When Boys Cry | The Outsiders | s. curtis

Fifteen

The sunlight poured into the room, making my slightly tan skin look golden. My hair was fanned out around me, sticking up in every which way. Soda's arm was draped over my naked torso. I turned my head to look at him. He was sound asleep and snoring lightly. I gently lifted his arm off me and rolled over to the edge of the bed. I found my underwear and yanked them up my legs, then grabbed Soda's t-shirt, which had been thrown across the room, and pulled that on. It came down to just above my knees, safely covering my butt.

I moved out the door and quietly to the kitchen. It was only seven and on a Saturday morning. Neither of us had work today and I was happy to have a day off after the long week we'd had.
It was now the middle of May. We had just found out about a week ago that child protective services had deemed Eric and Judith unfit as guardians and we had our final court date set up to officially shift custody over to me and Sodapop.
Hannah had just told me, too, that she finally told Two-Bit, about three weeks ago. He had, at first, not taken the news like an excited father usually does, but after he got over the initial shock of him being a dad, he was ecstatic. Once figuring out that Two-Bit was excited to become a daddy, Hannah, in turn, got excited about being a mom.
Last week, Steve finally popped the question, and Evie said yes. He'd planned a real romantic picnic and had laid everything out for her. Without saying a word, he slipped the ring onto Evie's finger. She'd looked down, seen the diamond and when she turned back to Steve, he was down on one knee.
Even Darry, who had never made time for a real relationship, had juggled around the idea of proposing to Tasha.
In exactly one month from May twenty-eighth, on June twenty-eighth, Ponyboy and Cathy would be getting married.
This was it. The gang was all grown and making their own families. Even though we were going to always be one big family together, it was nice to see the individual couples starting their own lives, each of us with a significant other whom we were in love with.
All this talk of marriage had me wondering if Sodapop would propose again. I'd turned him down on more than one occasion, but it was only because I wasn't ready. And no, before you ask, I wasn't feeling pressured by everyone else. I had known for a long time that I was in love with Sodapop. I guess it wasn't until recently that it finally hit me that he was the only man I wanted to be with for the rest of my life.
I had told this all to the girls yesterday while we were all getting lunch together as a little hen party for Cathy.
"D'you know what you should do?" said Tasha, taking a sip of her coffee. I took a bite of my pasta as the rest of us turned our attention to her.
"You should propose to him."
"Me?" I asked. "Oh my god. I wouldn't know what to say."
"Oh, that'd be fun," said Cathy. "And so unique. You never hear of the girl proposing."
"How should I do it?" I asked. "I want it to be special."
"Well, you know he's going to say yes," said Hannah. "So there's that."
"When Ponyboy proposed to me, he did it in a way that was special to us both. He took us to our first date spot and asked."
"That's so cute," I cooed.
"With Steve, it was totally unexpected."
"Try and do a little of both. Make it really special, but also make it so that he has no idea."
"Well, I don't think any guy would expect his girl to propose," Tasha teased.
"You know what I mean," said Hannah and she took a drink from her Pepsi.
"The thing is... I don't know how to propose. Because Sodapop and I never, like, made it official that we were even dating. We just started dating. It was as if we'd been dating the whole time. You know? One day I'm walking into Darry's place after so long and then all of a sudden Sodapop and I own a house together. It's just been crazy how fast everything's been going."
"Well, to be fair, you guys have known each other since you were kids," Evie said. "I knew I loved Steve a long time ago, before he went off to Vietnam, even. But we decided to put things on hold until he came home and when we did, we picked up right where we left off and it was like we'd never broken up in the first place."
"Has Sodapop had any more bad dreams like he used to?" Tash asked carefully.
I shook my head. "Sometimes he wakes up at night with cold sweats, but, other than that, he doesn't have those violent night terrors anymore."
"That's good he's not having them."
"Yeah, for the first couple months after he got home, it was almost a nightly thing. But, lately, he's been great."

I felt a pair of strong arms snake around my middle. I leaned my head back against Sodapop's chest, smiling contentedly.
"I didn't hear you get up," he mumbled.
"I just did a few minutes ago."
"What were you staring out the window for?"
I shrugged. "I was just thinking about some things. I guess I spaced out."
Soda spun me around so my back was now to the sink and my front was facing him. He rested his hands either side of me on the countertop and smiled down at me.
"You look so cute when your hair's a mess like that."
"You're such a flirt," I chuckled, rolling my eyes and leaning back into him.
"What do you want to do today? I think this is the first day we've had where we haven't been running around doing adult stuff."
"I don't know," I said thoughtfully. "We could head over to the drive-in tonight? Have a date? Or we could play catch-up with the gang."
"The gang," he said it like he was trying to figure it out. "We haven't been a gang in a long time."
"No. We're just family now, aren't we?"
"We've always been family."
"Yeah, but before, it was blades and fighting and now everyone's getting married and having babies... God we're gonna have a helluva lot of stories to tell, won't we?"
Sodapop grinned, the light coming in through the window illuminating his face. He looked like an angel.
"What's for breakfast?"
"I try to be all serious and all you can think about is food," I teased and he just laughed.
"I'm a growing boy."
"I hardly think so," I said, giving him a playful shove. Without warning, Sodapop picked me up, swinging me around and setting me nicely on the counter.
"Have I ever told you how much you mean to me?" he asked, his mouth mere centimeters from mine.
"Have I ever told you how bad your morning breath is?" Sodapop threw his head back and I just sat there, giggling.
"Now I'm trying to be serious and you're ruining it."
"Go brush your teeth, stinky."
"Sure thing, ma." Soda disappeared off to the bathroom and I hopped down off the corner. I grabbed a skillet out to make some eggs and pancakes. I was just getting the ingredients out when the front door flew open and in walked the whole gang, everyone still in their pajamas.
"Morning!" Darry shouted.
"Well, Christ," I said. "I didn't know I opened up a diner. I might have to go and get more eggs."
"We brought some," said Tasha.
"And two pounds of bacon," Two added.
"Jesus, are we feeding the army?" Soda asked as he entered the kitchen again.
"Only the Curtises," Ponyboy said, his hand wrapped cutely around Cathy's.
"We also brought some juice," Cathy informed me as she, Pony, and Tasha set down a bunch of grocery bags worth of breakfast stuff.
"Can't believe y'all are up this early. Especially you," I said, pointing to Two-Bit, who held a sleepy-eyed Mikey in his arms.
"Are you kidding? I never miss breakfast."
"I'll have to whip up some cake," said Soda. "Or two."

