SOPHIE'S P.O.V.
I don't know a lot of things about the Curtis's or their house, but one thing I can tell you that I know to be true in my heart and will stand by forever, is that the Curtis's bed are WAY more comfortable than the hospital beds. No one woke me up before they left for the DX, so I didn't know when they left, or when they'll be back. I slept in until the sun streaming through my window was no longer pink and orange from the sun rise, and it was now high in the sky, making the freezing weather slightly more bearable. I opened my eyes and looked up at the slowly spinning fan above me. I rubbed my eyes helping me to wake up a little. I slipped out of bed and stood up. I still had the DX shirt that I've been wearing for like the past week on. I quickly took it off and headed for the shower.
The shower felt really nice after all these days without one. When I was done, I wrapped up in a towel and went back into my room. I put on underwear, a bra, and a tank top. I wanted to wear my favorite shirt, so I stumbled around my room looking for it. I looked through all my drawers, in the closet, and on the floor, but I couldn't find it. Then I remembered, Dally brought me my favorite shirt in a bag when he brought me some clothes that I didn't use at the hospital. I also remembered that I left the bag downstairs when I came home last night. Casually, I walked out of my room in just my tank top and underwear and down the stairs. I wasn't worried about being in so little clothes, everyone said they would be gone for the morning. The house was a ghost town. Everyone had left early this morning for the DX like they told me they would last night.
I walked around the living room and the kitchen, trying to find the bag of clothes with no success. I plopped down on the couch and sighed. I laid my head on my hand only for a moment before getting up and going into the kitchen for some chocolate milk. I poured in into a cup and slipped on it. I brought it up to my lips for another sip, when the cup slipped out of my hands and onto my tank top. The chocolate milk got all over me, so much that almost nothing spilled on the floor, all the milk on me. I yelped because the milk was cold and all over me. "Typical." I said to myself in my own self pity.
I shivered and quickly slipped the tank top off. I got a towel and wiped my bare stomach and my thighs. I looked down at my once pretty, lacey white bra which was now covered in brown chocolate milk splotches. 'Great' I thought to myself. 'Just great.'
I held my tank top in my hand and walked back out into the living room. I sat down on the couch still trying to wipe little beads of milk rolling down my body. Suddenly, something next to the door caught my eye. Laying next to the front door was the bag o clothes, containing my favorite shirt in it. I smiled and got up from the couch. I was just about to take my first step to make it over to my bag, when the door shot open. My eyes went straight up to see Pony, Sodapop, Two-Bit and Dally standing there. They looked at me weird and I looked at them casually. Why were they looking at me so weird? "What?" I asked due to their surprised and shocked faces, still clueless about their odd looks. No one replied to me and looked like they were too scared to say anything. Pony's mouth hung open slightly and he looked at me up and down. He looked at me from my head to my feet so much, I looked down to see what he was looking at. I looked down to find myself still, in just a bra and underwear. I pursed my lips and gasped. I stuttered for words, then managed to croak, "I-if I'd known you guys were coming home, I would've fixed my hair up a little." I giggled a little.
"Is that chocolate milk on your bra?" Soda asked absent mindedly.
Two-Bit broke into laughter and Dally seemed to bounce out of a shocked trance. He looked over at Two-Bit with a pissed face, and Two-Bit shut up, but he kept a small grin on his face. "Jesus!" Dally yelled and ran up to me and stood in front of me as if to shield me from the wandering eyes of Pony, Sodapop, and Two-Bit. "Where's your damn clothes Soph?"
"I came down to get my bag of clothes." I pushed Dally out of the way and walked confidently over to the door where the rest of the boys stood. Pony stood right next to my bag, so I bent down and picked it up keeping eye contact with him so he didn't look in any places I didn't want him to. His eyes were wide and he looked as if he still hadn't fully processed what was happening. I half smiled at him for a second, but he kept his in-awe stare. "Well I'd love to stay and chat, but I think I'd better go get a little more presentable." I joke walking up the stairs, still facing them, not wanting them to stare at my butt.
