He Was Mine, I Was His

Scraping By

    When I got home, I waited by the phone. Cindy was supposed to call after her date with her boyfriend. She was going to want to talk all about it. It was a little over half an hour after I got home before she called. 

    "So how was it?" I asked. 

    She sighed, "Absolutely amazing. He is an absolute dream boat! How did yours go?"

    "It was so great. Soda might just be the one," I smiled. 

    "I can't wait to meet him."

    "You'll have to come visit soon."

    "Yeah maybe sooner than you think."

    "Wait, what do you mean?" I asked, getting excited. 

    "You said you guys were going to Santa Monica on the 19th right? And leaving on the 26th?"

    "Well we are leaving here on the 19th. We will get there on the 20th. Why? What are you thinking?"

    "My boyfriend may or may not have gotten us tickets to Santa Monica. We are going on the 24th!"

    "No way!" I exclaimed. "What a coincidence."

    "Maybe not a coincidence," she laughed. "I told him you guys were going. He was kind enough to turn it into a surprise trip so we can reunite! It has been far too long."

    "That's amazing! I am so excited!"

    Cindy and I talked more about what her plans were for her trip. I was so excited to see her again. I was excited to meet her boyfriend. Most importantly, I was excited for her to meet everyone. This trip was getting better by the day and we still had a month before we left. This was going to be great. 

    Well, we thought. It was getting closer to time and we were all worried about money. I had more than enough money saved. So did everyone else besides Steve, Evie, Two-Bit, and Dally. Two-Bit and Dally were never good with money, neither was Evie. Steve was close but it wasn't enough. 

    "We've got to find something to make money from," Sodapop said when we visited him at the DX. 

    "Well I could run down to the store an-" Dally started to suggest.

    "No!" We all shut him down, knowing exactly what he was planning to do at that store. 

    "Car wash," Two-Bit suggested. "Bunch of hot blondes rubbing their bodies on your car. Now that will sell."

    "I don't know if you have noticed but it's March," Johnny said. "We're still getting snow."

    "Right, yeah I know. I've got some ideas. Don't you worry," Two-Bit smirked.

    "What are you thinking," I asked.

    "You just wait. Give me two weeks," he replied. 

    "We've only got two weeks," Soda said. 

    "I know. And we'll have the money plus more."

    "As long as it's legal," I joked. 

    "You're no fun," Two-Bit huffed. 

    We were all curious as to why Two-Bit was so confident that he could get that money. I hoped he wasn't going to get himself in trouble. I also hope he would pull through because if he didn't, we wouldn't be going. 

    We had another small meeting a week before we left. Everyone brought their money and we went over everything we needed. After counting all the money, we were about $150 short. We would barely be able to scrape by. 

    "No way are we letting $150 stop us from going," Steve huffed. 

    "Do you want to give up all your snacks?" Darry asked. 

    "What do you want us to do? Starve?" 

    "If it gets me to the beach," I laughed. He flipped me off. "Ouch!"

    "Okay ladies," Two-Bit said as he walked in the door. 

    "It's about damn time you showed up," Soda scolded. I laughed because he sounded like Darry. 

    "You're going to be glad I'm late," he smiled, placing an envelope on the table.

    "What is it?"

    "Maybe you'd know if you opened it," Two sassed. 

    Darry grabbed the envelope and opened it. He pulled out a large wad of cash. All of our mouths dropped. 

    "How much is it?" Soda asked. 

    "Where did you get it?" 

    "You didn't do anything illegal did you?"

    "Ladies and gentlemen. I can't answer all of your questions at once," Two-Bit shushed. "It's a little over $300 in there and no I didn't do anything illegal."

    "How did you get all of it," Steve repeated. A question we all wanted the answer to. 

    "You won't believe this," Two-Bit started. "I was looking through the garage for things to sell and I came across a gold mine. A bunch of guitars and a drum set my old man left behind. Sold them to a bunch of teenagers. I may or may not have overcharged them but hey, I got our money. Talk about luck!"

    "Maybe it's because you're Irish," Soda joked. He was happier now that we got the money taken care of. 

    "But he's no-" Ponyboy started. 

    "Shh it's a joke," I hushed before he could ruin it. 

    "Looks like we're going to Cali," Steve hooted. 

    We all celebrated hitting our goal. Now all that was left was packing up and hitting the road next weekend.