THE GANG ALL HUNG OUT IN THE LIVING ROOM LIKE THE OLD DAYS, they were all disappointed that the party had turned out to be a huge failure as balloons were popped everywhere and ponyboy's cake was ruined—it was the shape of a foot.
they saved it for later but saw no point in presenting it, steve and two-bit had already snuck in a few bites while everyone was arguing.
the doorbell rings in a echoed but screechy sound. sodapop gets up from the couch to go open the door while everyone sat on their asses just talking or playing the biard games johnny found in the closet.
when sodapop opened the door, his heart was filled with warmth. lacy was standing there.
he eyed her outfit down—a white long sleeve and a black and orange short plaid skirt.
"i'm here for the party." lacy reminds him as she waves a gift bag in her hand.
"oh, right." sodapop says, "come on in."
lacy enters the room, she was met with numerous greetings from everyone. she went over to ponyboy to hand him his gift.
"oh lace, you didn't have to." he scoffs.
"come on, johnny told me how important this was to you." lacy smirks as johnny who looks away.
ponyboy searches through the bag to pull out a framed autograph from paul newman.
"how did you- where did you- what?!" ponyboy stutters as he pulls away.
"you know, my dad knows his manager and i asked him if he could pull a few strings for me." lacy shrugs.
"i'll be right back, i gotta put this in a safe place." ponyboy exaggerated the last part while looking at two-bit who was confused.
darry pats lacy's shoulder, "thank you for making him smile, he's been so stressed out about living with our uncle jug that he forgot what being happy felt like."
"it's no problem, i cried during my first week at college because of my roommate bringing back random guys to our dorms." lacy says.
everyone stared at her weirdly, lacy read the room and walked away from them. lacy went into the fridge to find something to drink, she ended up getting a coca-cola, the last one.
she sets it down on the counter and cracks it open. as she turns around, she was startled by sodapop who was about to sneak up from behind but failed to.
"jesus, you scared me." she laughs.
"sorry," sodapop says, "i just missed you."
"soda, i saw you yesterday." lacy reminds him.
"i know but i've felt so lonely." sodapop shrugs, "maybe we can ditch this party and go to your place and-"
"no, i've been thinking about it and wesley's right, all i am doing is just doing you." lacy shook her head.
sodapop stepped closer to her, "and i'm okay with it."
"no soda, i just- what are we doing?"
sodapop paused to think, she was right.
what are we doing?
lacynods and walks away from sodapop who just followed her into the living room. they sat next to each other on the couch while everyone else sits on the floor. after what lacy said, sodapop couldn't stop asking himself the same question lacy asked him.
what he didn't notice when his eyes started to unfocus, was that everyone was calling his name.
"soda!" dallas shouts, slapping the back of his head.
"i'm sorry." sodapop says.
"anyway," meghan starts, "we were voting whether or not we go see a movie or go have dinner at the dingo and you happened to be in for the tiebreaker."
sodapop started stuttering, "oh um... dingo."
half of the room groans, including lacy. sodapop looks at her once more who is resting against the couch, her complaints soon turn into laughter after two-bit and steve crack some jokes about ponyboy.
although the room was all sunshine, sodapop still contemplated that one question.
𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒓𝒖𝒅𝒈𝒆.
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