Chapter 6

Disclaimer- The Outsider's are not mine, now on with the story!

*Sodapop's POV*

"Where in the almighty universe were you?" I heard someone shout. I heard mumbling, then a loud,

"You what?" I realized I had fallen over, and sat up, with Sam still in my lap. When I sat up, I saw Ponyboy standing in front of Darry.

"Hey Ponyboy, where ya been?" I asked sleepily. He ignored me though.

"I didn't mean to. I was talking to Johnny and we both dropped off…" Pony said, and by this time, Sam sat up, yawning and stretching.

"Hey Pony." She said, her voice sounded hoarse and she looked a little pale. Perks of a hangover.

"I reckon it never occurred to you that your brothers might be worrying their heads off and afraid to call the police because something like that could get you two thrown in boys' home so quick it'd make your head spin. And you were asleep in the lot? Ponyboy, what on earth is the matter with you? Can't you use your head? You haven't even got a coat on." By this time, me and Sam were up, me next to Pony and Darry, and Sam behind Pony, and Steve and Two-bit were waking up, too. Pony looked mad.

"I said I didn't mean to…"

"I didn't mean to! I didn't think! I forgot! That's all I hear out of you! Can't you think of anything?" By now Steve and Two-bit were awake and watching. I couldn't take the fighting anymore.

"Darry…" I began, but Darry turned on me.

"You keep your trap shut! I'm sick and tired of hearin' you stick up for him." Sam, Steve, and Two-bit all froze, wide-eyed. My jaw almost dropped to the floor.

"You don't yell at him!" Pony shouted, and then Darry wheeled around and slapped Pony, causing him to crash into Sam and sending them flying backwards. When they fell, Sam's head hit the corner of the coffee table, and Pony ended up slamming into the door.

It was deathly quiet. Darry looked at his hand, shocked to see it red already, and looked up at Pony.

"Ponyboy…" He said, and Pony ran out of the house and down the street.

"Pony, I didn't mean to!" Darry yelled, and Pony was out of our sights. It was quiet again. Steve got up from the couch and went over to Sam. Her eyes were closed and she was biting her lip, holding her head. Steve helped her up, and she staggered a bit, blinking rapidly, and Steve held her tighter.

"Sam," Darry said, "I'm s-"

"Go." She said, still holding her head. Darry looked taken aback.

"What?" And she pointed upstairs.

"Into your room, and don't come out."

"But your-"

"Now." She demanded. Darry nodded and went upstairs. As soon as he was gone, me and Two-bit went to Sam.

"Sam, gosh are you alright?" I asked. She shrugged off Steve.

"Yeah I'm fine."

"I don't think so, you hit your head pretty hard on that table." Two-bit said.

"I'm fine, really." She said, and took a step forward, but stopped and clutched her head.

"God this is so not helping my hangover."

"Sam, what's that on your neck?" Steve asked. Sam looked confused and put her hand to her neck, and brought it back, fingers covered in blood.

"God your worse than I thought, Two-bit, go get the first aid-kit, Steve, help me get Sam on the couch." Two-bit and Steve nodded, Two-bit leaving and me and Steve helping Sam to the couch.

"Guys, m'fine, really." Sam said drowsily, eyes closed and hands on her head.

"No your not Sammy." Steve said, sitting next to her and grabbed her head to examine it. Two-bit got back and handed me the first aid-kit. I took out some cotton balls and rubbing alcohol, and Steve moved the hair away from the gash.

The gash was about two-inches long, maybe a little shorter, and didn't look to be too deep. The gash was behind Sam's right ear at the base of the hairline and was bleeding a lot. But it looked to be slowing down a bit.

I poured some of the alcohol on the cotton ball and lightly pressed it to her cut. She stiffened, but didn't move. When I was done, i wrapped some gauze around it and tapped it up.

"There, I'm done." I said, and Sam let out a sigh, and grabbed her head.

"Stevie, can ya get me some aspirin? My heads killing me." She asked, and Steve left, coming back a minute later with two aspirin in he's hand, and a bottle of coke in the other. he sat down next to her and handed her the pills and drink.

"Thanks." She mumbled, and swallowed the pills. Me and Two-bit then sat in front of Sam and Steve on the floor.

"What are we gonna do now?" Two-bit asked.

"We wait 'til morning." Sam said.

"What?! Sam, he's my brother and he's alone and it's freezing out there! You can't expect me to sit here and wait 'til morning!"I yelled. Sam just gripped her her harder.

