Disclaimer: S. E. Hinton owns 'The Outsiders'.
"Can I bum a cancer stick?"
Dallas began steering the car with his knees as he searched for the pack. He pulled out two and lit one, before tossing the other to Kate.
She was twisting her hair around her finger again and he frowned slightly. "What are you nervous about?"
She shook her head, "Did I upset you?"
Dallas cocked an eyebrow and brought his hands back to the wheel. "What do 'ya mean?"
"From what I said, earlier."
His face went a little hard. "I had my obligations, now you got yours."
Her face lit up a little, "So you understand?" It was sort of a one way question and Kate continued, "It's just that, everything I do now, I gotta be thinking about David when I do it."
Dallas smirked slightly, "Then why'd you start talking shit back to Jessica?"
Kate's blush didn't go unnoticed. "I already knew how the situation was gonna turn out, and I wasn't about to be labeled as a bitch my first month here."
He shook his head, "That's the last thing people are saying you are."
"Oh yeah? What are they saying?"
"We all saw that one swing you threw. And Jessica's the bitch for going straight for your hair."
Kate smirked, she never was one for hair pulling and she was sure that if Daniel was looking down on her, he'd be pretty pissed if she ignored everything he taught her and started going after someone's hair.
"You mad at me for going after him?"
"That was never what it was about, Dal. If I honestly didn't want you to fight 'em then you wouldn't have. I just didn't like the fact that I ended up getting dragged into it."
"Right." He paused, "I did it for you, 'ya know."
It wasn't a question but she nodded anyway, a smile playing on her lips. "I know."
XXX
"Hey." Kate jumped at the voice behind her and immediately looked around for David. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw him in-front of her shopping cart, picking out which kind of cereal he wanted.
"Hey Soda." She smiled and threw a box of crackers into the basket. "Only two." She warned David as he had four boxes of cereal sitting in his arms.
"What are 'ya doing here?"
That was a stupid question. "Got my first paycheck yesterday. We were running kind of short on groceries."
Soda nodded, she didn't need to say anything more for him to understand. Far as he knew, Kate was the main caretaker and income in her household and the situation of living paycheck to paycheck to support your sibling was all too familiar.
David looked up at Soda curiously as he kept his boxes of cereal firmly in his arms. "Hi."
Soda smiled, "Hey, I'm Sodapop."
That earned a smile as David turned to Kate, "How come I can't have a name like that?"
Kate smiled slightly before her face became a little more stern. "I'm counting three, sweetheart."
David looked down at his arms and threw one of the boxes into the cart. "Pick one." He held the remaining two up to Kate and Soda piped up, "The chocolate one, chocolate's always better."
David didn't need to hear any more as he tossed the chocolate cereal into the shopping cart. Kate grinned at Soda, "How 'bout you? Where are your brothers?"
"Home. Darry needed me to stop and get some milk on my way home." Kate nodded and Soda cocked an eyebrow, "What about your grandma? She lives with you too, right?"
Kate nodded but avoided his gaze, "She don't get out too much these days." She made sure David was occupied with looking at the cookies as she spoke.
Soda nodded, "Sorry." Dal had said something about her grandfather being pretty sick, and although Kate hadn't come right out and said it, the pure fact that he wasn't there with them now had lead Dallas to believe that he was dead.
Her face looked a little less gloomy as she shrugged, "No big deal."
"Sissy, can I get these?" David held up a package of Oreos and Soda watched the sad look return to Kate's face as she counted the money in her hand. "Not today, sweetheart."
David frowned, "But-" Kate cut him off, "I just can't afford it today, kiddo. I'll bring you to the park later though, to make up for it."
Soda frowned along with her. He could tell that it was still a fairly new thing for her to have to tell her brother no but David obeyed and set the Oreos back on the shelf.
Kate met his eyes again, "I hate having to bring up money around him, but lately I just can't do some things."
Soda dug in his pocket and pulled out a dollar. "Here."
Kate looked down at his hand and shook her head, "I couldn't. You and your brother work too hard for your money."
He shrugged, "It's only a buck." Kate didn't seem convinced. "After my parents first died, the boys got together and covered a month of our mortgage." He shrugged again, "A little help never hurt anyone."
Kate looked indecisive but she didn't hand the dollar back when Soda wrapped her hand around it. "Hey, let the kid get some Oreos."
She smiled, "And I thought Dal was exaggerating when he talked about what good guys you all were."
Soda cocked an eyebrow and Kate told David that he could get the Oreos. "Don't tell him I said that though." She grinned again and Soda smiled back, "I didn't plan on it."
They both knew that Dallas's nice talk about the boys wasn't supposed to go further then Kate. But Soda didn't mind the reassurance that Dal cared about them.
"Say thank you to Sodapop."
David obeyed and didn't bother putting the Oreos in the basket, they were gripped closely to his chest.
Soda smiled and ruffled his hair, "No problem, kid."
XXX
"I ran into Kate at the grocery store."
Dallas didn't look up from his hand of cards. "Yeah?"
Soda nodded, "She's having some trouble with money, huh?"
That earned a head raise. "Who told you that?"
He shrugged, "She got pretty upset when she told her brother he couldn't get some cookies."
Dallas cocked an eyebrow, "David?"
Soda nodded and didn't fill him in on the other half of the visit. He wasn't sure what Dallas's reaction would be about him showing Kate pity.
Dal looked back to his cards, "She used to spoil the kid crazy. He probably ain't used to her saying no, he throw a fit over it?"
Soda shook his head.
"Kate always did keep him in check, though. I'll give her that much."
"You know her real well, huh?"
Dallas eyed him carefully and nodded slowly. "Yeah."
Soda could tell he wasn't gonna get much more of a response than that.
I know this chapter is kind of short and seemingly pointless but I enjoyed writing it so I hope you all enjoyed reading it as well. Leave me a review please :) I really appreciate them!