A Rocky Road

Sodapop's relationship with Ponyboy has been on the rocks lately, ever since they lost two of their gang members. But when Ponyboy starts acting weird, it's up to Soda to try and figure out how he can fix it, even if it means being stuck under the socs' eyes.

Told from Sodapop's POV.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. They all belong to S.E. Hinton.

Chapter 1

24 hours before it all went wrong…

I slid out from under the car I was working on, not knowing my face was covered in motor oil. Taking off my gloves, I look at my bud, Steve, and he starts laughing at me.

"You have motor oil all over your face! I guess you are a greaser!" he said. I elbowed him.

"Shut up, Steve!" I said, wiping the oil off my face.

"Relax, Soda! It's closing time anyway," Steve says coolly.

"Yeah, but we gotta hurry. Darry wants us back home before Ponyboy does. He's gonna come home late, so he told us to heat the leftovers. You coming?" I ask him, already knowing the answer.

"I don't got anything better to do," he says.

"You need to flip off any more cars?" I ask.

"Meh, I'll do that on the way there. Did Darry make more 'healthy' food?" Steve asks as I wipe my face. "Probably," Steve makes a disgusted look.

"Ugh… Whatever, I'll come anyway," he says as he packs up the screwdrivers.

My name is Sodapop Curtis, and I am a greaser. Our gang members are Two-bit, Steve, Darry, Ponyboy, and me. That wasn't always how it was, though. We lost two of our members a few months ago, Johnny and Dally.

Things haven't been the same. None of us bring it up, though.

We still honor 'em and everything, but to be honest, I don't think any of us are willin' to break that silence. I'm tryin' to move on, but it's hard. It doesn't feel right without 'em, but we'll get through it. We always do.

When we got to the house, the lights were still off, meaning no one else was home yet. Weird.

"Where's Ponyboy?" I asked, looking around. Steve chuckled to himself.

"Ooh, he's gonna be in trouble~" he said. I rolled my eyes and looked around the house, but I didn't find a trace of him anywhere. Even more weird.

"He's not here. He is still at school, hopefully," I told Steve.

"Steve?" I asked. I walked into the kitchen and found him in our fridge, per usual.

"Oh my gosh, there's chocolate cake!" he gasped.

"Since Ponyboy's not here, that means more cake for me!" he exclaimed, pulling it out of the fridge.

"Didn't you have one this morning?" I said. Steve glared at me. "You can never have too much cake!" Steve said with his mouth full. I took out the actual food prepared for us and put it in the microwave. Then I flopped on the couch to watch TV and waited for Ponyboy to come home.

Around an hour later, Darry came home. "Hey, I'm back. Soda, did you heat up the-" he stopped.

"What's wrong?" Darry asked. I must've had a worried look on my face.

"Ponyboy isn't home yet and I'm gettin' worried!" I told him as I paced back and forth. Darry put his hand on my shoulder.

"Don't worry, I'm sure he's fine. If he doesn't show up in the next hour, we'll go look for him," Darry reassured me. I smiled.

"Thanks, Darry," I said. Then Two-Bit walked in.

"Hey, y'all! I figured I'd come here since I can't stop myself from drinking beer and I finished an entire pack," he said calmly. I started laughing.

"That's normal for you, at least!" Steve yelled from the kitchen.

"I think that's a new record for you," Darry said as he walked into the kitchen. I chuckled and sat back down.

"Where's Ponyboy?" Two-Bit asked, looking around. I sighed.

"That's a good question!" Darry yelled from the other room.

"We don't know, he should be back by now…" I said nervously.

"I'm sure he's fine! Maybe he got detention or somethin'. Maybe he's meetin' with a broad!" Two-bit added.

"He's WHAT?!" Darry shouted from the other room. I quickly put my hand over Two-bit's mouth. "Nothin', Darry! Two-Bit's just tryin' to guess where Ponyboy is!" I chuckled nervously. Two-bit shook his mouth away from my hand.

"You can't say that kind of stuff in front of Darry. He'll get hacked off, especially if it's about Pony!" I whispered semi-quietly. Two-Bit chuckled and I rolled my eyes. Typical.

Half an hour later, I was starting to get pretty anxious. I was on pins and needles and needed a cancer stick, but Darry didn't like us smoking near the furniture, so I went outside.

Exhaling slowly, I calmed down. I convinced myself that everything was fine and leaned back against the porch. Then Steve came out.

"Hey Soda," he said. I waved lazily and offered Steve a cancer stick. He took it and used his lighter to light it up.

"Worried about your kid brother?" he asked. I smiled.

"Yeah, but not just about him being late. In general. He's been kinda down lately ever since…" my voice trailed off, but I could tell I didn't need to finish that sentence for Steve to know what I was talkin' about.

