Soda's POV
It was a typical Wednesday afternoon. Not much action. For some reason, cars never needed to be worked on or filled up on Wednesdays. That's how it seemed anyway. I was sweeping out the store and wondering about Ponyboy. I still hadn't gotten him to tell me what he had been so upset about on Sunday, but at least it seemed to have mostly blown over.
"Hey Sodapop. Have you been slow all day?" Steve came up behind me.
"Yeah. Pretty much. Hey Mr. Hall wants you to mop out the back room. I've already swept it."
"Ok." The bell over the door jingle. "Don't look now Soda, here come your two girlfriends."
My "girlfriends" were two nine-year-old girls that had stopped by the store every day after school for the past two and a half weeks.
"I'll be in the back." Steve grinned as he headed towards the back room. He got way too much joy out of leaving me alone with those two. I didn't really mind them but he didn't have to run every time they came in the store.
I turned to the girls. They were dressed in matching blue jumpers and they both had their hair in pigtails, but their complexions were totally opposite.
"Hey Sodapop." Said the dark haired girl.
"Hello Adaire. Marie." I was still preoccupied with thoughts of Pony. I wondered if he was going to stop by. He hadn't since Saturday.
"Watcha doing?"
"Huh, oh, I'm sweeping."
"Oh." They just stood there smiling at me.
They were probably going to stand there until I gave them my full attention so I said, "You two look cute today."
They looked at each other and giggled.
"Did you dress that way on purpose?" That only provoked more giggles.
As long as I had them here, maybe I could get some use out of them. I leaned forward and placed a hand on each of their shoulders. "You want to do something for me?"
Their eyes filled with excitement as they nodded.
"See that door over there? I want you to take this" I handed them my dustpan, "and dump it on the floor back there."
"On the floor?" Marie's blue eyes were wide.
"Oh yeah. We always dump it back there and then sweep it out later."
They exchanged smiles again and headed for the backroom. I waited, listening.
"SODAPOP PATRICK CURTIS!"
Ah, success.
I heard the dustpan clatter and the girls came running over to me. Steve stopped in the doorway. "Sodapop you….."
"Careful. Young ears." I nodded to the girls and grinned at him real big. He glared at me and then stormed back into the room.
"Good job girls. I think that deserves a Coke."
PONY'S POV
Two-Bit, Katelyn, and I stopped by the DX on our way home. We saw Adaire and Marie leaving the store with their Cokes. I was surprised they were still coming around because I thought they would be over their crush by now.
Two-Bit waved to them and questioned "Hey you wanna buy us some Cokes too?"
"We didn't buy them" Marie said, "Sodapop just gave them to us."
"Yeah, cause we were helping him." Adaire said. The two looked at each other and burst into giggles.
As we entered the DX, Two-Bit remarked "Soda, you sure must have a way with girls."
Katelyn pulled her hair into pigtails and looked adoringly up at Soda. "Sodapop. Can I have a free Coke too?" She said in a child-like voice. Two-Bit howled with laughter.
"Aw, cut it out Katelyn." Soda didn't respond to our teasing like he usually did. He looked over at me and I could tell he was still trying to figure out why I had been so upset.
Katelyn wasn't going to give up on the free Coke so easily. "Come on. I'll do whatever they did. What did they do anyway?"
Steve came in carrying a dustpan. "This is what they did." He proceeded to dump the contents onto Soda and the floor and then dropped the dustpan. "I do believe that belongs to you, Soda."