Chapter 20

As Darry was putting Sara to sleep she could barely keep her eyes open. He sat down on the edge of her bed and tucked the blankets up around her. "So, did you have a good birthday?" He thought he already knew the answer but he just wanted to hear it again before she fell asleep. He leaned it to swipe her bangs out of her eyes; he would have to try to remember to trim them up this weekend.

"It was the best, Dar, absolutely the best. Thank you so much for getting me the EasyBake oven. I can't wait to use it." Sara said letting out a huge yawn.

"Sara, I want you to get a good night's sleep. No sneaking out onto the couch, or in with Pony and Soda. You know that Mrs. Roberts is coming tomorrow right?" Sara shook her head yes as she shivered and crept further under the blankets. "I need you looking as rested as possible. We don't want to give her any reason to bother us, now do we?"

"I'll try, Darry. Honest I will."

"I know you will, Babygirl. Now shut your eyes and rest your head. Everything is going to be just fine." Darry bent down and kissed Sara's head. "Sleep tight."

"Night Darry." Sara let her heavy eye lids close, but right when Darry was at the door he whispered back into the room. "Happy Birthday, Saragirl."

"Good night, Dadda." Darry was shocked; he couldn't believe that she just had mistaken him for their father. He was ready to correct her, but he could tell by her breathing that she was already out like a light. He slowly shut her door and headed out towards the living room where Sodapop, Steve and Ponyboy were sitting on the couch watching Gilligan's Island. Darry slowly took a seat in his chair. He looked over towards the three, who purposely were not making eye contact with him. He was just staring at the three wondering if he was going to have to be the first to speak. He knew by their tense bodies that they knew what was about to happen, but he made them squirm in their seats for a few more minutes. When a commercial came on, Darry thought he had made them suffer enough.

"So, who wants to start?" He asked the boys. They all turned their heads to look in his directions. When none of them were ready to respond to his question he thought he would ask them again. "I'm waiting. Anyone of you can start talking, and I would suggestion sooner than later. And Pony and Soda, you two know better than to be hiding something from me." Soda and Pony turned to look at each other and when either said a word they looked back over at Steve. Another few seconds passed with silence then Steve cleared his throat some and looked back at the tv were Gilligan's Island had returned back on. Darry was quickly losing his patience with these three so he jumped out of his seat and marched over and slammed the button on the tv to off. The boys slowly raised their eyes up to meet Darry's who was now standing just a few feet away from them.

"Remember, Dar, Sara can still hear you." Soda warned.

"She could if she wasn't already sleeping. Soda, did Pony show up today to get Sara off the bus?" Darry decided to take a different approach to this seeing no one was ready to share any information that he was looking for.

Soda stared down at the grease on his jeans and the hole that was in his white t-shirt. "Umm, do you want to define getting her off the bus, or picking her up?" Soda kinda of was joking around with Darry hoping to cut the tension in the air.

"I'm serious Sodapop! Was he there when the bus came to a complete stop?" Darry said raising his voice.

"Not exactly." Soda was going to make Darry work at getting information from him. He knew this wasn't probably the wisest way around it but Soda felt that he needed to protect his younger brother from his older brother's wrath.

"Stop friggin' around with me, Sodapop." Darry yelled.

"Lay off, Dar. I'll tell you what the hell happen. Just cool off and sit back down." Steve said jumping in to save his best friend and his kid brother.

"I knew you had something to do with this Randle." Darry said pacing back and forth. He didn't like taking orders from Steve but once he had paced back to his chair he sat down. And once he was sitting Steve decided to dive into the story.

"So I asked Pony to skip gym today so that I could drop him off at the library. I needed Pony to come run an errand with me downtown, but I needed to get it done so that the two of us could be back to the station by 3:30. We wouldn't of been able to get it all done if we didn't skip out early. Jeez Dar, it was just P.E. for Christ Sake. It wasn't anything important. But we ran into some construction they are doing down on Main Street and we were only like 5 minutes late getting to the station. It wasn't a big deal. Soda was taking his break and he and the kid were having a Pepsi out on the stoop." Steve paused for a brief second and when he noticed the scowl still on Darry' face, he decided to add a little more. "She wasn't hanging out in the garage or anything like that. I came and picked her up and dropped the two off here and everything was ok." Steve thought that was enough information to satisfied Darry, but both Sodapop and Ponyboy knew that it wasn't enough. They could tell by the expression on Darry's face.

"So what was so damn important downtown Steve that you needed to drag Ponyboy along with you?" Darry demanded.

Steve did pretty good looking Darry in the eye while he gave him the first explanation but now he was feeling a little uncomfortable where this conversation was heading. "I told you already. I needed to run and errand." Steve was going to try to leave it at that.

"And I asked you, why you needed to drag my little brother along, and have him skip P.E. for it? It better of not been anything illegal." Darry warned. This brought a chuckle out of both Pony and Steve. "Oh, you think this is funny huh?" You're not going to think it's so funny when Coach Taylor gets ahold of you tomorrow." Pony's laughter now turned to a groan just imagining what his punishment was going to be from Coach. "Steve, I'm waiting?" Steve again couldn't make eye contact with Darry and could feel the heat rising on his cheeks.

"I needed to pick something up, that I needed for tonight. They only had it downtown." Steve's voice was hardly heard in the room.

"Excuse me? I didn't quit hear you." Darry did actually hear him but wanted him to repeat it again.

"I needed to pick something up, and I needed it for tonight." Darry pounder his answer for a minute, then he started to put things together.

"For Sara's birthday?" Darry questioned. Steve knew that Darry had him and even though he was embarrassed he knew that Darry had him cornered and he was better off just getting it out there now.

