Chapter 25

Soda's POV

The next day at the DX went by really slow. It was a Thursday. We normally didn't have a whole lot of customers on Thursdays aside for the regulars, which would mainly be the 12 and 13 year old girls who loved to come in here just because of Steve and I. Steve didn't like it but I found it amusing. They were sweet and didn't really bother me a lot. There was one though who wanted to marry me but she moved on to someone else. But that day, I wasn't the center the girls attention for once. Davanee was the center of attention. I do have to admit, she was pretty cute. She'd smile and giggle at the customers.

"She's so cute" said one of the girls, "is she yours?"

"No, she's my niece."

"Oh, she looks a lot like you" said another girl. I didn't really think she looked a lot like me. If she looked like anybody, it was Pony.

After a couple of hours, it was finally time for our lunch break.

"Where do you want to go?" asked Steve as he helped me close up the garage.

"I dunno. Let's go to the Tastee Freeze. We haven't been there in a while" I said.

"Ok" said Steve. I knew Steve wouldn't object to that.

Pony gave us Davanee's car seat to use for the day which is good because I wasn't looking forward to walking the whole way. We arrived at the restaurant about 20 minutes later. We found Johnny and Pony sitting in one of the booths in the back.

"What are you doing here? Where's Anya?" I asked, once we reached the table. We had to push our way through a crowd to get to them.

"We got bored at the house. Anya's at school. What are you doing here?" asked Pony.

"It's our break" said Steve, sitting next to Johnny. I took a seat next to Pony.

"Daddy!" shrieked Davanee, pointing to Pony.

"Somebody wants you" I said, handing her over to Pony.

"She's probably hungry" said Pony, "she hasn't eaten since breakfast this morning."

Pony gave her a bottle, but she threw it at me and it rolled on the floor.

"Sorry" said Pony.

"That's ok" I said, "that's nothing compared to the amount of hair I've lost today" I said, standing up to get the bottle. It rolled underneath one of the tables. At first the people sitting there thought I was crazy but after I showed them the bottle them seemed to understand. I gave it back to Pony.

"I figured you probably didn't want her sucking on that after it's been on the floor" I said.

"That's ok. There's another one in her diaper bag. You did bring her diaper bag, right?" asked Pony.

"Yeah it's out in the car. I'll go get it." I went out to the truck and got the bag out of the front seat. When I closed the door, I saw Sandy standing there.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"I had to see you. You're boss said that you'd probably be here" said Sandy.

"It's been awhile" I said.

"It has. What's the diaper bag for?" asked Sandy.

"Davanee, my niece" I replied.

"Oh yeah" said Sandy.

"How you feelin'?" I asked. Last time I checked, she was on bed rest.

"Pretty good. I went to the doctor today."

"What'd she say?"

"She said everything was good. The baby's due end of May, possibly beginning of June" said Sandy.

"I guess I'll have to wait until then to find out" I said.

"Maybe. I'm sorry, Soda."

"It's ok. It'll be ok" I said, knowing that it probably wouldn't. I invited Sandy to come join us but she declined. She said she had other things to do. I walked back inside with the baby bag strap slung over my shoulder. I must admit, I probably did look pretty ridiculous with a diaper bag.

"Who where you talking to?" asked Pony, taking the bag form me and giving Davanee her bottle.

"Sandy."

"What'd she say?" ask Steve.

"She said she had a doctors appointment today. The doctor said everything looked good. The baby's not due until end of May, beginning of July."

"That's good, I guess" said Steve. I nodded in agreement and sat down. We spent about an hour at the Tastee Freeze before heading back to work. I really didn't feel like working for the rest of the day but I knew I didn't have a choice. The only way I could get out of working was if I was sick and I mean really sick. The rest of the day went by pretty slow, just like I thought it would. Like I said, Thursday is our slowest day.

I got to go home early that day, which is good because I had to work late that whole week and I was tired.

When I got home, I was the only one home. I had given Davanee to Pony before we left the Tastee Freeze earlier that day. I kicked off my shoes, threw my jacket towards the couch (and missed), and got myself a glass of chocolate milk. I saw that the mail was sitting on the table. Darry had probably been home earlier. I quickly flipped through the letters. Nothing but junk and bills.

When I was done with the chocolate milk, I went to my room and laid down. My original plan was to just lay there a little while and then get up and do something but my heavy eyelids got the best of me. I tried to fight it off at first but I gave up and let sleep over take me. I must've slept for a long time because when I woke up, the house was pretty quiet. All I could hear was the muffled sound of the TV from the living room.

I rubbed my eyes and walked out to the living room. I had to blink a couple of times to get use to the light.

"Hey, little buddy" said Darry, "we was wonderin' when we were gonna see you."

"How long have I been asleep?"

"A couple of hours" replied Pony, who was sitting on the floor playing with Davanee.

"Where is everybody?" I asked.

"They all went home. They'll probably be back later. Sandy called, she wants to see you tonight" said Darry.

"What time?"

"Around 7."

I looked at the clock on the wall. It was 6 o'clock.

"I'm gonna go get a shower" I said. If I had to meet Sandy by 7, I had to start getting ready. It took almost thirty minutes to get to where she was staying. So I showered and got dressed as fast as I could.

"I'll see you guys later" I said, pulling my shoes on.

"Ok, what time will you be home?" asked Darry.

"I dunno. Around 12 maybe a little earlier" I said.

"Bye" said Pony.

"Bye" I said, grabbing the car keys off the counter.

I shivered a little once I got outside. It had gotten colder since I had come home. I climbed in the car and drove to see Sandy. I figured she was going to be at her friends house so I went there first. It seemed like it took forever for someone to answer the door.

A girl who looked to be about 6 or 7 answered the door.

"Who are you?" asked the girl.

"Sodapop Curtis. Is Sandy here?" I asked.

"Yeah, hang on" said the girl, "you can come in." She opened the door a little wider for me. The house looked like our house. It wasn't terrible but it wasn't great.

"Sandy!" yelled the girl, "Soda's here to see you!

Sandy came out of a room with her hair dripping wet.

"Soda" said Sandy, rather surprised, "what are you doing here?"

"Darry and Pony said you called. You said you wanted to see me around 7."

"Oh, right. I'm sorry, I completely forgot. Just give me a couple of minutes to get ready. You can sit down if you want" said Sandy, walking back to the room, "make yourself at home."

So I sat down on the couch and waited. The little girl sat down next to me and stared at me. At first it was rather amusing but then it got to be annoying.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Bailey" said the girl.

"How do you know Sandy?"

"She's my sister" said Bailey.

"She never told me she had a sister. How old are you Bailey?"

"Dis many" said Bailey, holding up 6 fingers.

"Wow" I said, "that's cool."

Bailey smiled. I waited the rest of the time in silence.

"I'm ready" said Sandy, running a brush through her hair, "Bailey, can you go into the other room for a minute?"

"Sure" said Bailey, walking down the hall.

"You never told me you had a sister."

"She's not really my sister" said Sandy, "she's my step-sister."

"Oh. So, what do you want to do?" I asked.

"We have to talk" said Sandy.

"Ok" I said, expecting it to be nothing important. Sandy guided me over to the couch and we both sat down.

"I went to the doctor last week" said Sandy.

"Is something wrong?" I asked.

"No, no. Nothing's wrong. The babies fine. I had a paternity test."
"Can they do that before the baby's born?" I asked.

"Yes. The doctor said it's a relatively new procedure. The results came back today" said Sandy. I took a deep breathe. I tried as best I could to prepare myself for whatever was coming. I thought I was ready for the news, good or bad. But I was wrong.

"I'm so sorry Soda but you're not the father."