"We all have been, Soda. I know it's not the same without 'em," Steve said. I stared off into space.

"I'm scared, Steve. I hate talkin' about it and I try to avoid the subject… But I know deep down I'll have to talk about it eventually…" I looked down at the ground, though I could feel Steve gazing at me.

"No one wants to talk about it, Soda. But the best way to do it is just to break the ice. Otherwise, it could end up causing you more trouble than you'd think…" he said. I nodded and kept looking down. Steve got up and went back inside, leaving me with my thoughts. Then Ponyboy walked in through the gate.

I stood up quickly and ran to him.

"Ponyboy, where were you, I was so worried-" I lost my voice when I saw that he was covered in scrapes and bruises. He wouldn't meet my eyes.

There were thousands of cuts on his arms and he had a black eye. He had a cut above his forehead that was bleeding all over.

"Pony, what…" my voice faded away.

"It's nothing, I'm fine," he said coolly and he walked right past me. I almost forgot about Darry until I heard his voice from inside the house. His voice was so loud, it almost shook the entire town of Tulsa.

"PONYBOY MICHAEL CURTIS! Where have you been?!" he shouted as he came rushing into the room. Ponyboy rolled his eyes as if to say "Here we go again."

"Do you have any idea how worried I-" his face went white. I noticed he had the same reaction I had. "What happened to you?" he asked. Ponyboy didn't answer, he kept his trap shut. Darry tried to get a look at his face.

"Ponyboy, tell me what happened, NOW." Ponyboy sighed.

"The socs jumped me at school…"

The air became dangerously quiet. I could tell that it was filled with tension. Fortunately, we know someone who can break it easily. Steve walked in the room with icing all over his mouth and he was chewing somethin'.

"Hey Pony, how was school…" his voice faded when he caught a glimpse of Pony's face.

"Whoa, what happened?" Steve said, chocolate cake falling out of his mouth.

"I got jumped by socs," Ponyboy said.

"You're bleeding, kid." Darry grabbed a napkin and started pressing it against his cut.

"Huh. No wonder I felt something on my head," Pony said calmly. Steve chuckled and Darry shook his head.

"This kid," Steve said jokingly.

"C'mon, let's get you cleaned up," Darry said as he led him to the bathroom.

15 minutes later, Ponyboy came back with a bandaid on his head and an ice pack for his eye. He sat down on the couch.

"You feeling better, Pony?" I asked him, sitting down next to him. He nodded. I put my arm around him and he slumped next to me.

"Did anything else happen at school?" I asked. Ponyboy suddenly looked troubled but I blinked and he was back to normal. I figured I was seeing things. He shook his head and leaned on my shoulder. A little bit later, Darry walked into the living room where we were.

"Hey, food's ready." I looked over at Ponyboy. "You hungry, Pony?" I asked but soon realized he was asleep. I smiled and left him lying on the couch.

After I finished eating, I got ready for bed. I brushed my teeth and walked into my and Pony's room. I saw Ponyboy sitting at his desk. Ever since our parents died, Ponyboy has always had night terrors, though they've only gotten worse as he's gotten older.

In order to help him, I decided to share a bed with him. Nothing weird, just to help slow down his nightmares. Though I'm not sure if he's been sleeping at all. Either way, it helps to know that I can be there for him.

I flopped onto the bed and looked towards Pony. He had bags under his eyes and a million thoughts were racing through my head on what I could do to help. Finally, I made my lips move.

"Hey, Ponyboy. I was wondering maybe if tomorrow you wanted to go to the lot during the night?" I asked him, hoping for a yes.

"Why at night?" he said, not looking at me.

"I don't know, I was just thinking maybe we could-"

"What, look at the stars?" Pony said coldly.

My eyes widened. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way. I'm just worried about you," I confessed.

"Well, I'm fine, so you don't need to worry…" he said as the tip of his pencil broke.

"No, you're not. You've been jumpy lately, and you're not acting like yourself. You've been ever since-"

Pony slammed his book shut. "Don't you DARE finish that sentence! I don't wanna hear it."

I flinched. Pony hasn't ever yelled at me before. I guess the look on my face showed because Ponyboy sighed. He got up from his desk and sat on the bed next to me.

"I'm sorry, Soda, I didn't mean to yell. I just… I didn't mean it, ya dig?"

His eyes became watery, so I pulled him into a hug. "I dig, don't worry. And I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have pushed it," I said, as he hugged me back.

"I didn't mean to make you upset, I just wanted to -"

"Shut your trap, Soda. You don't need to be sorry…" Pony said, as he lay down, curled up next to me.

I put my arm around him and stayed quiet for a bit. Then I remind myself to say something I should've said a while ago.

"It wasn't your fault, Pony," but he didn't hear me. He was fast asleep, and soon enough, I was too.