Work Text:
I wake up with the sun peaking through my curtains and a slight hangover from the night before. I roll out of bed and walk over to my little brother David’s room. He had just turned 14 a week ago and was the same age as Pony, but they’ve never met. Although David has met some of the Greasers like Soda, he mostly sticks to his friends and doesn’t want much to do with the Greasers. Most of them don’t even know I have a brother, but he’s still what holds me together in the darkest of times.
Knocking on the door I call out, “Time to get up David, you have school in an hour.”
He groans and rolls over. “5 more minutes,.” he whines.
“Fine, but if you’re late I’m leaving without you,” I warn. I would never actually leave without him but the threat’ s enough to get him up and moving. My mom is sleeping still (she usually doesn’t wake up until after we leave) and my dad was out somewhere, probably passed out drunk on the side of the street.
My head throbs. I groan and throw an aspirin in my mouth to get rid of my headache before throwing on a white t-shirt and a pair of jeans. I hear the door slam and the sound of the heavy stomping feet. I know my dad is home, and by the sound of it, very drunk.
I walk out of my room to see Dad standing in David’s doorway. Shit! Shit! Shit! I run over but it’s too late. All I see is my dads hand flying through my brother’s cheek. I try to get in the way, but Dad just shoves me back before throwing David across the room. I see his head hit the edge of the dresser before I can even take a breath, and then I can’t breathe. Blood is pouring from the wound and I scream, but I can’t hear my own voice. My mom comes in, looking mad that I woke her up, but I don’t care. All I cared about was getting to my kid brother who was laying on the floor with his blood pooling around him. I picked him up and held him in my lap.
“Steve?” I hear David say in a small voice.
“I’m right here buddy.” I say. My voice sounds shaky but I try to hold it together for David. “I—I’m not going anywhere.”
“My head!” He tries to reach his hand up to touch the bleeding spot but I pull his hand down and hold it tight.
I look up at my parents who were just staring at us. They look shocked but as reality started to hit I could see that my Dad didn’t care about what he did, he justdid he just did n’ot want to get in trouble. “What are you doing?! Call 911!” I shout at them. They don’t move. I want to yell at them some more but I don’t have time. I picked David up cradling the back of his head because I don’t really feel like leaving him with my parents. My fingers fumble while dialing the number.
Dad grabs the phone from my hand and slams it down. “He’ll be fine,” he slurs. “Besides, I don’t want to be arrested.”
“He’s dying!” I screamed. Saying the words made it feel so much more real, and it hurt, but I had to call the police! I had to call them now. My dads hand still rests on our only phone though so I rushed to my room still holding David to grab the kit I use after a rumble. I bandage his head tight to try to stop the bleeding.
“Steve!” he whimpers. He’s in so much pain. I hate it so much.
“I know David, it’s going to be okay.” I didn’t know what to do. In one final attempt I hold the bleeding 14 year old tightly to my chest and run to the Curtis house. When I rush through the door Pony’s already left for school, but Darry and Soda were sitting in the living room.
“Help!” is all I can think to say as I run into the room.
Both Curtis boys get up and rush to my side. I hear a muttered “Holy shit,” from Darry before he immediately jumps into action looking at the wound and at the dying boy in front of him. After a minute of looking over David he looked at me with sad eyes and then I knew. A fresh set of sobs filled me as I looked down at my brother. Soda rubbed my back but I barely felt it.
David looked up to me with those green eyes and he looked so scared and broken. “I don’t want to die, Steve. I don’t want to.”
Those words nearly broke every part of me. I nearly collapsed to the floor but Sodapop caught me and I went down to hug David instead. “I know little buddy.” I say. “I wish I could change this.”
“I love you, Steve,” he says in broken, gasping words and then his chest stops moving under me.
“No! You can’t leave me, you just can’t.” I hold his still body in my arms and all I feel is guilt. I should have gotten to his room sooner. I should have been the one that Dad shoved into that dresser. My legs finally give out and I fall to the floor still holding my brother's body.
