Pony
After the game we all headed back to the apartment, I noticed immediately that Soda is nowhere to be found, which suits me just fine. "I'm going to order pizza." Liz says, "You all just relax." As soon as I take a seat Two-Bit starts grinning at me,
"What?" I ask, he raises an eyebrow at me,
"She's hot." He says, "How'd you manage that?" He grins crazily at me, "You should invite her over." Steve groans,
"Two has the hots for your girlfriend Pony you'd better watch out." He jokes as Two-Bit elbows him in the ribs. Payton is just his type, blonde and hot.
"No kid really how?" Two-Bit asks, "I may need some pointers to get a girl like that."
"Leave him alone." Liz calls from the kitchen, before coming out ruffling my hair, "Two-Bit does have a point though, why don't you invite Payton to come over?" I look at her,
"You sure Darry is going to be ok with that?" He had excused himself and gone into the bedroom almost as soon as we got back to the apartment, and a part of me feels that I have something to do with it.
"Go check, but I don't think it'll be an issue." Liz tells me, I stand up knocking on their bedroom door,
"It's open." Darry calls, I open the door and step in shutting it behind me, "Hey Pony what's up?" He says,
"Liz wanted me to check with you to see if it's cool if I invite Payton over." I say trying to read the expression on his face,
"Can we talk first, just the two of us?" He asks patting the spot on the bed next to him, I nod sitting down. "I owe you an apology, I took what Soda told me and ran with it, without ever giving you the benefit of the doubt." He rubs his chin for a second, "That was wrong of me, I see that now. But Pony you have to understand everything I do is well it's to protect you." I look at him, "You scared the shit out of me, well all of us with all that shit in Tulsa. You sneaking out, not knowing where you were, the fighting, it was like we lost you." He pauses, "And when you met Payton it was like we were getting glimpses of the old Pony, and I hate to admit it but that scared me too." I go to say something, but he cuts me off, "Just let me say this, I was scared that you were going to get hurt that it wouldn't work out between you two and you'd head right back down that spiral that you were in. So, when Soda and Kate came to me, I don't know I guess I saw it as a way out of the situation, if I said you couldn't date her than I wouldn't have to worry about you getting hurt." He reaches over messing up my hair, "I'm sorry buddy. I really am, I should have trusted you more, and I should have tried to get to know Payton."
"She's really pretty amazing." I tell him, "You'd like her." He nods,
"I'm sure I will, so yes it's cool if you invite her over." He pauses and grins, "You may want to warn her about Two-Bit though." He stands up giving me a hug, "We good?" I nod,
"We're good" I reply, going back into the living room, I shoot Pay a text who answers saying she'll be over in about twenty minutes. "I'll get it." I say when the door buzzes almost exactly twenty minutes later,
"I bet you will." Two-Bit calls, I hear Liz shushing him reminding him to be a gentleman. I shake my head pulling the door open,
"I have to say I was surprised to get your text." Payton greets, "I wasn't sure how things were after what you said at the game." She steps in and I close the door behind her,
"Things are good." I tell her, she threads her fingers with mine and we walk into the living room.
The Next Day
I should have known this was going to turn into a disaster, Two-Bit had insisted he wanted to go skating before my lesson, apparently, I make it look too easy, I tried to tell him that it took me weeks to really be able to skate and trust me when I say those weeks, I dealt with more than a few injuries. "We probably should have given him a helmet." Liz remarks as he crashed up against the sideboard.
"I thought you said this was like walking." Two-Bit groans trying to pull himself up, he gets about halfway up and then trips over his own feet falling back on the ice. I finish tying my own laces and step on the ice backwards, "How can you do this backwards, I can't even go forward." He asks, trying to get some sort of friction to get up, I reach out hauling him up,
"I warned you." I tell him,
"It's ice you idiot." Steve tells him from the side of the rink, "What the hell did you think was going to happen?"
"You couldn't have picked a sport that didn't involve ice kid?" Two-Bit asks as I half drag half carry him over to the opening in the wall, he manages to get off the ice and drops into the seat next to Liz.
"You sure you're ok with all of us watching your lesson?" Liz asks, I shrug,
"I'm not sure how entertaining it'll be but you guys can hang out if you want." Liz nods, "And you're still coming with us after to show Two-Bit the city?" I nod,
"Yeah." She smiles at me, we look up as Scott my instructor comes down the steps,
"Full house today." He greets, "Love it." Scott is an all-around good guy, I got pretty lucky when I got him as an instructor, I've heard things about Kenny the other hockey trainer that the gym uses.
"It's ok, if we're here, right?" Liz questions, Scott nods,
"Absolutely." He pauses, "Actually it's the perfect day to have company." He looks at me and grins, "Today is all about distractions."
"You want us to throw stuff at him?" Two-Bit asks with a grin, Scott smirks,
"Maybe I'll keep that in mind." He tells him, and then looks at me, "You're good if I bring in some extra people?" I nod,
"Yeah sure."