"You don't have to!" Two-Bit quickly yelled.
Dally made tight fists with his hands and took a step forward, in which Two-Bit replied by throwing his hands up in surrender. I giggled a little and turned around and ran up the stairs, feeling everyone's eyes glued to me. "You guys are 'bunch a pervs!" Dally yelled at them as I rushed into my room.
I shut the door and leaned on it. I put my hand up to my forehead to wipe my nervous sweat away and I slid down the door and onto the ground. I stayed there a little while, still combing over the idea of what just happened, embarrassed out of my mind. Then, I laughed a little bit and stood up. Trying to shake off what just happened, I got dressed and did my hair and makeup. Then, I walked down stairs not knowing what to expect. Two-Bit and Dally sat on the couch. "Nice to see you again." Two-Bit snickered.
I shot him a dirty look and Dally elbowed him hard in the stomach causing him to grunt.
I walked into the kitchen and Pony was sitting at the table while Soda was pouring himself some cereal. I sat down across the table from Pony and looked down at my fingers. Sodapop came over and sat down next to me and started digging into his cereal. We sat there extremely awkward for about five minutes and I kind of wanted it to stay like that. I mean I would rather have there be an awkward silence then someone talk about what happened earlier. I watched Soda and Pony waiting for one of them to try and talk so I could quickly tell them to stay off the topic. Eventually, Soda opened his mouth, and before he could get one word out, I spoke quickly. "I don't particularly want to talk about what happened earlier."
I clenched my jaw tight and waiting for a retaliation, but Soda just shut his mouth and continued t eat his cereal. 'Good.' I thought to myself. 'You damn well eat your cereal and not talk about seeing me half naked.'
Then, Pony started to snicker.
PONY'S P.O.V.
Sophie sat across from me at the kitchen table and it was kind of awkward. I didn't want to say anything about what happened, but I couldn't stop thinking about it. I tried to keep my best poker face because I didn't want her to realize that I was under protest, picturing her half naked as I had seen her this morning. I kept my eyes down. Unfortunately, Sodapop didn't. He just opened his mouth, and I could tell that he was going to comment on this morning's events. Sophie spoke quickly and shut Sodapop right up. "I don't particularly want to talk about what happened earlier." She said.
I couldn't help but snicker at that. That snicker turned into a chuckle, then into a full laugh. I could see that Soda was laughing too.
And soon enough, Sophie was laughing too. It seemed all to hallarious. I don't really know why we were laughing so much, but eventually, we were all on the ground laughing about what happened. I gasped for air as I sat on the ground of the kitchen, recovering from our laughing it. Soda laid on the ground beside me still occasionally laughing. Sophie sat in front of me, wiping tears from laughing away from her eyes. She looked at me and I looked back sympathetically. "I really didn't think you guys were gonna be home anytime soon." She said in a whining voice and pouting her lip.
I was about to say something funny, but Dally walked in and saw us on the ground. He stared at us a little confused for a minute, then he shook his head and continued to walk. "I don't want to know." He muttered under his breath. I got up and held out my hand to Sophie. She took it and stood up. We both snickered a little, and then sat back down at the table. "Aye guys," Dally got a beer out of the fridge and turned back to us. "Let's go visit Johnny in the hospital." He popped the top of the bottle off.
"Really Dal'," Sophie interrupted. "You're drinking at eleven in the morning?"
Dally chuckled, then swept the questions away. "C'mon guys, we can go see a movie or somethin' after." Dally coaxed. He waited for a moment, but no one spoke. "Alright, we leave in ten minutes." He concluded then took a sip of his beer and walked out of the room.
I glanced over at Sophie who was looked down at her fingers and didn't look too happy.
SOPHIE'S P.O.V.
I didn't really want to see Johnny. He did just tell me that he didn't like me the way I liked him. I didn't even get a chance to tell him how I felt. I looked down at my hands and frowned. 'I never even had a relationship.' I though. 'I'm over him.' I mean, I needed to be. I need to focus on someone else. Mason was the first person that came to mind fro some reason, but all though was washed away when to my surprise, I was picked up and thrown over someone's shoulder.
