I'm gonna stick it to the man and reply to my reviews.
kaligirl05- Sandy did ruin everything, didn't she? But she's so fun to write that I have to keep her :-)
SodapopsGurl15- Subtle, subtle... :-) See above reply. My my, people are enthuiastic about Sandy's demise!
ZukoLuver- I'll so join your cult! We can have t-shirts!
SodaNDallysgrl410- Here you go!
Now, this chapter might upset some people, seeing as you all love Sandy so much.
I don't know what I might have done if either Sodapop or Sandy answered the door. But as it stood, Ponyboy answered, and I was greatful.
"Hey, Pony, Sorry I didn't get to talk to you- Lord, what happened? Did you get in a fight?"
"What? No, Sandy punched me. I guess you could say we had words, and... "
"I get it. So... I guess I meant to ask... did Sodapop actually send me a letter?"
"Well, he... yeah. He did."
"Dammit!" I stomped my foot and squeezed my eyes closed, emitting a high pitched squealing noise as I suppressed my anger.
"I'm sorry about everything, Naomi. I would have let you know alot sooner, but I didn't know. I mean, with Darry gone tocollege and all, he's in charge, and I let him have his space, 'cause I know it's stressful. He didn't tell me for awhile... I know he only took her back because he'd given up on her."
"Pony, she was already pregnant. You know that."
Ponyboy shook his head grimly.
"Yeah, but it's not his baby."
"How do you know?"
"I just... know. I have this feeling."
"Do you think he'd ever take a paternity test?"
"No. He'd have to tell Sandy, and then she'd go through her spiel... 'There was never anyone else, do you think I'd lie to you? I promise, isn't that enough?' and he'd never get out of it with his way."
"That's... the craps."
"What an interesting volcabulary."
I shrugged. "I've spent the last five months with some interesting people. Speaking of which, I got a record contract."
"No way! That's great, so you don't have to give up your career so much?"
"No, I get to write my own songs if I want to, and-"
I never got to finish, because the front door slammed. I nearly jumped onto Pony's lap for the fear that it might be Sodapop.
Which, as fate would have it, it was.
"Hi, Naomi..." he looked genuinely scared of me. I didn't blame him.
"Hey..."
"You two," Pony said, pointing at us, "Go outside and work out your damn differences. I don't want to hear you yelling."
Sodapop looked helplessly at his brother, and nodded his head towards the kitchen.
"Back door..." he muttered, and I followed, pausing only at the doorway to turn around and give Ponyboy the finger. He shrugged and waved enthusiastically.
As soon as the back door was closed, I spun on him.
"What the hell?"
"You could have replied!"
"My mail was cut off! You could have waited a few months, rather than get hitched to some pregnant chick!"
"That chick was pregnant with my daughter!"
"According to Pony, it's someone else's daughter!"
"They have some differences! She says it's mine, and I believe her!"
"Did you believe her when she said it wasn't? The first time?"
"How... how did you know?"
"Pony told me. Before I left."
"Why did he-"
"He didn't want you to get hurt again, but I guess that's not a problem!"
"How would you know I didn't hurt?"
"Because you couldn't wait for a few months!"
"I didn't know it was going to be a few months, I thought it would be three years, and even then you wouldn't want to have anything to do with me!"
"Well, you certainly got over any hurt pretty fast!"
"It was the natural thing to do, you try thinking for five entire months someone you really cared about didn't want to be with you!"
"I just did!"
"Well, who's fault is that?"
"My mother's, but that doesn't mean that you had to get married right away!"
"She was mailing me, and I'd given up hope!"
"Hope on what?"
We were screaming at the top of our lungs now... any hope that Ponyboy had of not hearing us was pretty much extinguished.
"Hope that maybe you wanted me to wait for you! But I thought you didn't!"
"Why the hell would you think that?"
I hadn't noticed how close our faces had gotten, despite how loud we were. And somehow it didn't surprise me when Soda suddenly just full on kissed me... and I didn't object in the slightest. It was a complete 180 degree turn from where we were a second earlier.
But when we broke apart, reality hit me.
"God, you bastard, you're married!"
"God, I'm married!"
"You can't do that!"
"Why'd I do that?"
"Why'd you do it? Why'd I do it?"
"I don't know, we were yelling andyou were right there and you looked really pretty-"
And then we were back in the embrace again.
Oh, God.
"We have to stop."
"It's wrong. You're married."
"Right."
"Just go in there, and act normal."
We turned towards the house, to see Ponyboy smirking out the window, shaking his head at us.
"Lord, he saw us."
"Naomi, look... you shouldn't come around here that much... I'm married now. I have a responsibility. It's what I have to do... I'm sorry."
I felt rage burning up in my stomach.
"A responsibility that isn't yours. And here's something else to think about, " I snapped, going in the door, "Your brother, who actually is your blood, is your responsibility too, and is being punched by your darling wife. Or did he tell you something else? You know, by trying to protect Sandy from whatever the hell is waiting for her, you're really hurting everyone else. Including yourself."
My God, we had some sort of bipolar relationship.