One of Darry's favorite memories was from when he was ten.
It had been nearing halloween, and there were arts and crafts halloween decorations decorating the walls of the house. Darry was ten, Ponyboy was only four, and Sodapop was nearly seven. Their parents had been planning something all week, and it had Darry and Sodapop excited just wondering what it was, and Ponyboy was excited because his brother's were.
"When can we know?" Sodapop asked, bouncing on his knees as he stared wide eyed up at their mother, who was sitting on the couch with Ponyboy in her lap. Sodapop was on the floor, too energetic to sit on the couch since Ponyboy was curled up and napping in their mother's arms. Darry was also sitting on the floor, his homework on the table out in front of him nearly finished. He'd been taking a break at the time.
"You'll know soon, okay?" Their mother had laughed, shifting her hold on Ponyboy as he made a noise in his sleep. Sodapop humphed, turning and sitting normally, his legs spread out in front of him before he was turning towards where their father was sitting in his chair.
"Dad-"
"You heard your mother," Their dad laughed, and Sodapop pouted, crossing his arms for a moment before moving. He moved towards Darry, leaning against him as he tried to understand whatever homework had been in front of him. Darry didn't remember what it was now, but he thought it had been math, or maybe science. It could have been anything, though.
Darry remembered that Sodapop had made a noise of discontent, moving and pushing Darry's homework away, trying to convey that he thought, or had decided that, Darry should have been done with it now.
"Come on, Soda, I gotta finish that," Darry had complained, but he didn't try reach for it either. Sodapop moved to half lay across his lap, his back across Darry's legs as he gave Darry a look. Both of them, and their parents, knew that Darry wasn't even really trying.
"It's Friday! You can do it tomorrow," Sodapop told him, nodding as he crossed his arms. "Or even better, do it on Sunday!" Sodapop added, kicking his feet into the air and stretching a bit like Darry had seen some cats do, moving his arms to keep his head off of the floor.
"Speaking of it being Friday," Their mother cut in, laughing lightly as Ponyboy's eyes opened with a glare on his face; he was annoyed he was woken up. "Where is Steve? Usually he's here by now." Darry could remember that Steve would usually be at their house from the time school let out until his mom came to pick him up, preferring the Curtis family company to his father's. Even his mom being there most days didn't help.
"Dunno, said he had something to do." Sodapop shrugged, not yet concerned about his friend.
Darry knew that in just two years, Sodapop would begin to have anxiety over not knowing their friend's whereabouts. It would worry him so much that he would beg for sleepovers, just so that he didn't have nightmares about whatever his mind could cook up.
Ponyboy wouldn't understand it, and he would be annoyed by Steve's constant presence. He'd leave one day, mad that Steve was over again, and Darry would chase him down, because Darry was always chasing after his kid brothers, and they would meet Johnny.
"I hope he's here soon, or we can't do our planned activity." Their mother had smiled mischievously, even as she absentmindedly soothed Ponyboy. Sodapop gasped, eyes wide as he shot up into a sitting position.
"Can we go get him?" Sodapop asked, pushing himself back to his knees as he put his hands on the couch. Even Darry had found himself wanting to go find Sodapop's best friend so that they could do this 'planned activity'.
"I'll go with him," Darry offered before their mom could refuse Sodapop his request. "We can go get Steve and come back, we'll be really fast!" Darry added, eyes darting towards their father hopefully. Both Curtis parents were thoughtful.
"I suppose," Their dad spoke, smiling as both Darry and Sodapop brightened up. Ponyboy had started getting fussy, and was beginning to cry and kick his feet like he did when he had headaches. "There wouldn't be any harm in them going to get Steve. Darry can handle his brother on a walk, Sharon."
"Oh, alright. Go, but be fast." Their mother smiled, brushing Pony's hair back as he looked up at her with tears streaming down his face. "Oh, let's get you some headache medicine, yeah?" Darry didn't know what she did after that. He and Sodapop had just been excited to be able to go on this walk by themselves.
"I'll put my homework away when we get back!" Darry called out to their father, his shoes half tied as he grabbed his and Sodapop's jackets. Sodapop was already out the door and waiting at the metal gate, jumping up and down. He would get cold half way through the walk, and Darry knew that.
"Alright!" Darry had barely heard their father's response.
Getting back with Steve, who was a little downtrodden, brought a smile to the eight year old's face. Darry had seen the switch, and had, unfortunately, recognized it. Paul sometimes looked like that when he and Darry hung out at Darry's house. People just seemed more relaxed here. That, and some of the decorations that he'd left at the Curtis house had been put up alongside Darry's, Sodapop's, and Pony's.
They'd made caramel apples, which Sodapop called poison apples, and candied apple slices that night, and Steve got to stay over for the entire weekend, which had just made Sodapop's weekend. Though, Darry was sure who had a better weekend, Steve or Sodapop. Both acted like it was the best thing to happen to either of them, and Darry remembered Sodapop's reaction to hearing that they'd have a baby brother, even if he had barely been two at the time.
Darry never did learn why Sodapop called caramel apples 'poisoned apples', maybe because it was halloween and he'd been reading fairy tales at school in his reading class. There was one in which Darry vaguely remembered having poisoned apples in it. Sodapop always did associate things with new things he learned. It helped him remember everything better.
Darry wiped a tear away as he listened to the gang talking excitedly in the living room. First Halloween without their parents, so of course it had him reminiscing. He wondered how bad Thanksgiving and Christmas was going to be, if he was this choked up about Halloween.
