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Johnny watched as Steve stepped outside and scanned the sidewalk, looking for him. Something about it was strange; they were almost a month into the school year and Johnny still wasn’t used to seeing Steve and not seeing Soda. He suspected it would still be strange by the time they got to May.
Steve gave him a nod when he saw him. “You alright?”
“Yeah, I’m good. You?”
“I’m ready to get outta here.”
They pushed their way through the other kids to get to the parking lot. “I’m guessin’ Dally didn’t all of a sudden show up this afternoon,” Steve said, shifting his books from one arm to the other. “You know where Two-Bit went?”
“He said somethin’ about havin’ to talk to Kathy.”
“What for?”
Johnny gave him a look. “I didn’t ask.”
“Right,” Steve chuckled. “He probably did somethin’ stupid again. I’m sure we’ll hear about it later. What about Pony?”
“He had to talk to Mr. Syme ‘bout an assignment. He said Darry’s gonna pick him up ‘cause he’s between shifts.”
“So we don’t have to wait on him?” Steve asked with a grin.
Johnny rolled his eyes. “No.”
“Sweet.”
Even so, Steve didn’t tear out of the parking lot right away like he usually did when they got to his car. First, he grabbed a pack of smokes from the glove box and lit one for each of them. As they smoked he complained about a project his class had started in Physics and honked at some of the other kids walking to their cars. Then he changed into his work shirt, and then he tore out of the parking lot, flipping off a group of Socs on the way.
Johnny got that strange feeling again as Steve complained some more about his project. He thought about how if his grades hadn’t been so bad and they hadn’t held him back, he’d probably be in Physics the last hour of the day this year, just like Steve, instead of in history with Pony. It would sort of hit him all at once like that sometimes; how maybe in another world he was smarter and nothing terrible happened to Mr. and Mrs. Curtis and Soda didn’t have to drop out and the two of them would still be right there with Steve. But that’s not how things were, and he tried not to get too upset about it all the time.
“Y’know, you could come to the game with us.”
“Huh?”
“Tonight,” Steve said between two more drags of his cigarette. He pulled off the road and drove around to the back side of the DX, putting his car in park. “You should come to the game with me and Soda.”
And with Evie and Sandy, Johnny wanted to say. “You heard Dally yesterday. Me and Pony are goin’ with him tonight.”
“I know, but I’m just sayin.’ You can if you want to.”
Johnny pressed his lips into a thin smile. “Nah, I’m okay. Thanks though.”
It wasn’t like he didn’t appreciate the invitation. He really did, and he thought Evie and Sandy were nice enough girls, but he never really knew what to do when they were around. He didn’t really. . . get it. Or maybe he did, but, either way, it just made him feel weird to see Steve and Soda act the way they did around Evie and Sandy. It seemed to him that Steve, who nowadays was pretty stuck on Evie, had forgotten all about that whole speech he’d given Johnny about girls.
The gas station was busy with the usual afternoon rush. Soda was manning the pumps, so Steve went to the register and rang up candy bars, pops, and whatever other after-school snacks the hoard of kids surrounding them wanted. Johnny grabbed a bottle of Pepsi and a stool, took a seat beside Steve, and watched.
He liked hanging out at the DX whenever he could. Mostly because it was fun just to be around Steve and Soda, but lately it had also become a little bit like their own world. Steve and Soda were in charge of things here, with nothing else to worry about except for cars and gasoline, and Johnny got to be a part of that. It was another place for him to be that wasn’t home or school. There were no parents or Socs, and it was easier to forget about all of their problems, even if it was only for a little while.
“Did you hear about Curly?” he asked, putting a dime on the counter as the crowd thinned.
Steve slid the coin back over to him and firmly shut the cash register. “What about him?”
“He’s probably gonna get put in the reformatory again.”
“Whatdya mean probably?”
“Hey!” Soda yelled from outside. “Don’t start without me!”
Two middle school kids who were still pawing through the candy jumped at the noise, but Johnny and Steve just laughed. Soda always insisted that they told him everything that happened or got talked about at school. It was that part that he missed the most, Johnny figured. The being around everyone and knowing what was going on with them. Of course Soda missed that.
So, Johnny didn’t say another word. But he didn’t have to wait very long. By the time Steve took the kids’ money and shooed them out the door, Soda was running over with a grin on his face. The last car had barely pulled away from the pump, but somehow he was there.
“C’mon, you know better than that, Johnnycake.” He gave him a light shove, then hit Steve with his rag. “You too.”
