Evie and Cherry walked over to the DX in a period of fifteen minutes. Evie had found a light shirt that she could wear and- finally, in her opinion- didn't make her show. Cherry would keep telling her and insisting to her that she wasn't showing, but Evie would be self-conscious and not believe one hundred percent.

-/-/-

Soda and Steve were working their usual summer shifts- long and boring. Nearly no one was around in the summer and if they were, they didn't really use their cars to get anywhere. The two liked working at the DX, but they would both be lying if they said that it was kind of a boring job to have sometimes. If there were no cars to really work on, they didn't really have anything to do except rearrange things inside and deal with the girls that would come in- and even they weren't coming today, which fit Soda and Steve just fine. Otherwise, they just joked around and found dumb ways to kill time, but still enjoyed those things.

Both Soda and Steve jumped when they heard the bell hooked up to the door that rang whenever someone opened the door. When they looked to see who had come inside, they saw both of their girlfriends walking toward the counter. The girl black hair like a raven walked with her head down and her hair over her face, arms hugging herself. The girl with fiery red hair kept taking worried and sympathetic glances at her friend.

Evie met Steve at one end of the counter while Soda and Cherry met at the other end of the counter opposite from them. "How's Evie doin'?" Soda asked quietly.

Cherry took a quick glance at her friend then back to her boyfriend. "Alright, I guess,"' she shrugged, "But she's been like a vampire for the past couple of days. She hasn't left the house in three days."

"Yeah, Steve was tellin' me that. He's real worried about her. How'd you get her out the house?"

"Trust me, it wasn't easy. It took a lot of convincing, partly using Steve's name for that. But then she asked if she was showing and that if she was, she wasn't gonna leave the house and come here with me."

"Maybe talkin' to Steve'll help her?"

Cherry shrugged again. "Who knows?"

"I wish there was somethin' we could do," Soda sighed.

Cherry nodded and let out a sigh. "I do too."

"So how're you doin'?"

"I'm doin' alright. But I still feel like I don't know anything about my childhood or my parents or whatever. By the way, I meant to ask you, do you know anything 'bout my parents? Like, why haven't they been around this whole time?"

Soda's heart began to pound in his chest and instead of a guilty feeling, he felt sympathetic. "They're on some major business trip. It's in some other country, I forgot where exactly. But where they are, it's almost impossible to reach them," he lied.

Even with everything he was already doing to Cherry and her poor memory, he couldn't find it in his heart to tell her that they had abandoned her like they did. Especially with her and her current condition. Even to someone who didn't have temporary amnesia, it wasn't an easy thing to find out. Maybe that's part of the reason she tried, Soda thought. It especially didn't help right now that her friend that she had been staying with, Marcia, had left town literally right after Cherry had been emitted into the hospital. None of that was easy to hear, and he didn't have the heart to tell her all of that quite yet.

-/-/-

"It still just don't make sense to me," Dallas said for what felt like the millionth time, and that was just this week, with a confused look on his face.

Dallas, Two-Bit and Johnny were in the Mathews house. Johnny had started to live there after he was released from the hospital a while before. Two-Bit's mom had been a nurse for about ten years of her life, and since he still needed proper care and rest when he was released, she took custody of him away from his parents. After he was all healed up, she had insisted he stay there and live with them. She had always liked him and felt bad for him, and he always had liked her too as much as he liked Mrs. Curtis, but he felt bad about staying there. She said there was no reason to feel bad, that she wanted him to stay.

Two-Bit rolled his eyes. "Dal, we've gone through this a hundred times already," he groaned, "And why do you care so much 'bout this?"

"I don't know," he grumbled, obviously annoyed with himself.

"I get where he's comin' from," Johnny said, "I think that maybe since Cherry doesn't really remember, she won't be like every other girl in town who's tryin' to go out with Soda. Y'all know they go after him like a pack a' dogs to a cat."

"I don't get it."

"He's popular, so most girls wanna go out with him. He hasn't had a girlfriend since Sandy so he probably wants someone who'll be genuine and doesn't know, or in this case remember, who he is. He always had a thing for her after a while before she tried to… well, ya know. She probably liked him too cause Marcia would always take her to see him when she was down."

Two-Bit blinked at his quiet friend. "How do you know all that?" he asked.