We all got to making breakfast. The whole house was buzzing with y'all and friendly banter and it made me so happy seeing my house full to the brim. The only people that were missing was my brother and sister.
And Dallas and Johnny.
"I love this house," said Steve once I'd set down a huge mountain of pancakes. "I love that we're all here."
"Not too much longer before the kiddos come home," said Darry as he helped lug over a giant plate filled with eggs. "Y'all excited."
"So excited," I said. "They need to be here soon. Our final court date is in about a week and then they'll be here."
"Did you get beds and stuff?" Tasha asked me, shooting Sodapop a look as he poured jelly on his eggs.
"Oh yeah. Their rooms are painted. They both have beds, sheets, blankets, dressers. They're set. They called me yesterday and said they're so ready to come home."
Ponyboy reaches across the table and grabbed the gallon of milk and poured himself a glass.
"How's baby doing, baby?" I asked, turning to Hannah.
"So far, so good. We don't find out the sex for another couple of months."
"She's been craving hot stuff like crazy," said Two. "Last night she had hot sauce on her peas."
"That's so weird," said Sodapop.
"Speak for yourself," she said. "You're eating jelly on your eggs."
Darry and I both laughed as Soda just shrugged.
"Touché."

By the time breakfast was done, I had a mountain of dishes in the sink to do, but I wasn't even worried.
We were listening to Steve tell stories of Nam, one, in particular, being the one where he'd gotten stuck up a tree.
"Thought he was so damn slick," Soda commented, his right arm draped across the back of my chair. "Our lieutenant looked like he just wanted to shoot his ass down."
"Might have saved me the embarrassment," Steve said.
There was a knock at the door then and Ponyboy got up to get it. I wasn't really paying attention until I heard an "uh, hey, Soda?" which grabbed both his and my attention. We both looked toward the door and saw Pony had the door ajar and was looking horrifically awkward.
Soda patted my thigh and got up to go and see who it was. I turned back to Steve, who was still going on and on about him being stuck in the tree and his binoculars being wrapped tightly around a branch he couldn't reach.
That's when Soda started yelling. I, as well as everyone else, looked toward the door.
"No!" He was shouting. I got up from my seat at the table and walked over to the door. When I pulled it open, my heart fell. There stood Sandy. And in her hand was the hand of a nine-year-old little girl. Upon seeing me, her eyes narrowed, but it wasn't a glare. She, I guess, finally realized who I was because her eyes widened.
The small girl looked frightened and like she didn't wanna be here at all.
"What's going on?" I asked.
"Honey, go back inside. I got this, okay?"
"Well, pretty soon, you're gonna have the whole neighborhood involved," I remarked coolly. "Why are you here?"
"I just came to inform Sodapop that this is his daughter."
"Daughter?" I asked. I looked between the girl and Sodapop. There were few similarities, mostly because she was a spitting image of Sandy.
"You said the baby wasn't mine," said Soda accusingly. "When you found out you were pregnant you said there was no way it was mine and you ripped my heart out and left for Florida."
"It was because my parents made me move down there. I didn't want to hurt you and keep you from your child, so I said that to make it easier for me to leave."
"Easier for you to leave? I cried over you. For months. If this is just some ploy to get me to take you back, it's not gonna work."
"It's not. I've moved on, Soda. And it looks like you have, too. But I wanted my daughter to meet her father since she's always asking about him."
Soda looked down at the girl, who then proceeded to cower behind her mother.
"How do I know?" Sodapop said. "What is this, just some way for you to get child support?"
"No. I don't want your money. She just wanted to know her father."
Soda sighed. "Sandy, I don't know. I mean, we could get a DNA test done, but until then, I just don't trust you."
This seemed to throw her off. "DNA test? Don't you believe me?"
"Well, I'm not just gonna take your word for it, considering how much you've lied to me."
"That was the past. Come on, Soda—" Sandy took a test step forward and I stepped in between. I was taller than Sandy but not by much.
"Watch yourself," I said. "I wouldn't do anything you'll regret. If you want us to believe you, you'll keep your hands off my husband and do as we say." I realized what I'd said after the fact, but tried my best not to let on that I was bluffing.
"Take it easy, Candy Cane. No one is fooled by your poker face." She narrowed her eyes at me again, and this time it was a glare. "I'll get a DNA test done, honey. Don't you worry. Come on, Robin." I almost choked as she turned to leave. When I looked to Sodapop, his face was pale.

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Hello! I'm sooo sorry I haven't updated in a month. I took some time off writing because I was feeling very meh about it. But I'm back! Also I just wanted to apologize too for any spelling grammatical errors as I had to write most of this chapter off my phone. My dumbass lost my laptop charger. Anyway, hope you like this chapter and I've finally thrown in a little more drama. Love y'all!  x J