I yelped and looked down. Ponyboy had flung me over his shoulder. "Pony what are you doing?" I asked giggling through my voice.
"Making you happy again."
'Oops' I thought. 'Pony saw me being sad. Now he's gonna ask me why I was sad. I gotta be more careful.' I thought. I laughed as Pony ran around the house with me on his back. I playfully punched his back and yelled. "Lemme down Ponyboy Curtis!" I whined.
He stopped in the living room and looked at me as he huffed for air. "Gimme a smile" He chuckled.
I hesitated for a minute, then smiled a big goofy, toothy smile. I giggled a little as I forcibly held the smile. "Much better." He looked at me with a satisfied and content smile.
Dally walked out of the other room and cracked his knuckles. "'Ight guys," He smiled slightly. "Let's go see Johnny, man." He walked coolly out the front door.
It was freezing outside and I didn't have a coat. I never really used my head for common sense. Not that I used y head for school, though. But I was planing on changing that when I started school again. Pony, Sodapop, Two-Bit and I followed close behind. Dally, Sodapop and Two-Bit led us in the front. I overheard them talking about going to see a movie after this at the drive-in for the nightly double. Pony and I walked a few yards behind them, and we had a conversation of our own. We talk about school and how Darry had already registered me. I would start in about a week after Thanksgiving break. "So you and Johnny gonna try out for track?" I asked.
Pony hesitated for a moment. "I am." He said bluntly.
I put my thumbs in my pockets, and without thinking, I asked my next question. "I thought you and Johnny both were gonna try out."
Pony stuttered as he mustered for words. "Hopefully we both can, i-if Johnny gets better." He looked down at his feet a little sad looking.
"Oh yeah," I felt stupid. "I forgot for a minute there."
"You gonna try out for something?" He asked obviously trying to change the subject.
I kicked a rock and looked at the ground as we walked. "I dunno. What do ya guys have for girls to try out for?"
"Ummm.." Pony thought aloud. "You can try out for track, volleyball, tennis, or cheerleading."
I pondered upon the idea of joining a sports team. Oy would help me start off good at this new school to be involved in extracurricular activities. "I guess I could try out for cheerleading." I thought aloud as he had done. "Although, I've never even touched pom poms. And I definitely can't do any of those fancy-shmancy flips and stuff."
"You don't need to be good at that kinda stuff." He waved his hand. "Ya just gotta look the part." He looked forward. "And you look the part perfect."
"What's 'the part' mean?"
"Pretty." He said bluntly before he noticed what he had said. When he did, his face lit up and realized that he just called me pretty.
"Ponyboy Curtis!" I exclaimed sounding surprised. "Did you just call me pretty?" I acted taken a back.
He blushed bright red and bit his lip. He shoved his fists in his pockets and made sure to keep his eyes on the ground. I shivered at a cold gust of wind. Pony noticed quickly and slipped his jacket off. "Here," He said. "Take mine."
"No, no I couldn't." I insisted. But before I could protest anymore, his jacket was already wrapped around me. "Thanks." I also blushed as we walked along.
Pony was still a hue of pink from blushing earlier, and I was the same shade from his act of kindness. We walked making small talk about school the rest of the way to the hospital. All the boys had cars, I don't know why we didn't just ride in one of their cars to get there.
1. It was cold as balls out.
2. We are more likely to get jumped if were not in a car.
3. We could get to the hospital and wherever we were going after, faster.
Seriously, sometimes I don't get the decisions these people make. But they are as close as family, so I don't question it.
When we reached the hospital, Sodapop went up to the front desk and talked to the lady, trying to get us all in at the same time. We all sat in the waiting room. No one was talking, everyone was kinda on edge about Johnny's condition. Darry and Steve came in and joined us in the waiting room. Soon enough, Sodapop came back and we all hopped up. "What did they say?" Dally was the first one to speak.
