"Where is he?" Grace leaned over Maria and starred at me.

"I don't know." I hissed. It was the end of the first act of Soda's concert and Sunny was no where in sight.

"Maybe he is embarrassed about last night." Pony suggested.

"Right now, I'm embarrassed, shut up both of you." Maria whispered.

"Why would he be embarrassed?" Grace directed her question toward Pony, who was now going red from people staring at us like we were fools.

"He had a nightmare last night." Pony admitted.

"He has no reason to be embarrassed for that, what did you say to him?" That last question was directed at me.

"Grace shush, Soda is on." Maria ordered. She turned and looked at me. "Leave it be."

I leaned back into my chair. I took Maria's hand in mine. Soda finished his solo. He was actually talented. He had only practiced bits and pieces of it at home. I hadn't heard the whole thing played out before. The next act was announced, when Maria tugged on my hand. I looked over at her.

"Scoot down, he's here." She whispered.

I motioned for Pony to move down a seat. He did so did we all. I looked over at Sunny. "Where were you?"

Sunny held his finger to his lips.

The man in the front turned around. "Can you please be quite, some of us are trying to watch our children."

"Sorry, sir." Sunny nodded toward him.

Pony slumped into his chair. I threw an arm around him. Poor kid, it wasn't bad enough being here with his brothers and their girlfriends, we had to be loud at that.

I was thankful for intermission. I loved watching Soda, it was all the other kids I didn't care about.

Sunny had some weird grin on his face. "My Dad stopped by the office today. We went down to the dealership and I got a new car. I lost track of time."

"Idiot," I shook my head. "Do you realize how important this is, you missed the first act."

"Darry, things happen, he sees his Dad less than he sees Soda." Grace butted in the conversation. I was getting really sick of her doing that.

"I think I'm going to go smoke. Before you guys get even more un wanted attention." Pony said walking toward the door.

"What's his problem?" Sunny asked.

"I think it's you." I answered.

Sunny glared at me. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Kid asks you to a movie, you say you have to work but have no problem getting off when Daddy, rolls into town with his wallet. You're late for Soda's concert, that means the world to him."

"Are you jealous because my step Dad has money, or that I'm spending time with him?"

Boy, now I was ticked. "I'm not jealous of you, I just wish you'd get your priorities straight."

"Babe." Grace put her hand on Sunny's shoulder. "Don't."

"No," Sunny hissed threw clenched teeth. "Who the fuck are you to tell me that. When's the last time you went to Pony's track meet? When's the last time you even spent actual quality time with either of them? Huh Darry you answer that?"

We now had the attention of everybody in the place. I was at a loss of words. Everything he said was right but there was a difference between wanting to be there and can't making. Sunny didn't even want to be around the boys.

"The concert is going to start soon. Darry go get Ponyboy." Maria said.

Sunny shot me a dirty look before we went and sat down. We had to walk outside to meet Soda after everything was said and done. I really hoped that no one noticed that he belonged to the jerks who were fighting the entire time. Sunny and I didn't say anything. I watched Soda parade his way over with his new group of friends.

"Sunny, this is Jan, Anna, Buddy, Allen and Jay."

"Nice to meet you sir." Jay extended his hand.

"They are your biggest fans." Soda grinned.

Sunny some how looked like an absolute wreck. He took Jay's extended hand and then the rest of them. "Pleasure meeting you guys. I have to go, I have an interview with Senator Kennedy tomorrow."

I watched Soda's friends get more excited. "Here buddy, He tossed his keys over to Soda. Brand new off the lot, you can drive her home. It's the black Cadillac."

Soda grinned from ear to ear. "See ya' guys later." He took off running with Sunny toward the new car.

"Well let's go home." I said.

I was happy when we went home. Things were very laid back. Soda didn't even know Sunny missed half the concert. Lucky for me, Sunny went to bed early. Grace left and Two-Bit and Steve were occupying the other two in the yard.

"Are you alright?" Maria asked.

I shrugged. "Would it be bad if I said, I didn't trust Sunny around Pony or Soda."

Maria looked at my strange. "Darry, he just got home from war. Sunny is very open. This isn't something he is going to be open about. I think you need to realize that."

I shook my head. "That's not what I'm talking about. He has these sudden burst of anger. That makes me uneasy. It's like he hates kids, especially Pony. You saw how he was with Soda's friends. I don't' want him hurting Pony or Soda, heck even Steve or Two-Bit for that matter."

"I have work in the morning, so do you. Darry, Sunny would never do anything to intentionally hurt his brothers. You know that."

I kissed her goodbye. It wasn't the intentional part I as worried about. It was the part that he couldn't control I was worried about.

"Hello!" Sunny's voice filled the air.

"In here." I called from the kitchen. "He seems happy." I said to Pony.

Pony shrugged and continued to flip through the magazine Sunny brought home the other day."

"Guess, what Senator Kennedy, asked me to campaign for him. Did you know my book hit the best sellers list in April?"

Pony and I both nodded. "Right after Martin Luther King died."

"Yeah," Sunny sounded a little jaded. "It's hot today. He took of his suit coat and unbuttoned his coat. It was the first time I noticed he had a peace symbol.

"When did you start wearing that?" I asked pointing to the symbol.

"The day I found out I got drafted." He touched the symbol. "Fuck the war."

I frowned. He didn't sleep well last night. He kept his door locked and we couldn't get in until he got up and answered it. Out of no where he slammed his hand on the page Pony was reading. Pony jumped back. He looked up at Sunny with wide eyes.

"Ponyboy, that isn't something you need to be reading. You don't need to know anything about the war. You understand me?" Sunny said solemnly.

Pony nodded. Sunny grabbed the magazine and tossed it into the trash. "Go play outside or something."

Pony took off. Sunny shook his head once Pony was out of the room. "That kid reads everything there is in this house. We need to start monitoring it."

"I guess so." I said. "I'm taking off tomorrow."

"Want to go to the lake? Soda doesn't have school on Fridays."

"Sure, sounds fun."

Sunny grinned. "Good, spend some time together and I can get some writing done."

"Guess he's going to write all day." Soda looked up at Sunny. He was still sitting under a tree with his papers.

I shrugged and splashed Soda with water. He jumped on top of me, and I went under.

The girls we were talking to earlier had left. Now, there were a bunch of other girls looking at us as we goofed off in the water.

"Are you guys, brothers?" A blond in a bikini asked.

"Yup." Soda threw his arm around my neck. "I'm Soda, this is Pony."

The blond grinned. "I'm Kim. You guys are real cute, look a lot alike. I'll catch you guys later."

Soda leaned down. "Give it a few years, and you are going to be almost as good looking as me."

"Few years? She said you GUYS are real cute." I threw some water in his face.

I liked going down to the lake. We all seemed to get along better. I think it was because every body was relaxed. A trip to the lake was kind of like our vacation.

Darry waded into the water until it went over his knees. He waved us over. "Guys, lunch is ready. Do me a favor, go get Sunny."

I bit my lip as I went up the hill. "Sunny?" I chattered.

"What?" He put his stuff down, and then reached up and pulled me down. At first I thought I did something to get a whipping. "You looked cold there." He rubbed his hand on my back. "Here baby." He moved and got the towel he was sitting on and threw it over me.

"Darry says lunch is ready."At the current moment I really didn't care who saw him babying me. I closed my eyes and pretended just for a minute that everything was okay. It was how it was before Sunny left, even before Darry had changed.