* HEY GUYS! SORRY I HAVEN'T UPDATED IN LIKE A LOOOONG TIME! HERE'S CHAPTER 41! ( This takes place that morning while Darry and Pony were in town*

Soda walked in the front door and made his way to the kitchen. He bent down to the cupboard underneath the sink. He opened it and reached in, pulling out a bottle of carpet cleaner. He put it back. He reached in again, pulling out a bar of soap. He put it back. He reached in once more, pulling out Windex. He reached back into the cupboard and got a rag, standing back up and closing the small doors. Soda picked up the Windex bottle and sprayed a good amount of the liquid into the rag.

Soda sank down to the floor, against the counter, rag in hand. He spread his legs out onto the cool kitchen tile and relaxed, raising the cloth up to his face and holding it against his mouth and nose. He inhaled deeply numerous times before, placing the rag beside him on the floor. He let his arms fall to his sides and closed his eyes. After a minute or so he tired to stand up but lost his balance fell back down. He giggled and pulled himself up, while holding onto the counter. He picked up the rag and Windex and threw them back under the sink.

Soda looked over at the clock and tried to make out what time it was but he couldn't tell. Everything was a bit blurry. He finally gave up on the time and did his best to walk into the living room, though he was wobbling all over the place. From the living room he made it to his room where he flopped down on his bed. He laid there for a while until his head stopped spinning.

A now fairly sober Soda got up off of bed and grabbed the keys to the truck, to go to work.

************

Soda looked up as he saw Darry and Pony approaching the DX. He saw that Ponyboy looked fairly content so that was a good thing. He hoped he wasn't to mad at them. "Hey." He said.

"Hey, I need the keys, Sodapop." Darry said. Soda reached into his pocket and threw them to his brother.

"Hey, Pony." Soda said. Pony glared at him. "Hey, it wathn-" Soda cleared his throat. "It wasn't my idea, Pon. I swear it wasn't. In fact I had just about as much choice to help him carry out his scheme as you did to wake up in a restaurant."

Pony smiled as he watched his brother go on. "It's ok. I ain't that upset anymore. It sure was a dirty trick though.

"Hith-" Soda cleared his throat once more. "His idea." Soda said again, pointing to Darry.

"All-right, all-right. We get it." Darry said. "I'm the one to be hacked off at. And what's the matter with your speech this morning?"

"Nothing." Soda said.

"Uh huh." Darry said. "Now I gotta get to work. C'mon, Pony. See you later, Soda."

"Bye." Soda said. Pony waved and got into the truck.

"I want you to finish up some work when we get back to the house. You've still got some to do, right?"

"Yeah, but it's so early, Darry. I wanna go back to bed."

"If you were in school this week you wouldn't be able to sleep until all hours of the day."

"But I ain't in school." Pony said.

"Exactly my point. But you should be. You need to finish all the work you can so you're not so far behind when you get back from your suspension." Pony rolled his eyes. "Anyways, I don't wanna argue about it, kiddo. You can sleep a little while I guess but I wanna good portion of that work done by the time I get home from work, understand?"

"Yeah." Pony said.

********** "Dinner!" Darry yelled that evening.

Ponyboy put his book down and got up off his bed. "What'd you make, Darry?"

"Meat loaf and mashed potatoes." Darry answered as he finished setting the table.

"Sounds good." Soda got up off the couch and turned the TV off. "How's the arm, Dar?" He asked, sitting down at the table.

"Better." Darry said. "I can use it a bit now. Ponyboy, did you get some work done today?"

"Yeah, some."

"Soda you're on dishes tonight." Darry said.

"Why?" Soda asked, annoyed.

"What do you mean why? Because it's your turn."

"Yah, well. I've got stuff to do."

"Fine, after you do the dishes." Darry said. Soda sighed.

Pony reached over to get the potatoes, accidentally knocking over his milk, which poured across the table and all over Soda's lap. Soda stood up and cursed a blue streak before beginning to yell at his younger brother. "Can't you watch it? What's the matter with you, you little klutz."

"I-it was just an accident." Ponyboy said. "I'm sorry." He looked near tears at hearing his usually easy going brothers outburst.

"Sodapop, calm down. Just go change." Darry said.

"Oh yeah sure." Soda said sarcastically. "No big deal. He's just gotta go and knock over his chocolate milk, which is never gonna come out of this white t-shirt by the way! And then you've gotta go and defend him!"

Darry looked at his little brother in utter shock. Soda never spoke with anger towards Ponyboy. "Here," Soda said, pouring his own milk on Ponyboy's head. "How's that? Feel good?"

"Hey! You big jerk! Why'd you have to go and do that?"

"Stop it! Both of you." Darry stood up himself. "Soda, what's gotten into you?"

"Nothing, ass whole!" Soda yelled.

"All-right, that's it. Go to your room, Soda."

"Why? It's his fault." He nodded to Ponyboy. "Make him go."

"Now, Soda." Darry said. Sodapop stalked off mumbling about how much he hated the world and slammed his bedroom door shut.

Darry looked over to a very confused Ponyboy, who was covered with chocolate milk and holding back tears of hurt. Soda had never spoken to him like that before. "He didn't mean it, little buddy. You know that, right?" Darry asked. Pony nodded. "He's just upset. I'm not sure about what but don't go thinking it's your fault. He probably just had a bad day. Why don't you go take a shower?"

Ponyboy nodded again and headed for the bathroom, trying to figure out what in the world was wrong with Soda.