Chapter 6

It was Friday night. The night of the movies. The night I could finally impress Soda and win his love. From the moment I got home from school I started getting ready. I wore my nicest dress and put on my nicest perfume. I must've spent over an hour on my hair and makeup. My hair was being temperamental. I wanted to wear it up all nice, but I was forced to wear my hair down like I usually did. When I was finally feeling pretty and like I was ready, it was only 5:30. The movie didn't start until 8, so I had some time to kill. The only thing was was that I had nothing to kill time with so I just sat in my room, quietly by myself. That was a mistake. The only people in the room were my thoughts and I. The night at Cherry's party kept replaying over and over in my head. I wished I could have erased that one memory from my mind. It wouldn't leave my mind. I felt hot tears rolling down my cheeks. As the tears continued to fall, I heard a knock at my bedroom door.

"Arie?" My mothers voice pruned from the other side of the door. "Supper's ready."

"Okay mom." I said, wiping my face. I took a look in the mirror. Luckily, the tears hadn't smudged my makeup so I didn't have to redo anything.

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I walked down to the dining room. I sat at the end of the table, away from my mother and Doug.

"Well don't you look lovely!" My mother exclaimed, a bright smile on her face. "Where are you off to tonight?"

"The movies." I responded, stabbing my fork into the piece of ham that was on my plate.

"It better not be with any boys." Doug threatened. "Especially the skids in this neighbourhood."

"I'm going with Cherry and Marcia." I lied. "And what makes them skids? If we live in this neighbourhood, aren't we skids?"

"No, we actually have money." Doug said.

"Yeah, thanks to mom. If you ever got off of your fat ass, we'd be living in a nice neighbourhood."

"That's enough, Arabella!" My mother scolded. "You look so much like your father." She said to change the subject.

"Thanks mom-"

"What the fuck did I tell you?" Doug interrupted, staring at my mother.

"Doug, he is her father."

"Was. He's six feet under now. I told you never to talk about him." My mother looked down at her food. She looked ashamed.

"I'm sorry." She whispered. I stared at Doug with a look of disgust on my face. I didn't always hate Doug. At the beginning of his and my mother's relationship he was actually kinda nice. He used to take my mother and I to my father's grave every Sunday and he kept all the pictures of my dad up around the house.

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Around the second year of Doug being in the family, my mother got pregnant. Everyone, including myself, was ecstatic. It was almost like a symbol that our new life was starting. There would be a new baby and a new family, but of course, it all went wrong.

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My mother began complaining about a sharp pain in her lower abdomen. Then there was the blood. We had to rush her to the hospital where she received an emergency c-section. No one expected to see a living baby, but that's exactly what we saw. I had a little brother. They named him Douglas.

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We brought Douglas home and everyone was happy. We were all extremely tired, so we called it an early night. The next morning, I was woken up by a scream. Douglas had died in his sleep. The doctors said it was cardiac arrest. It was devastating to us all. My mother stayed in bed for a month. I think Douglas' death was what made Doug the way he is. My mother was able to recover, but Doug never did.

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We finished dinner in silence. I looked at the clock. It read 7:35. I got up from the dinner table, brought my plate into the kitchen and headed out the door. I was to meet Ponyboy, Johnny, Dally and hopefully Soda at the lot. By the time I got there, the sun had already set. I was able to locate the boys thanks to the light from their cigarettes. When I walked up to them, my heart skipped a beat, and then sunk. Soda was there. But so was Steve. And Two-Bit. And two girls I didn't know. I wanted to turn around and walk away. Or de-materialize. Either would be great. Ponyboy spotted me before I could turn around.

"Ready to go?" He asked, flicking his cigarette on to the ground. I looked at the girls. They were both taller than me and extremely skinny.

"Um, yeah, about that." I said, looking around to avoid eye contact with Ponyboy. "I don't think I'll be able to go."

"Huh? Why not?"

