Change of Heart

There were girls swarmed all around Soda. "Soda, your hair is so soft," one cooed, running her hand through his blonde locks.

He whipped his head away and muttered, "One seventy-three."

She rolled her eyes and giggled. "You're so funny."

"Uh...yeah...sure." He looked for a second over at Pony and me and rolled his eyes.

"To the rescue," I whispered to Pony before scurrying across the room. Soda seemed to relax a little when he saw that I was coming to be his Batman. Batgirl? Whatever.

"So getting your money yet?" I asked the girl with dark red hair. She was actually a pretty girl, but I knew that Soda wasn't interested, thanks to the fact that he was still hung up on Sandy.

She gave me an annoyed look and reached into her purse to pull out the money. "Here." Then, smiling widely, she handed the money to Sodapop, not giving me another glance.

"Okay, now that you've paid and goggled, you can leave. Right now. The door's there." I pointed across the store and smiled fakely. "Buh-bye now."

The red-head gave me a really angry look before storming off, her high heels clacking loudly on the linoleum floor. The other three girls followed behind her, not wanting me to rip their heads off. "That was bitchy," Soda commented, laughing a little.

"Sometimes, you gotta be bitchy to get what you want." I smiled at him before pulling myself up to sit on the counter in front of him. "So where's Big-Nose?"

"In the back, working on cars." His answer was so natural, like Steve was never called by his real name. Maybe he wasn't.

"Oh, okay. Maybe I should go kick him..." I trailed off, starting to walk toward the back. Soda grabbed my arm and pulled me back.

"Don't do that. It's not nice." He gave me a condescending look like an angry mother would give her toddler.

I grinned at him innocently, but when he still didn't let go, I sighed. It was clear that he wasn't going to let me harass Steve. Bummer.

"Hey!" Pony exclaimed suddenly, looking at me with shock in his eyes. Whoa. Way to scare the hell out of me.

"What?" I gasped out, one hand on my chest, feeling the rapid heartbeat underneath it.

"Sorry," he mumbled quickly before he perked right up again. "You haven't to the Nightly Double since you've been here!"

"Um, no, no I haven't," I replied, not knowing what that even was.

"Drive-in," Soda whispered to me to explain. I nodded inconspicuously, fighting not to let out an 'Ohhhhhh'.

"We should go tonight! There's a new Paul Newman movie out and I wanna see it. Maybe Johnny'll tag along."

"Well, I'd love to come," Soda started, not sounding like he'd love it at all, "but I just...I have to shampoo my hair, so..."

"Oh, please, Sodapop," Ponyboy rolled his eyes. "You can't sit still for five minutes, never mind a two hour movie."

"That's...very true," Soda admitted.

"Um, excuse me," some small girl with light brown hair squeaked. She looked young, probably about nine, so being around some older teenagers probably scared her to death. Poor thing.

"Hi, sweetie," Sodapop smiled, taking the bottle of pop that she had in her hand. He rung her up quickly, and once she got her change, she scampered out of the DX as quickly as her little legs could carry her.

"She was cute," I grinned. "But I think we scared her."

"Or scarred her," Pony offered, wincing slightly.

"Why? We weren't talking about anything bad or cussing or anything. She's fine."

"Maybe she got scarred seeing Pony's face," Soda suggested offhandedly.

"That's possible..." I allowed, pretending to study Ponyboy's expression. "Yeah, definite possibility."

"Thanks, guys," Pony pouted, sticking his bottom lip way out. "That helps with the old self-esteem."

"You're a guy..." I trailed off. "At least, we think so. That means that you shouldn't be worrying about your self-esteem or image."

Pony gave me a look to show that he wasn't amused. I just grinned at him. We sort of stayed like this for a few minutes before Soda cleared his throat pointedly to warn us that there was a grumpy old person standing in line, waiting to pay for some ointment of some sort. Gotta love old people...

"Stupid teenagers," he grumbled under his breath in a gravelly voice.

"Stupid old people," I mumbled back. Then, I coughed loudly to try to cover up what I'd said. Pony heard me though, so he was there, standing and snickering.

After shooting us an annoyed glare (which made me think that maybe he heard me too), the old man hobbled out of the store.

"He was irritable," I pointed out.

"I'm sure he thought the same of you, wise-ass," Soda responded, chuckling slightly. "That wasn't good customer service."

"Good thing I don't work here then," I laughed.

Steve came out of the back room, wiping his hands with the white rag in his hand. It was turning blacker and blacker every time he wrung his hands with it, the grease staining the fabric.

"What are you two doin' here, distracting Soda from his work?" Steve scolded, sticking the rag in the back pocket of his jeans. His DX shirt was open, nothing on underneath. He needed to cover up, 'cause really, no one wanted to see that.

I didn't know how to answer that too well, so I just kept my mouth shut. "They're not distracting me," Soda spoke up, "they're keeping me company so I don't go crazy."

"Yeah," I seconded. Pony nudged me with his elbow and gave me a wide-eyed look. I shrugged back at him.

"Stop with the secret language thing!" Steve urged, throwing the rag at us. It hit Ponyboy smack in the face.

Immediately, I burst into hysterical laughter when I realized that it left a streak of grease down Pony's face. Soda reached across the counter and started wiping it off for him.

"Oh, no," Steve cooed, walking over and liking his finger showily. "I'll clean up baby. Come here." He took Pony's head in his hand and started to wipe off the grease using his saliva-soaked finger.

"Aw, gross," Ponyboy grimaced, shoving Steve away from him.

I shook my head and sighed. These were some strange kids.

"Hey, it's starting to get dark," Pony started, glancing out the window. "Catch y'all later!"

"Be home before midnight," Soda warned him, "or Darry'll skin you."

"I know, I know," he grumbled. "We'll look for Johnny in the lot on our way there."

"Why would he be in the lot? Shouldn't we check his house first?" I pulled my hair into a low, sloppy bun. It wasn't until I finished that I noticed that Pony still hadn't answered my question and was giving me an awed look.

"What?" I finally snapped, not liking the fact that he was making me feel stupid.

"You don't know that Johnny's parents are abusive?" Pony's green eyes were shocked.

"They're WHAT?!" I nearly shrieked. That explained so much, why Mom didn't want me to stay there during the summer, instead staying with the Curtis'. Why had she never told me? Why had we never taken Johnnycakes into our home so he didn't have to live with that? Or move down to Oklahoma so that he wouldn't have to leave the gang?

"They beat him and scream at him so loud we can hear it at our house. I feel bad, but there really isn't anything I can do, you know?"

I nodded, speechless. Everything made sense, but I just couldn't picture it. Being abused was supposed to turn a person heartless and cold. Johnny was sensitive and scared stiff of almost everything. It didn't fit that he was an abused kid. How could I not have known?

"It's okay," Pony said soothingly. I didn't notice until then that I was starting to cry.

Sniffling hard and wiping my tears away, I choked out, "I just can't believe it... How could no one have told me? How could I not have seen?"

"He doesn't exactly announce it. Not many people really know."

"But I'm his family!" I let out in a breath. "I'm family."

Pony shrugged and put an arm around me for a second. "C'mon, just forget about it. You don't want Johnny to get all worried, right?"

I shook my head and took a couple deep breaths of the cooling air. "Okay, sorry. I'm good now."

And with that, we walked across the lot to where Johnny was looking up at the dimming sky.