Stepping Stones to my Heart (Sodapop Curtis Love Story)

Chapter 8: Surprise!

A whole day went by and I haven’t heard or seen Sodapop.  While I was daydreaming in math class, the thought of Soda came across my mind.  How is he doing?  Did Sandy answer him? I felt a rage of jealousy fill my body.  I wanted him all to myself and I didn’t care if I was just his friend or not.  Feeling anxious, I looked over at the clock and the bell rang.  I debated whether or not I should stop by the DX, but decided against it.

8 am rolled around and I had to take the 9 o’clock shift, so I made my way towards the shower feeling accomplished from the night before.  As I felt the warm rush of water splash across my face, I rinsed my long, brown hair that was streaked with a golden color from the sun.  I was starting to wonder if Soda was mad at me from last night, but it couldn’t have been that because he was in pain.  First, he lost Sandy, the love of his life, then Ponyboy.  I was wondering how much more he could take before he blows.  Normally, Sodapop is calm and drunken off living, but after being put in the middle of many arguments between his brothers and stress from failing school before he dropped out, it starts to become very overwhelming.  I open up to him all the time about school, work, my parents, but he would never showed any sign of a problem in his life.  Until the Sandy situation started, he didn’t have one care in the world.  I miss his happy self; he hasn’t slept in a week.

BRRRRIINNG

I turned off the water to jump out of the shower, barely covering my body with a towel, to hear Sodapop’s voice over the phone.

“Ponyboy’s back.  Him, Johnny, and Dally were in a fire.  Pony’s here at the house and Johnny and Dal are stuck at the hospital.” He said, his voice bouncing with the energy it used to have. 

“I’ll be over soon.” I hung up the phone.  I was glad to hear that he wasn’t ignoring me. 

I threw on some jeans and my Dingo shirt and headed out the door.  I was a street away from the Curtis house when I met up with Two-Bit and Steve heading the same way.  They told me about how Ponyboy, Johnny, and Dally saved some kids from a burning church and showed me the paper ‘Delinquents Turned Heroes’ it read. We got to the house only to find Tim Shepard leaving while giving us a nod on his way out. 

“Anyone home!” Steve shouted.

“In here,” Ponyboy shouted back, “Don’t slam the door.”  Man, was it good to hear his voice again.

Two-Bit pointed in two directions and we snuck around to snake up Ponyboy who was frying eggs for breakfast. 

“PONYBOY CURTIS!” Two-Bit shrieked swinging Pony around throwing his eggs everywhere.

“Look at Goldilocks.” I said pointing to his hair just for him to swat my finger away.

“Saw you in the paper.  I liked the turned hero bit.”  Steve said.

“Dally would be mad they didn’t include his police records.” Two-Bit spit out as he took a sip of beer and grabbed the chocolate cake from the icebox. 

“They saying that they might put me in a boys home and how Johnny’s being charged of manslaughter if he recovers.  What do they mean if he recovers?”  Ponyboy said dropping the paper on the table.

“Shoot Pony, quit thinking that its ever gonna happen.  You know half the junk they put in the papers a bunch of crap.” I said taking a bite of cake.

“Where Superman?” Steve asked. 

“Super what?” Darry asked picking up Steve.

“All brawn no brains.” Steve replied smearing cake all over his face.

“Hey Darry have you seen my DX shirt?” Soda asked walking out of the bathroom.  He was only wearing a towel around his waist, the steam lifting off his perfect body.  His abs glistened with water droplets while his hair stuck out everywhere.

“Hate to tell you this buddy, but you have to wear clothes to work. There's a law or something.” Steve explained. 

“Well have you seen my jeans?” Soda asked after Darry didn’t answer his first question.

“They're in my closet.”  He replied finally.

I was so turned on at the moment.  I’ve seen him shirtless a bunch of times like when he would work on cars in the summer, but this was just amazing.  I think I was getting really strong feeling for Soda.  I care about him more than ever now and I know everyone has been saying that we were bound to start dating soon, but I’d never think it would happen.  Our friendship is more important than anything.  “Nice towel Soda.” I laughed.

“You’d like it?” He asked as a smile came across his face. He threw me his towel that was around his waist and headed towards his room strolling in his birthday suit.

“Gross!” I threw the towel to the floor and sat down on the couch watching Mickey Mouse with Two-Bit drooling over his cake.  Soda came in with his checkered boxers and sat down next to me with his tuffs of hair flowing out of his DX hat.  “Glad you figured out the purpose of clothes.” I said looking at his boxers.

“And I’m glad you figured out how to put on makeup.” He scoffed.  Then I remember that I only put eyeliner on one of my eyes because I was rushing to get over here. 

I quickly tried smudging my eyeliner away while Soda went to get dressed.  It was almost 9 and I was going to be late again.  I got up and shouted my goodbyes. 

“Come by the DX today on your break,” Sodapop shouted, “Ya know to hang out.” He smirked.  All the guys looked at me with that look on their faces that was like the, if you know what I mean face. 

“Sure, I was gonna go see Johnny and Dal, so we can go together,” I said as he nodded, “See ya!” 

“Colly, do you want a ride?” Darry asked nodding to the car. 

“No, I’ll walk, it’s not that far.” I said as I was out the door and down the street.  I couldn’t afford to be late.