Hateful Cigarettes

Chapter 1

He comes home from his track meet all tanned up from the Georgia sun and grinning from ear-to-ear, but sick as a dog.

Walking through the front door, he's grinning. A medal is dangling from Pony's neck, which like the rest of his body is tanned up from the Georgia sun. Ponyboy's track team had traveled all the way to Georgia to compete. Pony had been chattering non-stop about it before they left, and all in the car when Soda picked him up.

"It was so much fun Darry!" Ponyboy basically shouts. "The other boys from track went swimming with me, all of us! I met people from all over the country! The hotel was huge," he blabbers on.

Darry's excited for him too, and genuinely proud, but he notices that something is off.

"That's great, I new you could do it," Soda is smiling, but he notices it too. He knows when something is wrong with his little brother. Despite his excitement he looks pale, and his nose is slightly red, which could be written off with the sun but his voice sounds stuffy, too.

"You look like crap, Ponyboy," Darry finally comments. "Are you feelin' alrigjt?"

"I'm fine, Darry, just tired 's all," Pony responds.

"Well, lay down. It's been a long couple of days," Darry says.

There he went, back into parent mode. But secretly Soda thought that it should be called "Darry mode" because he seemed to use it enough to claim it as his own. But the stern, commanding Darry was getting old.

X

"I'm not a kid, Darry," Soda hears Pony protesting the next morning while Darry attempts to convince Pony to let him take his temperature. Darry argues, despite Pony's protests.

"I'm perfectly f-" he breaks off into a harsh, wet cough that sounds like he's drowning under water.

"Your fever is 100.5. You are staying home," Darry says leaving no room for argument on Pony's end.

"It's just a colb or somethin'," he pouts, glaring. "And I got tests to do 'n stuff."

"Sorry, kiddo. The boss has spoken," Soda shrugs and pats his younger brother's knee reassuringly. "You'll only miss a day, no biggie."

How very wrong he is.