WARNINGS: LANGUAGE, MENTIONS OF TEEN PREGNANCY AND ALCOHOL

I'm not dead, folks! And here's the next chapter; this is when things really start to kick off.

Disclaimer: Outsiders belong to the marvelous, amazing, unique, one and only... SE Hinton, not me.

Sodapop helped Aimee out of the car and led her into the restaurant. It was a small place but famous for its wonderful food and it was middle class, so he could afford it. He and the brown haired girl were seated at a table for two, candles lighting their faces and lamps tinted red made their features glow romantically.

Soda blushed. He remembered him and Pony going to the Nightly Double and there was a romantic movie playing. The elder, laughing his head off at Pony's wide eyes, dragged him out of the theater, choking out something about not telling Darry he had let their kid brother see that. Anyway, this date was just like that film and if Pony or even Two Bit were here, they'd be calling it a cliché. Maybe it was.

"Soda? Are you okay?" Apparently, he'd been spacing out because now Aimee was smiling that slight grin at him.

"Oh, yeah, I was just amazed by your beautiful brown eyes," Soda covered his staring. Well, actually, it was partly true; Aimee Brown had chocolate wells for eyes that he could get lost in...

'Snap out of it, Soda!' He thought, resisting the urge to bonk himself over the head to get his train of thought back on track. 'You broke up with Sandy less than a year ago. You don't need a relationship right now.'

"Funny," Aimee giggled, a tinkling sound like a little bell that reverberated through his skull like a song you couldn't get out of your head. "I was thinking the same thing about you, Sodapop Curtis."

Soda felt his face heat up and he covered his face with the menu to hide the crimson staining his cheeks and the beads of sweat popping up on his forehead.

'Damn it, Soda, why are you so nervous? You were never this nervous with Sandy or the other girl friends you've had. Hell, Aimee isn't even a girl friend! She's just a friend... right?'

They ordered their food and Soda sipped his Pepsi while Aimee smiled as she took a drink of her Coke.

"You know, you're real pretty when your smile." Soda felt his neck heat up and his eyes widened. Why had he said that?

"And you're cute when you're flustered," she replied with a snicker. "Your face is bright red."

Soda gulped. "Is it now?"

"Yeah. Are you always this nervous with girls?"

"That's the strange thing; I've never been this nervous before," the blonde admitted. "Are you always this laid back around guys?"

"You're the first guy I've ever really been on a... date with, so I wouldn't know," Aimee confessed, twirling her straw in circles in her glass.

"Really?"

"Yep. I'm guessing you've been on dates before," she said, not meeting his eyes.

"Yeah. Most didn't last long; sometimes the girls would stay until they found out how poor I was and then, they'd go to the bathroom and never come back. The most serious dates I've ever had were with my ex, Sandy. She moved a while back after she got pregnant. It wasn't mine." Soda looked away. He hadn't even told that to Darry or Pony; hell, Steve didn't know. So why had he just told his deepest secret to a girl he barely knew?

Aimee's eyes widened. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know."

"It's okay, how could you?"

Their food arrived and most of the meal was eaten in silence, but as they waited for the bill, they began to speak once more. Thankfully about more casual things.

"Do you like to read?" Aimee asked, awkwardly.

"Sometimes. I'm not very good at it, but if I like what I'm reading, I'll be through it in a couple of days. You?"

She smiled. "Yeah, my favorite book is a Christmas Carol."

The name triggered something in his brain and for a moment, he didn't say anything as he fought back tears.

*FLASHBACK*

"God bless us, everyone!" The entire family from Mom and Dad to little Pony cheered as we finished a Christmas Carol.

This was a tradition. Every Christmas, we read a Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and every time, we chorused the last line. For that moment, everything seemed to fade away, but the fire, us, and the contents of the book in Mom's lap.

Mom and dad seemed to stop thinking about bills and taxes for one day and all of their gray hairs seemed to fade into masses of beautiful locks...

Darry seemed less stressed about school and football and fitting in while being a Greaser. He even seemed to stop worrying about his friends as they slowly grew apart as the rift between Greasers and Socs widened...

I stopped wondering what I would tell Mom and Dad when mid terms came and they saw that my grades were a C- at best and an F at the worst...

Pony laughed easily and the timid child opened up more than ever as he seemed to retain that last bit of innocence he had in this world...

I miss those days when we'd read by the fire and then, the gang would come over and we'd read it with them. After that, we'd all eat a feast cooked by Mom and we'd all sleep on the living room floor in each others arms.

But those days were long gone.

*FLASHBACK OVER*

"Soda? Soda?!" Aimee's frantic, yet lovely voice, cut through his flashback and he jolted out of it, seeing her anxious expression.

"Are you okay?" She questioned. "You kind of spaced out."

"Oh, I'm fine," Soda replied, waving his hand in a dismissive gesture. "So, a Christmas Carol. I love that book; my family used to read it all the time at Christmas!"

Aimee appeared to be attempting to shrug off her worry. "Really? That's a fantastic tradition!"

"What does your family do at Christmas?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "Well, nothing as at family. Marsha would either go to Cherry's or Randy's house to celebrate with their families. Mom goes to some party or visits her sister out-of town and Dad disappears all night. Pry gets drunk with some of his friends. "

The worst part about this was that she seemed so casual like this was normal for all families.

"You know," Soda grinned, "Christmas is coming up in a little under a month, and I was wondering if you would like to come to my house and see what a real Christmas is like?"

She gaped for a moment before smiling. "I would love too."

The couple payed and strolled outside. It was eight forty-five and the pair decided that they could take a walk in the park (after the incident, jumpings had died down drastically).

Soda and Aimee walked side by side along the curb, not really talking, just analyzing the dazzling night. It was an unnaturally warm winter, so no snow powdered ground or a sharp biting wind. In fact, it could have been called summer if you didn't know better.

"So, what's your favorite song?" The blonde tried to get a conversation going since he was deathly afraid of silence, according to the gang anyway, and couldn't stay quiet for more than a few minutes.

"Have you ever heard Paramore?" She asked. (I am aware that none of this music was around in the 1960s, but for the story's sake, pretend it was.)

Sodapop shook his head.

"Well, my favorite is their song, 'The Only Exception'," she said and he made a mental note to listen to it. "You?"

"'Stand by You', by Rachel Platten. Ever heard it?"

"No, but I'd like too," she said with a smile.

Suddenly, a buzzing noise rang clear into the night and Aimee jumped before reaching into her purse and withdrawing a phone (same thing, pretend they were around). After reading the message, she sighed.

"I gotta get home."

Soda nodded and assisted her into the truck with a grin of understanding. He'd better get home too or he'd never hear the end of it. Not from Darry, but from Steve, Dally, and Two Bit. Jerks.

They pulled into her drive way, and just before she got out, Soda took a deep breath and stopped her. "Hey, do you have any plans next Saturday? Maybe we could... go out for lunch?"

She smiled, "I'd like that, Soda." Aimee turned to disembark the vehicle before she whirled around, pecked Soda on the cheek, and scrambled to her door before he could utter a word.

He sat there for a long time before pulling away with one last thought:

He's got it bad.

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