"Yes, for her birthday."

"But I don't remember you giving her anything…." Darry stopped himself from saying anything else. Then for the first time this evening it came to him…. the shoes. The shoes were from Steve, and Pony knew that, and Sara knew that. That's why she wasn't asking who they were from. Darry looked over at the boys faces and could tell that they knew he had just put it all together. "Soda, Pony, why didn't you tell me that Sara wanted new shoes?" Now Darry was a little embarrassed that as the head of the household he should have known this and why didn't his brothers at least tell him. He was feeling like an ass, that his brother's best friend had to be the one to go out and buy her the shoes. Darry was staring a hard, cold look towards Soda and Pony waiting for an answer.

"I didn't know Darry, honest. I didn't ask them why they were late. Steve just told me to trust him, and I trust him Dar. I actually didn't figure it out until after Sara opened them and she was looking at Steve the whole time." Soda confessed. Darry took his word and moved towards Pony.

"Pony?" He asked.

"I didn't know until this morning. Steve didn't mention it until we were almost to school this morning." Darry nodded his head, but then Pony added, "But Darry it wasn't that Sara wanted them. She didn't ask for them." Pony wanted to come to his sister's defense.

"What do you mean? She didn't want them?" Soda and Pony both turned to look at Steve for help with further details.

"Look, Darry, I didn't even know what I was gonna get her until this morning. But I needed to talk with her about something and while you and Soda were getting ready she was struggling with her shoes. I noticed and I went over to help. As I was helping her get them on I saw how tight they were on her. When I asked her about it she just shrugged it off. I then felt her toe and those saddle shoes are way to small for her. When I asked her a question she thought I was talking about the shoes and told me that she knew you didn't have any money to buy her a new pair and that she didn't want to tell you that she needed a new pair. So it was then that I knew what I was going to get her. I quickly took a look at the bottom of the shoe to see what size she was currently wearing and thought about it on the way to school. I don't know shit about kids shoes, never mind little girls shoes. So I knew Soda couldn't come with me because of work, so that only left Pony." Steve really didn't want to have to tell Darry or Sodapop about this. He was hoping to keep it just between him and Pony. For he knows that Darry and Soda are working their asses off to keep this family together and that something like a new pair of shoes were out of the question so after seeing how small Sara's shoes were he took it upon himself to take care of it. He felt it was the least he could do. For he is constantly bumming around their house, eating their food, sleeping on their couch even using their water for showers and stuff. He could afford to pitch in this once. It was for a good cause, even if it was for Sara. But he wasn't sure if he was doing it more for Sara or for Sodapop.

Darry was absolutely devastated with what Steve was telling him. He felt like he had totally let this family down, especially Sara. To think that she was too afraid to tell them that her shoes were to small and that she had been wearing them all this time. Now that he thought about it, it was all making sense. She had been giving Darry a hard time lately about wearing those shoes. She was always making up excuses like, "I don't want to wear those today, or I don't like them anymore. Or the latest was those don't look good on me." Darry was ashamed, he tried to hide his face with bring his hands up to cover it.

"Dar, it's no big deal. Really. I mean I hadn't gotten her anything yet. I knew she would appreciate them. I'm just sorry about the way I went about it. Now that I think about I should of just swung by your work this afternoon and told you, instead of taking Pony out of school and stuff. I'm really sorry." Steve is not known to offer up too many apologizes so Sodapop knew that he sincerely meant it. There was more uncomfortable silence in the room until Darry finally took his hands away from his face after running them up and down his cheeks a few times.

"Pony, is your homework done?" Darry asked.

"I have some reading left to do for English." Pony replied.

"Ok, why don't you go and finish it." Darry spoke softly.

"That's it?" Pony said in disbelief. No yelling? No scolding? No punishment? He was having a hard time believing it. Maybe it should be Sara's birthday more often he thought while getting up from the couch.

"Well finish talking about this later. Just go get ready for bed and finish that reading." Darry tried dismissing Pony from the room, but before Pony took anymore steps forward he glanced one more time at Soda and Steve. Soda flashed him a smile. Pony sighed and slipped out of the room and into his without another word being said from anyone. After Pony left the room there was more silence between the three remaining in the living room. Finally Steve got up from the couch and looked over at Darry.

"Well, if we're ok here, I'm gonna head home." He started for the door when he was almost there Darry got out of his chair and grabbed Steve's arm with a little more force than he meant to. Steve's eyes darted down to look at Darry's hand on his arm and the force that was being applied. When Daarry realized how much force he was applying he quickly released his grasp.

"Steve, I'm grateful, I am, but next time, just come to me or Soda. Don't drag Ponyboy into it. They are my responsibility and the State is already threating to take them away, especially Sara." Darry had to stop for his voice had cracked some. He took a deep breath before continuing but Steve could read the emotion in his face.

"Dar, you're doing a fine job here. I was just trying to help, that's all. You know as much as pains in the asses those three can be, I wouldn't want to see them anywhere else, except here."

"Thanks, Steve. I mean it, but next time." Darry squeezed Steve's shoulder.

"Yes, next time I'll come to you first." Steve and Darry exchanged a smile and Steve turned to Sodapop on the couch. "See ya tomorrow, Sodapop."

"See ya, Steve. Thanks again." Steve waved good-bye to the two Curtis brothers and started to descend their front porch when he remembered what he had just said to Darry, "I'll come to you next time." Well that just might be sooner than he had hoped. Sara had until tomorrow night to share her problems with the boys, and he hardly expects that she was going to say anything especially with Mrs. Roberts visit. "What have I gotten myself into?" He said to the crisp, dark spring night.