs it's like we hardly have enough time for Maddie and Harri, another kid wouldn't be ideal."
I nodded and Darry looked over at me, carefully observing me, "Are you and Presley trying again?" I swallowed hard and shook my head before I couldn't help but start to grin,
"We're having a boy!" I exclaimed and the guys all grinned and patted my shoulder, congratulating me.
"What about you Dallas? You and your girl going to have another baby?" Dally shrugged,
"I don't know. We weren't trying for this one." I sighed- it sounded like he needed help.
"So what kind of wedding are you two having? Have you looked into that yet?"
"Yeah a small one."
"That's nice that she wants a small wedding," Two-bit said, and Dally smirked,
"Nah man she wants a huge wedding but I don't."
"You… You don't?" Johnny asked, and I knew at this point everyone knew that I was trying to get at.
"Nope. I don't want any of that shit."
Steve sighed, shaking his head.
"What?" Dallas asked irritably.
"You know that women have been planning their wedding since they were like five right?"
"Yeah, so?"
"I don't think it's very smart to put huge breaks and rules on the most important day in a woman's life."
"Bullshit. A wedding isn't the most important day of her life."
"She's marrying the man of her dreams, proving her love to her family and to whatever God you believe in. It's the biggest day of their life." Darry said, siping his drink.
"Come on, Johnny you're on my side right? The wedding you had was over the top and a waste of money."
"No." Johnny said, looking down the table to Dallas, "My wedding may have been over the top and expensive yes, but it was the way Elena and her Mom pictured it. There was nothing Elena could have changed about it, and if that's what she wanted I wanted to make sure she had it. Sure I hated that there were roughly six hundred people there… But Elena was happy. She had been the happiest I've ever seen her and that made it all worth it. Sure, I would have preferred we go somewhere and get married on a quiet beach but the point I'm trying to make is that once we sign up to get married, there's no more 'No, we're not doing that because I don't want too', you need to make compromises. If you won't make her happy, don't forget that someone else could."
Dallas was quiet for a couple minutes before he sighed.
"We don't want to say you need to change Dallas… But you should try not too be too stubborn. Beth is a great girl and she signed up to be with you." I said before I sighed. I was trying to make this sound right, "She signed up to be with you, she knows what she's getting herself into. All I'm trying to say is… Maybe you could surprise her once in a while. Wedding's aren't the best, it's a lot of stress and a lot of pressure. But she's having your baby and moving back to Tulsa and I'm sure she would have preferred to stay in New York with her career. If it's not only her that wants a big wedding… It would definitely give you bigger brownie points."
He sighed, "Fine, I guess this means I'm going into debt."
"You've got a house, a girl, and a kid. You were already in debt." Darry said with a playful grin.
"Ugh enough with all this cutie patotie talk, let's talk dirty," Two-bit said, opening his second beer, "You really think the girls are back at Darry's house gushing all the cute details? No! They're talking dirty about us and I know it."
"How do you know that?" Steve asked before I noticed Two-bit smirk,
"Because I know that you and Tessa don't have sex very often because you two do some fifty shades of grey shit." Steve grit his teeth and shrugged,
"Fine, I know some dirty secrets about you but I bet you don't want them shared." Being brother-in-laws I bet they knew quite a bit about the other, with Tessa and Olivia talking every day.
"Okay that's enough. Come on, let's talk dirty about the girls and get to know them."
"Absolutely not. Because you can't keep your mouth shut." Johnny said and Two-bit gave him a challenging smile,
"I bet sex is boring with Miss Prim and Proper Elena. Johnny slow down. Johnny don't put it there. We only do it in the bedroom Johnny, remember? Oh Johnny, it's not nine o'clock yet, we can't. We scheduled twenty minutes at nine." He said in a very feminine voice and Johnny got a wicked grin on his face. He knew Two-bit was trying to coax information out of him.
"Okay Two-bit. I'm not giving any dirty details on my wife but I can assure you that my sex life is better and more often than yours." He said, and Pony smirked,
"How many times a week?"
"Ten," Two-bit answered, "On a bad week."
Johnny shrugged, "Fifteen, not counting oral."
"Jesus, fifteen times in seven days?"
"Yeah man."
"Who woulda thought that the only one getting good action would be little Johnnycakes," Steve said playfully. Johnny smirked and shrugged,
"I do what she asks, I get what I want."
"Don't you find it weird that you've only ever slept with one woman?" I asked.
He shrugged, "Why would that be weird?"
"Like there's so many things you've never tried, or experienced. Some women love things that other women hate or have never heard of."
"Elena and I are open with each other about stuff like that. As long as the other is okay with it we try it. Some stick and some we never talk about again," He said with a lopsided grin.
"Fair enough," Pony said. Besides Johnny I think I'm the only one who knows that Pony's been with more than one woman.
"What about you and Audrey?"
"Well I mean… Not very often."
"Really?"
"Yeah, I mean with the girls and the both of us working so much we didn't really have a lot of time."
"That's understandable," Darry said.
A couple hours later we drove back to Darry's house, when we walked in the girls were giggling and Olivia quickly stopped talking,
"Hi babe," Two-bit smirked and shook his head,
"Come on, are you driving or am I?"
"I had a couple glasses of wine," Olivia said and Tessa smiled,
"Steve and I will drive you guys home." Presley stood up and came over and kissed me softly.
"Let's head home, I'm exhausted." I nodded and we waited for Pony and Audrey before we drove home.