Johnny smiled around a swig of his Pepsi. “Sorry, Soda.”
“So, what’s this ‘bout Curly bein’ in the reformatory?”
“Well, he ain’t there yet. But Benny heard they’re tryin’ to get him for spray painting the whole back wall outside of Rusty’s. Some other people were sayin’ he busted a couple of windows there, too.”
“Was it actually him?” Soda asked.
“I think so. Nobody said any different.”
Steve shook his head. “Stupid kid. What was he even doin’ on that side of town?”
“I dunno,” Johnny shrugged, “but he cut out early today and I guess he’s tryin’ to lay low for now. Maybe make it to Monday before they take him in.”
“I doubt he makes it past tonight without gettin’ in more trouble.”
Neither Johnny or Soda argued with that. They now were at the point in the afternoon where every day it seemed like the time lulled. It’d be a little while yet before all the adults got off work and stopped for gas, and there just wasn’t much to do, so Soda hopped up onto the counter. “What else ya got?”
Johnny went back through the day in his mind, trying to remember the mental notes he’d made. It was easiest just to go from beginning to end; there was all the talk in the morning about who was throwing parties over the weekend, the fight between two seniors in front of the grocery store during lunch, and then the pulled fire alarm that got everybody out of fifth period fifteen minutes early. Steve interjected whenever he had something to add to what Johnny was saying, and then he talked about some of the stuff that’d happened in his classes. Soda hung on to all of it like there was nothing else more interesting.
“Oh, and you’ll never guess what Jonesy said in auto shop today,” Steve said with a snort.
Johnny didn’t really know Brian Jones that well, other than the fact that he had always been in the mechanic-type classes with Steve and Soda. But Soda grinned knowingly. “What?”
“Him and Alice have been goin’ out for what, three months or somethin’, right? He went and bought her a damn promise ring.”
Soda’s eyes got wide. “A real ring?” The curiosity was clear in his voice. It contrasted bluntly against the mocking tone Steve had.
“Well, no, it’s just some cheap thing he found at a discount store.” Steve paused. “But how lame is that? That’s like somethin’ a Soc would do.”
Soda only managed a small nod before he had to look at the ground, his ears slightly redder than before, and the silence that followed made Johnny want to squirm. But it wasn’t like he had anything to say, either.
“What?” Steve asked finally.
“I don’t know.” Soda toed at the concrete with his shoe. He drew in a big breath. “I guess I just think it’s kinda. . . well, I don’t know. You don’t think you’d ever do somethin’ like that for Evie?”
Johnny did squirm in his seat a little at that. He was feeling more and more like a fly on the wall for this conversation, more than he usually was.
“No,” Steve scoffed, quick and dismissive. But he glanced at Soda and faltered a bit over his next words. “No. But what? Are you sayin’ you’d do that for Sandy?”
The look on Soda’s face turned somewhat bashful, with just a hint of his usual confidence still present at the same time. He leaned in closer, looking at both of them, but Johnny still felt like maybe he wasn’t totally in on the secret.
“Don’t laugh or anything, okay?” Soda said softly. “But I just think me and Sandy might have a future, that’s all.”
“And you wanna get her a promise ring?” Steve asked.
“Well, no, I wasn’t exactly plannin’ on it. It’s not like I have a class ring to give her, either, but- but the idea is sorta nice, I guess.”
Steve just stared, and Johnny resigned to playing with the buttons on his jacket. He thought again about getting held back in school. He realized it sometimes felt like he’d been left behind in other ways, too. The thought of even going with a girl, let alone marrying one, he just couldn’t get his head around that. Or the fact that Soda was actually thinking about it. And even if Steve wasn’t thinking about it, Johnny knew he wasn’t just playing around with Evie. It was serious stuff. Maybe that’s why he always felt so weird around the girls.
“You can’t get married, Soda. That’d be crazy.”
“I know that,” Soda said, defensive. “I said future, didn’t I?”
For a second, Johnny felt like some of the outside world was starting to seep in. That would happen sometimes. Usually, it was easy just to think about how grown up Soda and Steve seemed while working and how almost grown up he felt while watching them. But then he’d be reminded of what all they were hiding from. Like how there was a reason Soda dropped out and worked full time and had so much responsibility, and he probably had enough responsibility for a sixteen-going-on-seventeen-year-old without thinking about getting married.
“Well,” Steve’s voice had gotten a little softer, “I think it’ll be a little while before the future gets here.”
