The Little Winston

Chapter 35- It Hurts

 That night, after dinner, Darry had gotten us all to play Monopoly. It was Pony's favorite game. No one argued with him as he pulled out the old game and we sat around the table.

As we got farther into the game, Johnny was kicking all of our asses. It seemed like Steve got the worst of it though. Almost every single roll he made, he ended up on a spot that Johnny had a hotel on.

"Hand it over Steve." Johnny held out his hand expectantly while Steve just frowned.

"That's 1000 dollar rent, Stevie." I laughed earning a glare from him.

Steve was getting pretty pissed at Johnny now, but he didn't say anything as he forked over the 500 dollar bills with a frown. Johnny smirked slyly as he flipped his bills like a fan against his face while the rest of us smirked to themselves, well everyone except Steve. He was still pretty salty about the fact that Johnny had practically took most of his money.

I know that we were just doing this to try to make everything normal, but it wasn't working. There were still two gigantic gaps in the house that nothing could fill except the two "delinquent" boys sitting inside some random persons home.

The ringing of the house phone shocked all of us, and Darry was the first one off out of his chair. We all waited anticipatingly as Darry talked, knowing that only 2 people could be on the other side of that phone line. Darry didn't say much, he just asked how both of them were, and if the people they were staying with were nice. Then he went on about how he was going to get them back, and tears started to form, but he quickly pushed them back down. He was trying to carry all three of them on his back.

"Hey, Nicole, they wanna talk to you." Darry pushed the phone towards me and I was at the phone in a fraction of a second. I had to know that him and Ponyboy were okay.

"Hello?" I pushed the device to my ear as hard as I could, as if having it closer to me would bring him closer too.

"Hey, Nic, it's Sodapop." His voice rang through my head like I was hearing it for the first time.

"Is everything okay? How are you guys? Do you have ha-"

"It's so nice to hear you ramble. I miss you so much." Soda's voice cut off mine, which I didn't have a problem with.

"I miss you too, Soda."

"Hey, I'll be back before you know it." I felt a single tear roll down, and sniffled, to which I heard Sodapop do the same.

"I know. That doesn't make it any easier."

"I know."

"Hey," I wiped my nose on my arm, "You, uh, know that red and blue flannel you have?"

"Of course I know." Sodapop laughed a little bit, but then continued, "It's my favorite one."

"Why is that?"

"It's the one I wore when I first saw you." My heart skipped a beat, and I felt like at that moment there was no one I had ever loved as much as I loved the boy on the other side of that phone.

"Can I wear it for the night. It's just that it smells like you."

Sodapop chuckled before he answered me again. "Of course."

Steve was getting impatient, as he was pacing the room and running his hands through his hair. "Hey, uh, I think, I think Steve might want to talk to you guys. Tell Pony that I miss him alot."

"Okay, I love you." I paused for a second. Dallas and mom were the only people who had ever told me that, and both of them ended up leaving me. But I knew that Sodapop would never leave me.

"I love you too."

Steve was getting tired of waiting and practically ripped the phone out of my hands to talk to his best friend. I knew I would've done the same thing in a heartbeat.