Summer Nights // Sodapop Curtis

Fifteen

Sodapop and I finished eating our waffles for lunch, and I was looking around at all the pictures on the wall. I stopped at a picture of Soda, Ponyboy, Darry, and their parents. It was the first time I had seen what their parents looked like, Sodapop looked like his mother, Darry was an exact copy of his father, and Ponyboy looked like a mix of both his parents. Everyone in the picture looked so happy, I looked over at Sodapop and noticed that he had tears in his eyes. My heart sank, seeing someone else upset was always hard, but finding a way to comfort someone who's upset is even more difficult.

"You look a lot like your mother," I told him, "she's beautiful."

"I wish you could have met her," Sodapop said, "she would have loved you."

"I love you, Sodapop," I said, and he hugged me.

We sat there for a while, just holding onto each other, and I could tell that Sodapop was crying.

"You're the best thing that's happened to me in a long time," Sodapop said, his voice cracking a little, breaking the silence. My heart was beating faster, although Sodapop and I were getting closer, every time he said something sweet I still got excited.

"And the same with you," I kissed him on the cheek. "Let's go back to your house, Amy and I probably have to be home soon, I don't even know what time it is."

We cleaned up the mess from our lunch, then climbed down from the treehouse and walked back to the Curtis house. Sodapop held my hand the whole way.

"We're back!" Sodapop yelled as we entered the house.

Two-Bit was laying on the floor with a bowl of popcorn resting on his stomach, and Steve was sitting on the couch. They were watching a cartoon movie and they were both laughing like little kids.

"Have you guys seen Dally and Amy?" I asked, curious as to where my cousin had gone off to.

"Haven't seen 'em since they left this morning," Two-Bit said through a mouthful of popcorn.

"Where's everyone else?" Sodapop asked.

"Darry's still at work," Steve said. "Don't know about the rest of them."

Sodapop walked into the kitchens and opened up the fridge. He shut the door with a sigh. "Two, did you eat all the cake?"

"Nope," Two-Bit replied happily, "Steve did."

"C'mon Steve," Soda said, "we don't make all our food for you to eat."

"Let's make a cake together," I suggested to Sodapop, pulling him into the kitchen with me.

"I've never baked anything in my life," Sodapop laughed. We let Darry do all the cooking here."

"Well, consider this your first cooking lesson," I laughed.

"What do we need?" He asked, opening the fridge.

"Eggs, butter, flour..." I listed the ingredients we needed as Soda placed everything out onto the table.

I began to mix the ingredients in a bowl, and I could feel Sodapop watching me. I turned around and smiled at him, he was leaning against the counter.

"Are you just going to stand there or are you going to come help me?" I laughed.

"I'd rather just watch you," he answered.