“Please, please, David. I love you so much,” I say but I know he’s gone. Soda bends down next to me and slowly releases my hands from my kid brother's shirt. I didn’t even realize how tightly I was holding on. When I look at my hands they are covered in blood. His blood. I sit there wondering what the hell David did to deserve this. He’s a good kid, a good student, a good friend, and a good brother.
I sit there for God knows how long, wondering at the unfairness of the world, before finally getting up and walking to the bathroom to shower. In the shower I scrub at the blood until every spot is gone and I don’t even notice that I scrub so hard that it’s my own blood running down my hands.
After my shower, I walk to the guest room, where I notice a fresh pair of Soda's clothes sitting on the bed. I put them on and lay down on the bed. I close my eyes, but the moment they are closed David is back. Bleeding out in my mind all over again. I open them again and stare up at the ceiling.
I faintly notice Soda lay down next to me, but I just keep staring up, because it feels like if I move a muscle reality will hit in full. Finally, after sitting there for what feels like hours (but it could have also been minutes) I decide it’s time for a cigarette so I grab one from the pack in my pocket before walking outside. Soda follows.
“What happened?” Soda asks.
“My dad, he… he came home drunk and got mad at David for I don’t even know what and pushed him into the corner of the dresser head first.” I felt a tear slip from my eye but I wipe it away quickly.
“Oh God, Steve,” I hear Soda say before he’s hugging me and everything keeping me together breaks and I fall into his arms crying. We sit there for a long time before I realized that Darry didn't even know David existed until today.
“Shit, Darry—“ I start before Soda cuts me off.
"I'll tell him everything. You just rest up. You can’t go home, but you can’t stay here because Pony will be home soon, so see if you can stay the nights at Buck’s with Dally. They won’t ask questions and it will give you a bed and a roof over your head.”
“Yeah, okay.” I mumble before standing up on shaky legs and walking over to the phone. I call Buck’s number which I know by heart from the amount of times I have called Dally there. As it rings, I pray to God that I can keep my voice steady for the phone call.
I hear someone pick up the phone before hearing a “Hello?” from a voice that must be Buck’s.
“Hey ,it’s Steve. Can I stay the night over there?” My voice comes out clean (thank God) and I feel like I might be able to make it through this conversation.
“No, Dally just got out of the cooler and he has the guest room tonight.” Buck says
“He’s out?” I ask. “Can I talk with him?”
“He ain’t here right now,” Buck says.
“Wait!” I yell. “Can you tell me where he is?” I ask.
I hear the phone hang up before I slam my end down, and realize I don’t have a car. I ask Soda to borrow his.
I just drive around for a little bit. I drive past the school watching the kids leave, and see Ponyboy walking out, clearly about to skip track, but I don’t even have the energy to stop him.
I drive around for another 3 hours before finally giving up and deciding I would just deal with Ponyboy for the night. On the drive back to the Curtis house, I notice Pony walking home by the side of the road. I drive by, but when I look back, there’s a red car pulling up next to him. Then I realize that it’s a Soc car, and a group of 6 or so Socs were stepping out.
My breath catches as they pull out a switch blade but the space was too skinny to turn my car around. Just then, I see Soda and Darry sprinting down the street towards Pony and I jump out and run with them. Suddenly, Dally jumps a fence to get there, and Two-bit runs straight at us. While Darry and Soda go to check on Pony, the rest of us run the Socs back into their car until they are driving away.
I go over to Pony to check if he’s okay, but when he looks up at me, all I see is my brother. My breath catches and I nearly panic in front of the entire gang, but I keep it together and stand to the side while the gang looks at the small cut on his neck from where the Socs pulled a blade on him. All I can do is stand there because if I look into his green eyes or the cut on his neck I'm going to start crying again.
I don’t want to live in a life without my kid brother, but I will keep living for everyone else and that is all I can do right now.