Love, D. Curtis

Chapter 1

I wish I knew why I acted older than I am. I'm not as mature as I'm made out to be. I have to be strong for my brothers. My little brothers are chaotic and the guys are almost always over at our house. I usually have to feed 7 mouths, including my own. Everybody tells me that I need to find a girl for my own. I don't have time for myself let alone a girlfriend.

Honestly, I have never had a girlfriend before. Not in middle school or high school. I know how to treat women because my mama taught me before her and dad died in an auto wreck about eight months ago. I miss them both a whole ton. I can't hardly get time for myself because I am either working or at home dealing with a fourteen year old, a sixteen year old, 3 seventeen year olds, and an eighteen year old. Unfortunately, I am twenty so I have to parent them because I am the oldest.

    Hi. I'm Darrel Curtis but everybody calls me Darry. I would have went to college but I dropped out in my senior year of high school. I also got a scholarship from being the star football player at the school. I'll introduce you to the guys.

The fourteen year old is my kid brother Ponyboy (Yes that is his real name). The sixteen year old is Johnny Cade. The seventeen year olds are my other kid brother Sodapop (yes, that is his real name), Steve Randle, and the real hood of the gang, Dallas Winston. Finally, the eighteen year old is Two-Bit Mathews.

    All of these guys are like my kid brothers. Johnny gets beat at home, Steve's dad is a drunk and tells him to "get out and never come back" at least twice a week, Two-Bits mom is always working to support the two of them, his dad left them and his sister is in a girls home. His mom couldn't afford to support all three of them. Then Dallas has abusive parents in New York and ran from them when he was eleven.

All of their backgrounds are all rough but they stay at my house and I protect them and keep them safe. I guess that's why some of them, call me dad sometimes. It breaks my heart because I am the closet thing to a father figure to the gang.

"Hey Darry?" Ponyboy shouted.

"What do you need little brother?" I called back.

"Come here please!"

I rushed up the stairs up to my little brothers room. I slammed open the door and stood in the doorway. He jumped and held his chest.

"Man, you gave me a heart attack!" He said laughing. I laughed too.

"What'd you need?"

"I want to know something."

"Like what?"

"Why don't you have a girlfriend?"

"I don't have any time. Why don't you?"

"I don't know. No girls are interested in me, only Soda."

I laughed and went back downstairs to start dinner. Tonight, I am making spaghetti with tomato sauce, garlic mixed in, and ground hamburger. Then Steve and Two-bit walked in and rushed to the kitchen, Dallas soon followed. Johnny then came in with tear stained eyes and blood running down his face like sweat. It looked like he was sweating blood. I shoved Dally out of the way and got the first aid kit out from under the sink. I then had to push Steve out of the way. I grabbed Johnny by the shirt and sat him down on the couch.

"Tell me what happened. Now!" I demanded.
He still had tears streaming down his face.
"M-my p-parents." He sobbed.

He whimpered as I cleaned his cuts. Then I searched through his hair and tried not to mess it up.

"What did they do?"

"They hit me and they beat me and then they smashed a lamp on my head." He explained.

I shook my head and became angry. I finished cleaning his scalp and forehead and we went to sit down for dinner. Soda flew in the door and sat down at the table and began eating. We all looked at him weird and continued to eat.