“I told you, I know. I’m just thinkin’ about it. And I’m serious. And I hope-”
Soda’s eyes went back to the ground as he stopped. “Hope what?” Johnny asked.
“Oh, nothin’.” He looked at both of them again. “Hey, be pals and don’t say anything about this to anyone else, okay?” They both nodded, and he smiled like he always did. “Why didn’t the girls come with you guys anyway?”
Johnny had sort of been wondering the same thing. It was pretty normal for Sandy and Evie to join them at the DX, especially on a Friday or Saturday to try and keep the girls who flirted with Soda –and sometimes Steve– away. It was becoming more rare for them not to be around.
“I asked Evie, but she said they were just gonna hang out at her house and get ready for the game. I said we’d pick ‘em up from there.”
A car pulled up to the gas pumps then, and Soda ran to meet it with that trademark friendliness that made the station so popular. Steve said something about having to check their small stock of parts and other miscellaneous items in the back. While he disappeared for a few minutes to do that, Johnny took the opportunity to grab another bottle of pop, this time quietly prying the register open to put two dimes in.
By the time he drank half the pop and Soda and Steve came back to the register, he was thinking about when he should leave to meet up with Dally and Pony.
Soda, like he could read Johnny’s mind, lifted himself onto the counter again. “You’re goin’ to the drive-in tonight, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t you think he should come with us instead?” Steve butted in.
Johnny rolled his eyes, but Soda grinned. “Yeah, you should come with us, Johnny. You want to?”
“I already told you no,” he said, looking at Steve.
“Why not?”
The thought of sitting at the game while Steve and Soda made out with their girlfriends under the bleachers truly did not sound like a good time to him. It didn’t matter if they would swear that wouldn’t happen, Johnny knew that’s how the night would go. And even if it by some chance didn’t, he knew just being around them all would bring up that feeling of being left behind again.
“I gotta make sure Dally doesn’t do somethin’ to get thrown in the cooler again,” he said easily, and there was truth to that. “Who’s gonna do that if I’m not there? Pony?”
It was Steve’s turn to roll his eyes. “If Dally wants to get in trouble again, he’s gonna get in trouble. It don’t matter who’s there.”
“Well, anyway, I wanna go to the movie.”
“Alright,” Steve sighed, but Johnny could tell he wasn’t annoyed.
“Hey, you and Pony could swing by tomorrow if you want,” Soda offered. “We’re both workin’.”
Johnny raised an eyebrow and glanced at Steve. “Me and Pony?”
He shrugged. “Sure. Mr. Anderson’s bringin’ his truck in, ain’t he?” he asked Soda, who nodded. “You guys could help us work on it.”
If Steve had no problem with Pony coming, Johnny figured that meant Evie and Sandy wouldn’t be visiting for once. “Yeah, okay. We’ll stop by.”
“Tuff enough.”
It was about time for the second rush of the afternoon, and he needed to get going, so Johnny got up and downed the last bit of his Pepsi. Just as he opened his mouth to say goodbye, Soda grabbed his arm and slid off the counter to stand next to him.
“Could you do me a favor?” he asked.
Johnny saw how serious he was all of a sudden. “Sure, Soda.”
“Tonight, can you kinda keep an eye on Pony?” A trace of humor passed over his face briefly. “Y’know, in between keepin’ track of Dallas and whatever else you guys get up to, just make sure that he’s okay?”
“Yeah,” Johnny nodded. “Yeah, I can do that.”
“Thanks,” Soda breathed, not quite relaxed. “Me and Darry just got a little worried yesterday, y’know, with him gettin’ jumped. Actually, Darry’s worried somethin’ awful, I think, and I know it spooked Pony pretty bad.”
Johnny had to hold back a shudder, remembering it. It had made him almost sick to see Pony lying on the ground with those Socs all over him. It made him think of that blue Mustang. Any jumping did, nowadays. And he just hated it. Ponyboy was only fourteen, after all, and a good buddy. Johnny wished that didn’t happen to him.
He steadied himself, hoping he looked convincing. “Yeah,” he repeated, “don’t worry, we’ll be alright.”
Soda smiled at him warmly, giving him a friendly shove. “Thanks, Johnny. I appreciate it.”
“Sure.” He walked to the door and Soda and Steve followed, stopping as he stepped outside. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow then.”
“Don’t have too much fun tonight,” Steve called out.
“You neither,” he shot back, turning around to look at them. They both waved.
“See ya.”
“Bye, Johnny.”