A/N I'm sorry if this bores you. I'm still trying to set things up. I know the time is moving fast. I know Darry seemed a little mushy, but I hope he was still in character. Also I'm going to try not to use point of view tags, so let me know what you think.

"I don't get it." Curly blew out a perfect smoke ring.

I shrugged. "Where my brother goes to school they are all hippies there."

"Man, if I knew that this was how it was going to be, I would have stayed in the reformatory."

"It's nothing but fashion to them Curly, you know half these people don't believe in peace and love." I looked up at empty stadium. I was wishing now that Two-Bit and Steve didn't get so plastered last night. I wanted to leave school. "Besides we still have socs, and greasers."

"That ain't the point. I missed out on the last rumble, and with everybody changing whether it's fake or not there won't even be another."

I tossed my cigarette over the bleachers. "Who cares," I mumbled. I didn't really care too much about fighting anymore. I'd rather there be peace than chaos, but Curly was wrong because no matter what the fad was, there were always going to people like my gang, and people who thought they were better than us. It was something you had to get used to.

"That empty pack of cigarettes do something to you?" Curly asked.

"That was my last weed. Track starts next week. I swore this would be my last pack."

"I'll let you bum, if you come to Timber Street party with me tonight. Bryan Douglas is going to be there. I could use you if he lays a hand on my sister."

I rolled my eyes. I'm sure Angie's hands weren't any worse than Bryan's. "Mark is my friend; I can't start anything with Bryan. Besides, it's a school. If there is one thing that hasn't changed, it's Darry."

The bell rang for us to finish the rest of the day. I couldn't really concentrate. I nearly wrote a book to Sunny a while ago about everything. I even told him about Grace and Darry's fight. Grace hadn't come around since. I pretty sure we weren't supposed to write about it. I'd do anything just to get a response from him. The last time we had gotten a response from him was months ago. I rounded the corner to our house and halted to a stop behind the mail man.

"Do you have the mail for 5370?" I asked.

"Yeah, here kid." He shoved stack of white envelopes into my hand. I continued running as I shuffled threw the mail. I let the screen door slam behind me.

"Hey, what'd I tell you about slamming the door, it's going to fall off!" Darry hollered.

I didn't notice he was home. I must have not realized the truck. "Didn't know you were home."

"Yeah, nice seeing you too. I worked late yesterday at the second job. They don't want to pay me overtime again." He gestured to the white envelopes in my hand. "Anything good?" Darry asked. It was his way of asking if Sunny had written anything, without actually having to ask it.

"Nope, not a thing." I answered.

"Hey, kiddo, I need to make dinner before we get another Soda surprise. I don't think mine or your stomach can handle it. Come to the store with me, and made we can get dinner on started before Soda comes home."

"Sure." I agreed. Last night we had chocolate chip and blue mash potatoes. I wasn't supposed to being eating a ton of sugar with track about to start.

Darry gave me half his list. I went in search of the stuff we needed for tomorrow's cake. I found the stuff we needed. I walked down the center aisle, looking down all the ones that branched off if it for my brother. I found him in the frozen food section. Maria and some other guy were talking to him. Darry looked steamed. The other guy reminded me of Steve, cool and cocky. He was looking at Darry like he was beneath him. He had this weird stance. Maria just looked like she was in a bad situation. I was guess that this guy was going with Maria.

"Darry, I found the cake stuff." I dumped all of it in the cart and glared at the guy and Maria.

"Cute kid, he belong to you?" The guy smirked.

"Thanks, and yeah, he does." Darry said gravely.

"Vinnie!" Maria hissed.

"Come on, we have everything we need." Darry grabbed me by my upper arm and we got our stuff and left.

He didn't say anything on the way home. I had a feeling that Vinnie guy said more to him that what I heard.

Soda and I had to do the dishes. I explained to him why Darry was scary silent. He wasn't very happy. IT was weird when someone actually said something enough to upset Darry.

"Soda, what do you think he meant when he said cute kid, he belong to you?" I asked as I dried the last fork.

"I don't know. He was probably just trying to get on Darry's nerves. We all know that Darry had a lot of feelings for Maria."

"He wouldn't have cheated on her." I said flatly. It was still weird that Darry would cheat on someone. It just wasn't like him.

"Why don't you two stop talking about me and go do your homework." Darry's voice came from behind.

Soda and I both looked at each other guiltily. Darry raised his eyebrows. "You two going to move or stay there like a bumps on logs?"

"We're moving," Soda nudged me forward. "Come on Pony."

I let my feet dangle off the porch. They almost hit the ground. I remember when I was a little kid doing this and thinking that I would never be big enough to have my feet touch the ground. It was my goal. I'd do pus push ups and eat my vegetables everyday and come out here at the end of the week to see if I had grown. I scooted my body until I was about to fall off the edge and put my feet on the ground. Well that was one goal I accomplished. I looked at my bare arms for it being the end of March and nearly midnight it was still chilly. I probably would have yelled at Pony to wear a jacket. There wasn't anyone to yell at me about that anymore.

