Chapter Eleven: Blow Ups
Cam POV
A couple of weeks went by, and Soda barely talked to me. I was starting to crumble. Darry took notice, because my grades were starting to dwindle.
"Your teachers are worried about you. They said you made the best grades in the class until a few weeks ago. What's going on?"
"Nothing's going on, Darry!"
"Don't yell at me!"
I crossed my arms and sulked on the couch. Soda walked in about that time.
"You keep this up, and you'll be grounded! You hear me?!"
Soda stopped. He'd never seen Darry yell at me before.
"Like it matters..."
"What'd you say?"
I looked him straight in the eyes.
"Like. It. Matters. Did you hear me that time?!"
Soda's eyes got wide.
"You're one step away from being grounded now! I'm trying to give you a chance before I do it, but keep talking smack, and I will! I dorm know what's gotten into you lately, but you're going to cut it out! You understand?!"
I wanted to scream at him, but didn't say anything else. He nodded.
"Good."
I stared at him though, with cold eyes. He sighed.
"Go cool off. I know you need to."
I nodded and walked out the house. I was actually cooling off and feeling bad for yelling at Darry.
"Hey, Cam!"
I turned to see Mikey. I cursed under my breathe. I'd been avoiding him since he kissed me.
"What's up?"
I gave him half a smile.
"Just cooling off. You?"
"Being bored. Come hang out with me at the park?"
I didn't want to, but I nodded. We were just talking about nothing. I don't even know half of what I was saying. When we got to the park, he turned serious.
"I've been wanting to talk to you for a while."
"About what?"
"Well, I was hoping you'd be my girl."
I looked away. I liked Mikey, I really did, but I knew he was bad news. He might like me, but he'd never really care about me. He liked his rep more.
"I can't, Mikey."
I looked at him. His face turned dark. Something I'd seen him do before, but never at me.
"Why not?"
"You've been in the cooler five times since I've been here."
"So what?"
"I don't want someone who gets in trouble all the time. I like you, but it won't work. I... I already worry about you all the time. I can't... I can't be your girl or it'll only get worse..."
His eyes turned even darker.
"I'm not taking no for an answer, Cameron."
I stared at him. He knew I hated being called that.
"Well, that's just too damn bad, Michael."
He glared at me.
"I'm not taking no for an answer. You kissed me."
"No, you forced a kiss on me. I was trying to tell you to stop before you did it!"
He tried to force himself on me. I was fighting him, but he soon had me on the ground. I started to panic.
"Stop, Mikey! Stop! Help! Please?!"
He put his hand over my mouth.
"Hey, she said stop!"
We both turned our heads to see Soda, Steve, Two-bit, Curly, and Tim. Mikey glared.
"This ain't none of your business!"
Soda stepped closer to us and pointed at me then himself.
"That girl is my business."
Mikey stood up, and I stood up and backed away from him.
"Really? You gonna play big brother now? Cause from what she's told me, you ain't been acting much like one."
He looked back at me. My mouth dropped open and I slapped him. He went to lunge at me, but Tim stopped him by pulling him by his collar.
"Enough!"
"Get off me, Tim!"
Tim shoved him on the ground.
"You know better than to mess with the Curtis gang. Next time, I'll let them pummel you. Understand?!"
Mikey got up and nodded.
"Good. Go to the house, I'll talk to you once I get there."
Mikey stormed off, looking more pissed than I'd ever seen him look. Curly came up to me.
"I'm sorry, Cam. I don't know what came over him."
"It's okay..."
Tim turned to Soda.
"Sorry for causing trouble. I'll let him know not to mess with Cam or you guys. I can promise you that."
Soda nodded and I winced. I knew that meant he'd be getting a beating from Tim and probably Curly. Curly was one of my best friends, and he'd become very protective.
"Thanks Tim."
And with that, Soda grabbed my arm gently and pulled me in the direction of his truck. I was kind of shaken from the whole thing. He helped me in the truck and got in himself.
"How'd you find me?"
"When you didn't come back for a while, I grabbed Steve and Two-bit and we started looking. We ran into the Shepherds, and they offered to help."
"I'm glad they did..."
"Are you okay?"
