Family Is Found (Sequel to Running Towards Home)

CHAPTER 16

ARLENE'S POV:

Sam told me all about what happened when the boys found out about her hickeys. I'm glad she and Darry made up. She returned my turtleneck, and I hung it back in the closet in case one of us needs it again. It's been about a week, so her hickey has faded. You can barely see it now. She covered it up pretty well with makeup she bought, but she wore her hair down that whole week. It was weird. She never wears her hair down.

We're hanging out at the Curtis house, just Pony, Johnny, Sam, and I. Everyone else is at work or out causing trouble. "What should we do?" Sam groans. "I'm bored." Pony agrees. I think for a moment. Then I get an idea. The boys are going to hate it, but this is going to be fun.

"What if we do the boy's makeup?" I suggest. Sam smiles big. "No. No, that is not happening." Johnny says, backing up. Pony tries to run away, but Sam grabs his arm and pulls him back onto the couch. "You are not getting out of this." Sam says, giggling. I run to the bathroom and grab Sam's makeup kit. We sit the boys down and pull out everything we can.

"What color eyeshadow do you want?" I ask Johnny. "None." He says. I wait. "Fine. Blue." he sighs. I put on blue. Sam does a nice green on Pony. We work for about another half an hour before we're done. We step back and admire our work. It's not bad, not bad at all.

Johnny has a nice blue eyeshadow, and Pony has green. They both have mascara, blush, and some lipstick on. They look great. Just then, Soda, Steve, and Two-Bit come in the front door. They see Johnny and Pony, and immediately start laughing hysterically. "Do me next! Do me next!" Two-Bit says, jumping up and down. "Soda, Steve, we're doing you too." Sam says. Steve starts to leave, but Soda grabs him. "If I have to do this, so do you. We go down together." Soda says to Steve.

Sam starts on Two and I start on Soda. Then, once Sam is done with Two, she moves on to Steve. By the end, all the boys have makeup on. Two has pink eyeshadow, Soda has yellow, and Steve has purple. Steve is not happy with us, but when he sees the other boys he starts laughing. Honestly, they look pretty great.

Darry comes home around six, and we still haven't taken off the makeup. He comes in, looks at each of us, and then says "Okay then." We all start laughing again. We try to convince Darry to let us do his makeup, but he escapes our clutches. He opts to go and shower instead. Eventually the boys have to wash off all of our hard work. The problem is, they had no idea that it wouldn't come off with just water. They all come out, mascara running everywhere. They looked like crying raccoons.

We had to help them wash it off. When the last of them was cleaned off, they all agreed they would never let us do that again. We will, someday, when they least expect it. That's half the fun, the chase and the capture.

We spend the rest of the night watching some cheesy western movie on TV. Two-Bit had a few too many beers to drink, and commented on the movie drunkenly the whole time. Most of his commentary made no sense, but it was definitely entertaining to listen to.

By the time everyone starts getting ready for bed, it's almost one in the morning. Lucky for us, it's a friday so we don't have to worry about school tomorrow. Everyone decides to stay the night. I get the couch, like usual, and the rest of them take the floor or go to sleep in their beds.

Two-Bit snores like a bear. I swear, he snores as loud as Darry can yell. Even with a pillow over my head, I can still hear it like he's right next to me. I creep up, step over a sleeping Steve and a sleeping Johnny, and plug Two's nose with my fingers. He snorts a bit, but he stops snoring. I go back to the couch and fall asleep, the room now quieter without the snoring.