After a while I decided there was no point in sitting in my room by myself. I gathered myself and went to the living room. As soon as I left the darkness of the dim hallway all the eyes in the room were on me. I could feel my face getting red so I tried to ignore them and sit down. Watching tv, the eyes were still on me.
"What are you all looking at?" I asked them, starting to get aggravated. Dally stopped paying attention as soon as a word left my mouth, so there was one less pair of eyes on me.
"Why are your eyes puffy?" Two-bit asked. All the stares shifted to him, I couldn't tell if he was being serious or not. I decided to just shake it off as it wasn't worth fighting him over. No one even tried to explain to him, but he didn't mind to much because he was all ready involved in the tv.
The next hour was spent in silence with the faint noise of the tv or a news paper rustle. By now it was well past 1 pm. I decided to make myself a sandwich. Walking to the kitchen, I saw out of the corner of my eye Johnny getting up to follow me.
"Are you ok now?" Johnny asked as soon as the kitchen door closed.
"I think I'll be ok" I answered. I guess Johnny was content with my answer because he just sat down at the table and didn't say anything else.
By the time I finished making and eating my sandwich, it was past 2. Before I got the chance to leave the kitchen, I heard the front door open.
"Hey Soda, Hey Steve." I heard Ponyboy say from the other room. My stomach began to turn, nervous to see Steve. I finally built up the courage to go back in the living room. Avoiding making eye contact, I came in and quickly walked to any seat I could find.
"Hey y/n." Soda said, seeming happy after his date.
"Hi." I replied quietly. I ended up on the couch looking straight down at the ground.
"Y/n are you ok?" Soda asked curiously. I couldn't blame him for asking, but honestly did he need to do it now. I looked up at him.
"I'm fine Soda." My eyes trailed to Steve who was looking at two-bit with a smile on his face, laughing at one of his jokes. His eyes soon found their way to mine, his smile faltering a little when he saw my face. His smile died down more when he realized the puffiness around my eyes. Steve was no Two-bit when it came to girls crying, so I assumed he knew what was going on. I turned away from them all to pay attention to the tv.
"Has she been crying?" I hear Soda ask Johnny behind me.
"Yea." He replied shortly.
"Why?" Steve asked, just as curious. I scoffed slightly, rolling my eyes. I think Dally caught on to that.
"Because she has been Steve." Johnny replied, slight annoyance in his voice.
"Johnny you can tell us why, she's my friend too." Steve answered, wanting to know what was wrong.
"Oh yeah you guys are Reaaaal close." At this point everyone was watching the conversation between the two. When Johnny said those words Darry, Dally's, and Soda's head all turned towards me. I simply kept my eyes on the tv.
At this point Steve stopped asking questions. Nobody was quite sure what to do. Finally after what felt like forever Darry spoke up.
"Y/n can I speak to you for a second?" Darry asked, standing up. I didn't bother to question it as I knew what was coming. I followed him to his bedroom, shutting the door behind me.
"Y/n I want you to tell me the truth about what I'm about to ask you." I nodded. "Are you sleeping with Steve?"
I cringed, not wanting to admit it. Especially not to my older brother. I sighed, "yes."
Darry nodded and closed his eyes. "Do you use pr-"
"Darry I'm not answering that, you know the answer" I was so embarrassed to be telling my older brother anything about my sex life that I could feel my face turning beet red. I flopped down on the bed and covered my face with a pillow.
"Who else knows?" I feel like Darry was a little bit to prepared for this conversation.
"Steve," I paused, looking to see Darry's reaction. He stared down at me without saying a word. I chuckled. "And Johnny, that's it."
"Ok, is that why you were so upse-" I cut him off.
"Dally knows too, I just never specifically told him." Darry nodded continuing his sentence.
"Is this why you were so upset about Steve going out with Evie?"
What a dumb question to ask. Reluctantly I hummed in response, letting him know it was. After standing in silence for what seemed like forever, he opened the door. I followed him back out to the living room. Getting deja vu from this morning, I was met with all eyes on me. I sat down next to two-bit on the ground while Darry asked to see Steve.
Now it was Steve's turn to have all the eyes on his back, while following Darry to his bedroom. As soon as the door was shut the questions started to come in.
"Are you ok?" "What did he say?" "do you know what he's gonna say to Steve?" "What's going on?" The last question came from Soda who was still hopelessly confused. I didn't have time to answer the questions before the bedroom door opened. His talk was much shorter than mine was. However, Steve didn't walk to a seat. Instead he walked straight to me and stood in front of my feet.
"I need to talk to you" he said, staring down at me. I could feel myself getting anxious. Everyone was watching as he took my hand, helped me up, and led me outside onto the porch. Everyone inside scurried to the window so they could see what was going to happen.
When we got outside we just stared at eachother. I rolled my eyes, getting impatient.
"Ok you drag me out here saying we need to talk and you just sta-"
"I broke up with Evie." He said. "A long time a go actually, way before we started seeing each other. I only went out with her today because Soda wanted to double date and he seemed so happy and I didn't want to let him down. I didn't realize that it would hurt you so much and I can see that you were crying. I'm so so sorry. I promise I'm not using you, and I've liked you since we were kids, honestly. Evie kept me busy, but you were always in the back of my mind."
I stared at him not sure what to do or say.
"So?" Steve asked nervously. My mind went blank. And then I kissed him. It wasn't a romantic kiss, or a peck on the lips. It was more like a "oh thank god I'm so relieved please don't be lying" kind of kiss. Steve kissed back, smiling into it.
When returning inside everyone was smiling, except soda and two-bit. Their mouths were wide open, until Soda started to tear up.
"My best friend and my sister." Soda was too happy to say much more, but we got the point. My eyes met Dally's.
"I found out first."
