Change of Heart

In a way, my thought about my life becoming simpler was pretty much on base. Dally and I were on pretty good terms, and no one felt awkward to be in the same room with us anymore.

Darry and I were getting pretty serious, and every passing day, I got more and more nervous. The end of the summer was quickly approaching, and I was going to have to go back to California. I didn't want what I had with Darry to be a summer fling.

It was strange, but when I was alone in my room, thinking, I could imagine us having a family together. It was embarrassing to admit, but I could.

There were only a couple weeks left of summer when Darry snuck up behind me as I was cooking dinner. In response, I jumped and let the spatula in my hand fall to the floor with a loud clang.

When I realized that it was just him, I put my hand on the counter and the other over my heart. "Damn it, Darry! Give me a heart attack, why don't you?"

"Sorry." He wrapped his arms around my waist and kissed my cheek. "So I was thinking that maybe tonight we could go out for dinner."

"Alright," I agreed. "That sounds great."

"Good." He reached over and grabbed a piece of bacon out of the pan as I was taking out the eggs.

Darry let out a loud gasp and dropped the bacon on the ground. "That was so hot."

I gave him a look that questioned how stupid he was. "Of course it was... It was in the pan..."

"I just thought I could handle it."

I forced myself to laugh loudly at him before shoving the plate of eggs and cake at him. "Now go eat before you have to go to work."

He didn't move immediately, so I snapped at him, "Go!"

Mocking me, Darry finally went to the table. It seemed like he's loosened up a lot since we started going out. He used to be a control freak, but he was getting better. It was like I was letting him digress to get a taste of the childhood that he left behind too early.

Soon enough, Darry stood up. "Thanks for breakfast, babe." He kissed me quickly before starting out of the house.

The door to Ponyboy and Soda's room opened just then, which made me confused. It was only seven in the morning, and Soda had gotten the day off. So who in their right mind was up this early in the morning?

I didn't have to wait long for an answer because soon enough, Pony plopped himself down at the table and sighed loudly, resting his head on his arms.

"Can I help you?" I questioned, putting a piece of cake in front of him. It was clear that he needed some chocolate right then.

Instead of answering, he just groaned again.

"Fine." I pulled a chair closer to him and sat down. "You have two choices. Stuff your face with cake, or try to tell me what's going on."

When he finally looked up at me, his eyes were rimmed in red. "Whoa..." I gasped, not expecting that. I was expecting that he'd whine about how he couldn't go back to sleep or something. Hopefully he wouldn't cry about something silly like that...

"Are you alright?" I put my hand gingerly on his back.

He shook his head as his lip wobbled. Realizing that he was starting to lose it, he composed himself with a deep breath. "Sammy broke up with me last night."

"What?!" This seemed to come out of nowhere. Absolutely nowhere. It was just a couple of days ago that they were hanging out in the living room, laughing and joking and kissing. What had happened?!

"We just got into an argument about..." He bit his lip and looked at me, seeming to analyze whether I was trustworthy or not. "Well...I kinda..." Another pause.

"Alright, c'mon, Pony. Either tell me or don't."

He gulped before rushing out, "I kind of, might have, maybe cheated on her. A little."

"Are you kidding me?!" I threw my chair back and started pacing. "This is a joke, right?!"

"This is why I didn't tell you..." he mumbled, putting his head back down.

"I can't believe you did that! Do you not have any sense at all in your brain?!"

"I really regret telling you..."

"Sorry." I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself. I just...As well as I'd known Pony, and even though I'd spent probably the least time with him all summer, I never took him as the cheating type. "Why would you do that?"

"I don't know... I just..." He sighed. "I was walking by Buck's, and there was this girl sitting outside, crying. I comforted her and walked her home, just to be nice, And one thing led to another and..."

"And?"

"She kissed me."

"Oh, don't be all tortured, she-kissed-me-and-I'm-the-innocent-victim. You're just as-"

"I'm not trying to blame it all on her because it's not like I pulled away. I just really...I want Sammy back, but she won't listen to me. I tried to explain last night..."

"You gotta give the girl time to cool down," I explained, sitting back next to him. I was disappointed in him right now though, so I didn't make any special efforts to comfort him. "Go back later and try to make it up to her. Because if you don't go after her, she's going to think you don't care. And that's not true. Right?"

"Not true at all." He stood up. "Thanks, Sophie. You actually had good advice after you stopped freaking out."

Laughing embarrassedly, I muttered, "Yeah...sorry about that..."

"No problem." He hugged me quickly before darting to the other room again. What he was going to do, get dressed, go to sleep, I wasn't sure.

Sitting at the table, I felt pretty proud of myself for being a good older sister figure. Smiling, I stood up and started cleaning up the kitchen. Soda could make his own food whenever the crap he felt like getting his lazy ass up.