Two-Bit POV

Taking the cold and cool bath Darry left for me was the highlight of my day. As soon as I stepped a foot in, I could feel sudden relief taking over my body, and it felt really nice. I laid back and sunk down further into the water every moment of so until I fell asleep.

I woke up and was confused as to why I was in the bath. Wait… I know now. I should probably get out. I push myself up and out of the tub, grabbed the towel Darry had left me and began drying myself off. It wasn't until I was putting on Darry's underwear was there a knocking on the door that even though it was light, it still scared me some.

"Two-Bit? Hey Two, you almost done?" It was Darry. I leaned over the bath and pulled the plug to drain the water.

"Yeah Dar, hold on just a sec and I'll be out there." I sounded terrible. Even I knew that I did. I was congested and I was slowly losing my voice, but by the way that I was holding up so far, I knew I wasn't going to retch anywhere anytime soon.

I put on my pants and grabbed up the socks and opened the bathroom door. I stepped out and suddenly I saw stars.

"Hold on, go to my room for a minute okay?" Darry asked me. I obliged as soon as my vision got back and made my way to Darry's room.

I closed the door behind me and flopped down on Darry's super comfy bed; which ended in me almost puking my guts out. I groaned to myself when my head gave a nice throb, indicating for me to stop moving and shut the hell up. I heard the sound of Darry and Pony talking, then Pony coughing like I had earlier as Darry made his way to the room.

He opened the door and laughed when he saw me. "Hey Two-Bit. You okay?" I moaned and groaned as I got up and sat on the edge of the bed. Darry pointed out how my hair looked like a rat's nest and I only mumbled in return.

"Ay, come on. Let's go to the living room kay? It's getting dark and I need my bed. I'd love for you to sleep on it, but I don't know if I'm going to work tomorrow. Gotta watch out for you." I was getting quite tired. I stumbled trying to get up and off of the bed which ended up with Darry helping me get to the living room. The Curtis' had a pull out couch that was super comfy believe it or not.

When me and Darry walked into the living room, Ponyboy had already pulled out the bed and was covering it with sheets and blankets and pillows. I stumbled over to it and threw myself on it. Darry came over to me and put his hand on my forehead.

"I think that cool bath helped with your fever a little. You're still really hot though," I stared at him with my watery and glassy eyes. He took his hand back and frowned.

"Pony, go get the bag of stuff Soda got from the store." Pony walked over to beside Darry.

"I don't know where it is though…" The two brothers looked at each other.

"Then go ask Sodapop." Pony nodded and walked to his room. He knocked on the door, opened it slightly and called Soda's name. He looked back at us with his face in knots. He opened the door all the way and walked into the room.

"He's not in here!" Pony cried. I sat up as Darry stood up.

"What do you mean?" Darry made his way over to the bedroom and saw, too, that Soda wasn't occupying it. Darry walked to the middle of the house and told me to cover my head if I didn't want my head to split open. I did as he said as soon I heard a muffled Darry yell: "SODAPOP PATRICK CURTIS!"

No answer.

I got up and walked into Pony and Soda's room and noticed something below the already broken window. "Hey Dar," I said in my almost fully gone voice. "What's all this glass doing here?"

Darry walked over to where I was. "That's where Pony broke the window." I looked at Darry, then saw Pony shaking his head.

"No it's not. When I was cleaning up earlier, I already cleaned up the glass," He pointed to the trash can. "See? It's all in there."

Finally, the realization struck me before it did anyone else. "You guys…" The two remaining Curtis' looked at me. "Soda snuck out."

Darry placed his hands on his hips. "How do you know?"

"Two things, there's no window screen, only a whole to get outside to," I then pointed my hand out the window. "And I can see Soda and Steve making their way towards the house. Wait, is Soda limping? Holy shit… look at the blood on Steve! And golly, Soda's got some bruises now does he?!"