"Ease up on the yelling will ya? And there's nothing we CAN do now, Pony needs time alone, and if anything, he's probably with Johnny at the lot. Pony may be absentminded, but he ain't stupid enough not to come home after this. If he ain't here in the morning, we'll look for him, ya dig?" Sam asked. I sighed, she was right.

"Yea, I dig."

"Good, now lets get to bed, the sooner we get to sleep, the sooner we can get up and solve this mess." Sam said. She got up and left to her room, while Two-bit and Steve made themselves comfortable on the couches.

"Night guys." I said.

"Night." They replied. I turned the lights off and headed to me and Pony's room. Once I closed the door, I changed out of my jeans, and put sweats on, taking off my shirt and laying in bed. It felt so weird to not have Pony sleeping next to me.

We've been sleeping in the same bed since mom and dad died. He would usually curl up next to me and I would drape my arm over his body. It feels strange, no, WRONG, not having Pony sleep next to me.

I hope he's alright, and that Sam was right, that he's in the lot with Johnny. My eyes start dropping, and i feel my self falling asleep.

ooO0Ooo

I woke up to knocking on the door. That's weird, people usually just walk right in. I then remembered the last time someone knocked on our door. I gulped. Darry had opened the door to two police officers, and they delivered the awful news, that our parents were in a crash on their way home and they hadn't made it.

I hope this time's different. I got up and walked out to the living room to see Sam already there, sitting on the couch where Steve slept, both he and Two-bit awake as well. Darry was just opening the door, and it was like de ja vu.

Two police officers at the door.

One was taller, looking about 40, and the other one looked about 25. The taller one looked down at the notepad he had, and spoke.

"Is this the residence of Darrel Curtis, Jr.?" Darry gulped.

"Yes, that's me." The cop nodded, and looked down at the note pad again.

"And you're the legal guardian of Ponyboy Curtis, yes?"

"Yes." The cop paused before speaking again.

"And where, exactly, is Ponyboy right now?" Darry looked over at us quickly before answering the cop.

"He's not home right now."

"When's the last tine you saw him?"

"Late last night, he left and hasn't been back since, why? What's going on?" The cop ignored Darry's question.

"And do you have any idea as to where he might be?"

"No, I don't, now what's going on?" He ignored the question again.

"And do you know a Jonathan Cade?"

"Yes."

"What's your relationship with Mr. Cade?"

"He's a good buddy of mine and Pony." He nodded and scribbled something down in his notebook, taking a moment before asking another question.

"When's the last time you saw Mr. Cade?"

"Not since yesterday afternoon, why? Are he and Pony in trouble?" The cops looked at each other for a brief moment.

"Ponyboy, no for now, we just want to ask him some questions. Mr. Cade on the other hand, is indeed in trouble."

"What kind of trouble?"

"I'm sorry sir, we are not allowed to tell you that."

"What? Why?"

"It's a very sensitive subject, Mr. Curtis, and we are not authorized to tell you. Now, one last question, do you know a Mr. Bob Sheldon?"

"Bob? No, why? What does this have to do with my brother and Johnny?"

"Again, we are not allowed to tell you that. If you see either Ponyboy or Johnny,give me a call." The cop said, handing Darry a small card and turning around to his cop cruiser, the other cop right on his heels. Once they left and were out of sight, Darry closed the door and turned to us.

"What the hell was that about?" Two-bit asked. Darry just stared at the door.

"Darry?" I asked, and he turned, seeing all of us staring at him.

"I have know idea." He said. Two-bit turned on the TV.

"Damn it Two-bit this is no the time to watch Mickey Mouse." Darry scolded. Two-bit just shook his head with a rare serious expression on his face. He started to flip through the channels.

"M'not watching Mickey." He said, all of the humor gone from his voice.

"Then what are you…" Darry trailed off as Two-bit stopped on the news channel, "Two-bit its just the damn weather."

"Just wait." He said, staring at the TV. Then the weather man signed of, introducing one of the anchormen.

"And in other news this morning," Said the anchorman, "There was the murder of a young Bob Sheldon on the upper East side in Highland park late last night a little after 2am. Witness' say the suspect was dark-skinned, with jet black hair who looked between the ages of 14-16. Reports say he was wearing an old jean jacket and a pair of worn out jeans. Be on the look out for anyone with this description, and be careful, suspect is said to be carrying a six inch blade. Do not approach. Back to you Jo-" The TV went blank as Two-bit turned the channel off.

