Mike, along with a handful of the guys from the DX were outside, smiling widely when I opened the door. Mike tossed something at me, and thanks to having pretty great reflexes, I snatched a familiar set of keys out of the air. I looked around, then spotted it. My old, blue, beat up pickup was sitting in the drive, right behind Darry's truck.
"Morning Jo-Anna Beth," Mike said brightly. "She's good as gold now, Steve did a mighty fine job fixin' 'er up for ya," he said.
"Thanks Mike!" I said, beaming brightly. "I'll get the money to you as soon as humanly possible."
"Now don't you dare even think about it," he said, waving me off. "Free of charge."
"But-," I started. He cut me off.
"No buts. And we happened to hear you're moving today, so we'd like to help ya out as much as possible," he said with a huge grin.
"Why, that's mighty kind of ya'll," I said brightly. "Thanks!"
"No problem, just point us in the right direction, and we'll get right ta' work," he said with a grin. Soda took that moment to decide he wanted to be team manager. Of course, he was better at it than me, so I let him loose.
Around 8 the lawyer stopped by to give me to keys and once I signed for them, he wished me well.
"Hope everything works out for you," he said truthfully as he went back to his car. I waved as he pulled away, before going back to packing boxes up with old photographs and old clothes.
By dinner time, the house was coming together. All the furniture was moved in, and all that was left was a few boxes that were sitting on the front porch. Steve carried those in, while I checked in with Mary.
"Mickey's sleeping in the living room, and Darry just got up," she said as I walked through the back door.
"Where's Greaser?" I asked, looking around.
"He's with Darry," she said, motioning towards the living room, where Darry was stretched out on the couch, looking a lot better than he did that morning.
"Hey," he said when he saw me.
"How're you feeling?" I asked, going over to push Michelle's hair out of her face.
"Better," he said brightly, stroking Greaser's head. "How'd moving go?"
"We had some help," I laughed, going over the events of that day with him, until Soda came through the front door, smiling widely.
"You gotta come see," he said, beaming like a moron.
"Can't it wait?" I asked. I had just gotten comfortable.
"No, c'mon, bring the girls!" he exclaimed before dashing out the door. Darry shrugged before waving for us to go. We ran around to the back of the house, surprised that the fence was down.
"Two-Bit and Steve tore it down," he explained while leading the way. When we walked into the house, I was shocked to see how amazing it looked. Everything seemed to fit just right.
We talked for a while, before I insisted that the girls go to bed. Soda followed me inside and helped me tuck Michelle in.
We went into my room afterwards, something my mother would have never approved of. I don't know if it was just excitement from the day we had, or if we were actually feeling anything or not. But we wound up turning the light off, pulling the blanket over our heads, laughing softly as we made love for the first time.
I worked doubles the following week, so I barely saw much of anyone, much less of Soda. When Friday rolled around, I was excited to have the weekend off. I knew Soda had purposely taken that night off, so we could talk about the weekend before.
I was sitting in my living room, watching Michelle start to doze off, while Mary was off with Pony at the movies, when Soda came through the door, smiling widely.
"Hey," I said, nodding at Michelle so he'd know not to slam the door. He closed it carefully, before kneeling down to hug me.
"Have you told Darry yet?" we both asked at the same time. We cracked up, a moment later shutting up as to not wake Mickey. We moved into the kitchen, where Soda slumped into a chair.
"No," I answered, handing him a beer. "Have you?"
"Hell no," he laughed. "He'd kill us both."
"Naw, he probably already knows, especially since you told Steve," I said with a shake of my head.
"I'm just glad it didn't make stuff weird between us," he said softly. I smiled and let him wrap me in his arms before he kissed me passionately.
"It couldn't get weird, I've had a thing for you since I was 13," I laughed. Me and Soda were only a year and a few months apart, so even when we were younger, the age difference was never really something we thought about.
"I love you, you know that?" he said sheepishly, grabbing my hands and dragging me into the bedroom. I kicked the door shut, making sure it was locked before pushing him down on the bed.
"We have to tell him," I said after another round of hot, sweet romance. Soda sighed and rolled over, throwing an arm around me.
"If you think he already knows, why tell him?" he asked, giving me a funny look.
"Because, otherwise, I'm going to be jumpy around him every time I spend the night!" I teased.
"Anyone home?" a familiar voice rang clear through the house. Soda and I both jumped out of the bed, scrambling to pull our clothes on as fast as possible. I was the first one out of the room, nearly running face first into Darry, who was standing in the hallway, his arms crossed.
"Well well, what do we have here?" he teased. I blushed something fierce, trying to push past him, to use Mickey as an excuse, but when Soda came out of my room, his hair just as messy as mine probably was, instead of yelling, Darry burst out laughing.
"I should have known," he howled, laughing so hard I wondered if he was going to choke.
"It's not what it looks like," Soda said quickly.
"Oh? Then what?" Darry laughed.
"Um, we were…uh," Soda couldn't come up with an excuse, so instead, I just shrugged.
"Shoulda saw it comin'," I laughed softly.
"Sure got that one right!" Darry hooted. "Well, well, that sure does explain why you two have been having so many sleep overs lately," he chuckled.
"Shut up," I snapped, going to retrieve my sleeping sister from the couch. I tucked her into her bed, before pushing Darry towards the door.
"Oh c'mon, did you two really think I didn't know?" he asked, giving us a funny look.
"We hoped," I laughed. "How mad are you?"
"Not at all. I knew you two had a thing for each other all these years," he smiled. "I was just coming by to say that Mary's at the house."
"Oh" I laughed lightly. "Well I can't leave since Mickey's asleep," I added.
"No need, she'll be over here after dinner. I'm assuming Soda's gonna be here tonight?" he asked. Soda nodded. I smiled and pushed Darry outside.
"Good night, Darrel," I said with a laugh. He only howled more. He walked across the backyard, and once I saw the back door to his house open, I closed the door, leaning against it heavily.
"Well that sure was…uh, interesting," I laughed.
"You ain't a'woofin'!" he laughed nervously.