"Darrel, it's not quite that warm yet." A soft voice said.

I turned half expecting my Mom to be there, but instead was my ex girlfriend. "Hi Maria." I tried to keep the surprise out of my voice. "What are you doing here?"

"I took a walk and I saw you come out. I thought I might say hi."

"I see, well, hi."

"Hi," she stood there for an awkward minute that felt more like an hour. "Can we talk?"

"Isn't that what we are doing now?" I asked sarcastically.

"You don't need to be a bitch. I'm trying to be nice!" She shouted.

"Sit down, try not shout, you'll wake the boys up." I gestured to the steps. I was a few feet away steps and I wanted to keep the distance.

She sat down on the steps as close as she could to me. "I talked to Grace the other day. She told me you were having trouble."

"I guess Grace would know, I haven't talked to in about a month."

"You're just a sarcastic ass today aren't you?"

"What did you come here for because it's a long walk from your place to here."

"Darry, the other day in the grocery, I'm sorry about that."

I was glad for the darkness so she couldn't see how mortified I was. "Don't worry about it. I'm over it but does Vinnie always attack little kids like he did Pony?"

"He didn't mean anything, he's just a jealous guy. I'm sorry if he hurt you. I'm sorry if her hurt Pony."

"Your lucky Pony didn't hear that whole conversation because if that kid's feelings got hurt I would of killed him. Do you always date assholes?"

I could tell by her expression that my comment hurt her. I wanted to hurt her, but to be honest I felt bad about doing it. "You know how it is, a girl starts with one and the cycle just doesn't end."

Things went silent again. I hated silence. I hated when my house was silent, I hated sitting in a car with silence. She pulled her sweater tighter as the wind blew. "You know you might want to make up with Grace. Sunny will be awfully mad when he comes back and finds out his brothers and fiancée are arguing."

"One brother, I don't take kindly to people telling me how to raise my kid brothers. She acted like I can't raise them, she has no say in it. She knows nothing about raising teenagers. It's bullshit, we struggled but we made it before Sunny. It pisses me off when people I'm supposed to consider my friend have that little faith in me. I do just fine with my brothers. " I wanted to tell her that Grace reminded me of the old ladies in the grocery store who would watch me and point and whisper about me when my parents first died. I kept that to myself.

"You do realize that you can't pay attention to her. Grace misses Sunny and she wants to know she isn't the only one. She's mad at him that he's not writing, but she took it out on you."

"Yeah, well I'm not exactly thrilled. You think I enjoy watching Soda and Pony's faces every time the mail comes and there isn't one single letter from him?"

"I bet that's hard."

"That's a safe bet to make." I rubbed the crick in my neck.

Maria moved closer to me and I felt her fingers on my neck. "I'm worried about you. It's not healthy to pile your feelings up like how you are doing. "

I grunted. I hated her. She had this way with making me spill my guts. "What do you want hear? You want to hear about how I'm angry at my brother for never writing, worried and probably have another ulcer.Or would you like to hear about how my brothers who once talked about me as being superman and now they are talking about me behind my back. I set a wonderful example by cheating on you. Before Sunny left I got a taste at how it was to be 21 and now that's gone.Or would you like to listen about how I took up my second job again, and I feel like a twenty year old trapped in a forty year old body. "

Maria began massaging my back. "You have a right to be angry with Sunny. Darry people make mistakes, and there is nothing you could ever do to ruin the hero status in your brothers' eyes. Darry we all see it. You are those kids hero, but you are human and you do make mistakes." She put her hand on the spot on my back that gave me chills. "As far as your body. Darry being a nurse I see a lot of bodies, and your body is defiantly any where near looking like a forty year old's."

I shivered and not from the cold. "Maria, I cheated on you. I'm sorry for that. I can't explain to you why I did it. I justified it in my head, but not in my heart."

She slid her fingers up my spine and around my neck until she got to my chin. She brought my face down to hers. I pulled away but I was ashamed to look at her.

"You are a softy, Darry." She said in just barely a whisper. I sat there with my head in her hands.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. Give me a second chance, please. I'll be better to you than Vinnie ever will."

"I don't trust you. Darry look at me." She demanded.

I felt like a dog with his tail between his legs. I pulled my face up hers. "I know you don't. It's my fault."

"We have a lot to work on." She said.

"Bastard! You want to be here for the rest of the fucking night! You want to see your family."

He didn't say anything. He mumbled something in Vietnamese. I knew he knew how to speak English. I looked over at the translator.

"He pretty much said fuck off."

"You'll pay for that you fucker. I hope you enjoy being on you feet."