"You and Steve really didn't get caught?" Cherry chuckled.
Soda smiled and nodded at the redhead, "Yeah… it happens in town all the time, so it's pretty much not even enforced. People got used to it… at least on the East Side."
Soda was telling Cherry of a time- more like one of the times- when him and Steve had gone out around midnight and taken the hubcaps off of a few cars in town. They usually did it when they were all hyped up about something that would be happening or that already happened, almost like a celebration type thing. Soda couldn't figure out why, but for some reason, Cherry found the whole thing absolutely fascinating.
-/-/-
Cherry listened intently as Soda told his story. She had been listening so intently in hopes of possibly remembering anything. So far, nothing came to mind. Still, the only things, people and events she could remember was from when she woke up from the hospital about two weeks previous to the present and all that had happened in between those two points.
Well, there was that boy she remembered. The one who asked her about the sunsets on the West Side of town. She couldn't see the exact details of his face, or at least if she did, she couldn't remember them. But he looked like Sodapop. Cherry knew that the boy in the memory was not Sodapop, but the features she could make out of his face were very similar. There were a few differences though- he was shorter, his hair was a blonde type that was slightly different from Sodapop's, and they're eyes seemed kinda different to her for some reason. But she wasn't sure how likely they could be cause she had no idea when the memory was from. For all she knew, it could be from one day before, one week before, one month before, or even one year before.
"Can I ask you about something?" Cherry asked him kinda abrubtly.
Soda nodded with a small smile, "Yeah, course."
She thought of a way to word her question. "Do you watch sunsets at all?" was the only way she could think of wording it."
Soda gave a look of slight confusion, which went away as quickly as it came. "No, not usually, sorry. Remember my little brother Ponyboy? He watches them nearly every day."
Cherry perked up when she heard that, happy that something was finally coming to her memory. "Did he ever have short, blonde hair?"
Soda thought for a moment then nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, he did. About a year ago, he had to dye his hair and cut it short. Kid was heart broke till all the blonde was gone and his hair grew back out. Why?"
"Uh… something I remembered, that's all."
"If you don't mind me askin'… what was it?"
Cherry hesitated at first. "Ok… when I was waiting for you at Evie's before, I was sitting out on the back steps and looked at the sunset. I shut my eyes for a sec' cause I thought, ya know, maybe since it was so calm and such, maybe I could remember something."
"And you did?"
"Yeah I did."
Sodapop smiled at her, "Cherry, that's great!"
Cherry's mouth curled into a small smile and looked down at bit then back sat Soda. "Yeah… yeah, I guess it is."
-/-/-
Darry Curtis and his youngest brother Ponyboy sat at the dining room table; Ponyboy working on a summer reading project, Darry doing the math involved in paying some bill. The two brothers sat in silence, only speaking if one had a question about what the other was doing- which was not very often. The soundtrack for Elvis Presley's film Jailhouse Rock released in 1957 played softly on the record player to fill the silence.
Darry would stop occasionally to just think for a moment. Not about what he would usually think about though. He kept thinking about that girl, Cherry Valance. He remembered that night at the hospital. For some reason, Cherry's friend Marcia had called them to come to the hospital. Then she basically dumped the poor girl right on their doorstep.
"Some friend she's got," Darry mumbled with a slight sigh.
Ponyboy looked up and across the table at his oldest brother with a slightly confused look on his face. "Huh?"
Darry looked up, not realizing that he said what he thought at loud until his brother acknowledged it. "Oh, uh… nothin'. Just thinkin'."
Ponyboy placed a small sheet of paper in his book to mark his page, shut the book and placed it down in front of him on the table. "Well, what about?"
Darry knew Ponyboy had started listening to what other people told him or were telling him better than he used to. He would listen even then, but he would almost always disappear into one of his other worlds inside his mind. He didn't mean to do that, the kid just happened to have a very active imagination- which was unexpected for someone his age. He was fifteen now, and as soon as he turned fifteen, it's like he got better at listening and other things, almost like some weird form of maturing. Since he was listening more and was listening better, and had asked Darry about what he was thinking, Darry figured he might as well tell his youngest brother.
"Ya know how Cherry Valance can't remember anything for now?" Darry asked his little brother.
Ponyboy nodded, "Yeah, why?"
"Well, I just feel kinda bad for both her and Soda."
"Why's that?"
Darry smiled to himself and thought, This kid is always askin' questions. "Cause Cherry can't remember a thing from before the… well, ya know. Not to mention her friend left and dumped her on Soda."
"Maybe it was meant to happen," Ponyboy shrugged.
"What do you mean?"
"In school we had to read this story and the whole theme and such was that everything happens for a reason, like anything that happens that's either good or bad. It happened for a reason."
Darry thought for a moment. "You know the name of the story?"
Ponyboy shook his head. "No, sorry, Dar. My teacher on focused on it for a week."
Darry nodded as his little brother went back to his reading assignment. While Ponyboy continued, Darry tried to continue with the math he had to do for the small amount of bills- which still felt like a lot to him- but he just couldn't concentrate on it, no matter how hard he tried.
Later on that night, Darry kept thinking about what Ponyboy had said. Maybe it was meant to happen. Darry had started to believe his brother was right.
-/-/-
Sodapop walked next to Cherry as the two walked up to the back door of Evie's house. By now it was dark and a little after ten o'clock at night and there was a slight breeze.
Cherry had asked a few questions while they were out- aside from the memory she asked Soda about= but not as many as he thought she would. To be honest, he considered it to be both a good thing and a bad thing. Good, because he didn't have to say anything else that might make him feel worse than he had on and off for the last two weeks. Bad, because she still had no idea about nearly everything in her life previously.
"I had fun tonight," Cherry smiled at him, taking him away from his thoughts.
Soda smiled back and nodded, "Yeah, I did too."
"I honestly hope our real first date was as nice as this."
That's when the on and off guilty feeling that Soda had been having turned back on, but he tried to hide it as best as he could with his smile. "It was."
I feel like I'm making Sodapop sound like a monster oh my gahd X(
Anyway, I finished reading both "Rumble Fish" and "That Was Then, This Is Now" in a matter of five days. I can't find "Tex" anywhere so me and my mom have to order it on amazon, so I started reading "Charleston" by John Jakes and to be honest, I'm not fully disappointed that I couldn't find "Tex" quite yet.
Oh, I have a question- to those who have seen "It's A Wonderful Life", do you remember George's (Jimmy Stewart) little brother in the movie, Harry Bailey? Doesn't he make you think of Sodapop? Last week me and my friends Alex and Sara had a movie day three out of five days and one was "Christmas in July" and we watched it and Sara thought the same exact thing… by the way, she's now reading "Rumble Fish" and the three of us went to the zoo last Friday and we both got little toy turtles and mine is named Rusty-James and hers is Steve XD (you will get it if you've read or saw Rumble Fish")
Anyway, hope you like this story so far and enjoyed the chapter! Peace from all the hippies of the world! =^-^=