Evie gently caressed Layla's cheek with her thumb as she looked at the baby girl lovingly. The baby girl was asleep, so she didn't speak as to not wake the baby up. She hummed People are Strange by the Doors, then Are You Lonesome Tonight? by Elvis Presley. She wasn't humming these songs for their words and lyrics, but rather for their soft, sweet, gentle melodies.
It was hard for Evie to believe her and Steve were parents, then eloping once she was released from the hospital. She wasn't unhappy with the situation, and she was shocked by how happy she was about everything going on. Granted, she was a bit nervous about the "post-natal depression", or more known as "baby blues" that the doctors had warned her and Steve about, but that was it. She hadn't really thought that everything that had happened would make her happy, but it did, and she was grateful for that.
When Layla began to slightly stir awake, Evie began to rock her gently. She shushed the baby gently, whispering, "It's ok, Layla, it's ok. Mama's here."
A knock on the door made her look up. When she did, she saw Steve. "Hey," he whispered and walked over to her.
Evie smiled a bit. "Hi… look, Layla, it's your dad."
He chuckled gently as he sat down next to the head of the bed and looked at their baby girl. "Hi there, sweetheart. Hi, baby girl."
"Do you think we're ready to be parents?"
"Honestly, I think we're 'bout as ready as anyone else is when they have a kid. We're just kinda younger than 'em all, that's all."
"I'm kinda scared," Evie whispered.
"That don't matter," Steve said quietly, "I am too. But that's normal, alright? It's be alright."
The two looked down at Layla as she stirred again and began to make soft sounds of distress. Eveie again began to gently rock the baby girl and hum the same two songs as she was not long before. She continued to do this until she grew quiet again, and Steve watched intently.
"Yeah," Steve whispered, "I think we'll all be just fine."
-/-/-
Marcia quickly ran through the halls of the hospital to the room she'd been told Cherry was in. She was a bit nervous to see her best friend and how she was doing, but she just tried to remember her cousin's words of encouragement and comfort as she mad her way through the halls.
Marcia stopped at the end of a corridor when she saw Sodapop Curtis and a few of his friends along with two girls. She ducked behind the corner of the hallway as to not be seen by the small group out of embarrassment and guilt. She placed her hand over her chest in attempt to slow down her racing heart and let out a deep breath, letting her eyes shut for a moment. Once she reopened her eyes, she let both her arms fall to her sides, cleared her throat and start4ed down the hallway. She walked at a quick pace, but she wasn't running.
Marcia's heart stopped from nervousness when a few in the group looked at her as she walked. Her heart rate began to pick up, and it would be a miracle if it didn't land her in one of the hospital rooms she would walk past. She felt their eyes dig into her soul and rip her insides apart; she wasn't sure if their stares were really that powerful, or if it was the guilt she'd bottled up over the summer finally coming out of that bottle and overflowing under the pressure of their stares.
When Marcia finally reached them, her face was beat red. "Hi," she tried to say boldly, "Is that Cherry's room?"
The group of teenagers from the East Side all looked at her. "Yeah," Darry answered, "That's her room."
"Am I allowed to go see her?"
Before anyone could say anything, the eldest Curtis brother spoke up. "Yeah, sure you can."
Marcia mumbled a quiet 'thanks' then walked into the hospital room. She slowly and gently opened the door as she walked into the room. When the room came into her view, she saw her best friend's figure and a head of red hair above the shoulders. She fully stepped into the room, closing the door gently behind her. She slowly started toward the bed where her best friend was sitting up against her pillow, arms crossed over her chest, head and face toward the hospital room window.
"Cherry?" Marcia tried gently.
Cherry looked down a moment before continuing to look at her friend. "Hi, Marcia," she mumbled.
Marcia smiled a bit. "You remember me?"
"Yeah… I remember everything from the summer, and from before that."
"So you remember everything?"
"Unfortunately, yeah."
The brunette gave a confused look. "What do you mean?" Marcia asked, "Isn't that a good thing?"