"She said that she would go see if he is well enough for visitors." Soda said a little grimly.
We all simultaneously sighed and sat back down. There was no one else in the waiting room but the gang. I looked up at the clock. It was a little after noon, and we were still waiting. AT about twelve thirty, a doctor came in. We all stood up eagerly. "How is he doc?" Two-Bit asked.
The doctor looked a little taken aback by the room full of teenagers waiting for medical news on their friend. He smiled slightly probably at the thought of how much we cared for this one kid. "My name is Dr. Graveson. I'm Johnathan Cade's doctor."
Everyone was confused for a moment when he called Johnny by his full name. "Johnny?" I asked.
He looked at me. "Yes, Johnny." I nodded and he went back to address the whole group. Everyone held their breath as he started to talk again. "Johnny has made dramatic recoveries." The doctor smiled and a weight lifted from the room. "He is stable and has been since late last night. If he keeps recovering at this pace, he could be out of the hospital with only minor injuries left in about," He stopped to think. "Four, five days." The whole gang cheered and the doctor started to chuckle at this sight. "You must really care 'bout this boy." The doctor said to the whole group, but looking at me.
"We're all real close." I told him. "We're family."
"This is a good thing to have growing up." He was now talking directly to me. "A good group of friends like this, I mean." Then he walked away.
The front desk lady came over to us. "You can see your friend now." She said with a small uninterested smile.
We all raced to his door, but stopped and took a moment to calm down outside. Darry was the first inside. I was last. I hesitated to walk in. Pony notice me not coming in and walked over unnoticed. "C'mon Soph." He smiled at me with a hint of unintended sympathy in his eyes."
I then mustered up enough courage and walked in. Johnny was awake and sitting up in bed. Me and Pony walked close into the room. Johnny was talking to the gang as a whole until he saw me. He stopped talking and looked at me. "Hey Sophie." He said bluntly.
Everyone looked at me and I wanted to crawl up in a ball and have no one to ever look at me again. My face felt hot and I could sense me blushing already. But not in a good way, I was blushing out of embarrassment. "Hey Johnnycakes." I whispered.
He looked me up and down and something caught his eyes. I looked down and saw that he had seen that I was wearing Pony's jacket. He clenched his jaw and I shifted my weight onto one foot awkwardly. He seemed to snap back to what was actually happening, and he continued to talk to the gang. Everyone stopped looking at me except Ponyboy. "That was sure awkward." He whispered to me.
"As awkward as it could be." I whispered back.
We talked to Johnny for about fourty five minutes. Johnny told us that he felt a lot better, and he told Pony that he was gonna try to try out for the track team if he could. Pony was very happy at the news, and he smiled bigger than ever. Johnny very obviously tried avoiding eye contact with me the whole time. It was unenjoyable for me. We said our farewells, and left.
It was really cold outside, but Pony's jacket was warm. We all walked down the street in a group until we stopped under a street lamp. "Hey, Me, Soda, Darry, and Two-Bit are gonna run back to the DX." Steve said scratching his nose. "We'll meet you guys at the nightly double, savvy?"
Dally nodded and the group left, leaving me, Dally, and Pony. "We're early." Dally said cracking his knuckles. "Let's go get somethin' to eat." He said turning away from us and starting to walk.
Me and Pony had to speed walk to keep up with Dally's cool walk. a few times, Dally had us stop so he could try and pick up a few broads, and each time they declined. We walked into a diner that I didn't catch the name of and sat in a corner booth. Dally ordered us a few cokes and started to talk aimlessly as he does. I sat with my head on my hand and I sipped my coke. I looked around the diner and saw someone who was familiar to me. The guy had sunglasses on, so I couldn't exactly see his face, but he looked so familiar. Then I saw him speak. I couldn't hear him, but I could see the way he talked. He talked cocky and ignorant like. He moved coolly, like he was too tuff for everything. I recognized him then. It was Mason, the guy who saved me from those socs and drove me home when I was walking back from the hospital. "Hey guys," I said getting up. "I'll be right back." I kept my eyes on Mason as I walked over.
