It ended up raining so hard that I decided that Sam and I should probably spend the night at Rain's, figuring it would be more safe than walking home. When I brought it up with Rain, she looked at me like I'd grown two heads.
"Of course! If you'd decided to leave, than I would've made you stay anyway." That was settled and I'd just now been told that it wasn't just Sam and Julie anymore, that Emma, who just happened to be Two-Bit's little sister, was over too. The three of them would all camp out in Julie's room and I would be left with the couch, which I didn't care too much for. It was old and hurt my back all the time, but I couldn't complain about it. It already seemed like I was asking too much anyway. The house was small, not all that big enough for accommodating five people.
"I just have to walk over to my house and leave a note for Serenity, she'll be home late and I won't be able to really call her." Rain looked worried about me going into the storm, but I reassured her I would be okay and it would only take five minutes. Besides, driving me over there would be worse than walking, and having to deal with a worried, and infuriated, Serenity when she found out I didn't leave a note saying we were staying at Rain's would be the ultimate worse scenario.
I was immediately pelted with water as I stepped out from under the porch overhang and gloomily walked down the street, shoving my hands in my pockets to try and keep them warm. My shoes were soaked once again by the time I got there and my hands were frozen as I searched around in both my pockets for my key. Where was it!? I couldn't have lost it, I was sure I had it. Thinking back to before, I realized it must've fallen out of my pocket when those guys attacked me. Looking around, I spotted the newspaper at my feet and picked it up, taking out the inside that wasn't so wet. The protruding doorframe held a pen in case something like this happened. Writing down a quick message on a particularly blank piece, I stuck the paper through the nail jammed into the door and was on my way back, knowing there really wasn't anything else I could do.
Once I returned back, Rain was standing in the doorway looking at me with concern and a bit of relief.
"What?" I asked, stepping inside, expecting to feel a blast of warmth, but receiving the same temperature outside. The three girls were sitting on the stairs, bundled in coats and sniffling.
"The heater broke, one of the repair guys is on his way over. This house is so poorly insulated it got cold fast. I thought of going over to your house… but it seemed too far away. It's been almost an hour since you left." Rain said, shivering despite the warm coat she had. I couldn't help but shake as the cold finally got to me too.
"We can't keep them here." I said, gesturing to the girls, keeping my voice irregularily low. I was worried about them getting sick.
"I know. That's why I called Angie, Emma's mom, and she said that she was having the same problem, but the Curtis' seemed okay, that was where Two-Bit was. I called Darry up and he said that you and the girls could stay over there until the heater was fixed." Stifling a groan, I nodded and the girls got up to come over to me, Sam grabbing on to one of my slick hands while the other two stayed close.
"What about you?" I asked, bending down to do up a few of the buttons on Sam's coat that had come loose. She smacked my hand away lightly and did it herself, since my hands were so numb with cold already. I think she might've become tired at me babying her sometimes.
"I'll stay here until everything's done. If worse comes to worse, I'll go over to Wendy's, she has a couch I could stay on, and she only lives two doors down." Deciding not to argue, I scowled and stood up again, getting ready to usher the girls out the door.
"I'll call you in two hours to see how it's going, okay?" She nodded and I walked out the door, The girls walking in front of me, causing me to slow down my ordinary pace. They were huddled together and I was guessing they had been doing that since before I got back.
When we arrived, I was starting to sneeze and hoped that I wasn't catching a cold, it was bad enough that I had been getting headaches lately. Knocking on the door, Darry answered immediately and let us in, telling Sodapop to grab some blankets and a towel. Sam and Julie grabbed the first blanket and wrapped it around them, waiting for Emma to get all her extra clothing off before allowing her to come into the warmth they were generating.
"Why don't you go sit on the couch." I told them and they agreed full-heartedly, shuffling into the room where I heard the TV going. Sodapop handed me the towel and I thanked him, pulling off my sweater before accepting it and drying off my hair again. The hood had been soaked through so much it had gotten to my hair. Relishing in the warmth, I thanked Darry for his hospitality and he told me to think nothing of it.
"Would you have anything I could drink?" I asked, kicking off my wet shoes and hoping I didn't sound rude at all.
"Just go scavenge in the fridge, you'll find somethin' there." Sodapop grinned at me, and I smiled back before walking into the kitchen and opening the fridge. Staring right at me was chocolate milk and I happily took it out, looking through all the cupboards before finding a cup, and poured myself a glass. Turning around, I was surprised to see Ponyboy staring at me from his seat at the kitchen table. Gulping what I had in my mouth, I smiled at him.
"I didn't see you there."
"I guessed that." He said, smiling at me and putting his book down. Taking a seat beside him, I tried to start up a conversation and it worked somehow, we eventually got on the subject of how we both disliked the socials teacher, Mr. Elliot. Laughing, I took another sip of my chocolate milk and was about to say something else when Sam came in and looked at me with puppy dog eyes, Julie and Emma trying to follow suit.
"Oh no." I muttered, Ponyboy looking bewildered, before trying to hide his laughter as he realized what they were doing. Meanwhile, I tried not to look into their eyes.
"What?" I asked, realizing they hadn't said anything.
"Could we do your hair?" I glared at Ponyboy as he tried to hold in more of his laughter that was beggingm, and beginning, to pour out. Sam turned her eyes up onto maximum and I found myself pulling on a strand of my hair. It wasn't that long, but long enough for Sam to do crazy things with it.
"Please, "She begged, "we're bored." Making the mistake of turning to tell her no, I opened my mouth, but what came out was completely different from what I'd wanted to say.
"In a bit." They cheered and ran back into the living, leaving me to slam my head into a wall, metaphorically of course. Ponyboy finally burst out laughing while I glared at him, playfully hitting him with his book.
"It's not funny." I pouted as he finally got a hold of his laughter and stared into my eyes, grinning.
"You gave in."
"You would've too." I retorted, playfulness glinting in my own eyes as I said so. Ponyboy and I were friends, in a way, and we'd get along a lot when we were one on one. He wasn't in a lot of my classes at school, only one or two, so it had been by chance that I'd met him. I'd walked into the English class a little late and there were so many Soc's I wasn't sure where to sit. Seeing a greaser sitting by himself, and figuring it was safer to sit by him than anybody else. Eventually, I found myself talking casually with him and not awkwardly at all. He seemed a bit shy at times, but once you got him talking, he wasn't so bad. I'd found out his name was Ponyboy, same as he found out my name was Camille, and at first I'd thought it was kind of weird… but got over it and realized I'd never meet another Ponyboy.
"What are ya'll talkin' bout in here?" Sodapop said, coming in and grinning at us. I had a feeling there was an underlying feeling, but chose to ignore it.
"Just random things." I said, before Ponyboy could speak up. Sodapop shrugged and took a glass of chocolate milk with him before he left, messing up Ponyboy's hair before leaving the room.
Giggling at him, I downed the rest of my chocolate milk and set the glass in the sink.
"I guess I better go get this over with." I sighed, waving to Ponyboy before I left into the living room.
