Not—Part 10

Two-Bit's POV

Well. At least I knew where my car was. Parked in the lot by the train station. And not parked very well either. Obviously Soda had been driving, and he'd been in a hurry. And whatever train they took off on had left probably hours ago by now. I checked the driver's seat just in case though. You never knew where a guy would turn up, after all. Needless to say, they weren't in there.

So now what was I supposed to do? I guess if I'd been thinking more clearly I might've gone back to the Curtis' to find Darry and see what to do next, but all that running had made my brain tired. Not to mention my feet. Man, did I need to sit down. I don't know how Ponyboy does the whole track thing. I'm a better fighter than sprinter. Vaguely I wondered if Soda and Pony were even together, or if we were missing both of them and they were in two completely different places. I doubted it though. If Pony'd been the first to take off, I was willing to bet my new switchblade that Soda had gone to find him. Shoot, they were probably goofing off somewhere right that moment! If they were though, I would kill them…

"Excuse me, did you see two teenage boys around this tall?" I asked the person behind the desk, raising my hand and then lowering it to Ponyboy's height. There. Now he knew both Pony and Soda's sizes. But this guy just looked confused.

"No," he said slowly. "We're closing down now for the night, though...why do you want to know, anyway?"

"Because I heard they were going to stow away and rob one of your trains," I said solemnly, and his eyebrows actually went up in alarm. "Actually, because one of them found out he was secretly adopted and ran away and his brother—who isn't actually his brother, as it turns out—followed him here and now they really did stow away on one of your trains to get away from their other brother—who isn't actually the first brother's real brother either. Ya dig?"

Now the clerk looked angry. "Nice try, smart guy," he said with a scowl. "Like I said, we're closing down. Now go find someone else's time to waste." He practically forced me outside before shutting the door, hard, behind me.

Ah, well. That's what I got for telling the truth.

Steve's POV

"Soda, where did you take your kid brother?" I muttered to myself on the way back to Two-Bit's house. I'd gone around the neighbourhood, checked the lot, the park, the DX, shoot I'd even taken a peek in the high school, even though I knew they wouldn't be there. I wouldn't have put it past Ponyboy to just go to some track and run laps, but with Soda along and something as big as the adoption secret being revealed, I highly doubted that's where they would be. No, he would go large-scale. Somewhere far away where it would take a while to catch up with them. But if I knew Soda—and I was pretty sure that I did—he would at least try and get in touch as soon as possible. So it would only make sense that we should check for a phone message or something.

Of course! Soda would obviously first try his own house, but nobody was there, that I knew for sure. No way Darry would wait around on his ass at home when he needed to find both of his brothers. So where would he call next? The only place I could think of would be Two-Bit's.

Good going, Steve, I congratulated myself since no one else was there to do it. Soda would've, I thought, if he'd been there. But of course Soda would go straight to his brother in a time like this. It had always been that way. Even the day we first met, and that was all the way back in the second grade. I'd learned to live with it, because no matter how much I might hate it, there was really nothing I could say or do about it. It was like this puppy that would just follow me around and I would just want to whirl around and kick it just to hear it wince one time. But then, of course, I would feel horrible and guilty afterward, and everyone who saw me would be shocked. I mean, who kicks a puppy like that? Then everyone would think of me as even more as a heartless bastard and I might very well lose some of the closeness I was lucky enough to have with Soda.

It was times when Ponyboy was hanging around Soda and I that I realized how disproportioned our group had become. Without Dallas and Johnny, we were uneven, imbalanced. Ponyboy didn't have anybody real close to his age anymore, so he hung around Soda and I more than he had before. Besides, with Sandy out of the picture I didn't really have my old "we're taking girls" excuse to fall back on when I didn't want him around. And Darry had been working more than ever lately. I couldn't even remember the last time we'd been together to play a football game. Two-Bit was still everybody's buddy, but like I said, the last time we'd been all together had been weeks ago. The group was broken, and we didn't have our superglue Johnny to put us back together.

And when I got back to Two-Bit's house, I found out that I'd been beaten back. Darrel Curtis Jr. was already there.

Darry's POV

It got darker. I got more stressed. I was tense and I'd pulled another muscle at work that day. Coming home, I'd been dying for one of Sodapop's massages. Instead, I found adoption papers. The later it got, the more I got anxious to find them.

I had no idea where to go or what to look for. It was highly unlikely that they were even still in Tulsa. I could only hope that they would have the sense to contact somebody. Somebody like Two-Bit or Steve…

I slammed on the brakes and turned around as fast as I could, speeding in the direction of our house. When I got there, I threw the door open and ran into the house, stupidly hoping to hear the familiar ring of the telephone. Of course, they didn't call just as I got there. That sort of thing would only happen in the books Pony liked to read.

I swore angrily and muttered a curse at the telephone people. Why hadn't they invented something that could tell you if somebody had called when you weren't home? Like some sort of message machine or something. Then I had to grin at my thoughts. Sounded like the sort of thing Soda would come up with. He was always getting mad at the phone people. Gave Pony quite a scare sometimes when out of nowhere Soda would start yelling at the receiver.

So I paced around the room restlessly. Then I banged the door behind me as I got back into our Ford and started it up again, this time heading in the direction of Two-Bit's house.

His mother was there, and she came out when she saw me arrive, wringing her hands nervously. "Oh, Darry, I'm glad you came," she said, sighing in relief.

"Did Soda or Ponyboy call here?" I asked anxiously. "Have you heard from them?"

"Yes, Sodapop called about twenty minutes ago, from a train station somewhere," Mrs. Mathews told me as I quickly went into the house. I vaguely wondered where Two-Bit's little sister was, then reminded myself that I had my own siblings to worry about. "He couldn't tell me exactly where they were, but it was the first stop west of here."

"First stop west," I echoed, then I said hurriedly, "Thank you very much for your help. If Two-Bit shows up, tell him that I'm going to go get them, would you? I've got to go."

I went outside and was about to get back in the truck when Steve ran up, out of breath and eyes wild. "Darry—did Soda call or something?" he demanded, stopping short in front of me.

"Yeah. I'm going to pick them up right now," I explained in a rush, restless and wanting to get going sooner than later.

"Then I'm coming with you," Steve said instantly.

"You sure you want to, Steve?" I asked, opening the door on the driver's side and getting in. He shot me a dirty look from the passenger seat.

"I just ran all over town looking for them. Now that all we have to do is take a car ride to bring them back, you honestly think I'm gonna sit at home and wait around?" he asked with a snort. "Don't forget, it's my best friend who's missing too…Superman."

He hadn't called me that since the "all brawn and no brains" incident. I grinned. "I didn't forget. Now let's go bring the lost boys home." It was the countdown to facing my brother. I was ready to face him and explain everything.

Now the question was: was Ponyboy ready to hear it?

Well, it only took a week this time…how was it? Did it sound rushed or anything? Well, you know I value your opinions…so please review!