The Little Winston

Chapter 13- I Have a Great Chat With Stevie

  I turned around and saw the car was pulled up next to me on the curb. It was Steve's old souped up car, and of course, he sat behind the wheel, motioning for me to come and sit in the seat next to him. I started to walk, hoping he'd understand I didn't want to talk about it, but he just laid on the horn. I figured it'd be easier if I didn't fight him. I walked over to the door and he opened it for me from the inside.

"So what's up?" I asked casually as he put the car in drive, hoping the chiller I acted the less he'd probe. I'd never mentioned mine and Soda's kiss, but maybe Soda had told Steve.

"It's about Soda." He didn't look at me as he spoke, instead honking at a Soc and laughing out the window. We were taking the long way to Curtis'.

"Shoot." Steve stopped laughing and his face looked deadly serious. I got scared; Steve is never serious. My heart started to race and I looked out the window next to me. "You know, don't you?"

"I'd be blind not to see it."

"Look, I get it. Me and him already had this conversation. We're just friends and that's all we'll ever be, he doesn't see me like that. So if you came here to break that news to me I hate to tell you but I knew that the moment-"

"Will you just listen to what I have to say before you spiral? Damn, you and your brother really do have problems dealing with feelings."

"Hey!"

"It's the truth." He chuckled a little and looked at me. "He likes you too, kid. He's trying so hard to get you to like him back it's sad to watch."

"Steve I can't-"

"I know. But you'll hurt him and yourself if you don't give it a fair shot. But I know Soda and he's terrified of scaring you off, which is why we're sitting here right now." That thought made me chuckle. Soda was scared of scaring me off. That would be impossible.

"With what?"

"He's had a rocky relationship history." I thought about anything I'd heard Soda talking about that could be a girl. The name Sandy was prominent when I first got here, but I hadn't heard of her in a while. I assumed she was just a family member, but maybe that wasn't the case.

"Sandy, right?" Steve's eyes shot to mine in surprise, before returning to the road. He held the steering wheel tighter.

"He tell you?"

"No, just a name I've heard a bit. What happened?"

"Sandy...." Steve trailed off, almost trying to figure out how to phrase his words so they came out perfect. "Sandy and Soda were together for a long time, and they were serious."

"How serious?" I got scared, hoping there wasn't some sort of secret child or deep secret that would change everything.

"He was gonna marry her, Nic." He stopped and let me think. Marriage. This was serious. She must have been absolutely perfect. "But she cheated on him, got pregnant, moved to Florida, and they haven't talked since."

In the next few seconds, I felt an emotion that was absolutely terrible. I was happy she was gone. "I'm a horrible person." The world blurred together before I could stop the tears.

"You're a little happy she's gone, aren't you?" He looked at me sympathetically while I wiped my tears.

"Like I said, I'm a horrible person."

"No you're not. I'm happy too. She wasn't a good person." He opened the glove box as we pulled up to the Curtis house and handed me a tissue. "For the record, you're much better than her."

"Thanks, Steve." I caught him off guard and gave him a hug. It took him a second to react, but he eventually hugged me back.

We got out of the car, and I took note of how many cars were in the driveway. That was something Dally was trying to make a habit of with me. Every once in a while he'd throw me off guard by asking how many people were in the room at a time, or how many cars were in a parking lot.

We stood on the porch at the door, but before I could open the door, Steve put his hand out to stop mine and looked at me with a genuine concern. "Do you really, really like Soda?"

"Yeah, I really really do." I gave him a smile and opened the door, but a weight pushed something inside to the ground. Pony sat there, flat on his butt, with a huge smile plastered across his face. I quickly helped him to his feet and pulled him outside, closing the door behind him.

"How much of that did you hear?!" I whisper yelled. If there was one thing about Ponyboy I knew better than his smarts, it was the fact that he couldn't keep a secret if his life depended on it.

"Enough to know that you like Soda! Two-Bit owes me 5 bucks!" I didn't focus on the fact there was a bet on it. I now had another problem that was much bigger. Pony knew for a fact.

"Could you be any louder!" I lightly slapped the side of his arm and took a deep breath. I could deal with this. "Look, yes, I do like Soda. But if you tell one word of what you heard," I came closer and put a tough face on, "One word to anyone, I will have Dallas rip you limb from limb, understand?" Pony nodded his head quick, and his eyes were the size of deer in headlights. I realized he'd never seen that side of me. I couldn't tell if that was a good or bad thing.

"For a second there, you looked exactly like Dallas." It bothered me when he said that. I used to want to be my brother, but the way he said it told me he meant the mean side of Dally. He was terrifying when he got fired up. I tried not to think about it when we headed inside the house.