Stronger with You

Cig

Peyton*
May 30th, 1965

Maya and I walked home from the DX. I was on my second cig and Maya was talking about how bad she wanted to get with Dally.

"Why don't you then?" I asked and looked at my friend. Maya looked up at me stunned, "Go out with Dally? He's with Silvia."

I scoffed, and looked at my friend who really had no clue, "Maya, they broke up weeks ago. Also, she cheated so many times before that he's never getting back with her."

"Oh. Guess I will try for him then," Maya smirked, with a shrug of her shoulders.

I took a long drag and finished of the cancer stick, dropped it on the ground, then smooshed it with my foot.

"You ever think about quitting?" Maya asked with a raised eyebrow. Not even fifteen minutes ago had the same question left her brothers lips.

"Yeah, sometimes, but for the most part no." I shrugged my shoulders. Maya was quiet before words came softly from her lips, "Do you smoke in hopes of getting lung cancer? Because Gracie died with cancer and you feel like you deserve it?"

My heart slammed to the bottom of my stomach and my ears started ringing, tears welling in my eyes. I didn't realize I had stopped walking until Maya turned around a few steps in front of me.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up," Maya bit her lip, "but you know that you couldn't have done anything so save her, right?"

I blinked away my tears and nodded, "Yeah, I know."

My feet felt heavy every step Maya and I continued to take. My heart slammed in my chest and my ears continued the piercing ringing.

"You know, since my parents were hit by the train and killed every time I get behind the wheel of a car, I run stop signs, I go as the railroad crossings go down, i'm a wreck. it hurts, but we can't change what happened. I realized it the other day; us being reckless and close to death won't bring them back, it'll only end up hurting our family that's still here." The words left Maya's lips and went straight to my heart.

My lips were numb and I couldn't even form the words to reply with, so I just nodded and we walked the rest of the way in silence.

I didn't want Maya to be right. I didn't want to admit that was the entire reason behind my smoking.

"Hey girls! What exactly do y'all want to eat? I already have the chocolate cake in the oven, but what else do you want?" Darry asked when we walked in the house.

Darry was in a good mood and grinning widely. It was odd, but overall really nice to see him so happy. He probably deserved it the most out of all is us.

"Umm, could we have burgers by chance?" Maya asked as we stood in the doorway of the kitchen.

"Of course! We can fire up the grill and have a cookout tonight! I think we all need it and that it could be fun for all of us." Darry had a huge grin on his face and all though I wasn't in a good mood, the happiness radiating off Darry made it impossible to say no.

"That sounds great, Dar," Maya and I said and grinned.

"Great! I'll go to the freezer and pull out hamburger and let it started thawing! Everyone should be here by the time I get everything set up!"

Darry didn't let us respond but ran to the garage where the freezer was.

Maya and I locked eyes and it was obvious we were thinking the same thing.

Did Darry get laid?

———

Hours later we all sat in the back yard eating our burgers.

Darry had pulled out an old picnic table from the shed and brought out folding chairs and card tables.

"That was one damn good burger, Dar." Two-Bit took a drink of his beer then stretched out patting his stomach.

"Honestly, I'm real glad we did this. We haven't sat down with a good meal in awhile," Soda said with a grin.

I pulled out a cigarette and moved myself to the back steps so my smoke wouldn't get in everyone's faces.

We all sat around and after everyone had a few more drinks the stories started to come out.

"Do you remember that time a few years ago, it was the first day of school," Soda starts talking, "I don't remember what grades we were all in, but we were in the same school block, cept Darry, but he walked us there. Peyton had just been told she had "attention problems" and was so freaked out, so the first day, none of us paid any attention to the teachers." Soda and I locked eyes, "Member that?"

I nodded, "Yeah, I do. I was so thankful for y'all. I felt like I fit in somewhere and knew from then on y'all were gonna be like family."

"As thankful as I am for y'all too, enough of the sappy stuff." Dally looked around, "Remember when we went to that huge party at the red dirt pit and it started raining. So, Maya and Peyton decided to drag themselves in the mud."

Everyone laughed, remembering the stained clothes that still have the red mud soaked in.

Darry rolled his eyes, but a grin was still placed in his face. He remembered how hard he laughed when they came home covered is dirt, but they also had gotten their butts chewed Mr and Mrs. Curtis.

The gang had good times, bad times, but nothing was going to prepare them from the year ahead.

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this is definitely not my best chapter and i majorly apologize.