Johnny shrugged. "Don't know. It just came into my head." The three were all silent for a moment until Dallas stood up from his seat. "Where ya goin'?" Johnny asked.

"I don't know," Dallas said in an annoyed tone and left the house.

"Be ready just in case we get a call from the police station," Two-Bit said, "Cause he's in as good as a mood as a raccoon awake durin' the day."

-/-/-

When Ponyboy and Lily got to the movie theater, they decided to see How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. The film was released during the month of March, but it would be out of the theater the next week. At first, they had decided to see Easy Come, Easy Go starring Elvis Presley, but when they saw that the other film was still there, they jumped on the opportunity to see it while they still could.

"Did you like the movie?" Ponyboy asked as they walked out of the theater and to the street.

By now, the sun had started to set and it was a bit darker. Ponyboy made sure to keep Lily close to him. It wasn't out of fear, it was some gut feeling he had to protect her from the harms of the world. It wasn't that he didn't think she couldn't take care of herself or that she wasn't strong enough to, most of Tulsa knew that she could do that pretty well, considering she was one of the few girls who went to the female only boxing gym, and they were really tough there. Not many girls could handle that place. Even though she was quiet when you first met her, once you got to know her, you could see how tough she was.

Yet, she was still gentle and kind. Ponyboy always thought that was part of the reason he was so attracted to her.

Lily nodded. "Yeah, I did," she smiled then chuckled, "I like the times when they sang It's Been A Long Day."

Ponyboy smiled, "Who was your favorite character?"

"I liked Rosemary. Who did you like?"

"I actually really liked Finch. Remember when he was trying to keep up singin' Grand Old Ivy with his boss to suck up to him?"

Lily chuckled and nodded. "I never knew you were one for romantic musical comedies."

"I didn't either." The two laughed as they continued to the park.

-/-/-

When Ponyboy and Lily got to the park, they made it just in time to watch the sunset. They stood on the bridge while watching the sunset, her head leaned against his shoulder; even though she was a year older than him, she was still shorter than him and she reached a little higher than his shoulder. His head was leaned against hers and his arm was around her shoulders. She jumped up and took the paper from her pocket.

In the past year and a half, Ponyboy had gotten more mature- and he was already pretty mature. But now, he started taking more interest in girls like his older brother. Darry and Sodapop could tell that it was happening, but if they mentioned it to Ponyboy, he'd say he didn't know what they were talking about. As time went on, he had grown a bit bolder, but he was still quiet.

"I meant to show you this," Lily said as she unfolded the paper and hand it to him.

Ponyboy took the paper from her and smiled as he looked at it. "Wow," he smiled, "It's amazing."

Her cheeks turned pink as she smiled. "You really think so?"

"Yeah, I do." He handed her back the paper.

"No, it's alright. You can keep it."

"Thanks… uh, Lily."

"Yeah, Ponyboy?"

He rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "I've been wanting to ask you somethin' for a little while now."

Lily gave a confused look. "Ok… what is it?"

Ponyboy took a deep breath. "Lily, I was wonderin' if… if you wouldn't mind… maybe, being my girlfriend?"

Lily smiled, jumped and hugged him. "I would love to be your girlfriend," she smiled and said in a quiet voice.

Ponyboy smiled and leaned down to kiss his now girlfriend, who kissed him back.

Aw Ponyboy and Lily are totally "ship" worthy.

Two updates in one week, how shocking is that. Especially since I have two college courses now, and I'm behind in two of my high school classes- algebra II and chemistry.

And Sara, since you told me you wanted to read my stories, here's a public announcement that it's ok if you start reading this one XD I trust you, especially since I always ask you and Alex about suggestions and help for my stories

Tomorrow's halloween. Yay (she said sarcastically). I don't like halloween at all. I never have and I never will. I do certain things as my own little celebration- which I have completed- and they are:

Listen to "Ghostbusters" at least once on the radio, watch the 1984 film "Ghostbusters" at least once (I watched it twice)

Listen and watch the video of "Thriller"

Hear "The Monster Mash" on the radio

Watch "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!"

My halloween ended this morning after I heard "The Monster Mash", so yeah. If anyone here does celebrate halloween, please be careful tonight and tomorrow. If you go trick or treating, be careful with your candy and pay attention to certain things that might have the possibility of being in the candy that could hurt you.

Anyway, hope you liked the chapter, peace from all the hippies of the world! =^-^=