So here I am, updating a little earlier than usual because you guys are amazing! And you don't deserve to be left hanging!

Disclaimer: I don't own The Outsiders.

13 - Encounters

"I look so bad. Just admit it."

"That's not true, you look very good with your hair like that!"

"Just stop it, Joan." I had been in a bad mood all day long. That morning, I had been to the hairdresser's to cut my hair: it went past my waist and it had been that way for years, but now I was too busy with Jesse James, the house and anything else to have the time to take care of it properly…now, my hair only reached my shoulders. Last time my hair had been that "short", I was 14.

"What's the big deal? It'll grow back. And besides, you looked too much like a hippie with your hair that long."

"You don't understand cause you've never had really long hair."

"Okay, could we stop talking about hair for a second? I need some advice about the baby's future room."

"Alright." I agreed. Joan was pregnant and she had only recently told me, since she was showing a bit. Her due date was early August.

I had made fun of her saying that she and Adam hadn't really wasted any time. "What kind of advice do you need?"

"Well, I was thinking…I want the sex of the baby to be a surprise, so furnishing his or her room will be a bit difficult…maybe painting the wall a pale yellow would be good for both?"

"I guess so."

"The clothes are a different matter, I guess I'll buy some that look good both on boys and girls and the rest of it later…"

"Right."

"Sybil, what's wrong with you? I don't think you're this annoyed just because you cut your hair."

"I'm not. It's just a series of things…I'm sleep-deprived, I haven't had time to do anything lately, the house's a mess, and…Soda and I don't even talk anymore, besides for the usual Go get Jesse James, he's crying and the baby's diaper needs to be changed."

"It's normal! Every couple goes through that."

"How do you know?" I felt bitter because when Joan's baby was born, she'd have her mother and Adam's mother to lend her a hand, not to mention she could get any babysitter she wanted.

"Because I've seen it happen with my friends, the ones who didn't go to college and got married instead. You don't have to worry, Sybil."

"I hope you're right. So…let's talk about your plans."

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When Joan left, I realized there were no more eggs in the fridge and since I needed them for that day's dinner, I thought I'd ask Evie some, cause I didn't feel like going to the supermarket.

Julie opened the door smiling: "Hi! You're here with Jesse too!"

"Hi, Julie! Yeah…no one's home besides me so I brought Jesse James along."

"Who's that, Julie?" Evie called from the other room.

"It's Sybil and Jesse James!"

"What?" Evie reached us. "Oh…hi, Sybil…"

"Hi…I didn't mean to bother you…" I explained the reason of my visit.

"Some eggs? Sure…come in the kitchen…how many do you need?"

"Just a couple." I followed her and saw there was a girl sitting at the kitchen table. "Hi…"

"Hello…" she said quietly.

Julie had reached us and sat next to the girl, who, I thought, was really pretty. She had wavy dark blond hair that went a bit past her shoulders and she was tanned, but not too much. I suddenly felt horrible.

"Here! You need something else?"

"No, thanks, I'd better go and start fixing dinner. Pony and Soda always eat like horses!"

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the girl suddenly seemed uncomfortable.

The front door slammed and Steve entered the room: "Hey…oh, hi, Sandy, I didn't know you were here. I thought you'd already gotten back to Sarasota."

Sarasota was in Florida. And it hit me. This was Sodapop's ex girlfriend, the one who'd gotten pregnant with someone else's baby and left. "I should go. Bye, everyone. Thanks for these, Evie."

I hurried outside. I was almost running, and if I hadn't been holding Jesse James I probably would have.

"Sybil? What's wrong?" Ponyboy asked me when I entered the living room. "You look pale…"

"It's nothing…" I wondered if Sodapop knew Sandy was in Tulsa. I wondered if he had seen her, if he had talked to her.

"You've crushed that egg…"

I looked at the small bag with the eggs I had been carrying. I probably slammed it into something hard, because one egg was crushed indeed. "Oh well…alright, we'll eat some spaghetti for dinner."

"I was going out with some friends tonight…you sure you feel fine?"

"Yeah…don't worry, Pony. If you need to go out, you'd better get ready."

Ponyboy nodded and ran upstairs. I sat on the sofa and started breastfeeding Jesse James. I couldn't stop thinking about Sandy. She looked like a good girl and I thought maybe she had always felt awful for betraying Soda with another guy. But if she had really cared, she wouldn't have cheated on him. I didn't know what to think of her. Sodapop had never talked much about her…

"I'm home! Where's my baby?" Soda reached me and Jesse James on the sofa. "Hi, Juliet! How are my precious babies doing today?"

He looked happy. Since our child's birth, Soda had been doing way better. He hadn't even had a single nightmare yet, even if that might be because we didn't get much sleep. Looking at his radiant face, I realized I couldn't tell him about Sandy. "We're fine…I just started breastfeeding him."

"I can see that. He looks very hungry. What did you do today?"

"In the morning I went outside for a walk and Jesse James slept all the time in his stroller…he loves sleeping in there. I also went to the market…and ran into Mrs. Wesley and Mrs. Collins, who forced me to chat with them for what felt like ages…they said Jesse's the cutest baby they've ever seen and that he looks exactly like you." I told him.

Soda grinned. He loved it when people complimented on Jesse James saying he resembled him. "That's tuff."

"How was your day?" I asked him.

"Okay. But thank God it's Friday, I need a break." He yawned. "Isn't Lewis coming tomorrow?"