When I reached him, I caught his attention. "Hey Mason." I smiled and held my hands together.
"Sophie!" He said smiling and chuckling a little. He quickly slipped off his sunglasses and slid them on his shirt neck. "How ya doin'?" He asked turning all of his attention to me.
"Great!" I replied trying to sound happy.
He looked at me up and down. "Ya know," He started. "Me and you should go out sometime." He said licking his lips.
I thought about this for a minute. I mean, me and Johnny never really were anything, and someone to help me get over Johnny would be nice. I hesitated, then spoke. "Yeah," I said "Yeah we should." I smiled big and toothy at him.
He thought for a minute, looking up at the ceiling. Then, his face lit up. "There's a fair."
"What?"
"A fair. It's an end of fall county fair." I still looked confused. "You know, rides and games and stuff." He said.
I smiled at the idea. "When?"
"Uhh.." He thought aloud. "A few days after Thanksgiving." One of his friends tapped him on the shoulder and pointed to the door. "I gotta go." He said smiling and rushing out. He hustled towards the door and slipped his sunglasses back on his face. Right before he went out the door, he turned back to me. "I'll call you Sophie Winston!" He laughed as he then stumbled out the door.
I giggled at just the sight of him. And I watched him walk outside and jump in his black t-bird. I sighed and slowly walked back to the table. I then noticed that Pony and Dally were looking at me the whole time. They were too far to hear me, but they still saw me with Mason. I sat back down and tried to play it off as nothing, but Dally and Pony were very intrigued. I looked down at my coke and sipped it. I glanced back up and Pony raised an eyebrow. I looked back down trying to avoid their stares. "Who the hell was that?" Dally asked sounding surprised and outraged at the same time.
"Cool it Dal'." I looked at him contradicting. "He's just a friend." I mumbled.
"He sure didn't look at you like you were just friends." Pony said kind of protective.
Dally leaned in closer to me. "that was Mason Bennett, right?" Dally said more seriously than anything else. I nodded slightly glancing at Pony who was stirring in his seat. Dally then leaned back and put his arms across the back of the booth seats. "I don't want you hanging out with him." He said glancing around the room as if to see if anyone was listening.
"Why?" I was mad because Dally was once again trying to tell me how to live.
"He's bad news." Dally continued trying to act cool like he does when he's around girls.
I also leaned back in my seat. I threw my hands up not understanding what the big deal was. "You can't tell me who to hang out with!" I said a little louder than intended.
"Yes I can and I will!" Dally yelled causing the whole diner to go completely silent and look at us.
I looked around at the curious faces. "Nothing to see here!" I yelled to the whole diner. Everyone looked away immediately, but some purposeful wandering eyes still stared at us. I looked back at Dally with rage in my eyes and red hot anger. I took a deep breath when I saw Pony sitting there timidly. I calmed myself down so Ponyboy wouldn't feel awkward sitting next to us fighting. I closed my eyes for a second, then opened them. "Well I have a date with him, and I'm not cancelling it." I said that without really thinking at all.
I looked at both of their different facial expressions, and both made me a little uneasy to my stomach. Pony's face was sad for some reason, I didn't think he really cared about who I went out with. Dally's face was so many different emotions, I couldn't identify all of them. There was surprise, betrayal, anger and most of all disappointment. His mouth hung about, unlike Pony who had his jaw clenched tight. Dally then got up and walked straight out of the diner. I looked down at my fingers. For a few minutes me and Pony sat their silently. I kept my eyes on the ground, and strangely enough, Pony kept his eyes directly on me. Even when I looked up at him, he kept his eye in a dead stare. "What's wrong with him?" I said finally.
"What?" Pony snapped out of a trance. "With who?"
"Mason!"
Pony sat for a minute thinking. "He's gotten into a lot of trouble-"
"Yeah but so have all of you, so has Dally!" I interrupted.
"He has a reputation." Pony continued.
"So does Dally!"
