In Sickness and In Health

Chapter 2

Two-Bit's POV

I'm walking around in the Soc part of town. Not to start any trouble like my friends, but I honesty just went on a walk and ended up here. It's beautiful. I smile breathing in the crisp autumn air. Observing the nice houses around me, I see one where the roof is being worked on and think of Darry. Just as I think of him, I see him standing next to the driver's side door of his truck, resting his head on the truck. I don't understand why, maybe he's stressed. "Hi there, Superman! Fancy meeting you here!" I call towards him and shifting my steps to approach him. He turns towards me and looks like his normal Superman self until I see his expression. He seems flustered, which is not a typical Darry emotion. Softening my voice I ask, "Everything alright, buddy? "Darry looks at the ground before regaining his composure and responding, "I think I'm fine. I just feel a little tired and dizzy and was thinking I might not oughta be driving." I smile like this is normal of Darry and skip up to his driver's seat. "Well, I guess I'll just have to drive then. I didn't feel like walking back to our neighborhood anyway. Get on in," I say to Darry.
"Thanks, Two-Bit." At first, I was taken aback at Darry indirectly asking me to drive. After thinking about it though, I suppose it makes sense. If he had gotten into a crash he would've felt terrible if he hurt someone. Secondly, if he hurt himself or got pulled over for bad driving he could always lose custody of Soda and Pony. So maybe he was just feeling a little off and was being sensible. He always is sensible. It's why I want to be like him when I become a parent. When we got to the curtis house I look over at Darry and see that he looks the same as he did before. He looked sick and flustered. I reach over and quickly feel his forehead and notice it's unusually warm before Darry yanks his head away. "I am fine, two-bit don't worry about me," He looks at me and I notice he seems like a kid again. His his eyes appear big. His youthful look quickly disappears and is replaced by his stern hard looks. he shoots me a rare smile reassuringly, "i really am fine, thanks for the ride." He jumps out of his truck and so do I and we both head into the Curtis' house. Before opening the door, Darry turns his head and coughs, it sounded horrible and it was this moment when I knew something was wrong. I didn't know superman could get sick. Inside, Soda and Steve are sitting on the floor, a deck of cards lie scattered on the floor as they arm wrestle. Pony sits on the couch, drawing in his sketch book. Pony looks up slightly greeting, "Hey, guys." "Evening," responds Darry in a voice that was a little weak and soft, but no one seems to notice except for me. I guess I would be the only one to notice because I cared about Darry more than the others. "Darry, Two-Bit!" shouts Soda in his usual warm, excited, cheerful voice. His eyes seem to glow with each word. "I'm gonna head home soon. Well, after I have some cake of course, nobody makes cake like soda!" I say heading to the kitchen. I wasn't going to stay, but I decided I should find a way to tell Pony or Soda that Darry wasn't looking or feeling too hot. I knew Darry would try to be his Superman self as long as possible and might not treat himself the way he should. He hardly ever did. Wanna play cards Darry?" asks Soda with his eyes shining even more. "Nah, not right now," says Darry sitting at the other side of the couch, opposite of pony and opening the newspaper.
I look at him and see he's not really reading the newspaper. The cake distracts me temporarily so I almost forgot to tell soda that Darry isn't feeling well. I finish the chocolate cake and rinse my plate in the sink. "Hey, Pony, walk me out will 'ya?"

Pony looks up from his book to me, his face upset that I pulled his attention from the book. However he responds casually, "Yeah sure, why not?" When the door closes behind us I grab his shoulders n point in his face. I speak to him quietly as if Darry could hear me from inside, "Listen, I'm not sure, but Darry might be sick, he really doesn't look or sound okay." Pony looked at me confused "Really? I don't know if I can remember Darry ever being sick, like ever. He never gets sick, Two-Bit. I'm gonna br scared if he's sick." "Yeah, I was taking a walk and walked into him working and he asked me to drive him home because he was dizzy or tired, something like that. and I figured that was reasonable, but then we got here and he looked real tired and cold. I felt his forehead before he jerked away and it seemed kinda warm. He also coughed. He coughed! I don't know if it's real bad, but I figured I should tell 'ya in case Darry tries to hide it. Tell Soda for me, ya here?" "Yeah, sure thing, Two-Bit. See 'ya later."