"Yeah…" I completely forgot about that. "He's only staying for the weekend…"

I left Jesse James with Sodapop to cook. Sometimes I felt cooking was relaxing, other times I despised it. That day, it was the first case. "How's Shadowfax doing?" I exclaimed.

Soda replied: "He's better, the vet said he'll probably recover in a week or so." Shadowfax was one of the horses of the farm and one of Sodapop's favorites. The guy who sold him to the farm had named the horse after the character in the Lord of the Rings books.

"I'm glad." I loved animals and I couldn't stand it when they suffered. Soda was the same and we had always wanted to get a dog or a cat, but never actually did it. Maybe when Jesse James was older we could get a dog. "Dinner's ready!"

Soda entered the room. Whenever I saw him holding our baby, the sight almost broke my heart. It was the most adorable thing ever.

"Spaghetti! Jesse, you don't know what you're missin', boy." Soda exclaimed.

"He likes his milk better." I reminded him. "I…" I was still thinking if I should tell Sodapop about Sandy. But I couldn't bring myself to do it. "I hope you like 'em." I said, before putting Jesse James in his crib and sitting down to eat.

"Delicious." Soda muttered with his mouth full. "Want to go get some ice-cream after dinner?"

"You're already thinking about dessert?"

"Yeah, why not."

"I'll have a walk with you but I don't want any ice-cream. I still need to lose some pounds."

"Aww, come on! I'll look selfish if I eat ice-cream and my wife doesn't!"

Soda complained so much that in the end I ended up buying some ice-cream too. I guess we were actually looking funny, eating ice-cream while walking around all bundled up because of the cold pushing our baby's stroller.

"Are you sure he's dressed enough?" I anxiously asked Sodapop while checking on Jesse James.

"Of course he is, if you dressed him more he'd be sweating like this was the Sahara desert." Soda replied.

"You're so funny!" I mocked him.

"That must be why you love me." He grinned and kissed me. His lips tasted like chocolate (what else?), but we didn't have the chance to deepen the kiss because someone whistled. "How are you doing, lovebirds?"

"Hey, Two-Bit!" We greeted him. "We haven't seen you in a while…"

"Yeah, been busy with some girls…"

"Some girls?" I repeated. "Not just one?"

"No way, I ain't ready to settle down yet!" he laughed. "Lemme see the baby…he's sleeping!" he exclaimed, sounding surprised.

"Well, you know, Two-Bit, two-months-old babies do sleep a lot." Soda joked.

"Right. I'll see you around, I have a date! G'night!"

As he walked away, Soda laughed. "He'll never change."

"I guess not."

"Where were we?" He kissed me again.

"If you don't mind I'd like to go home, I'm freezing."

"Yeah, sure. Besides, Pony's out with his friends, so…"

"Get your mind out of the gutter!" I laughed. "It's not like Ponyboy's staying out all night."

"Still, it's only 8…"

We passed Steve and Evie's house that very moment. I suddenly felt sick. "Soda…" I needed to tell him. I had always been honest with Sodapop and this was definitely something important. "Look…I need to tell you something…"

"What is it?"

"Today, when I went to ask Evie for some eggs…when I entered the kitchen…Sandy was there." I stared at him: he didn't look particularly impressed. "I just said hello, she said hello too…then Steve arrived and when he noticed her, he said he thought she was back to Florida already…" I added.

Soda looked thoughtful. "What did she look like?"

"She had dark blond hair, she was quite tanned and I thought she was really…beautiful." I weakly replied.

"Sybil…even if I haven't seen her in years, I can tell you that you're the most beautiful woman I've ever met. And I love you because you're perfect."

"You're only saying that so that I don't start asking questions about you and her."

"No, I'm sayin' that 'cause it's true! You're perfect to me, you really are. And…yeah, I'd like to see Sandy again…but she broke my heart, I could never show any kind of love towards her. Not anymore. Maybe sympathy, but not love or affection."

That made me feel a little better, but I wasn't so sure of Soda's reaction if he'd meet her. "You aren't mad at me, are you? For not telling you earlier?"

"I ain't mad."

We had reached our house and went inside. "Do you think she'd want to see you?" I asked. "Maybe she phoned. When we got those strange calls…"

"Maybe."

Even if Soda insisted he was fine, it was obvious the whole Sandy thing was bugging him. When we went to sleep I wished I hadn't said anything.

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The following day I didn't have much time to think about Sandy. Lewis arrived early in the morning and he had brought tons of gifts for Jesse James and the family.

"He's gorgeous, Sybil! You two must be so proud." Lewis said, as he held his nephew. "He looks-"

"Like Soda, I know, you don't need to tell me. Everyone already does that constantly."

"Well, what's the big deal? You should be happy he looks like your beloved husband."

"I am." I assured him. "Will you come to the mall with me? I need to buy some stuff and I know Sodapop hates going there."

Lewis nodded. I told Soda about it and asked him if he was going out, too, or if he would look after Jesse James.

"I think I'll stop by at the farm to check on Shadowfax. Do you mind taking Jesse James with you?"

"No, that's alright, he'll just sleep all morning in the stroller anyway. I'll see you at lunch!" I kissed his cheek and not much later left with my brother and my child to go to the mall.

Lewis looked like his usual self, but he wouldn't talk much. I was almost forcing him to speak. We met Joan and Adam who were shopping as well and then had to rush back home, because Jesse James was crying a lot and he wouldn't calm down.

When Soda arrived home, he looked mad. He had just met Sandy. When he spoke, he sounded furious. "We had a fight."