Our shift at work went by slowly, but eventually the clock turned to 4 pm, telling us that we can clock out. We each took a coke from the fridge in the office and then we locked up and started for home, popping the caps off our sodas and throwing them in the dirt. I took a big swig of my drink.
"Ah!" Steve sighed loudly, relieved. Soda chugged his down and threw the bottle onto the ground by the sidewalk. I lightly sipped on mine, trying to save it for the whole walk back to the Curtis'. I listened as the two guys talked about some busty soc girl who came in today, rolling my eyes at them. I was taking another drink of my soda when all of a sudden I heard tires peeling and saw a car come around a corner a ways up the road.
"Damn socs." Steve muttered. I kept my eyes on the car as it neared us... and then it hit me.
"Holy shit." I whispered, but the two heard me.
"What?" Steve asked.
"Those are the socs that I had that run in with this morning!" I said, stopping in my tracks. Steve and Soda stopped next to me. As the car came closer, we could all hear the socs loud laughter and shouting.
"Dirty greasers!" One screamed as they got closer. They were almost to us when Steve yelled,
"Scumbags!" and threw his empty soda bottle at their car as it drove by, hitting the tail light and breaking it. The car zoomed past us and screeched to a stop. The soc in the passenger side leaned out his window and looked at the tail light, then at us.
"Get em'!" He yelled, and as the car started to turn around, Steve, Soda and I booked it down the street.
We turned down an alley, but came to a dead end. We heard the socs car screech to a stop, which was followed by the sound of slamming doors as they got out to follow us. We all looked around frantically for an escape, when I noticed a fire escape close to Soda.
"Soda!" I shouted. He looked at me as I pointed to the ladder, which he would have to pull down (because I'm too short). He ran to it and jumped, grabbing hold of it and pulling it down. Steve and I ran over and Steve lifted me up so I could reach, then I climbed up, Steve behind me, and then Soda. We all glanced down and saw the socs entering the alley, so we climbed as fast as we could up the next two fire escapes and onto the roof of the building. We ran to the edge of the roof and looked down, seeing no way off of the three story building. Just as we turned around, a blonde Soc climbed onto the roof.
"Great day not to have my damn blade." I heard Steve mumble under his breath. I would've laughed, but given the situation, I really don't think I should.
The Soc slowly walked towards us, smirking as he pulled out a switch blade. My heart skipped a beat, my body slightly beginning to shake with terror as I looked around frantically for any possible was to escape. Steve and Soda moved in front of me, protecting me. They didn't take their eyes off of the Soc. I looked at the Soc and then behind me, making sure there was positively absolutely no way out, and then I noticed it. Right behind me, a little to my right, was a big pole that went straight down to the clear, open alley behind us. It would probably hurt like hell landing, but it's better than being sliced up by a Soc. I looked at Steve and Soda, noticing that Soda was closer to me then Steve, so I took my chance.
"Soda!" I whisper-yelled, causing him to turn around. He looked at me and I motioned towards the pole, trying not to catch the attention of the soc. He immediately realized what I was talking about.
"Go!" He whispered. I frowned.
"What about you two?" I asked.
"We'll be right behind you. Now go!" He said, and after a short moments stare, I broke our gaze and slowly backed up towards the pole as Soda turned back around.
I looked down at the ground, seeing the far distance. In order not to get a bad metal burn on my way down I have to have something between my skin and the metal. Without thinking I took off my shirt and kneeled down next to the pole, wrapping my shirt around it, then lowered myself onto the pole, gripping onto my shirt and trying as hard as I could not to slide down fast to prevent a hard fall. Luckily I was able to make it down without a scratch and my shirt only got a couple of stains. I put it back on and took a step back, looking up at the roof, waiting for Steve and Soda. I tapped my foot nervously on the ground as I crossed my arms over my chest, digging my fingernails into the skin of my arms out of nervousness.
"Come on, guys!" I mumbled to myself after a couple of seconds. Suddenly a body came into sight, gripping onto the pole and sliding down. He didn't have a shirt on, as they had been using it for help down just as I did. I realized that it was Soda because Steve had been wearing an undershirt. He landed on the ground and stumbled towards me, Steve coming down as soon as Soda moved out of the way. He was using his DX shirt for help also. I guess that we all kind of think alike...
As soon as they were down they threw their shirts back on, not bothering to button them up. We all looked up at three Socs who were peering down at us with scowls on their faces.
"Dammit!" One exclaimed, angrily turning around and throwing something. We all laughed and began to walk out of the alley.
Once we were back on our way to the Curtis' house I looked over at Steve and Soda, seeing that they were a little beat up. Steve had a busted lip with a little blood dripping down and Sodas nose had a dried stream of blood going down to his chin. I brought my hands up to my mouth, trying to cover up a gasp, and came to a stop, causing them two to stop as well.
"What?" Steve asked. I brought my hands down and stared at them with wide eyes.
"What do you mean 'what'? You two got hurt!" I yelled, gesturing towards them. They leaned back a bit, a little taken back by my sudden outburst.
"Calm down, Lil, we're fine." Steve tried to assure me. I stood there for a second and looked him over, then glanced at Soda and quickly looked him over before finally agreed that they seemed okay enough.
"Okay, fine, but ya'll better clean yourselves up as soon as we get to the house." I lectured, pointing my finger at them. They rolled their eyes and nodded.
"Sure thing, mom." Steve huffed and began to walk again. Soda looked at me.
"Yeah, sure thing mama Jean." He taunted, smirking, turned around and walked away. I stood there for a second with my fists clenched at my sides, glaring at the back of his head before I finally decided to catch up with them, making sure to be on Steve's right because Soda was on his left.
We walked in silence for a couple of minutes before Soda spoke up.
"Damn, I sure hope Darry doesn't see this." He said, rubbing his slightly swollen nose.
"It doesn't look that bad, Pop. It's the blood that's gonna make him notice." I noted, pointing to my chin, indicating that that was where he had blood on himself. He looked from me to in front of us, reaching his hand up towards his face and gently rubbing his chin, looking at the dried blood that was now on his hand.
"Aw shoot!" He moaned, trying to rub it off.
"That ain't gonna work, bud." Steve stated, patting him sympathetically on the back.
"Yeah," I began. "There's gonna be a red stain there." Soda moaned again.
"Dammit!" He yelled out, groaning while he squeezed his eyes shut and threw his head back. Steve and I chuckled at him.
We soon arrived at the gate of the Curtis household, stopping to stare at it, able to hear loud talking and the TV blaring from inside. Steve and I looked at Soda, who was staring house as if he was staring at a one hundred question quiz of which he knew none of the answers to. He really didn't want to go in there. Steve slapped him on the back twice.
"Cheer up, bud. He ain't gonna do nothing bad. He'll probably be a little mad, but then he'll probably be happy that you stuck up for Lil." He reassured him, giving him a sympathetic smile. Soda glanced at me and I gave him a small reassuring smile. We may not be on the best of friends but this is really bugging him and I don't like to see people sad, as long as they're not Socs. Soda looked at me and then up to the house and huffed, then began to slowly shuffle forward.
"Well, I guess I'd better go get this over with." He mumbled and picked up his pace a bit, his head hung low as he headed towards the door, Steve and I following behind ready to back him up.