"You guys can come in." He calls, I look up as Payton and Robbie push open the door and come in, "I heard that you and Payton here are officially, official." I look at him not sure where this is going, "So who better to distract, and Robbie is here to play goalie because quite honestly I'm tired of going home with bruises after playing goalie against you."
"Really?" Robbie asks making quick work of his own skates, before stepping on the ice. "I thought you wanted me here because I'm freaking awesome." Robbie says with a smirk, "If you hit me in the face with a puck, I'm going to kill you. Just a warning." He tells me with a wink.
"I was going to let Payton get on the ice with you two, but I don't want to embarrass either one of you when she's better than you guys." Scott tells me, I look at her she's standing up leaning over the wall, Scott wasn't wrong thinking she'd be a distraction. She's got her hair pulled up into a ponytail, in a pair of jeans that fit her like a glove, with a black Bruins hoodie and a pair of dark gray Converse. I lean in closer to her,
"You skate too?" I say quietly, "Could you be anymore perfect?" I ask, Payton looks up at him with those killer dark blue eyes, and I can't help myself leaning down covering her lips with my own, I swear to God she sighs as our lips meet, and she reaches out grasping my sweatshirt.
"Damn." I hear Two-Bit say, and grudgingly I pull away slightly,
"I love you." I murmur against her lips kissing her again,
"I love you too." She mumbles in reply before I break the kiss. I smile to myself when I realize Pay has a dazed look on her face.
"You two done?" Scott asks, Payton grabs the front of my sweatshirt pulling me down for another kiss,
"Yup we're good." She tells him, as she takes the seat between Steve and Liz. I shake my head trying to clear the fog she gives me.
"Distraction." Scott says smacking me on the back, handing me my hockey stick.
Two Months Later
Pony
"Any idea what this is about?" Soda questions as he takes the seat on the other side of me, I shrug,
"Liz was vague at best." I reply, I glance at Two-Bit and Steve who both shrug as well. Two-Bit had taken quite a liking to Boston after he visited and decided that there really wasn't anything for him in Tulsa. His mom had moved recently to Texas with her boyfriend and his younger sister was starting her freshman year at the University of Texas, so Two-Bit just never went back. Only something Two-Bit would do, he moved in with Steve and I, and yes, I still live with Steve. Even though Darry and I had gotten over the reason I moved out in the first place, it became pretty clear that living at Steve's was just easier. He's closer to both my school, and the gym, literally within walking distance of both so on the off chance he couldn't take me, or Darry and Liz couldn't, it was an easy walk. Darry had agreed to it as long as my grades stayed up, and I wasn't getting into trouble, there are a lot of ways that Steve is even stricter than Darry. He is on me constantly about what I eat, how much I eat and how I need to put on muscle weight and going to the gym, and he's spent more than a few nights studying game tapes to figure out what I need to work on. On the other hand Steve is incredibly chill with Payton being at the apartment, and doesn't give a shit whether or not she spends the night, there is no way Darry would ever go for that. Kate had dumped Soda maybe forty-eight hours if that after Payton and I became official and she realized that she couldn't screw anything up, and within two or three days after she had hooked up with Payton's ex-boyfriend Carter, I'm sure in some desperate attempt to piss Payton off. I've had the displeasure of dealing with Carter a few times, we had a bit of a run in at a party and he and Kate deserve each other. Soda never one to be down for too long had almost immediately started dating a girl Lindsay who he worked with, and within a month maybe a month and a half they were living together. Once Kate was out of the picture Soda and I had a sit-down talk and were able to work out and get over all the shit that Kate caused.
"Oh, good you're all here." Liz says coming into the living room with Darry behind her. She takes a seat and looks at all of us, "So we have some news."
"You won the lottery and we're all moving to Hawaii." Two-Bit suggests, "I'll have to learn to surf, Pony you ever surfed before?" I shake my head, but I can't help laughing sometimes Two-Bit comes out with some random shit.
"Close but no." Liz replies with a smile, "Darry and I decided that it's time to get married." Soda looks at them,
"Wait did you get engaged? Did we miss something?" he asks, Darry shakes his head,
"Not exactly, we were talking about it, and it just seems like a good time." Darry tells us.
"I hope it was more romantic then just hey let's get married." Soda comments standing up to give Liz a hug, I can't help but laugh at that, Darry and romance go together like Two-Bit and seriousness. Liz thinks for a second,
"Actually, that's really on point for how the conversation went." She replies, I stand up giving her a hug with Steve following suit. "I'll leave the romance for when you propose to Payton." She tells me with a grin, I swear to God I feel my face get hot.
"Just wait till you're out of college buddy." Darry says messing up my hair. "You guys hungry, you feel like ordering in?" All four of us say yes in unison Darry cracks a smile and picks up his phone as we all start to argue about what we want to eat.