East West Sunset - A Darry Curtis Fanfiction

Chapter Four

"You can't have just left Tulsa behind without a second thought. You had everything there."

"It wasn't a choice of mine, Diana."

"Well, then why'd you leave?"

"It's complicated. I'm tired, honey, I want to go to bed. I don't want to talk about it."

"Come on, Mom! You know you can tell me anything!"

"I know honey, but not now. Later, I promise."

"You can sleep in my room tonight, Diana. I'll crash with Pony and Soda," Darry said without expression.

"Soda?" I asked. I didn't recognize the name from the other boys I'd met that day. "Who's that?"

"He's the last one of us Curtis brothers. He was helping at the auto shop today, so you haven't met him yet," Ponyboy explained. 

"Oh. Okay," I replied. The thought of sleeping in Darry's room simultaneously thrilled and terrified me, but I decided to just go with it. After all, would I ever get such a chance again?

Darry stood from his chair and glanced at the old clock ticking on the wall. "We've got some time before lunch," he told Ponyboy. "How about I fix something for you while you take Diana and grab Soda from the shop?"

I wasn't sure I liked the suggestion, because we were leaving the main source of my protection behind and venturing into the crime-filled east side of Tulsa, but I decided not to say no. Pony nodded but looked a little nervous; obviously, this kid wasn't so good with meeting new people. He crossed over to the back door, which led to the tiny, muddy backyard. He held it open for me as I ducked under his arm back into the chilly air. I realized that I had forgotten to put on a sweater, now that I had my bag back, but it was too late. Ponyboy was already bounding across the mud and vaulting over the chain link fence like some sort of gymnastics superstar. Frankly, I was impressed but also a little confused.

"Come on!" Pony called from the other side of the fence.

I made my way across the yard quickly. There were a few flowers poking through the suffocating mud, which I found strange but also slightly endearing. I wondered who had planted them.

"Soda works down by the DX and the Shepards' place," Ponyboy told me when I had caught up with him. "The Shepards won't bother us unless we bother them, so try not to call attention to yourself, okay?"

I nodded, discomfort thick in my belly, and followed Pony through the Tulsa streets. They weren't so bad, now that I had someone guiding me through them, and now that the sun had come out they were really kind of nice. This side of town reminded me of the city I had grown up in. The houses were small and close together, but there were little things that embodied the people who lived inside them: flowers growing neatly in pots on stoops, brightly painted lawn chairs scattered on lawns, colorful curtains flowing in the windows. It heartened me to see the humanity in a place that had such a bad reputation, and suddenly I realized that perhaps the east side of Tulsa wasn't so bad after all.

Of course, I was still a little jumpy as we stepped onto "main street," a collection of a couple storefronts, bars, and restaurants down a short stretch of the road we had been following. At one end, there was a cute little movie theater, and at the other end, there was a big gas station with two large neon letters, a D and an X, displayed above it. Next to the gas station, there was an auto shop. The sound of drills and clanging metal from the open garage doors reached us from across the street. 

As Ponyboy was leading me across the street, I heard a window screech open from somewhere above us. I glanced upwards and noticed that one of the apartment windows above one of the storefronts had been flung open, and a girl was leaning out, staring down at us. Her hair was long and a shimmering brown, and while she wasn't really something special, she obviously ignited a reaction in Ponyboy.

"Oh, god," he muttered to himself. "Hurry, maybe she won't see us..."

It was too late for that, I figured, especially as the girl smiled down at Pony and called out, "Hey, Pone, how's it going?"

I saw Ponyboy silently yet visibly groan and tense up. He looked up at the girl with a fake smile that looked more like a grimace. "Uh... hey... Cynthia..." he said, then cleared his throat loudly. 

"I haven't seen you in so long!" she chirped and leaned forward, and I swear I saw her bat her lashes at Ponyboy in an attempt to flirt with him. It was not really working; in fact, it just seemed to make him way more uncomfortable than he already was. 

"Uh... ye-yeah, I know," Pony said, trying to edge into the garage as slowly but also as inconspicuously as possible. It was a lost cause.

"Who's your friend?" She had noticed me; her voice had turned venomous. "Another Soc girl? You seem to have a penchant for them, Pone." Her voice was admonitory, like a strict old grandmother, and it was not attractive at all. I didn't blame Ponyboy for backing up a few steps, a bewildered look on his face.

"I'm just an acquaintance. We just met today," I said nicely.

The girl gave me the fakest smile I had ever seen, so mocking that it transformed her face into a grotesque mask of painful jealousy. "You seem old for Pone. What are you, eighteen?" she asked me.

"Don't call me Pone. That sounds like some sort of pancake," Pony muttered to nobody in particular.

"Yeah, I'm eighteen, and we're barely even friends," I said, my patience wearing thin. This girl was extremely desperate and extremely jealous, and that combination was really grating on my nerves.

"You should stick to your own kind," Cynthia advised Ponyboy wisely.

This made me angry for some reason. I hated that she thought that she could judge me just because I wore nice clothes and used proper English and that she thought she could tell Ponyboy who he could and could not see. I was about to stand up for him when he did something that even I, who had only known him for a few hours, would not have expected him to do.

"I can make my own decisions, thanks," he said, quietly and with a slight quiver to his voice but still with strength. Then he grabbed my arm and pulled me after him into the auto shop.

"Wait, Ponyboy!" she called after him in distress. "I didn't mean to hurt your feelingsss!"

I rolled my eyes at that and turned to inspect the inside of the dimly lit garage. There were a couple of boys and a girl clustered around an old station wagon that was propped up on two joists. A pair of legs poked out from underneath the car, and one of the boys crouched next to them, holding a can of grease and a wrench. In the dim light, I couldn't really make out their faces or the names embroidered on the pockets of their work shirts, but I did notice that Pony wouldn't look any of them in the eye.

"Are you here for Sodapop, Ponyboy?" asked the girl.

"Uh, yes, he's done helping out, right?" Ponyboy asked.

"Yep, coming Pony," said the pair of legs as they scooched out from under the car and stood, revealing a boy who completely shocked my system.

As soon as I saw him, I instantly felt more connected to him than I had to any other person, even my mother. He had flowing golden blond hair, and his features were so finely molded that he looked like a movie star. His eyes were brown and deeply sensitive, like pools of clear, warm chocolate mirrors. He looked like no boy I had ever seen; he was so handsome that he seemed almost surreal. I didn't feel instantly attracted to him, though, not as I'd been to Darry. Instead, I felt simply... connected. There was no other way to put it.

"You must be Soda," I managed to say, somewhat stupidly.

"Yeah, I'm Sodapop Curtis," he said looking at me closely and somewhat confusedly. "I feel like... do I know you?"

"Soda, this is Diana Jean. She's new in town so she's staying with us tonight," Pony was quick to explain.

"Oh, well then nice to meet you, Diana," he said cheerfully, flashing me a movie star grin. Smooth and suave, he swooped down and kissed my cheek like a classy French monsieur, which caused the girl to giggle and the boys to snort in derision. I cleared my throat and looked him dead in the eyes, daring him to ever try that again.

"Yes, likewise," I said quickly. He made me nervous, maybe in a good way.