Soda's POV

My heart sank. I felt like I was going to die right then and there. How could she do this to me? Or better yet, who did she do this with?

"Soda, I'm sorry" said Sandy. No amount of sorry's could make me feel better.

"Who is it?" I asked.

"Dallas" whispered Sandy.

"Dallas? Dallas Winston?" I asked in disbelief.

Sandy nodded her head yes.

"When?" I asked.

"A couple of months ago" said Sandy, " I understand if you don't want to see me again."

"I have to go" I said, getting up. I stood up so fast, I was dizzy. "I can't stay here anymore."

"Soda wait" said Sandy, grabbing my arm. "you're upset. You can't drive home like this." Upset? I was a bit more than upset. It's hard to describe what I was feeling at that moment. It was a mix of just about every bad feeling in the world.

"Fine" I said, shaking loose of her grip, "I'll walk home. I'll be back to get the car in the morning." I walked out and slammed the door behind me. I didn't care if she was crying. I didn't care any more. I just wanted to curl up and die. I loved her and I was sure she loved me. I guess I was wrong. I could fell the tears coming. I tried to hold them back but they came anyways. I guess it was ok though because nobody I know was there to see me cry.

Before I knew it, I passed the park. That was were Sandy and I first met. I was 14 going on 15. She was there with a bunch of her friends. I was there with Two-Bit and Steve. Steve dared me to go talk to her. She thought I was adorable. After that, we started hanging out together. I'm pretty sure you can guess what happened from there.

'But how does she know Dallas?' I asked myself. Then I remembered. I had introduced her to him when he was at the DX one time. I thought she looked at him in a weird way but I didn't think much of it then.

'This is all my fault' I thought. If I hadn't introduced them, this wouldn't have happened. I know it may sound stupid to blame myself, but it really was my fault.

But then my thoughts changed. I was gonna kill Dallas Winston if it was the last thing I did. He knew better then to sleep with someone else's girl. Call me crazy but I expected better from him.

I sat down underneath the tree at the park. I didn't want to go home. I couldn't go home. If I did, I would have to explain everything to Darry and this night was already bad enough. I didn't need it to get worse. Besides, I just wanted to be alone. At my house, you can never be alone. I began to loose track of time and pretty soon, I cried myself to sleep underneath the tree.

PONY'S POV

Darry went to bed before me that night. I said I would tell Soda to wake him up when he got home. I waited as long as I could but I fell asleep. Around 3 or so, Davanee woke up. She normally slept through the night but there were those occasional nights when she did get up. I gave Davanee a bottle and put her back to bed. When I walked into my room to go back to sleep, I was shocked to see that Soda wasn't there.

I walked down the hall into Darry's room.

"Darry" I said, shaking him so he'd wake up.

"What is it?" asked Darry, "what's wrong?"

"Soda's not home" I said.

"What?"

"Soda hasn't come home yet. Darry, we gotta go look for him" I said.

"Alright" said Darry, "give me a couple of minutes."

While I waited for Darry, I put on some shoes and a jacket.

"You're going too?" asked Darry.

"Yeah, why not?"

"What about Davanee?"

"We'll take her with us. She'll be fine. She'll sleep the whole time" I said.

"I dunno. It's suppose to be really cold out tonight."

"I'll put a jacket on her and wrap her up in a couple of blankets" I said.

"Alright but be careful. You know this neighborhood isn't safe at night" said Darry.

"I know, I know" I said, going into Davanee's room. I put a jacket on her and wrapped her up in her Mickey mouse blanket and another blanket she got fro Christmas. She didn't wake up.

Right as we were about to leave, Steve and two-bit came over. We explained to them what was going on and they agreed to come with us. We decided to split up. Two-bit and I went towards the park while Darry and Steve went in the other direction.

Two-bit and I looked everywhere, including Sandy's old house. We knew he probably wouldn't be there but it was worth a shot.

After about two hours of searching, we went to the park. I was about to give up and go home when I saw something dark underneath the tree. As I got closer, I could see that it was Soda.

"He's gonna be so sick" I said.

"From what?" asked Two-Bit.

"From staying out here in the cold all night" I said.

I started shaking Soda so he'd wake up.

"What?" asked Soda, fluttering his eyes open.
"Come on" I said, "let's get you home."

"Pony? Is that you?" asked Soda.

"Yeah, two-bit too" I said, helping Soda stand up, "what happened?"

"I'll tell you later" said Soda, yawning.

We got Soda home and got him to bed. Two-bit fell asleep in Darry's chair while I waited for Steve and Darry to get back. Once they did get back, I told them that we had found him asleep under the tree in the park. Darry said that he was too tired to be mad so he just went to bed. Steve made a bed for himself on the floor. For some reason, I went back to sleep on the couch.

The next morning, I was awoken by the sound of the door slamming. I opened my eyes to see Dallas Winston standing over me.

"Dal?" I asked.

"Hey kid" said Dal, heading towards the kitchen.

"What are you doin' here? I thought you was in the cooler" I said.

"I was. They let me out early. Good behavior, man" said Dal, searching through the ice box, "where is everybody?"

"They're still asleep. We were out kinda late last night lookin' for Soda" I said.

"What happened?"

"I dunno. He didn't say" I said, stepping over Steve so I could get to the kitchen.

"You think it had something to do with Sandy?" asked Dallas, pulling a Pepsi out of the ice box.

"Maybe. He did go over to where she's stayin' last night" I said.

"She's pregnant, ain't she?"

"Yeah. How'd you know? Soda hasn't told anybody."

"Can I tell you something?" asked Dallas.

"Yeah sure" I said.