"It's not like Dally!" Pony snapped. I was a take aback by his outburst. He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "You're right, we all have reputations, and we all get in trouble, but not like Mason. Mason is a grade A jackass. He cheats and steals and has gotten kicked out of school more times then I can count. He flips off cops and drag races and makes bets and doesn't have any self control." Pony looked down, then back up at me. "He's is a greaser times ten."
"He saved me from getting jumped. He's not all that bad, maybe he's changed."
"Maybe." Pony whispered. I continued to sip my coke until it was all gone. "It's time to go." Pony said several minutes later.
We got up and started walking to the drive-in. It was a good distance there, and it was freezing, but I thought the walk was fine. It was still very cold outside, and it was starting to get later and the sun was setting, so it got even colder. I caught Ponyboy shivering in the corner of my eye. "You want your coat back?" I asked smiling at him.
He glanced at me and winced as an attempt at a smile. "No, I'm fine." He lied.
I took off the coat and handed it to him. "Here, take it."
"No really you can wear it." He protested.
"Trust me Pony, it looks better on you." I smiled at him with my eyes. "'Sides, I've been wearing it the whole day, I'm pleantly warm." Pony still hesitated at taking the jacket. I know he was dying to take it and put it on, but he was too much of a gentleman and I know it. "I'm not putting it back on Pony, so you take it, or both of us will have to freeze." I then flung the jacket on his shoulder and it stayed there.
"You sure?"
"Definitely." I Lifted my chin slightly upward and smiled.
We walked in high spirits the rest of the way to the drive-in. When we got there, it was dark and the sky was just lit up on one side with a light shade of blue still left. As opposed to the other side of the sky which was a dark, black-ish shade of blue. Pony and I both payed a few cents to get in, and Pony told me that they usually just sneak in, and that it felt good to get in legally for once. There was a seating area across all the parking spaces that we were heading to. We passed a lot of people that were an interesting sight to see. A lot of girls with their boyfriends at their sides, a lot of greaser boys following girls, tryna pick them up. Stuff like that. Most of the people we past were totally drunk. They wobbled as they walked and mumbled to themselves if they weren't already drunkenly blabbering to someone else.
As we got closer to the seating area, two girls caught my eye. They were walking and laughing, carrying a two cokes and a small bag of popcorn. I didn't recognized them 'till they were close enough to recognize us also. "It's Cherry Valance." I whispered to Pony.
His face lit up with fear and worry and he looked around to finally spot them. "Just keep walking." He whispered even quieter back to me and looked down at the ground.
I stuffed my fists in my pockets and did as Pony had told me. "Ponyboy?" A cool girl's voice caused me to jump a little.
We both looked up, even though we already knew who it was. Marcia was with her, carrying the popcorn and one of the coke bottles. "I ain't got nothing to say to you Cherry."
She looked confused and hurt, even enough for a moment there, I felt bad for her. "What did I do to deserve this ridicule?" She asked still staying calm and cool.
I admired how she could sound so cool and smooth even when she was in this kind of awkward and unique situation. "You told your little boyfriend that Sophie was a Winston and the news spread like a wildfire." Pony spat accusingly.
She looked even more confused and now taken aback. "I didn't tell no one that she was a Winston."
"Well no one else knew but you and the gang, and my gang don't talk to no socs." Pony debated.
I looked over at Marcia who was biting her lip and nervously twitching. Apparently, Cherry had the same thought as I did, and looked to Marcia. Marcia immediately noticed that Cherry was looking at her and she clenched her jaw tight. Cherry only had to look at her for a few moments before she broke. "I didn't think that word would get out." Marcia said so quick I had to go over it again in my mind to process it.
"Oh Marcia." Cherry said like she should have known better.
"Cherry, Marcia, what are you doing?!" Yelled a male voice from behind them.
We all looked to see who it was. It was Bob. "We should go." I said aloud.
Pony silently agreed and we turned to walk away briskly. "Hey greasers!" Yelled Bob. "Just you wait a minute!"