Dealing—Part 11

Two-Bit's POV

Saturday morning, and there was nothing to do. Darry, Steve and Soda were all working, and for the past year when that happened there was just Ponyboy for me to hang out with. Not that I don't like to be around the kid, it's just he likes to do different stuff than I do, especially lately. Shoot, if it was up to him we'd probably lie around reading books all day! And man, I do that enough in school.

So after watching a bunch of episodes of the newly discovered world of a mouse named Mickey, I was bored. No wonder I missed Dally so much, he gave us so much action on a day like this one. But Steve and Soda are always good for some fun, so I decided to pay a visit to the DX.

When I got there, I didn't see Soda, so I figured he was in the store, on cash duty or whatever they call it. Then I looked for Steve in the garage, but before I saw my buddy I saw a blonde talking to him, her back to me. Now, blondes have always been my preference, and this one sure was a looker—at least from the back.

I whistled and turned up the collar of my leather jacket even more to look tough. She turned around as I called, "Hey, baby, how's it—what the—" It was Sodapop's old girlfriend, Sandy! Glory, Soda will kill me if he finds out about this! But since when was she in town? And I thought she was having a baby, what is she doing looking so good?

"Hey, Two-Bit!" she said, waving at me from the garage, where Steve was snickering.

"I thought you were gonna have a kid!" I said, deciding to tell her my thoughts. "How come you ain't fat?"

Sandy just sort of giggled. "I had my baby, and I sure didn't plan on staying that size forever! What did you think, I was gonna be huge for the rest of my life?"

"Well, some people do! You should see my history teacher…" I kidded. Steve snorted a bit of laughter. He knew what my teacher looked like.

"What are you doing down here anyway?" I asked her then, realizing that this was not a normal day. "Last I heard you were in Florida soaking up the sun!"

Sandy chuckled, but not with humour this time. "I would hardly call living with a grandmother—convinced that if I left the house, she would be subject to social disgrace for years—soaking up the sun, but I guess the weather here wasn't too hot while I was gone?" she asked dryly.

I hadn't realized how it would be for her in Florida. Obviously having a baby without being married wasn't exactly encouraged there either.

Steve sighed. "Wasn't just the weather that turned sour," he told her. I knew what he meant, and I also knew he probably wouldn't care to explain himself.

"Oh, right," Sandy said softly. "I heard about Johnny and Dallas. Actually, Evie wrote and told me about the rumble and everything. I mean, I probably would have known sooner from Soda's letter, but I…" she fell silent. I remembered.

"But I sent the letter back to him unopened," she probably would have said.

I remembered Soda that week when Ponyboy and Johnny were missing.

"Hey, buddy, how you doing?" I asked, sitting down across from him.

Soda just looked at me, his eyes tired and a bit red around the rims. He looked exhausted, and his normally perfectly kept hair was dishevelled.

"Not so good, huh?" I said, giving him the grin he wouldn't offer me. Man, if we could all see his grin a little more in the past few days, it would've raised our spirits a lot. When Soda was down like that, we were all dragged down with him. "I was thinking, maybe we should start out for Texas to look for them, what do ya say?"

Sodapop at least tried to smile then, but he seemed unable to. "Texas…Pony and Johnny in Texas? I don't think they've gone that far yet…"

"But Dallas said…" he cut me off sharply, in a voice I wasn't used to from him.

"Do you think Dallas ever tells the truth to the police?" Soda demanded. "He knows where they are, he wouldn't tell the police and not us."

"Well, then why don't we go over and—" again, I was cut off.

Soda sighed. His voice was soft again. "You think I haven't already asked? Don't you think I've done everything I can think of to find my baby brother—" his voice cracked. "Don't you think I would do anything to make this end?"

I got the sense something else was going on. Soda had been calm until now, carefully trying to think of where the kids might have gone, and all of a sudden he was having some sort of breakdown. "Soda, have you slept at all?"

He looked at me again, and his eyes looked hollow. Not the eyes I was used to either. "Sleep? I've slept, and all I can think about is my brother and Sandy…"

"Sandy?" Okay, now I was confused. What did his girlfriend have to do with any of this? "What are you talking about, man?"

"She…left. She's going to Florida because she's having a baby," Soda told me, his voice empty of expression except for an unmistakeable undertone of hurt.

"A baby?" I was shocked. "You got her pregnant?"

"Nope."

Again, the dead voice, like he'd given up hope of any kind. "No? Sandy was…she was running around on you? That dirty little—" cut off for the third time, but who's counting?

"No, Two-Bit. Don't say anything. Just leave it," Sodapop ordered quietly. "She's gone and Ponyboy is gone and Johnny's gone and soon you'll be gone."

"Me?" I asked, thoroughly puzzled by this statement. "Where am I gonna go?"

Finally, the grin I'd been waiting for—weak, but still there. "Well, I thought you were going to Texas, ain't you?"

That was the roughest week of his life, and he got through it somehow. But I doubted Sandy's being back was making moving on any easier for Soda.

We were all being faced with a ghost from our past.

Sodapop's POV

Now Two-Bit was at the DX, in the garage talking with Steve and Sandy. The party is complete, I thought wryly, putting up a sign in the window of the store. Normally I hated cash duty, but I was willing to do anything to get away from Sandy just then. And with my manager in the back room, there was no way she could follow me in and distract me with a "serious" conversation. We'd both get chewed out if she tried.

Honestly, I wasn't sure how much more of this I could take. Sandy was driving me nuts. She wanted to talk, but when I actually let her, all she did was make sarcastic comments. I didn't remember her being this way before. Having a baby must have messed up her personality in some way.

However, things perked up a bit when Ponyboy walked into the store.

"Hi, Soda. Hi, Chip," he said as my manager came in from the back room. Chip just grunted his hello and went out to the garage. Boy, Steve was gonna catch it when he found the three of them goofing off in there. Serves all of them right.

"Hey, Pony," I said, trying to sound more cheerful than I felt. "What've you been doing at home this morning? Hanging out with Two-Bit?"

"Nope, he never came over," Ponyboy answered, which surprised me. Well, not really since that guy is so scatterbrained he'd lose his own head if it weren't attached to him. "I was just reading and stuff. Hey, is Sandy here or something?"

"Yeah, she's here," I said, somewhat darkly. "Laughing it up with my pals in the auto shop. You come here to ditch me to talk to her too?"

"No," Ponyboy said simply. "I just wanted to talk to you."

Instantly I felt guilty for my outburst. I knew how he hated when I got like that. Which normally wasn't too often. "Sorry, kiddo. What's up?"

"Would you come to the cemetery with me?" was his answer. Uh…okay. Thinking about Dallas and Johnnycake was one thing, now he wanted to talk to their graves or something? What exactly was going on with him right now that I wasn't aware of?

"Sure," I replied, tossing him a grin. "How about after I get off today?" Why was I going along with this? Well, for one thing, I really did want to support my little brother like I hadn't been in a while. And for another, it would give me an excuse to keep Sandy off my back for a little while longer. Hopefully I could avoid her long enough for her to go back to Miami. Aw, come on, Soda, I chided myself, she just wants to talk to you. Besides, is this how you want to leave things?

But the answer to that question, like so many others then, just wasn't that simple.

Well, that flashback was longer than I thought it would be. Hope you liked it, and thanks to everyone whose reviewed so far! Keep em coming! D