A Glimpse of Us • Sodapop Curtis

Ｃｈａｐｔｅｒ ｔｗｅｎｔｙ-ｓｉｘ

Tori

    I was gently kicking each pebble that I passed and was able to reach with my foot. We were all walking to the diner, it was the evening the sun barely setting. Good thing we were walking in the opposite direction from the sun, or I would have been blinded by now.

     Pony was probably throwing his head back now and then to marvel in it though.

      All the boys were hooting and hollering with each other, and it made me happy to see them happy, even among all the chaos, not just with Toni's mess but all the messes that we constantly went through and all the battles that they went through on their own.

     Of course, Darry didn't tag along, he usually didn't attend gatherings with us towards the night because he had to get up in the early hours for work.

      I was trailing behind them, still not too interested to socialize with them, Soda kept looking back at me from time to time and I would shoot him a smile letting him know that I was okay.

      Toni wasn't too involved in the group either, he was slowly walking diagonally from me, he was closer to me than the rest of the gang, but he didn't say a word to me or even look in my direction, but I could tell that there was something on his mind by the look on his face.

     I wanted to talk to him, to ask him why he was completely shutting my existence out, but I was still too hurt with him to even utter a word, besides I was never the one to break the ice first after a fight.

      My mind ran blank, probably too tired to keep running back and forth on thoughts that were just running my anxiety into overdrive. I continued kicking my rocks, watching them as they tumbled, hoping they would stay in my general path so I didn't have to find a new pebble to toss around. It wasn't hard to find a new one though, most of them being chunks of the road breaking off.

     I guess I wasn't paying attention because before I knew it I was going to follow my stone and all of a sudden I heard a loud honk.

      I'm pretty sure the car would have just went around me but I felt a hand grab my wrist and pull me harshly towards them.

      Kind of dramatic, I'm certain I wouldn't have gotten ran over.

      "I ignore you, and you start jumping in front of cars." Toni said, flicking me in the head, "Why don't you pay attention where you're going?"

      I rubbed my head in annoyance, flicking Toni back in the head, not saying anything.

      I glanced to the rest of the group who stopped ahead of where we were standing, watching us. The loud noise that emitted from the car probably got their attention and I could bet they were just making sure we were okay.

     "Go on without us, we'll be right there." Toni said. They weren't too far where he had to yell thankfully, I didn't want my ears ringing from his loud voice.

      They all nodded, smoothly going back to joking and laughing with each other, continuing their way to the diner.

      I raised my eyebrows at Toni who was slowly forming a grin on his face, "You look terrible."

      I rolled my eyes at his comment, mostly because that's all anyone was telling me today and it was getting old.

      "So, you're finally talking to me?" I asked.

     Toni lightly shook his head at me, "I don't want to fight with you."

      "It seems like you're the one mad at me, Toni." I said matter of factly.