He was leaning back just beside the door to his room, a couple pictures scattered out in front of him. He had never known just how Sodapop and Steve had ended up with caramel on their noses, it should have burned them with how hot the caramel sugar was, he had figured that out when he had wanted to try it.
He still had a bit of a scar on his top lip, just under his nose from where it had gone up when Darry had also bitten the spoon in his surprise of how hot it was. Had not been a fun experience, and probably why that memory was so vivid to Darry. He remembered that Ponyboy had laughed loudly around then.
Ponyboy had managed to get his hands on some of the softening caramel when their dad wasn't looking, and his entire hand was covered in it. Thankfully it had been cooled off and just mushy, so maybe that was how Sodapop and Steve had caramel on their noses. Their dad was funny like that and probably had done it.
"Darry?" Darry glanced up as the door was opened, Sodapop was at the door. He looked confused for a second before looking down and blinking in surprise. He shrugged it off, moving into the room and shutting the door behind him. "What are you doing in here? Gang's all out there."
"Just… needed a minute." Darry shrugged. There was no point in trying to lie to his kid brother, Sodapop would just see right through him. Glory knows that Sodapop had to notice lies, for all the time he spends around Ponyboy.
Darry felt a little guilty at that thought. Sodapop did so much to take some of the burden that was thrust upon Darry when their parents died, not that Darry thought his brothers were burden's. Sodapop had taken it upon himself to take care of Ponyboy when Darry couldn't, especially emotionally, because Darry honestly sucked at that.
But he was working on it, and so was Ponyboy. It was a learning curve, especially with Ponyboy going through puberty, Sodapop learning out to lean on his brothers when he needed them, and Darry always working, though he worked less in the colder months.
There was a balance that they had been learning and adjusting to.
"I don't rememb-Oh! That's the year we first did caramel apples, right?" Sodapop was looking at the pictures, a light in his eyes as he reached and picked up one in specific. "Glory, I was young. Six?"
"Seven." Darry corrected automatically before stopping. "Nearly Seven." Sodapop chuckled, flipping the picture over. His smile dimmed, but was no less genuine as tears filled his eyes. Darry didn't need to ask to know what he was looking at; their mother's handwriting, claiming that her 'four boys' had tried caramel apples for the first time. It had been the first time their parents could afford it, but they tried for it every year.
Sodapop set that one down, picking up another. This one had five of them in it, and they were all a little older. Darry, Steve, and Sodapop were sitting in the back of a pickup truck with the hatch down, and in front of them were Ponyboy and Johnny, sitting on some hay bales. All five of them had popcorn balls in a little wrapped paper dish and smiles on their faces.
"I-, how old were we in this one?" Sodapop asked, tilting his head.
"Steve was eleven, you were nearly eleven, Pony was eight, and Johnny was ten." Darry had been fourteen. He'd just entered highschool, and had his sights on joining the football team once the season started.
That was the year that Darry had started falling in with the wrong crowds.
Sodapop didn't say anything. He was running his finger across the image, like he could uncover something if only he tried. He wouldn't. Darry knew, because he had tried too. Sodapop set that picture down before picking up a third one. This one had the entire gang in it; it was Dally's first Halloween with the Gang. He was… fourteen? Maybe fifteen in that picture.
They'd been carving pumpkins, and Ponyboy had gotten this great idea to dump the pumpkin guts onto Johnny's head. Their pumpkin that they'd been carving had been momentarily forgotten as Johnny tried to get revenge. Ponyboy's clothes had suffered for it, and Johnny smelled like pumpkin for days after. Dally was staring at the two of them incredulously, not noticing Two-Bit behind him with a pile hanging over his head to dump onto him.
Sodapop and Steve were in the background, laughing their asses off, the both of them were also covered in pumpkin guts; Steve with it all over his clothes and Sodapop had it covering his arms and hair. You could see them only because of the angle of the camera, showing Sodapop and Steve through the space in between Two-Bit's arms.
Darry had been sitting off behind Ponyboy and Johnny, and had been looking at them startled. There was a pile of pumpkin seeds sitting in front of him. He liked sorting out the seeds, because he liked to bake them and eat them. He never did manage to get their mom to try them, though their dad loved them. Sodapop did too.
"I-" Sodapop stopped as he smiled, wiping the tears that were forming in his eyes. "This was my favorite year, I think." Darry smiled at him softly as he nodded. It wasn't his own favorite year, but it was close. "I'm going to go rejoin the gang. You coming?" Sodapop let the picture fall from his hands, his voice sounding thick with tears. Darry understood.
"I'm right behind you." Darry nodded. Sodapop nodded sharply, pushing himself and leaving the room. Darry had to put the pictures away, carefully stacking them back together and putting them in the shoe box sitting beside Darry of all the holidays their family had ever done together and gotten pictures of.
He hesitated on that last picture that Sodapop held, holding in his hands as he stared at it. Darry knew that their parents had extras of all the pictures; had seen them himself when he dug through the attic. Maybe…
Darry pushed himself up, walking across the room to set the shoe box on his desk, closed. He set the picture on top of it before turning and walking out of the room. He had a couple pictures to go find before he could join the gang…
Ponyboy laughing hard at something Johnny said had him stopping. He turned and talked towards the living room instead. He could find the pictures tomorrow. They could make their own, even, with more memories to add.