another us | sodapop curtis

2

"See! Nothing happened, we got here totally safe."

Johnny gave her a look, thinking back to the moments before they reached the restaurant. It took half an hour to get there, which was way longer than it should have taken but they ran into some.. potholes, along the way. Literally.

"Riya, it took half an hour to get here!" Johnny complained.

"And it was all my fault yeah, yeah, I get it," Riya replied for the thousandth time.

"Well it was! You literally fell into a hole!" He exclaimed.

"Yeah, and I wouldn't have fallen if you'd caught me!"

"Well you wouldn't have fallen if you'd watched where you were going, you can't blame this one on me."

"Johnny, I'm just joking. It's not your fault at all. But seriously, I can't believe someone decided to dig a hole in my way."

"So are we gonna go in or what? Soda's probably given up on this Blizzard by now and we're just standing here!" he joked, making his way inside the restaurant.

"Do you want anything? I got some extra change," she asked politely as they reached the counter.

"Wanna share a blizzard?"

"Sure!"

They took a seat at a table while waiting for their items to be ready. Riya couldn't stop thinking about Ponyboy. She didn't have a crush on him, no, definitely not, but she felt as if he was starting to distance himself from her. She thought about asking Johnny but was worried he would tell Pony about it, so she just kept it to herself. She wondered what she'd done to upset him and how she could make it up to him but she feared she was over thinking.

"Order number 78!"

✯✯✯

Riya's heart drummed against her chest as they made their way up the steps of the Curtis house. She reminded herself to stay quiet and keep to herself - her efforts to not bother Ponyboy. As they walked in, they saw Two-Bit and Pony playing cards, so she made a beeline towards the kitchen to pack Soda and Steve some cake. Johnny sat with the boys to play cards.

"Hey Johnny, how was your walk?" Ponyboy asked, shuffling the cards so he could join the game.

"It was alright, why?" Johnny asked, confused.

"Riya wasn't being annoying, was she?" Pony asked seriously, gaining eye rolls from the other two boys.

"Man, Ponyboy what've you got against the girl?" Two-Bit asked.

"I just don't like her. I'm not gonna be mean to her face though, she's a Winston-"

"You ain't got a reason not to like her, Pony." Johnny cut him off, smirking.

Riya rushed into the room with containers in her hands. The boys stopped talking and gave her their full attention. They watched as she rustled around the room as if she was looking for something, before she stopped and looked at them.

"Hey, where's Dally?" She asked, walking towards the front door.

"Oh, he came over here 'cuz you didn't meet him at Buck's. Said he was goin' to the DX to get cancer sticks" Two replied, smiling.

"Thank you! See you guys later."

As she walked towards the DX, she watched her surroundings closely. She always felt like people were after her because of her brother, which was a scary feeling but she knew she was just overreacting. Ever since he started doing illegal things, she couldn't help but feel scared for him. She hated the feeling of not knowing whether he was gonna come home safe or not, or if he was even alive. She snapped out of her thoughts when she heard someone walking behind her. She furrowed her eyebrows and quickly turned around to be met with Curly Shepard.