"Depends on how you look at it," Cherry answered with a shrug, "Everyone I knew either lied to me or left me, like you and the rest all did- and now I feel like I know less that I did at the beginning of the summer. Why'd you leave anyway?"
Guilt washed over the brunette like water on a dirty car. "It was a family trip. I had to go."
The redhead nodded. "I kinda wanna be alone for a while."
Marcia nodded in understanding before turning around and leaving the room. She closed the door behind her as she walked out, but not without saying "I'm sorry" in a hushed and sad tone as she did so. Once she was out of the room and in the hallway, she began to walk down the corridor, looking down at the ground as she walked. She walked straight down the hallway in silence, not doing or saying anything.
-/-/-
The small group- which consisted of Darry, Sodapop, Ponyboy, Johnny, Kathy and Lily- all stood talking in the hallway outside of Cherry's room. The redhead's "best friend" Marcia had asked to go into the room. Five of the six were prepared to tell her that she couldn't go into the room and to take a hike, but the oldest of the group decided that she could. As soon as she was out of sight, the five gave him questioning looks.
"Why'd you let her go in?" Kathy asked in a slightly annoyed tone.
"She's got as much of right to see Cherry as we all do," Darry answered simply.
Ponyboy gave a confused look. "But she left her alone," he inquired.
Darry gave a strong look at them all. "Yeah, maybe. But we all lied to her and let her think her life was somethin' it wasn't. That don't make us too much better, now does it? Either way, like I said, she's got as much of a right to see her as the rest of us do."
The five younger people of the group all gave sad looks, especially the middle Curtis brother. The words of the oldest of the group's words were powerful- yet true words. He had made a good point, that no matter what the situation, they all had the equal right to visit the redhead.
"Good point," a few of the group all agreed timidly.
-/-/-
Cherry looked away from the window and down at her bag next to her in the bed. She went back into the bag and began to unpack the small holder for the second time that day. She unloaded all the picture and papers, along with a phone and address book. She searched until she found a slightly color faded picture that had the writing "summer of 1964, Arcadia Lake". The picture was of herself and Marcia at around fifteen years old, at one of the three lakes that were around the city of Tulsa in their bathing suits, smiling widely.
Cherry placed the photo down before searching and finding another picture that she'd labeled: "summer of 1968". The photo was of herself, Soda, Evie and Steve- and Two-Bit running into the photo. They were all smiling at laughing, mostly at the antics of their fifth friend, but the emotions were still genuine.
Cherry set the two pictures next to each other before holding them up the same way. She focused her gaze on the photo from 1964, then doing the same with the photo from the current summer of 1968. She let out a sigh as she placed both picture back down side by side to each other, and shut her eyes for a brief moment.
"My smile looks more genuine in the photo from this summer," she mumbled to herself as she inspected the photos once more.
Before I say anything else, I need to do like what I did in January.
Rest In Peace, Prince Rogers Nelson, known either as "Prince" or "the Artist Formerly Known as Prince". It was such a shame how you died, and honestly, I feel the same way I did when David Bowie died and when Robin Williams died. You've always been around my life, even when I was little and didn't really know who you were by name. I remember hearing my two favorite songs of yours on my still favorite radio station, which are "When Doves Cry" and "1999". I used to love "1999" and would get so excited to hear it and always go on about "that's the same year I was born!" and such. I also always loved your music cause it seemed that you loved purple, which has always been my favorite color. What kind of scares me about your death is that exactly five days previous, I was watching "Purple Rain" from 1984 on television, also that you were the same age as my father, only being about a month and a week older than him. And since he's a musician, I guess you could say that it kinda makes me nervous. But thank you, Prince, for all your years of music and all the songs you gifted the world with. You go down in history as a legend, right there with David Bowie, as well as hundreds of others before you.
"dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life. electric word life. it means forever and that's a mighty long time. but I'm here to tell you there's something else: the after world. a world of never ending happiness. you can always see the sun, day, or night. so when you call up that shrink in Beverly Hills, you know the one, Dr everything'll be alright, instead of asking him how much of your time is life, ask him how much of your mind, baby. cause in this life, things are much harder than in the after world. in this life, you're on your own."