Sun. Jan. 1, 1967

When I opened the fridge this morning it was empty. Well, we had milk, and some leftovers and other necessary food items. I sighed because that meant that I had to go to the store. There wasn't even enough food to have breakfast. I changed and went out to my car. Soda was out there, walking up to the door. He had a flower in his hand and a face of true sincerity for whatever he was about to tell me.

"This is for you." He handed me the flower and I gave him a big smile. "I want to apologize for what happened between you and me like three months ago. I know it's a little delayed but I felt it was necessary that I apologized."

"Go ahead… apologize." I smiled so he knew I was kidding. "You don't need to apologize. I took advantage of you and I shouldn't have done that."

"Well, to make it up I thought that maybe I could take you out tomorrow night?" He asked.

"I'd love to." I kissed his cheek. "Do me a favor and put this is a glass of water because I have to go to the store. So I'll see you later." I handed him the flower and smiled. He went inside the house and I went to my car. I saw him run out and walked up to my car window. He opened the door and said, "Can I come with you?" I laughed.

"Yeah." I laughed and he got in.

While getting milk I ran into Meredith. I slowly reached for the milk, waiting for her to turn around so she could see me.

"Typhani?"

"Oh, hi, Meredith." I said.

"How's Travis?" She asked.

"Um, good, besides the hangover but my dad wasn't mad and he's… fine. You can go visit him if you want." I said to her. It was kinda awkward.

"Ah, I don't think so. My dad got mad at me and told me he didn't want me to see him anymore." She just made this moment more awkward than it needed to be. I nodded my head. Soda came over and looked at me then Meredith.

"Oh, Meredith this is my boyfriend Soda." I didn't even realize what I had just called him. He looked at me in surprise and got back to reality and said, "Right, boyfriend! Nice to meet you Meredith."

"Likewise. Well, I better go. I'll see you around." She turned around and walked away. I grabbed a milk jug and put it in the cart. I just knew Soda would say something about me calling him my boyfriend. I moved on like nothing had happened.

"What was that?" He asked.

"What was what?" I knew exactly what he was referring too.

"You called me your boyfriend."

"Oh, yeah." I was trying hard to keep my cool.

"So… we're… together now?" He asked it more than said it.

"Yeah." I shrugged my shoulders and acted like it was no big deal but inside I was screaming. Soda grabbed my face and brought it to his. A kiss, in public for everyone to see, to see who I am and who I love. I am not ashamed. People know Typhani Taylor, me, as the girl who rejected her own kind, Socs, to befriend whom she loved most, her group of friends, Greasers. "We don't need to go on three dates to make it official. I have known you forever and um, well, I know I love you." I said. He smiled that famous smile that would make a girls' heart skip a beat, then they would think they were in love and do what it takes to make Sodapop Curtis be theirs'. It's too bad for them because he's mine.

Mon. Jan. 2, 1967

I woke up kinda late and saw that everyone was gone; the house was empty. I didn't want to go to work today but my boss wouldn't care because I wrote newspaper articles for small news and they never actually made the paper. He was just desperate for more writers and I was desperate for job in journalism.

I was so tired of waking up early and driving to the other side of town to work all day on articles that never even make the paper. So I called the office and quit. I didn't thoroughly think it through but being unemployed sounded good to me. Once I did think it through, I thought that I should have a job because I could use the money. I dropped the topic from my head.

I went to Flinn's to talk to Flinn or Nancy. It was early so the parking lot was empty except for the other employees. I walked in and saw Nancy and Flinn sitting in a booth. Flinn had told me he had a huge crush on Nancy but she confirmed she didn't feel the same way. Flinn was singing along to the Elvis song playing in the background.

"Hey kiddo." Nancy said to me. "All by yourself?"

"Darry, Soda, and Steve are working; Pony's at school and Two-Bit is roaming around drunk." I said.

"I don't know why that boy changed his name to Two-Bit. I really like the name Keith. I think I'm gonna name my first kid after him." Nancy was the only one who called Two-Bit Keith and she was serious when she said she would name her kid after him. "But then I'd introduced them to each other and tell my kid to be the exact opposite of Two-Bit."

"And whose that father gonna be?" Flinn asked.

"Not you Flinn."

"I know." He sighed.

"So do you need anything, sweetie?" Nancy asked.

"Yeah, like a hamburger?" Flinn interrupted.

"Sure Flinn." I sent him away to make me a dang hamburger. It was too early to eat lunch but Flinn was begging to make something. "But, no, I don't need anything. I just came to visit."

I stayed a little while longer and talked and at twelve-thirty I left. I stood outside the door and scanned the parking lot. There were no more or any less cars in the lot. A woman walked by and I soon recognized her as Grace, the mother of Dallas Winston. I stared at her for a moment while feeling the presence of Dallas again. Before I knew it, I was walking toward her.

"Grace?"

"Um, yes?" She didn't seem to remember me.

"It's me, Typhani Taylor."

"Oh!" She covered her mouth from shock. "You look so beautiful. I haven't seen you since forever." She was truly happy to see me. "It's just been so long and Jack never calls and Dallas never visits. The last time I saw him was when I gave him a necklace and which you are wearing. I'm glad he gave it to you. So, how is he?" I sighed because she didn't know and I had to be the one to tell her.

"You don't know?" I asked.

"Know what?"

"I'm sorry that I'm the one to tell you but Dallas died like two years ago." It was still hard to say it and come to conclusions that he was gone. She almost collapsed. I felt really bad.

"Um, Typhani it isn't your fault but I'm glad you told me." She walked away with hurt in her heart and nothing left to say. She was right, though, it wasn't my fault she didn't know. I thought Jack would have at least told her that. I was just upset that she had to find out the way she did. I probably ruined her whole day. Now I really felt bad.

