Stronger with You

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Peyton*
June 27, 1965

"P, can we talk?" Soda asked from behind me. I nodded too busy taking a drag of my cigarette. Soda sat himself down right next to me, beginning to talk.

"Sandy came by the station today. She started telling me I had to choose between you two," he glanced at me and I nodded as if saying I was paying attention, "I told her I choose you and she started yelling. She told me that she slept with that soc Greg. We broke up."

I almost dropped my cig in shock, "You did? I thought y'all were gonna get married?"

Soda let out a dry laugh and took my cig, taking a long drag before handing it back, "No, honestly I love someone else too much to marry Sandy."

A piece of my heart broke at the thought of Soda being with anyone else, "Whoever that girl is sure is lucky." Maybe Soda and I were just not meant to be together in the long run.

"Y'all get in here!"

We both stood, walking inside we were met with everyone standing like we were about to leave the house.

"I think we should all go play something. Like football or-"

"Baseball! Please, please, please!" I shouted cutting Darry off.

"Yeah, we can go play baseball," Darry nodded grinning, "I just think we need to have a day off. A day where we can just hang out together and relax."

"Yeah! I'll go get the gloves and bats!" Pony yelled, taking off outside to the back shed. We were an athletic bunch, always playing football in the lot or having races in the street for bets. Darry had taken gymnastics at the Y a few years ago and had taught us all his moves.

Pony came back in with a giant gear bag in his arms, all of our gloves and bats were in there along with balls of course.

"Well, let's get going! We only have nine so we won't have much for teams," Darry says shrugging and with that we were out the door headed for the park. The park was a block past the lot, there was a pool and fountain there for kids to play. On the other side was a small baseball field that wasn't very kept with.

We got to the field and started grabbing our gloves.

"I wanna pitch!" Soda called out. He was pretty good there, not as good as Darry, but close to.

"I got catcher," Two-Bit was already grabbing the chest plate and glove, the only two pieces we had for a catcher.

"I got third." Dallas was good at third, he had an arm and could make that throw.

"I got first." I nodded, I could dig low balls and catch pop flies, but I wasn't very fast and had a bad shoulder.

"I don't know where to go," Pony and Johnny said, I looked them over and looked at Darry.

"You guys are outfield, you're fast so you can get to the balls quick." I said and Darry seemed to agree because he told them the positions.

"Pone, you get center and Johnny you get left."

"I'll go short. Pepsi, you alright with switching me at pitcher every once in awhile?" Darry asked, Soda nodded, but wasn't really paying attention, him and Steve were messing around.

"I want second." Steve yelled out to us, he just wanted to be close to Soda they could joke about.

"I'll bat first then go to right," Maya said, she was tall and fast too.

"Can I join y'alls game?"

I turned around to look, that was a voice I didn't recognize. It was Evie, her and Steve were an item now.

"Course! Come on out!" I waved and she jogged out on to the field, winking at Steve when she bent down to grab a glove.

"You can go to right until Maya gets out then switch in to bat." Darry said and the game began.

"Batter up! In field go one, out field go two!" Two-Bit yelled before crouching down getting ready for the first pitch of the game.

Maya's strategy was wait for the third pitch, no matter what kind she always swung at the third pitch. The bat came contact with the ball and went right to Darry at short. The ball came to my glove as soon as Maya hit first.

Maya and I looked at each other, "I can't call it my eyes were closed." I laughed.

"I call her out!" Soda called laughing, Maya hated getting out by Darry, we all secretly did, because part of us wanted to be better than him at least once in our lives.

"Yeah, yeah," Maya grumbled waving him off, she grabbed her glove and switched with Evie.

After forty-five minutes it was finally my turn to go up to bat. Darry, Two-bit, and Soda were going to bat after me and we were going to call the game. We all had been having loads of fun, I even caught Johnny smiling.

Darry wound up and threw the first pitch, it was a little too low for my liking.

"Strike one!" Two-Bit called throwing the ball back to the mound. I dropped my bat and stared at my brother in shock.

"Strike my ass! That was way too low!"

Two just grinned and squatted back down closing and opening his glove. I grumbled and got back into my stance, this ball was going out of the park.

Darry fired the ball in, it was a curve, but I closed my eyes and swung away, as soon as I heard the ding of the bat I finished my swing then took off running.

I hit first and rounded checking to see where my ball had ended up, Pony was throwing it in to Steve who was covering second.

"Damn," I laughed, "I thought that one was out for sure."

"You were close." Evie said, she had come in to play first, but was now moving to short, because Darry was going up to bat and Soda came in to pitch.

I stayed on base, Steve was fast enough to cover first if needed, but this was Darry and the ball would never be found once he got a hold of it.

"Your going down, Superman!" Soda yelled, he had a glint in his eyes.

Darry did a warm up swing before stepping up to the plate. Soda threw his first pitch and Darry hit a fly ball right to middle field.

"Here we go, Pony!" I screamed halfway between first and second, "you got it, Pony!"

Pony sprinted back, colliding with the fence but still having his glove in the air. I winced and Pony hit the ground.

"He caught it!" Johnny yelled jumping in the air, "He caught the ball!" Pony raised his arm and sure enough sat the baseball.

We all began whooping and hollering running out to Ponyboy, we patted him on the back and congratulated him on the great catch.

"Lets let Two and Soda bat and then head home," Darry said shooing everyone back to their positions. I looked back just in time to see Darry give Ponyboy a wide grin and high five.

Soda hit a ball straight to Johnny, who caught it on a one hop. Two-Bit smacked on right down the middle, making Darry jump so it wouldn't hit him in the ankles.

All the way home we laughed and talked and just enjoyed ourselves. We praised Pony for getting Darry out and told Johnny he could probably make the school ball team come spring season. Pony could've too but he was all about running.

The two boys were beaming the rest of the night, hell we all were. It was the first time in weeks we had all been together having fun and overall good time. I didn't pray, but that night when I was staring up at the ceiling, I prayed that we had more days like this.

My family deserved all the happy days there were to offer. They were the best people I had ever met.