A/N: Okay, this is getting harder. Really, this plot is just being made up as I go along, so I hope it can stay good. Thanks for all the reviews! I really appreciate them, especially since this is the first story I've got on here. Well, enough chitchat, on with the story!

Dealing—Part 12

Ponyboy's POV

Sodapop, Sodapop, Sodapop. He really needed to get past this Sandy thing, it was making him so…un-Soda-ish. Seriously, maybe it would have been better if she hadn't come back at all, but honestly, who was I to judge? From what Soda had told me about her leaving, it had had something to do with the fact that he was always having to look after me, so I felt guilty. But I wasn't the best person to try and talk to either of them. Soda just had to work this one out on his own for now.

Come on. That's not fair. If it were you, he'd try to help, you know he would.

I argued with myself yet again, that was before! Before all this happened. We'd all been changing in the year since we lost our friends. Maybe I just hadn't realized how much until now. Darry didn't see the gang nearly as much as he used to, Steve and Soda never went out with girls together anymore, I was a regular little recluse most of the time, and Two-Bit…well, Two-Bit Matthews was the one who stayed the same.

When Soda asked if it was okay to go to the cemetery today, I was about to agree when I realized the date. "Actually, could we go tomorrow?" I suggested.

Sodapop shrugged. "I guess so, since I don't have work. But why then?"

I couldn't believe it when I actually choked up a bit. "Well, it's just…tomorrow is one year since they—uh, I mean, one year since the big rumble."

"It's okay to say it, Pony," Soda told me softly. "I know you miss them more than the rest of us, but it's okay to talk about them still. I don't think Dally would like it if everyone stopped remembering his record and stuff."

I was about to answer when my blood suddenly ran cold. I looked towards the door as the bells jingled, signalling a new customer, and saw none other than Mrs. Cade.

It was like someone wheeled around and slapped me across the face. It felt exactly the same as I did when Darry hit me like that the one time. What is she doing here? She doesn't come here, she doesn't deserve to be here when her son, our friend, has been dead for a year! She doesn't even miss her own son, and I'm here, it feels like I'm slowly dying inside, I miss him so much. What is she doing here!?

Sodapop sucked in his breath sharply, going tense and cold in an instant. No grin, no laughing eyes, no friendly, "How y'all doing today?", nothing.

Johnny's mother, the one who looked so much like him, stared him down, her eyes the same as ever, cheap and hard, where his had been lonely and hurt but warm and soulful. "You," she finally spat out, and I nearly shrank back into the magazine rack.

"You got something to say to me, say it," Sodapop said boldly, not backing down. He glanced at me and looked worried. His eyes told me to beat it out of there. Then they flickered back to that woman, and they were cold as ice again. I never knew his eyes could be so cold and mean-looking. Almost like Darry's, except for the colour.

"I've got nothing to say to you hoods," Mrs. Cade snapped at him, throwing a package of cigarettes onto the counter.

"Well, I've got something to say to you," Soda replied just as angrily. "Your only son died. Did you even ever stop to think about that? Did you ever cry or even care at all? Do you realize the night everything started that Johnny was sleeping outside because nobody at home wanted him to be there?"

"My son died a hero," she snarled. Soda laughed, a chilling hollow sound that scared me almost as much as the look in his eyes did. This wasn't him. Where did my brother go? The kind, loving one I looked up to so much? Who was this new person?

"A hero?" he said icily. Then, in a softer voice, much more like the one I was used to, "You're right. Johnny was a hero. But that doesn't change the fact that he is gone, and he is never coming back, and you don't even care."

Mrs. Cade's eyes bulged, and she looked absolutely livid. "How dare you speak to me about my son!"

"How dare I?" Sodapop exclaimed incredulously. He laughed recklessly, eyes wild but not dancing happily like they used to all the time. "I dare because we knew him. We really knew Johnny, and you think you knew him but you never did because you never stopped to love him. Sure, you went to his funeral, but that was all for show, wasn't it? The only things you ever gave him were beatings."

The store of the DX was deathly silent. Soda was still glaring at Johnny's mother, who would never understand what her son had meant to us. She was one of those people who would never change no matter how much time passed, no matter what happened to her. She would go on like she'd never even had a son, our Johnnycake.

I was shocked at my brother's outburst, staring at him, unable to say anything. I'd never heard him talk so much about Johnny. His words were what I couldn't say to my best friend's parents, but what I was aching to say to someone, anyone who would listen. Yes, we had all changed.

Wow, two posts in one day! So if this one sucks, maybe I should slow it down a little and think things I make the characters do through a little more…(sheepish smile) Yeah, I know the whole Soda thing is kind of out of character, as Ponyboy noticed. But I hope it wasn't too bad, maybe I should have left it in Soda's POV for that part, but just please review and tell me what you think! And what do you want to see happen?