East West Sunset - A Darry Curtis Fanfiction

Chapter Thirty-Eight

That night, the entire gang went out to the Shepherds' bar to celebrate the announcement of Arnie's trial. The evening was cold, as it was now almost November, but Soda insisted that we walked the few blocks down to the bar. He still didn't want to drive Darry's car. My mother opted to stay home, after lecturing the boys on the dangers of drinking. I supposed this was for the better; I didn't think she would display any warm feelings towards Tim and Curly.

The bar was pretty full when we stepped inside off of the cold street. It reminded me painfully of the time when we came here before, when Darry was still alive. Even some of the people were the same - I spotted Annaliese, her older sister Susy, and Susy's boyfriend sitting at one of the booths near the jukebox. They were the only other girls in the bar, though, so I noticed that the group of greasers lounging by the bar kept staring at them with interest. I remembered how Annaliese had liked Soda, and I had an idea.

Pony and Bryon immediately made for the pinball machines clinking and glowing in the back of the bar, while Two-Bit sauntered up to the counter and called out for a beer. Steve stayed close by my side, his hand hovering over my shoulder, but I tried to ignore it. I still felt guilty about being close to him for some reason.

"Hey, Soda," I said. "Why don't you talk to that girl over there?" I nodded towards Annaliese.

Soda looked at her, bewildered. "Who, the brunette one on the end?"

"Yeah."

"I don't know. I'm not really feeling like myself tonight."

"Alright." I immediately felt contrite. "I'll go talk to her, then."

I crossed the room and sidled up to Annaliese and Susy's booth. "Hey, Annaliese!" I said.

The soft-eyed girl looked up at me in delighted surprise, but Susy and her boyfriend were too busy embracing each other to greet me. Annaliese seemed relieved at my intervention to distract her from the sight. "Oh, hey, Diana! Long time no see! I haven't seen you around school!" she chirped.

"I know, I've been out for the past few weeks," I explained. "Family stuff."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Are things okay?" 

"Not really." I lifted the corners of my mouth in a sad smile. "We came here to distract ourselves, really."

"If you need any help with anything..." she offered.

"No, no, no, I didn't want to trouble you!" I said. "So how have you been?"

"Oh, you know." Annaliese shrugged. "Same old, same old. I'm dating a guy."

"Really?" There went any hope of setting her up with Soda.

"Yeah. He's... he's great."

She sounded unconvinced. I squinted at her; maybe there was hope for her and Soda after all. "That's cool! What's his name?"

"David Hopkins. He's twenty. He works at a shopping mart on the Ribbon."

"So you two go cruising a lot, huh?"

"Not much, actually. He has to work a lot of the time, to help out his father who's in a home." She sounded a little annoyed, but she attempted to cover it up by grinning. "He's a real nice guy, too."

"He sounds great. How long have you two been going out?"

"Just a week or so, not long really," Annaliese said. "He's eager to settle down, I guess, but... I don't know. He wants to go steady."

"And you don't want to?"

"I'm only eighteen! I feel like I should live a little bit more before I decide that I want to settle down with one guy, you know?"