Summer Nights // Sodapop Curtis

Thirteen

"Some guy punched her, we can't just leave her on the streets," a familiar voice said, but all I could see was darkness. Someone was holding onto my hand, but I didn't know who it could be.

"She can stay with us as long as she needs, but her parents won't like it," another voice said.

I opened my eyes and sat up, observing my surroundings. I was on a couch, Sodapop was sitting next to me, holding my hand, and Darry was standing on the other side of the couch.

"Callie! Are you okay?" Sodapop practically yelled, and the pounding in my head was unbearable.

"Stop yelling," I said, putting my hand on my forehead to try to stop the pain. When I touched my head, I felt a warm liquid, and when I looked at my hand, it was covered in blood.

"Here, hold this on your cut for a while," Darry said, handing me a damp cloth. I placed it on my forehead and immediately felt better.

"What time is it?" I asked, noticing that Darry was wearing only boxers.

"It's two in the morning," Soda answered, he was still wearing his clothes from the party.

"What happened?" The last thing I remembered was seeing Sodapop at the party, I couldn't remember how I got to his house.

"This guy said he was your boyfriend, and him and Dally got into a fight, and when you tried to stop them the guy punched you. There were shards of glass on the floor, so that's why your forehead is bleeding," Sodapop explained.

"I can't believe Adam did that," I said, running my fingers over the tender skin of my cheek where Adam had punched me.

"Is he your boyfriend?" Soda asked, looking sad.

"Not anymore," I said.

"You two should get to bed," Darry said, "Goodnight."

"Thanks for all the help," I told him, and he walked upstairs.

"You can sleep in my bed," Sodapop said.

"Don't you think it's a little too soon for that?" I laughed.

"I usually sleep in Pony's room, he gets nightmares," Soda said, his cheeks turning red. He led me upstairs to his bedroom, and handed me an old shirt to wear. I went into the bathroom and changed, and when I came back to Sodapop's room, he was asleep in the chair. I climbed into his bed and pulled the sheets over me.

"Goodnight Callie," Sodapop said, walking over to the door.

"Sodapop? Will you stay with me?" I asked.

"Of course," he said, climbing into the bed next to me. We stayed with a small distance between us and talked, it was the first time we had talked in a month. We fell asleep on opposite ends of the bed, but when we woke up, we were wrapped together.

"Darry!" Ponyboy yelled at the top of his lungs. Sodapop and I jumped up, woken by the yelling. Ponyboy was standing in the doorway with a horrified look on his face.

"What's going on in here?" Darry yelled, running into the room.

"These two were...together," Ponyboy gasped. "Since when are you guys a couple?"

"We aren't," I said, getting up. "I got hurt last night and I needed someone to comfort me. It was nice seeing you all, but this won't happen again."

"Callie, this is it?" Sodapop asked. "You come here for a night, and then you're just gonna go back to ignoring us?"

"I have to, Soda, you know my parents," I said, walking into the bathroom to change. I put on my clothes from last night, and then folded up Sodapop's old shirt he let me borrow and fit it into my pocket. When I came back out of the bathroom Darry and Ponyboy were gone, and Sodapop was jumping around, trying to get one of his legs into his jeans.

"Not ready to see that," I laughed.

"You know you love it," Soda winked as he pulled a shirt over his head.

"I need to go home," I said, putting on my jacket.

"You can't," he said, holding my hands. "I have an idea."

"You sure can win me over, but I don't think you can win over my dad," I said.

"I don't have to. You need to break up with Adam, he hurt you, but don't tell your parents that the two of you broke up. Then you can still go out on dates, but instead of with Adam they will be with me."

"As much as I would love to do that, we both know that it won't work," I sighed.

"We have to try," Sodapop said, leaning in and kissing me.

"I'll see ya soon, Sodapop," I said. We walked down the stairs and Soda walked me to the door, kissing me once more before I left.

I walked down the empty streets, the cool air giving me goosebumps, it was barely bright out yet, the sun was just starting to rise, and the air would soon be too hot to bare. As I approached my family's house, I realized that I would need some sort of explanation for being gone all night. I opened the front door quietly and looked around, no one was awake yet. I sighed with relief as I walked up the stairs, careful not to make any noise. I entered Amy's room to find Amy sprawled across the bed, snoring louder than a freight train. I changed into my pajamas and climbed into my bed, but I couldn't fall back asleep. Once it was late enough in the morning, I went downstairs to the kitchen. Aunt Karen was sitting at the table across from Charlie, who was stuffing food into his mouth.

"Oh my...what in the world happened to you?" Aunt Karen said, jumping out of her seat. I turned around and looked around, expecting someone to be standing behind me, until I realized that Aunt Karen was talking to me. Instinctively I held my hand on my forehead, trying to cover up the cut.

"Who did this to you?" Aunt Karen asked. "It wasn't Adam, was it?"

"N-no," I stuttered, trying to find words. "I was at that party with Amy last night and I tripped and cut my head on a bookshelf."

"What about the bruise on your cheek," she asked, running her hand over my cheek, causing me pain.

"I must have hit it when I fell," I shrugged.

"Why didn't you tell us last night?" Aunt Karen asked.

"You were asleep when we came home, I didn't want to wake you," I said, sitting down next to Charlie.

"I'm going to get something to clean you up," Aunt Karen said, rushing out of the kitchen.

"He hit you, didn't he?" Charlie asked once the room was empty.

"Who hit me? Sodapop?" I asked, wondering if Charlie would figure out what really happened.

"Not Sodapop, no one who loves you would do that to you. Adam hit you, didn't he?" Charlie asked again.

"You're too smart," I said to Charlie.

"You shouldn't date someone who hurts you. You should date someone who you love, no matter what Dad says, and we both know who you love," Charlie said, then he got up and left the kitchen, leaving me to think about Sodapop.

A/N

Yay for another update. I'm really loving this story so far, and I hope you are too.
xx
Maddie