✰𝐀𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝✰- 𝐃𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐬 𝐖𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐧

✰𝟐𝟑. 𝐆𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐫

✰𝐉𝐮𝐧𝐞

✰𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐢'𝐬 𝐏𝐨𝐯:✰

Me and Soda sat in silence for a few minutes until I shut off the tv and suggested that we leave and get back to Dally and the rest of his gang at the hospital. I knew we would've gotten a call but I was still worried that Dally had somehow gotten worse since we left. He awkwardly nodded and I grabbed Dally's plate, hoping that it was still good as I had lost track of time talking with Soda. Soda walked out first and I locked the door behind the both of us. I cringed as the porch creaked and feared that maybe Soda would fall straight through the rotten wood.

After shaking the door knob to make sure it was locked we started our walk back to the hospital. It still felt odd locking the door since my dad didn't like it locked, but it was my house now technically. It sounds like a big accomplishment to have your own house at sixteen years old, but I didn't like the house and had no desire to flaunt it. It was like what the least favorite child got in the will when the mother felt guilty about giving them nothing at all. I had a deep desire to move out of that trash hole and start over to the best of my abilities, bringing Dally with me if things went in my favor. Truly, I wanted out of Tulsa.

I was walking faster than I typically would, I was eager to see Dally again and didn't want his food to spoil or taste worse than it would in its prime, but I also was ready to get away from the awkward silence that was me and Soda. Soda seemed different and it was clearly an awkward and tense change.

Something had changed within him. I brushed it off as something to do with Sandy just because it was the first thing that came into my head and I didn't want to consider other possibilities, my current headspace was a straight road to Dally and I wouldn't and couldn't do any wrong turns. Sandy and I spoke sometimes before she left for Florida and I assumed that maybe I reminded him of her and he was angry that we were once acquaintances, but why would he want to be around a reminder of his ex who cheated on him and then ran away? I just couldn't get it, my simple mind couldn't wrap around the complexities.

I wished that I could read he and Dally's mind, I couldn't tell what they were thinking ever. Dally was too concealed to read his thoughts at any time and Soda seemed to cover up his emotions so that they were undetectable. After spending so much time with Dally though I could read him better than most, I could see something else in those dark brown eyes rather than criminal tendencies and coldness, but I couldn't do the same with Soda. We weren't close and we were too awkward for me to try and understand him.

Soda was practically jogging to keep up with me and my unusually fast pace. "You trying to practice your model walk or something?" He laughed. I continued my strut. "Maybe I am." I said, imagining myself on a runway until I imagined everyone laughing at me instead. My walk became much more slouched and average as I envisioned the laughs a little too vividly. My confidence had been torn down just as quick as it was built up. I hoped that Soda didn't notice and ask what was wrong.

My change in pace allowed Soda to catch up with me and we were now going the same pace, our steps almost in sync. "You know, you could be a model. You're as pretty as a model. You'd make a great one." Soda said and I unintentionally slowed down even more. I wasn't sure that I had heard him right, but when he just kept staring at me, I knew that I did.

"Thank you." I said with a half forced smile. It wasn't that I didn't appreciate the compliment, it was just that it caught me off guard, but maybe I was overthinking it. I was being self centered and having narcissistic thoughts to think that Soda might like me from one compliment. It didn't mean anything surely, just a friend trying to bring up my clearly stomped on confidence. Surely he was just trying to continue the small talk to cut the awkward silence that we couldn't seem to drift away from, we returned to it again even.