Everyone sat there, dumbfounded.

"You don't think Johnny and Pony were involved, do ya?" Sam asked.

"I don't know Sammy, that sounded a hell of a lot like Johnny." Steve said.

"Steve!" Two-bit scowled. Steve shrugged.

"What? I don't like it any more than you do, but the description does sound like Johnny, and that cop was looking for Johnny and Pony and asked Darry about that Bob kid." Steve said.

"But that doesn't sound like Johnny at all." Sam said.

"Yes it does." Steve said. Sam just shook her head.

"Okay yeah maybe the description part, but I'm talking about the other part, he's a suspect for murder, Johnny wouldn't kill someone, not our Johnny." Sam said and every took that in.

She's right. That doesn't sound like Johnny at all. He can barely raise his voice at someone, let alone kill somebody. It can't be Johnny, but then, where the hell is he and Pony?

"Darry?" I asked. Everyone turned to look at him. He just stood there, staring at the wall.

"Look Darry, if you're still upset about last night, we can work through-" Sam started, but Darry interrupted.

"Steve, Two-bit, you two take the upper east side of town, Sam and Soda, take the lower east side, I'll look at all of our hangouts and places either Johnny or Pony would go, and under no circumstances, do we go into soc territory, understood?" He asked.

No one answered.

"Understood?" He repeated, and we nodded, and we headed out the door. Darry took the truck, Steve and Two-bit took Two-bit's car, and Steve handed us the keys to his car. When we got in and I started the car, Sam spoke up.

"Lets check the park first." I nodded and headed to the park.

ooO0Ooo

When we got out of the car, we noticed that the fountain was taped off with police tape, there was a tarp covering some of the cement in front of the fountain, and the park was closed.

"Sam, maybe we shouldn't-"

"There aren't any policemen around and no security cameras, and with what happened I doubt anyone would be driving around here anytime soon." She started walking towards the yellow tape.

"Sam, stop." She turned.

"Don't ya want to know what happened to them?" She asked.

"Of course I do, but this isn't the way to do it. If we get caught, you can get jailed, and I can get sent to a boys home." I said. She sigh.

"Well lets just not get caught, okay?" And she walked under the yellow tape. I followed her. She stopped walking and stared down at the tarp.

"What do ya think there covering up?" She asked, looking over at me. Curiosity got the better of me.

"Well lets find out." I said, and she smiled at me and went to one end of the tarp while i went to the opposite. We looked up at each other, nodded, and lifted the tarp.

"Oh god…" Sam trailed off. On the cement was a big pool of dried up blood.

"You don't think it's Pony or Johnny's, do ya?" Sam asked me. I shook my head.

"It's got to be Bob's." She nodded at me and looked down at it again. I couldn't look at the blood anymore. I walked over and sat down on the ledge of the fountain. A few moments later, Sam sat beside me.

We sat in silence for a while. Thoughts kept running through my head. What happened? Why where Johnny and Pony in the park? Why didn't Pony come home? How does Bob figure into this? And what happened to get the police thinking that Johnny killed Bob? And where's Pony?

"I miss him." I said, breaking the silence. Sam looked at me.

"I know, and we'll find him, I promise." And she grabbed my hand and gave it a light squeeze. I looked a her and gave her a slight smile. I scooted loser to her and she leaned her head on m shoulder, still gripping my hand.

"I'm worried about Darry." Sam spoke up.

"Why would you be?" She paused before speaking again.

"Think about it. Put yourself in his shoes, what do you think is going on through his mind right now?" I thought about it and shook my head.

"He'd be worried about Pony and Johnny."

"No, he'd feel guilty."

"Why?"

"Think about it, if he hadn't lost his cool and not slapped Pony, sending him away, none of this would of happened." I thought about it.

She was right. If Darry hadn't exploded on Pony, if he hadn't hit him, he wouldn't of run away. He'd be home right now, probably going out for a run to practice for track season. Or in his room of the couch reading a book, laughing at Two-bit's jokes and fight's with Steve.

He'd do his homework so he can go out with us later. He'd walk with Johnny over to the DX to see me and Steve, ad Sam would probably tag along. His cheeks would go red when a girl flirted with him and mumble awkwardly. Girls didn't flirt with him often, but it was starting to happen a lot more.

If Darry hadn't slapped him, none of this would of happened, and we wouldn't be searching all over the East side of Tulsa looking for Pony.

If only he hadn't slapped him.