I didn't say anything or nod. I'd hardly ever been around boys, and though I don't think Mikey would've raped me, he'd scared the hell out of me. Soda sighed as we pulled into the house. I got out and we walked on the porch.
"Wait here."
I nodded. Steve and Two-bit had pulled up and joined me. I looked at them.
"Y'all got a cigarette?"
Steve handed me one and struck a match. I'd never seen him look so pissed. A few minutes later, Soda walked back out and motioned for them to go inside.
"I'm gonna ask again, are you okay?"
I didn't say anything for a minute. When I did speak, it was barely above a whisper.
"He scared me..."
I looked at him.
"Are all boys like that?"
"Huh?"
"When they want you... Are they all..."
He cut me off.
"No no no. Not all boys are like that. None of us would do that if a girl said no."
I nodded. Ponyboy walked up the steps.
"Hey, guys!"
Neither of us said anything.
"What's going on?"
Soda told him the gist of what happened. He walked up to me.
"Are you okay?"
I shook my head as tears fell down my face. I put his arms around me.
"I'm here, just like you were for me..."
Soda POV
"I'm here, just like you were for me..."
Even with the situation at hand, my blood started to boil. I ran over and pushed them apart. Pony started yelling at me.
"What's your problem?!"
I pointed to Cam.
"She is! She's my problem!"
They both stared at me wide eyed. Steve ran out on the porch and grabbed me.
"Soda, now's not the time!"
Pony was staring at me.
"What're you talking about?!"
I shook myself out of Steve's hold.
"How come you told her what went on in Windrixville, huh?! How come?!"
Neither of them said anything. I turned on her.
"Listen here, Cameron! That's mybrother! You got that?! He's not your's! He needs to come to me with his problems, not you! He's myfamily!"
Steve grabbed me, again.
"Sodapop, stop!"
"No. It's fine."
We all turned to look at her. She didn't look sad or scared anymore. She looked hurt. She walked up to me.
"You know what? You're right. He is your brother. How about instead of yelling at me about it, be thankful for it."
That caught me off guard.
"Huh?"
"You think that money has helped me through any of this?"
I was confused. I yelled at her again.
"What're you talking about?!"
"You still have a family! I had nobody when my parents died! You had two brothers and friends who cared about you! I was alone!"
I staggered backwards. I'd heard her ye before, but not like this.
"And while I spent two weeks in that awful girls home with a bunch of girls who were horrible, I found out that I had a brother who's family was willing to take me in! I thought, "Well, maybe I'll have someone who can help me through this," but you never gave me a real chance! Sure, we bonded over horses, but that was all! And now we can't even do that because Crystal died! I'm so sorry that I could confide in Ponyboy, but I couldn't confide in you because I could tell you didn't really want me here in the first place!"
Darry and Two-bit had come out on the porch by this time. Everyone was frozen.
"My parents were murdered when my dad's hardware store was robbed! Do you know how hard that was to find out?! Do you know what that did to me?!"
We all opened our mouths in shock. I stuttered over my words.
"I... I didn't know that they'd been..."
"No! You didn't! I was gonna tell you guys when I got completely comfortable here, and I almost was until you started acting weird around me! I wasn't trying to take your brother away, I was trying to belong somewhere I'm obviously not welcome!"
I still had my keys in my hand. She grabbed them and ran to my truck.
"Cameron, wait!"
But she pulled out of the driveway before I could stop her. We all stood there dumbfounded. I'm not sure how long. Could've been seconds, could've been minutes. Steve startled me when he put his hand on my shoulder.
"Let's go find her, buddy."
I nodded. Darry said he'd follow, and we climbed in our trucks.
"Any idea where she might've gone?"
I wracked my brain for a minute. I thought about what I'd like to do if I got upset.
"She rode her horse when she was upset."
"She tell you that?"
"No, I just know she did."
"But, her horse died a few weeks ago, right?"
"Mine didn't..."
Cam POV
I somehow found myself at the stables, which only made me feel worse. I walked up to Sport's stall.
"I don't care if you don't like me. I need to ride."
I saddled him and he let me. That shocked me. I started running on the trail. The sun was starting to set, and I was going faster than I'd ever gone before. All of the sudden, Sport stopped and bucked me off of him. I opened my eyes for a minute to see Sport standing over me, just like Crystal'd done. He put his nose on my face, and my world went dark.