Note that there is a time skip. I don't know what or how to do anything from this about funerals and things like that, so that's all just mentioned briefly at the beginning of this chapter.
Thanks for all the reviews.
NO MATTER HOW MUCH I WISH IT WAS, THE OUTSIDERS IS NOT MINE.
(Darry POV)
The two weeks that passed after Mom's death were torture. We had the funeral the three days after she died. We all cried, even Two-Bit, but I think I was the only one who saw. Dally didn't cry, but I don't think he knows how to cry.
The gang hasn't come by as much as they they did before. Two-Bit told me he was watching out for Johnny, making sure he didn't sleep in the lot every night and making sure his dad didn't hurt him too bad and swearing to take care of him if he did. Mom and Dad could never understand how Johnny's dad could do that to him. They never hit any of us, and never thought of it. That's very impressive for two parents of three kids of their own, plus being like parents to four of their kids's friends, in this neighborhood.
Steve came by and told me Dally was in the cooler for 30 days. Nobody quite knows what he did this time, but the gang realizes he will never feel bad for doing it. Mom was the only one who could make him feel bad about anything he did.
Things at home have changed. At first, Dad would not do anything, eat, sleep, talk. He has gotten better but he is still quieter and thinner and tireder then normal. Soda will cry randomly about three times a day, but only for a minute. Other then that he is his normal happy-go-lucky self. Pony is taking it hard, but better then Dad. I hardly ever see him without tears in his eyes, but he still eats and sleeps and talks like normal. I don't remember how it was brought up, but he told me, "Mom would want me to remember her, and miss her, but not do anything to hurt myself because she is gone."
And then there's me. I miss her so much, but I have to be strong for my family, so I only cry when I am alone. I'm worried about my family. Dad is doing better then he was right when it happened, but I don't think he's ready for work yet, and we need the money.
Tonight was normal, or what passes for normal now. I was cooking dinner when Dad came in.
"Darry, are you still going to do to college?" he asked.
I thought about that for a minute. Was I still going to go to college? "Well..." I started to answer slowly, "I'm worried about you all. Maybe I could start next next semester."
"No," he said firmly, "We have to move on. I'm going back to work tomorrow, you will go to college in a week, and the boys will go back to school on Monday."
I thought about that. Dad seamed so much better then he had been. He looked like he had been before Mom's death, determined, but a new him was their too, sadder, more serious. "I have to think about it," I told him when I decided a few moments later, "And I'm gonna ask Ponyboy and Soda what they think about all this."
"OK, fine," he says, understanding that I will not budge at all from that dession, "But I'm going back to work tomorrow, no matter what they say."
I don't ask them what they think till after dinner. "Guys," I call to my little brothers, "I need to talk to y'all."
"What's up Dar?" Soda asks when he and Pony walked in.
"I have something I want to ask you about. What do you both think about going back to school on Monday?" I ask, starting small.
"I think it's time we go back," Ponyboy says, without tears in his eyes for once.
Soda moans and says, "I have to agree with Ponyboy, but I hate that place." He has the grin on his face that makes it so you just have to smile back, so me and Pony do just that.
"There's something else," I say, not really wanting to say it, but understanding I have to.
"What is it?" Pony asks. I look at my brother and they both look confused, like they couldn't figure out what else there could be, and when I think about it, and I realize they can't.
"Well I was talking to Dad and... what do you think of me still going to college? I asked them, saying the last part real fast to get it over with.
After I said this, they both looked like they were about to burst out laughing.
"Am I missing something?" I asked after watching them for a minute or two without them answering. But even as I asked, I knew I had because as soon as I finished speaking they couldn't hold it in anymore, and burst out laughing.
"What?" I asked, a little annoyed, when they were able to control their laughing a little. But as I asked they looked at me, then at each other and busted out laughing again. I just sat there after this and waited for them to stop.
"OF COURSE!" they both yelled at me at the same time, still laughing with big, goofy smiles on their faces.
"Of course, what?" I asked, somewhat in shock and somewhat not believing what they just told me.
"Of course you should go to college," Ponyboy said, still giggling a little. "It's what you always dreamed of doing. You have worked so hard to make that dream come true. We could never ask for you to give that all up just because of something that happened. Plus, Mom would of wanted you to go."
"Yeah," Soda agrees, tapping his foot, showing how he can never keep still. "It doesn't matter if Mom died. You always wanted this. You need to do it. Like Pony said, it's what Mom would of wanted. Plus, what kind of brothers would we be if we asked you to give up your dream to stay with us when we have lots of friends, practically family, and our dad to help us through this?"
"I think..." I started to say after I sat there with a shocked look on my face for what seamed like hours, but was probably only a few moments, "That I have the best two little brother ever,"
They both smiled at this and scrambled over to me and hugged me. I thought then that life would never be the same, but it would get better.
If only I knew then how wrong that statement was going to turn out to be. If only I knew then what me going and leaving my brothers would do to them, how much pain it would lead to them going through. If I knew what was going to happen then, I never would of gone to collage.
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