Dallas looked around the room a couple of times, as if to make sure that nobody else was listening. "I'm the father."

"What?!" I asked, a bit louder than what I intended.

"I went over to her house yesterday when I got out and she told me" said Dal.

"Soda's gonna kill you" I said.

I was going to say something else but Davanee started crying.

"Be right back" I said. I got Davanee out of the nursery and brought her to the kitchen.

"Would you mind holding her while I get the baby food?" I asked.

"She's not gonna spit up on me, is she?" asked Dallas.

"If she doesn't like you, she will" I said. Dallas took her from me anyways.

As soon as I let go of her, she laid her head down on Dallas' shoulder.

"Awww, she likes you" I said.

"Great" said Dallas, sarcastically.

I smiled and got the food and formula from the pantry.

I took the baby from Dally and placed her in the high chair. Dallas watched as I fed Davanee.

"What?" I asked.

"How do you do it?" asked Dal.

"Do what?"

"Take care of her? I mean, how do you take care of another person?" asked Dal. Dally seemed to be showing his rare, softer side this morning. I would too if I found out that my girlfriend was pregnant and my life was about to change. I probably would've reacted like that had Jamie told me. I guess I'll never know.

"I dunno really. I just go by instinct I guess" I said. I really don't know how I did it. People might think that a 14 year old kid with a baby would never work out in a million years, but everything seemed to be working just fine for Davanee and I. We got lucky. We didn't have to go through that much.

"You're scared, aren't you?" I asked.

"No" said Dallas. I knew he would never say yes. He would never, ever admit to being scared. But I wasn't fooled that easily. I could always tell when people, especially people like Dallas, were scared. Mom said it was a gift to be able to read people like that. I don't think it's anything special.

"It's hard" I said.

"You're lying" said Dallas.

"Why would I lie about that? It's hard work, no joke."

"What's so hard about it?"

"Everything."

"That's specific" said Dallas, rolling his eyes.

"But it's not all bad. Some of it's kinda good" I said.

"Like what? What could possibly be good about parenting?" asked Dallas, being a bit skeptical.

"Like when she said her first word. When she started crawling. First laugh, smile. All that stuff" I said, trying to get Davanee to eat a spoonful of peaches.

"She hasn't started walking yet?"

"Not yet" I said, "I'm kinda dreading her walking though because she'll be into everything."

Dallas looked like he was about to say something but we heard somebody coming down the hall. Soda shuffled his way into the kitchen, his hair messy and his eyes red.

"What's he doing here?" asked Soda, guestering towards Dallas.

"He just came by for breakfast" I said.

"And you actually let him in?" asked Soda.

"He was asleep when I got here, it's not his fault" said Dallas in my defense.

"Whatever" said Soda, taking the chocolate milk out of the ice box. "It's too early to be getting in a fight now."

"I gotta go. See ya later, Pony" said Dallas, making his way to the front door.

"Bye. See ya" I said.

Dallas took a deep breathe and said "thanks." The word caught me off guard. Dallas never said thanks for anything.

"For what?" I asked.

"For the talk" said Dallas. On that note, he left, his hands shoved in his pockets and a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.

"What did you talk about that made Dallas want to thank you?" asked Soda, sitting down at the kitchen table.

I didn't respond. I didn't know what to say really. I didn't know if Sandy had told him yet or not. I wasn't about to risk everything and say that Dallas was the father.

"Come on, I already know about Sandy and Dallas. She told me last night. What did you talk about?" asked Soda.

"He wanted to know how I cold take care of Davanee and myself at the same time" I said.

"That's it?"

"That's it" I said.

Soda shook his head, as if disagreeing with me, and said "today is going to be a long, hard day."

"Yeah, it probably will. But you'll get through it" I said.

"Sure" said Soda, doubtingly.

"Well, you got through mom and dad dying, didn't you?"

"Yeah."

"Don't you think you can get through this too?"

"Maybe. But this is different from mom and dad. This is Sandy we're talking about. She went behind my back and slept with someone I've known practically my whole life. To be honest, I feel like I've been betrayed by the both of them. And it's all my fault" said Soda.

"It's not your fault" I said.

"Yes it is. If I hadn't introduced them, I wouldn't be in this situation right now. I just, I wanna hurt someone until they feel as bad as I do" said Soda. That sounded bad coming from Soda. Soda wouldn't hurt anybody unless they were a Soc. He wasn't one to go looking for a fight.

"Maybe you should talk to her. Work things out" I suggested. I didn't know a whole lot about girls but I've learned that talking things out with people can help most situations. Why should this one be any different?

"I dunno. Maybe I should but I think I'll wait until I feeling a bit better" said Soda.

"That's probably a good idea" I said, taking Davanee out of the highchair to the sink. She had gotten food all over her face.

"I guess there is one good side to all of this" said Soda.

"What's that?"

"I don't have to be up at 3 am every morning" said Soda.

I laughed and said "that's true. That's one good part."

There was a moment of silence between us. I continued to clean Davanee up while Soda sat at the table, sipping his chocolate milk. I was about to go back to the nursery to dress Davanee when Soda asked "Why does everything have to get so complicated when you get older?"

"I don't know" I said, "I wish I did."

"I mean, when you're a kid everything is perfect. Everything is so easy for you when you're little but when you get older you realizes that things get harder. I just wish everything could go back to being so easy" said Soda.

"Well ya know if everything was always easy for us, we wouldn't really learn anything. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've always thought that you learn from you're experiences" I said. I know I have. I think everybody does. We learn from both the good and the bad experiences.

"When'd you get to be so smart?" asked Soda.

"I don't know. I guess it just happened."