"I don't know." I told him, shrugging. I had a growing, anxious feeling in the pit of my stomach. It would've been fine if those girls hadn't of been there. They intimidated me. Even in the darkness, I could tell that they were a lot prettier than me. Ponyboy grabbed my wrist and lead me away from the rest of the group.

"Hey, what's wrong?" I looked away from him, his hand still firmly grasped on my wrist.

"It's nothing."

"Is it Sylvia and Evie?" He asked, almost reading my mind. When I didn't answer, he looked back at them. "You don't have to worry about them, if anything just ignore them. They're just Steve and Dally's girls. You have to come, Arie, I want you to get to know the gang." I nodded.

"Okay."

"So you're coming?"

"Yeah I guess." I said, even though I was still feeling anxious.

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As we walked to the drive in, I trailed from the rest of the group. Sylvia and Evie were constantly yelling about something and hanging off of their men. I would've been talking with Soda, but he was preoccupied with Steve. I felt so out of place. They were talking about how things I didn't know about, rumbles and rodeos and things like that.

"So," one of the girls said, looking back at me. "You just move here?"

"Yeah. I moved here from Saginaw." I told her.

"Where the fuck is that?" she asked.

"Um, it's in Michigan." I told her. "I'm Arabella."

"Sylvia."

"I'm Evie." The other girl introduced.

"Hi." I said, waving at them. I felt like they noticed my disinterest, so they returned to Dally and Steve. I sighed. I really wanted to be at home.

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The movie was one of those cliché beach movies that consisted of a bunch of people dancing in bathing suits. Everyone was rowdy and the only people actually paying attention to the movie were me, Ponyboy and Johnny. I still felt left out.

"Um, Ponyboy." I whispered, leaning towards him.

"Yeah?" he whispered back, focusing on the movie.

"I'm gonna leave now."

"Okay." he said. He obviously wasn't listening so I just got up and left. I was in the lobby when the doors to the theatre opened. It was Soda.

"Hey, Arie, where are you going?" He asked.

"I'm leaving." I told him, my face heating up. I was shocked that Soda even noticed me leaving.

"Why? The movie's not even close to bein' done."

"I just- I want to go home, Soda." he gave me a sympathetic look.

"Can I at least walk you home?"

"Yeah, sure." I said, smiling.

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Walking with Sodapop made me feel powerful. Knowing that I was walking home with the most attractive guy in Tulsa- maybe not Tulsa, but at least our neighbourhood- gave me a feeling of importance.

"So, Arabella, I'd still love to get to know you."

"Well what do you wanna know?" I asked.

"I dunno, just tell me about yourself."

"I'm not that interesting of a person."

"Aw, c'mon, you gotta have at least one interestin' thing in your life." Soda insisted.

"Well I guess-" But as soon as I saw the blue Mustang drive by, all the air in my lungs disappeared. I kept my fingers crossed that the car would just drive past, and it did, but not before slowing down as it drives past us. I could see Bob through the driver's side window. I turned away, feeling as if I was going to throw up.

"Arie?" Soda asked, grabbing my shoulder.

"I-I need to go home, Soda." I looked up. I could see my house from where we were.

"Are you okay?" Soda sounded genuinely concerned.

"Yeah, I'm just not feeling well."

"C'mon," Soda put his arm around my shoulders. "We'll get ya home."

I was still feeling sick, but my heart was beating incredibly fast. When we arrived at my house, Soda walked me all the way up to my door. "Feel better, okay?"

"Thank you so much for walking me home."

"It's no problem, Arie. Look, I had a great time walking with you tonight. What are you doing next Saturday?"

"I um-I," I took a deep breath. "I'm doing nothing at all."

"There's a rodeo and I wanted to know if you wanted to come watch."

"Of course." I told him. "I'll be there."

"Okay, great." he said, smiling. "Good night."

"Good night, Soda." And with that, I went inside, straight up to my room and screamed into my pillow.

Little did I know that that night would begin the string of events that led up to me writing all of this. That night, my life truly began.