Chapter Text
It was around 7:30 when Sodapop got back from work, he ran right through the front door, slamming it shut, and ran into his bedroom. "Shower!" Darry shouted after him before there was a loud slam of the bedroom door. Darry sighed, defeated, and focused back to the pot on the stove.
After a few minutes of muffled shuffling, Soda headed out of his bedroom in a new set of clothes and over to the living room then plopped right down on the couch, pillows falling onto the floor that Darry would ultimately have to pick up later.
"Pone home yet?"
Soda asked as he stumbled around the coffee table, his hand searching for the TV remote. "Naw," Darry said through gritted teeth as he stirred the pot of whatever they were going to have for dinner, "Hopefully he'll be back once this food is done." Soda nodded in agreement with a light chuckle, but Darry could tell that he wasn't really listening. He had that look babies do when they're really drawn into something, and that something was the TV for Sodapop.
Darry placed the lid onto the pot, setting the stove low to let the food simmer then joined him over on the couch. Soda pulled his legs up under him and Darry sat down next to him comfortably. They sat together in silence, watching as the screen played a cartoon they’ve both seen over a dozen times by now.
After Darry’s head started pounding from the straining lights of the TV screen, he stretched then got up off the couch to go check on the food that was still on the stove.
Darry took the lid off the pot then, deciding that it was done, set the lid down and began to set up the table for supper. As he did so, he had caught a glimpse of the clock that hung crooked on the kitchen wall. It read ‘8:30’.
Ponyboy should've definitely been home by now.
Darry thought then he shook his head and huffed under his breath, “Where is that boy.” The plate Darry set down rattled against the table so loud that he thought it nearly broke right in half. When he finished setting up the table, he said, "Soda, dinner!” Soda walked over to the table shortly after and sat in his self-assigned seat, a glaringly empty seat between the two of them.
"He’s still not home?" Soda raised an eyebrow at Darry as he noticed it.
Darry didn’t say a word, instead he nodded slightly and began to eat. He was starting to feel frustrated. He had worked his ass off everyday, cleaned up after the two of them, and now he was having to worry about if his youngest brother was out dying on the street somewhere? He didn’t know how to hold all these things together at once.
Man, it was so frustrating.
Darry wasn't planning on snapping at Soda, so they sat in silence for a while. Only hearing the sounds of muffled chewing and silverware scraping against their cheap, ceramic plates.
Darry had all sorts of things on his mind and it was making him more furious by the second.
He gritted his teeth, hoping to stifle his rage, but then he blurted out, “He knows he should be home by dinner, that's my only rule!” Darry gripped the spoon in his hand so tight that his knuckles turned white. “I'm almost never strict with Ponyboy. I just did what them court people told me too and kept his – and your – asses out of trouble with the law, and this is the thanks I get?!” Darry stopped and looked up at Soda, he was wide-eyed and frightened.
Darry shook his head and got up from the table abruptly, cursing at himself as he made his way over to the sink and started washing out his dirty bowl.
Soda came into the kitchen a while later and handed Darry his bowl. He took the bowl and set it in the sink, he’d get it in a minute.
Soda propped himself up and onto the counter beside Darry as he continued doing the dishes. Darry felt his restlessness, he was fidgeting, playing with his ring and swinging his legs back and forth from the cabinets under him. Darry sighed but before he could say anything Soda had already started talking, "I know you're worried Dar," He gave Darry an empathetic smile then continued, "I am too. But he can hold his own. Besides, Dally looks out for him good." He nudged at Darry's shoulder.
"Dally won't do him good at all!" Darry snapped, vigorously scrubbing at the bowl in his hands. "Hell, he'll end up in a cell right along with 'im!" Soda's twisted into a look of sadness and then it got quiet again. Darry sighed, wiped his hands off with a rag then hung it over the front side of the sink.
Soda hopped off the counter then followed Darry into the living room. “Maybe– Maybe he's just running late, having too much fun, that's all.” He reasoned as he sat back down on the couch. Darry shook his head then sat down in his recliner, “Maybe.” He repeated at Soda. Soda sighed at the response then started to watch whatever was on TV as Darry picked up a magazine from the coffee table and read it.
Throughout the hours, Darry kept looking over at the clock and checking the time. 9 o' clock, 10 o' clock, 11 o' clock. Around 12:25, Soda was out. Darry turned off the TV and threw a blanket over him. As the minutes passed, he grew restless. Darry’s mind was racing a mile a minute and much of it was worry and fear. What if he'd gotten jumped and was crying out for him, like he had only a day prior? What if he was in a jail cell because Dally did something stupid? Darry just couldn't stop himself from pacing around the living room and worrying himself sick.
He was so damn worried.
After a while, his legs grew tired and he sat down to read again. He hoped it would clear his mind and get him calm.
Just as he sat down, Darry heard the front door's knob jiggle and he nearly jumped out of his seat when he saw Ponyboy walk through the door.
“Do you have any idea how late it is?!”
He began to holler at his youngest brother, closing the door hard behind the boy as he made his way inside. Soda jumped awake once he heard the door slam and he looked as white as a ghost.
Ponyboy muttered a quiet, “No.”
Then Darry replied, “It's two in the damn morning kiddo!”
Darry placed a hand firmly on his hip then continued, “Where in the hell were you all night, kid?!” Ponyboy leaned against the door, arms crossed, and he was shivering like he was cold.
“I–I fell asleep in the lot–” He stammered out, rubbing his arms and looking down at the floor.
Darry interrupted him loudly, “You what?!”
Soda got up and was in between his brothers now, trying to stop the pair from arguing.
“I was with Johnny, and we fell asleep in the lot.” Darry felt his blood boil and clenched his fists. “It was an accident, I didn't mean to.”
“An accident, You didn't mean too?!” He continued to holler, “Ponyboy, do you ever use your head? Do you know what could'a happened to you?!”
Soda pushed Ponyboy gently, by the shoulder, into their shared bedroom.
“He's home now, ain't he?” Soda started softly, closing the bedroom door gently behind his younger brother.
“But he might not have, had he gotten home any later!” Darry retaliated, still shouting. His voice cracked a little, he hated yelling at Sodapop and he hated yelling at Ponyboy.
“Well, he is now an' that's all that matters!” Soda shouted back at Darry. They both stood there for a minute, in shock, and silence fell between the two of them. Never in his seventeen years of life had Soda yelled at Darry, or at anybody for that matter.
“You know what, since you two can handle it on your own, how 'bout I just leave?”
He twisted the door knob, feeling the cold metal against his shaking hand. Darry felt all the rage and frustration boil over him until he was nothing more than an active volcano. He worked too long, too hard, to be treated like nothing more than some annoying housemaid by the people that he cherished most in his life. Couldn’t they see how much he did for the two of them?
“Huh?” He paused, looking at Soda with such anger.
“Darry–” Soda began but Darry cut him off.
“See how well y'all hold up when I'm not there to pick up after y'all, cook y'all food, do y'all's damn dishes and laundry! See how well it goes for you when I'm gone!”
Without a second thought, Darry ran.
He ran out the house, slamming the door with a loud bang, storming down the porch, and jumped their house's gate. Soda had tried to chase after him, but wasn't fast enough and lost him after a sharp turn about half a block down from Johnny's street. Darry ran with all the energy he had left from the day. He ran past Johnny's place, ran through the muddy lot, and all the way until he found himself in a clean looking neighborhood.
A clean, familiar neighborhood.