Jacqueline
"What the hell was that white boy doin'?" I heard a girl say as we rounded back to the corner store parking lot, mostly everyone had gone home, but some kids were hanging back to talk, including my trio.
"Wasn't he the one in the paper?" Valentina asked, another girl nodded, pulling out a cigarette carton.
"Yeah him and the good looking one were those sob story orphans when that kid died." she said, pulling a lighter out. I wanted to say something to add to the conversation, but I bit my tongue. Didn't want anyone to suspect nothing, doubt they would, but I wanted to stay on the safe side.
"Y'all wanna go to the north side diner? I'll drive," Dustin asked, I looked at him with a confused look on my face, but I saw him staring at Valentina. I remembered he had the biggest crush on her for a while, maybe he was falling into his old habits. I couldn't blame him, she was real easy on the eyes.
"Yeah sure!" she smiled and soon enough 6 of us kids were sitting in the back of Dustin's pick up with Valentina and Dustin in the front.
"You're real pretty, how come I haven't seen you around?" I looked to my side at a boy I'd never seen in my life. He wore a massive fro and had big eyes, he looked kind of cartoony. I shrugged smiling,
"I dunno," I said, he grinned, nobody was really paying attention to our conversation, all talking to other people. I saw Susan talking to Skipper and almost rolled my eyes, it was obvious she didn't want to be talking to him and he seemed to be clinging onto her every word.
"You got a boyfriend honey?" he asked me, I nodded.
"Mhm," I hummed, Susan whipped her head around. Guess somebody was paying attention.
"The fuck?" she mouthed, I discretely shook my head and motioned to the guy, she nodded and mouthed,
"Oh ok," I chuckled and the boy with the fro nodded,
"Oh alright, sorry." he said, I smiled,
"It's okay." I liked being able to say I had a boyfriend, even if he was 'the sob story orphan'.
***
"Why are we listenin' to Halloween music?" Ponyboy asked me, sitting at my desk. I rolled my eyes at him as I turned my record player up,
"'Cause it's the loudest one and Vanessa likes to listen outside my door." I say, sitting on my bed and crossing my legs. He chuckles, tossing a random rubber ball between his hands. Frankenstein Twist filled my room as Ponyboy and I talked,
"So what were you doin' at that protest?" I asked him, genuinely curious. It'd been a couple days since then and it'd been buggin' me on what he was doing there. He arched an eyebrow, (he finally learned how) and then had a 'oh yeah I did do that' look on his face. He shrugged,
"I dunno, Sodapop was doin' it for kicks and I thought it'd be fun," he told me, I nodded and we continued talking, but in the back of my mind a thought stayed persistent. What was so fun about a protest for my rights?
***
"I'll see ya Ponyboy," I giggled as we continued our conversation on my front porch.
"Bye doll," he smiled. I kissed his cheek as a departure and he grinned and soon of course, he was gone. I made my way upstairs to my room and of course Vanessa was roaming around.
"Get out," I said, taking my earrings out. She rolled her eyes, rummaging through my closet.
"Just because your boyfriend came over don't mean you gotta be so moody." she said, I flipped her off, placing the pearls into my jewelry box.
"One, not my boyfriend," I lied,
"and I'm always like this." I joked and she giggled, grabbing my light blue cardigan and pulling it out.
"Can I wear this tomorrow to Tommy's house?" she asked, I sucked my teeth squinting at it.
"Yeah alright, now get out." she smiled and quickly left, cardigan in hand. I rolled my eyes smiling, going down to watch TV. I flipped on The Lucy Show and I really did try to watch it, but it just rubbed me the wrong way what Ponyboy had said. 'for kicks', was the bit that stuck with me. Whatever, he didn't mean any harm by it, probably.
authors note:
sorry this one is so bad and so short. i'm gonna be honest with y'all, this book might be coming to an end soon :( but if you like sodapop and susan then you'll like my next book ;)