I know, it's been like almost 6 months since I updated. But I had good enough excuses. I'll explain to anyone who wishes to know, but there's way too many to list here. So, this chapter is going to be half in Ponyboy's point of view and half in Cherry's POV. Enjoy!

Ponyboy's POV:

I climbed silently into the truck beside Sodapop. Darry had a look on his face that I couldn't quite interpret. It was a look of mingled worry, angst and anger. Those were the best times to just keep your mouth shut. So, that's exactly what I did.

About halfway to the house, Darry started to yell. I sat still, staring out the window at the passing houses and kept my mouth shut.

"Ponyboy, what the hell were you thinking? Walking over to the West side alone? You could have been jumped and none of us would have been able to find you. Lucky us Two-Bit told us that you were planning on heading over to Cherry's," Darry yelled. Silent tears filled my eyes, but I wiped them away quickly.

"I was just trying to talk to Cherry. I wanted to know why she wouldn't talk to me at school," I lied. I couldn't tell Darry about the bond between us. Only Johnny would understand, and maybe Sodapop.

"You should have let me or Soda drive you. It's almost dark and you walked here all on your own!"

"I shouldn't have to have someone with me everywhere I go!" I exclaimed back at Darry. Soda had remained quiet the whole time. "I'm almost 15 years old! I should be old enough to walk from my house to the other side of town by myself!"

I couldn't hold the tears back anymore. They streamed freely down my face. I looked over at Soda and the laughter in his eyes. The tears were rolling down his face too. Soda put his arm on my shoulders and squeezed them gently as we pulled up in front of our house.

Darry got out of the truck and slammed the door behind him. He stormed up to the house and threw that door open, too. He then proceeded to slam the front door and then walk to his bedroom and slam that door as well.

"Soda, why can't he just leave me alone? I'm almost 15 years old. I can take care of myself without him following me around all the time," I asked softly, wiping my eyes.

"He just wants to keep you safe, Pone. He doesn't want to lose you, too. If anything happened to you again, he'd never be able to stop feeling guilty. Even though he seems to be tougher on you than on me, it's because he knows how much potential you have and that it would devastate all of us if something happened to you. We almost lost you once; we don't want that to happen again because who knows what could happen the next time," he replied, pulling me into a hug.

Soda sat down on the couch and I sat on the floor at his feet. He rubbed my shoulders and as I was nodding off, Darry burst out of his room.

"Pony, don't you understand that all I want to do is keep you safe? Soda and I would be devastated if anything happened to you. We don't want to lose you like we lost Mom, Dad, Johnny and Dallas," he said, his eyes pleading with me. The previous anger was replaced by worry and sadness.

"Could we keep Johnny and Dal out of this?" I asked.

"Pone, you've got to get over this. It's not just going to go away. The only way the pain is going to stop is if you talk about it," Darry replied sharply.

"We've been through this, Dar," Soda spoke up for the first time all night. "He knows that he needs to talk about it. It only makes it worse when you bring it up in every conversation. You know how sensitive he is about it."

Darry didn't argue with Soda. It always amazed me how nobody could ever be mad at Soda, not even Darry.

"Next time you need to talk to somebody on that side of town, get Two-Bit or one of us to drive you over there."

"Excuse me for not wanting to pull you two away from your jobs. And I'd rather not rip Two-Bit away from his precious alcohol. I'm perfectly capable of walking there."

Darry started to argue, but Two-Bit and Steve burst into the house just then. Steve wasn't quite as loud as Two-Bit. Two-Bit was quite obviously drunk and sat down promptly, with the beer still in his hands.

"Hey, Steve," Soda said, getting up off the couch. He was glad that he finally had an excuse to get away from the yelling.

"Hey, Sodapop," he said. "You wanna go down and catch the game down at the school? I think we're playing against that prep school across town, but I'm not sure. Evie and I were thinkin' about going and she suggested askin' you."

"I don't know, buddy. I think I should probably stay here and make sure that my brothers don't rip each other's throats out," Soda said. I could tell he wanted to go, but he didn't voice it.

"Come on, man. You stay here every weekend and make sure that your brothers don't kill each other. If they can't be responsible for 4 hours, then I think they should go to obedience school."

Soda laughed and gave into Steve's taunting. He grabbed his jacket and followed Steve out the door. Two-Bit stayed put. I was about to ask him why he didn't follow Steve and Soda when I realized he had passed out.

Cherry's POV:

The next day at school, I waited for Ponyboy in the cafeteria. He walked into the cafeteria and spotted me across the way. He walked over to me and we walked outside.

"Hey Cherry," he said quietly.

"Hey Ponyboy," I replied. I walked over to a table and Pony followed me. I let him sit for a few moments before I started. I figured I would let him eat, but seeing that he had no intentions to, I started.

"Christopher couldn't get to Shawn in time. The car hit him. The driver didn't slow down, either. He just kept going. And it wasn't like the car ran him over. The car was going so fast that instead of Shawn dropping to the street, he was pinned to the front of the car. Chris chased the car until the car slowed down enough for Shawn to drop to the street. Then the driver sped off.

"My mom and aunt had heard all the screaming outside and rushed out in time to see the driver speed off down the road. They did head checks and saw that Christopher was chasing the car and saw that Shawn was no where in sight. They called the police and the paramedics. By the time Chris got to Shawn the paramedics were there. We lived about 5 minutes away from the fire station. They rushed Shawn to the hospital but they told us it was probably too late. He was dead before we reached the hospital."

I finished and looked at my hands. It felt good to be able to tell someone after so many years, but I was close to tears now and I didn't want to cry at school.

"I'm so sorry, Cherry. I had no idea," Pony added softly.

"Pony," I said, looking up from my hands. "Are you keeping something from me?"

Before he could answer me, though, the bell rang and Pony said goodbye. He rushed off to class and got lost in the crowd.