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Cherry sighed, and rubbed her eyes in an attempt to keep herself awake as she started on the last page of her math homework. She was sitting at the Curtis family’s kitchen table, and Soda was making dinner while he blasted Elvis, singing along at the top of his lungs.
If you had told Cherry from a year ago that she was hanging out after school at a greasers house, she wouldn’t have believed it. But after everything that had happened last September, Cherry had slowly started to become friends with Ponyboy, and even closer with his older brother Sodapop.
She used to just go over to Bob's house when she wanted to escape her parents, and then after he died she’d go over to Marcia’s. But recently, she’d been finding a refuge in the Curtis family's home. She loved their house, it was warm and welcoming, so different from where she grew up.
Today it was just Soda and Cherry- a very rare occurrence, as usually one of Soda's brothers or the friends that were practically his family would be hanging around the house as well. But today, Darrel was at work, Ponyboy was at track practice, and the rest of their “gang” was… who knows where.
She finally finished her last math problem and pushed the papers away from her, leaning back to rest her head on the wall and closing her eyes.
“You finally done?” Soda asked over his shoulder.
“Mhm,” Cherry confirmed, too exhausted from the homework to formulate a good response.
When she opened her eyes again he was standing in front of her, a hand outstretched. “Wanna dance?” He offered with a mischievous grin.
Cherry laughed in spite of herself, and of course, accepted. She could never say no to him.
Cherry and Soda were an unstoppable pair when it came to dancing. Between all her years of cheerleading, and his natural love for it, it was something they could do forever.
Soda took her hand and pulled her up, spinning her around. They started dancing around the kitchen, spinning, dipping, and laughing through the entire song. When the music finally came to its end, Soda twirled Cherry into him, so that his hands were at her waist, and her hands were resting on his chest. Their faces were close together, and she could feel his heavy breath on her face. She felt a blush rising to her cheeks, but she didn’t move away.
Before she knew what she was doing, Cherry's hands moved upwards, one resting on the nape of Soda's neck and the other tangling in his hair, which held less grease in it than normal. It was just as soft as Cherry had always imagined it would be.
One of Soda's hands moved up so it was holding the back of her head, and Cherry leaned in so that their foreheads were resting on each other, their warm breath mixing in the space between their faces.
If she moved forward at all, they'd be kissing.
She wanted to do it. This had been building up between them for months- of course it had been- but they both were too scared to confront it. Cherry had still been grieving Bob, and Soda hadn't been ready for a relationship after the intense heartbreak he went through with Sandy.
But still, it took everything in Cherry not to move forward so their lips could meet. She shut her eyes, perhaps from fear that if she opened them and met his gaze she wouldn’t be able to hold herself back anymore. But to be fair, he didn’t make any move to pull away from her either. All the sense in her brain was screaming to move back and pretend nothing had happened. And yet, she couldn’t bring herself to move a muscle.
“We shouldn’t-“ Soda started quietly, in a strained voice.
“I know.” Cherry interrupted.
“It would be a really bad-“
“I know.”
“But, I want to...”
“I know.”
“Can I?” Soda choked out.
Cherry had spent a long time holding herself back after Bob had died. She would always love him, he was her first love, and they had had something truly special. But she wondered now if perhaps it was time to try and move on. There was a time when any reminder of Bob was like a sharp stab to her heart, and the pain was always present. But now… she wanted to kiss another boy. And she didn’t feel guilty in the slightest. Not in the way she once would have felt.
And if Soda wanted this, she knew he must be healing from Sandy as well. So maybe it was finally time to try.
“Yes.” Cherry breathed.
In a second their lips met, and suddenly there were fireworks exploding in her stomach and everything in her body was screaming about just how right this felt.
She found herself stumbling backwards, and felt Soda's body pinning her against the wall. His hands were on her waist, and then her cheeks, and then tangling up in her hair, and she wondered how the hell she had managed to go through so much of her life without this, because kissing Soda was better than any of the luxuries she’d experienced in her life.
But then he was pulling away from her, practically launching himself across the room onto a chair at the table. Cherry stood against the wall for a moment, trying to catch her breath, before making her way to the bench across from him. She didn’t take his hand or touch him, because she was scared that if she did, she’d never be able to let go.
“Well, I guess that ‘just friends’ excuse won't work anymore,” Soda laughed breathlessly. “Unless, I mean- unless you didn’t like that and you do wanna just stay friends. I mean that’s fine with me, of course, if you’re still not ready or something…”
Cherry nearly laughed. She didn’t like that? Was he crazy? “I think… I’m ready to try.” Cherry confessed. It felt good to admit that to herself. “Are you?”
Soda nodded. “I think I am.” He paused, then asked, “So what now?”
“You have lipstick on your face.”
Soda laughed, and Cherry joined him. His laugh was infectious, she could never stop herself. She reached into the pocket on the inside of her cardigan for a hankerchief, then handed it to the boy across from her. He wiped at the red marks that were left all over his lips.
“Am I good?”
“Yep.” Cherry confirmed, taking back her hanky. They sat across from each other awkwardly. Cherry's lips were still tingling.
And then the front door came crashing open, the sounds of Ponyboy returning home filling the house. He peeked his head through the doorway for a moment.
“Oh- hey Cherry! I forgot you were coming over tonight. You staying for dinner?”
“Yep! We’re just waiting for Darry now. Go get yourself cleaned up!” Soda called, trying to encourage the sweaty kid to take a shower. Luckily, he obeyed, and the sound of the loud running water soon came from the bathroom. Soda turned back to Cherry.
“So, have you reached a decision on our next steps?” Soda asked.
“I think we should go on a date.”
“A date?”
“A date.”
“Do we tell people about this date?”
Cherry pondered this. “I think we might want to keep… this… hidden. Just for a while! If we do crash and burn I’d prefer to control the damage. And I’m afraid if Ponyboy knew, he’d raise all hell if we break up.”
Soda nodded, finding this logic sound. “Alright. I’ll call you tonight, we can try and plan something for the weekend.” A huge grin that he’d been suppressing finally found itself growing on Soda's face. Cherry found herself doing the same in spite of herself.
Soda reached his hand across the table, and Cherry slowly inched her own towards him. Their fingertips met, sparks flying through her body at the contact. Slowly, like two dancers learning to partner with each other for the first time, they slid their hands together until their fingers finally intertwined. They kept their eyes on this contact, like it was a sacred thing that kept them tethered to the earth.
They both had been hurt before. They held wounds that went deeper than either of them would ever care to admit. But at long last, those wounds finally had a chance of healing.