A/n: I do not own The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton or We Can Work it Out, written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and performed by The Beatles. Enjoy. :)

Try to see it my way,
Only time will tell if I am right or I am wrong.
While you see your way,
There's a chance that we may fall apart before too long.

The door was always unlocked. When he'd come home from Vietnam, his house wasn't the first place he'd gone to; this was. The place with an open couch no matter what and where his friends were bound to be. But the house had seemed so different and so much emptier. He supposed it had reason to. But the door was still open, as always, and that was one thing that he hoped would never change.

Walking into the tiny room, Steve grinned at what was on the couch.

Instead of finding Pony or Darry watching TV as he'd expected, Pony seemed to have other plans and Darry was nowhere to be seen.

"Who's your friend, kid?" he asked, amused at what the kid's reaction might be.

A loud thud on the floor and a series of swears was the reaction. Pony had jumped at the sound of Steve's voice, then fallen off of the girl and onto the floor. Straitening out his shirt, while glaring, he said, "You can't knock, Steve?"

Steve only grinned more broadly. "I wasn't aware you was home."

"Since Tuesday. What'd you come here for?"

He laughed again, as the girl began to straighten out her skirt. "Still haven't answered my question, kid. Who's your friend?"

Pony glared at Steve, while the girl turned an even deeper shade of red.

"Peg, this is Steve Randle, my brother's buddy."

Peg only nodded, not looking at Steve.

"Pony … I think I left something, uh, in the oven ... I'll see you later tonight?"

"Yeah, okay. I'll pick you up around seven," he said, walking her to the door.

"Be safe, kids," Steve said, still smiling.

Pony wheeled around and advanced on Steve. "What the fuck was that, Randle?"

"Can I ask you the same thing, Ponykid?"

"It wasn't anything, Steve."

"Didn't look like nothing. Looked a lot like second base to me. How far have you gotten, kiddo?"

Pony glared, stalking off to the kitchen, as if he expected Steve to really leave him at that.

"I'm seventeen, Randle. I ain't a kid."

"Obviously not. Your brother know you're whoring around with the ladies? Let me ask you something. Have you gone 'all the way'? Do all the girls just fall for you on campus?"

By this time Pony had turned a deep shade of red, much to Steve's amusement.

"But I've gotta ask, what ever happened to that pretty girl of yours … Cathy, wasn't she?"

"Why do you care? We broke up, anyway."

"Aw, were there other girls? Better, bigger girls? That Peg of yours was doin' pretty good from what I could tell. Maybe I could try her out and see for myself?"

Pony glared. "I wonder what Evie'd say if she heard you were into younger girls. Anyway, don't you have work or something?"

Steve grinned even more at Pony's threat, but was slightly troubled. He was still confused about Evie. "It's a Sunday, kiddo. Places are closed," he said, making a seat on the counter. "So, really, how long have you known Peggy? Give me the update. I want to be in the know, too. Does Darry know? Does he approve of his baby brother dating such a developed girl?"

"Darry's met her. And we ain't dating. It's just a fling."

"One night stands, then? You dog, you."

"I don't know what Soda ever saw in you, Steve."

"Well, it was just a fling, you know?" Steve paused for a moment, half-troubled by the kid's remark. After an awkward silence, Steve mumbled, "I see him in you, you know … You're kind of like Soda."

Now it was Pony's turn to be caught off guard. "What do you mean by that?"

"Well … uh, you're just like him a lot. You know, girls being all into you, being all understanding and shit like that. I always liked that about you, kid ... It's also why you piss me off lately. You really are a lot like him."

Pony shifted awkwardly. "He wrote me a letter once. You know, when he was in 'Nam ... He told me you didn't hate me, really. I never thought that was true."

Steve paused for a moment. Even in Vietnam Steve and Soda wrote. They wrote when they could, since it was harder for grunts to write, but they did every chance they got. Soda'd once asked him to be good to Pony when he got back to the World.

"Yeah, well, I don't. You're a good kid … person. Ain't much of a kid no more, really…" Steve looked at the ground awkwardly, not knowing what else to say.

Pony nodded. "Truce?"

"Only 'til the next time I see you making bases with a girl."

Another long silence and a small laugh. "Well, look, kid, I only came around to look for Darry, so tell him I was here when you see him."

"I'll do that. See you later, Steve."

"Yeah … see you around, kid … man … whatever."

I appreciate it, Steve. I appreciate you looking out for him, I mean.

"Great, now I've got you talkin' to me, too," he said, smiling. He didn't really mind all that much. At least it wasn't the old man this time.

XxXxX

"You've cleaned this place up a lot, Stevie."

"Yeah, well, I'm trying, I guess."

Evie smiled over her cup of coffee. "Yeah, you are, Steve. Thank you for that."

Steve was quiet for a moment as a flashback came to his mind. That guy she'd been with … Tommy. "Evie, who's Tommy?"

This ain't gonna get you back your girl, boy.

He didn't care. Steve looked at Evie carefully, knowing that he'd caught her off guard.

"He's a friend I met," she said finally. "Just a friend from one of my classes."

"When'd you meet him?"

Drop it, Steve. Come on, buddy.

Evie stared at Steve desperately, begging for a break. "Stevie … nothing's ever gone on. He's just a good friend of mine, you know?"

"No, I really don't know, Evie. I didn't like when he asked if we was dating. Made it sound like he didn't know something. And what about when you said 'this isn't a date?' That sounded a lot like you'd been together before."

Maybe they were, boy, but what in the Sam hill do you care? She's with you now.

"We hadn't, Stevie. Please, believe me, baby. We'd never been together."

"Evie, you know I want to believe you, but I don't know. I can't."

You can and just move on. Don't be bitter and don't lose her, man. You know what happened to me.

"I don't know if I can believe all this shit you're throwing out. I don't know if I can believe that you're 'just friends.'"

"All of this shit, Steve? You want to know what shit really is?" she shouted, standing up. "Shit is you bailing on our fucking dates because you seemed to have more important things to do with a bottle and some smack. Shit is you disappearing for two weeks with some junkies. That's shit, Steve Randle. I'd know, since you're fucking full of it."

"If I remember, I've been keeping my end of the deal. I've been sober and I ain't done nothing in nearly two goddamned months, Evie. I think I remember you saying me or the drugs, right? You want to know something funny, though? I was kind of thinking you'd keep your end of the deal, too. You know, me or him sort of thing."

Boy, if I could come down there, I'd kick your ass so hard it'd be purple until next Christmas.

"Will you shut the fuck up?"

Evie blinked for a moment, surprised at the two sudden outbursts. She wasn't sure of which one to address. "Steve, I didn't say anything …"

"Shit … no, Evie, I wasn't …" Steve buried his head in his hands and sighed.

"You feeling okay, Steve?"

"No, Evie, I'm not fucking okay. I'm hearing shit I ain't supposed to be and I've got to deal with your shit on top of it. I ain'tokay."

She got up and placed her hand on his forehead, but Steve quickly slapped it away. "Don't, Evie."

"Stevie, you don't feel warm. You should lie down."

He sighed in frustration. "Evie, go. Just go for now. I'll call you when I'm feeling better.

Steve, you dumbass. Don't push her away.

Listen to your friend, boy. He's got a better head than you do.

Steve growled. "Go away, now!"

Evie blinked, at first confused, then astonished, and finally offended. "Fine, Stevie. … I'll see you later," she said skeptically.

"No, Evie, I didn't mean that. Please, can we just talk about this?"

But it was too late. Evie had already shut the door behind her.

"I fucking hate you guys."