Later that day was my date with Soda. I didn't really care where he took me, I was just happy I got to be alone with him. I mean, I love the boys and all but sometimes alone time with one of them is nice.

When Soda did come to pick me up, he didn't exactly tell me where we were going but I knew it wasn't the movies. Sodapop hated the movies. He said he'd take me there every once and a while but it really did bother him to sit for a long period of time watching a movie. So we drove downtown and hung out with different people and got the scoop on the latest news on everyone in town. Then we went to Flinn's and ordered our usual and talked and hung out with Flinn and Nancy when the place closed. Back downtown, we talked to a bunch more people and learned juicy stories on some other people. Soda finally dropped me off at my house at ten. He walked me into the house and kissed me goodnight. It was a perfect night.

I was happy with not having to wake up tomorrow and have to go to work. So, I went back to Soda's house. He always stayed up late no matter how early he had to wake up.

"Um, hi?" Soda said to me as I walked through his door. Steve was over too.

"Hey." I sat down on the couch.

"Don't you have work in the morning?" Soda and Steve were both confused.

"I quit." I shrugged.

"What?" Soda shouted. He took me by surprise. I didn't think he would care that much.

"Why don't you work with us?" Steve butted in. It wasn't a bad idea, though. Steve didn't do much anyway so it would be like getting paid for being with your friends.

"Sure."

Wed. Jan. 3, 1967

Soda's car was parked outside my house. When I got in I almost fell asleep. Soda knocked me on the head about two times to keep me awake. When we arrived at the station he and Steve had to pull me out of the car because I was so lazy to move. Steve slapped me to wake up. And I wanted to cussed him out and throw a good punch to his face but I knew he would win either way. But Soda did pick a fight with him. It was funny until the boss came.

"Okay, where's this Typhani Taylor?" The boss was a short man with a bald spot on the top of his head. I could tell he was originally from New York and that he thought he was the best and some kind of supreme ruler.

Both Soda and Steve pointed to me and stepped to the side. I waved my hand and he came toward me.

"Randle, what's so special about this pretty little girl." He smiled at me and then winked. I almost gagged that this tiny, old man was hitting on me. Soda laughed and Steve took a step closer to me and stuttered, "She just needs a job and she's a good friend."

"You're good friends with these hooligans? These boys are no good delinquents." He burst into laughter and Steve and Soda joined in on the laughter even though the joke was about them. "Why aren't you laughing?"

"It wasn't funny." I snapped back.

"Oh, it wasn't funny, huh? I like you kid, but laugh at my jokes." He was shaking his sausage finger at me.

"Yes sir." I said with some sarcasm.

"Have a good day you three." He said sarcastically. Soda and Steve gave a sigh of relief when he left.

"Is he always like that?" I complained.

"Only when he doesn't like you. Steve here made fun of him on the first day and now he doesn't like us." Soda warned. "But he likes you, keep it that way."

"Fantastic."

It was a slow day but hanging out with Steve and Soda was fun. When our shift ended we all went to get pizza. We went inside and found a whole section filled with Socs. That side was generally for the Socs and the opposite side by the bathrooms was for us Greasers. As we sat down I noticed Travis with all his friends. I glared at him for a second or too and he glared back. Paul met our gaze and brought him and his friends over to our table.

"What do you want, Paul?" I asked.

"I saw your pretty little face and I wanted to talk." He said. He sat beside me in our booth.

"Go away, Paul!" Soda instructed.

"Wait, wait, wait! Aren't you Darrel's little brother? Pepsi-Cola isn't it?" Paul used the name Soda's dad gave him and Soda didn't like that. I wasn't even able to call him that.

"What'd you call me?" Soda's jaw tightened.

"Isn't that your name? Pepsi-Cola?" Paul mocked him. He obviously knew that was Soda's pet name and that his dad was the only one who called him that. So he knew that was Soda's weak spot.

"Listen, Paul, you're not wanted here, so you can just leave!" Soda yelled. Some people heard and started staring at us. Soda grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the booth and Steve followed. We practically ran out of there and he almost pulled my arm out of its socket from pulling so hard.

"Let's go home." Soda sighed.

"Soda, I'm sorry Paul said that." I apologized for something I didn't do.

"It's not your fault." He reassured me.

"Why are you defending Paul?" Steve asked. I punched him in the stomach as a sign to shut up.

We all went back to Soda's house to snack there. Soda was in a bad mood from the incident at the pizza parlor. He got out of the car the instant he parked. Steve and I looked at each other. By the time we were inside, Soda had already picked a fight with Darry.

"Nothing's wrong, Darry! Leave me alone!" Soda complained.

"Typhani, Steve, is there something wrong with Sodapop?" Darry asked us as we walked in.

We looked at each other before answering and both said, "Yeah." Soda sighed because nobody would believe him. We went to the kitchen for some Coke and came back and sat on the couch. We watched the fight in aw.

At about eight I went home. Soda drove me home in silence, still mad. It made matters worse trying to talk to him. But I eventually just shut up all together. Finally the awkward silence was over when we got to my house. I figured Cherry and Casey were already asleep so I came in silently and went straight to bed.

I was walking down the aisle with the veil over my face. My left arm was linked with someone else's but I couldn't see a thing through the lace. All around me, people were standing in my presence and straight ahead a figure stood before me. I stopped walking abruptly and was slowly, helped up stairs and then I stopped. The figure was now arms distance away and the stranger linked with me let go. I suddenly felt off balance and the human figure across from me lifted my veil and took my hand. I blinked and there in front of me stood…