The Outsider Future: Life After the Experience

Chapter 4

Kat's POV.

I woke up the next morning in a daze and really confused. "Soda?" I mumbled and called. "Where are you?" I got up and looked at Mack who was sitting in the floor and at Darry who was sitting in the recliner. "Where's Soda?" I asked them. They both looked up at me silently and then looked back down. I suddenly remembered why they were so sad, and also why the boys weren't here. They had left for war. "They left already didn't they?" Mack looked at my sympathetically and nodded. "So what now?" I asked the both of them. "Well because the boys are gone, and I have no one to watch over," Darry started. "I was thinking that I might go to college. It's what Ponyboy would want for me anyways." "What?" I yelled. "Darry you can't leave us! You're all we have left!" "I can't watch over ya'll all the time. I need to go back to school, and I need ya'll to take care of yourselves! I can't be responsible if something were to happen to ya'll too. I just wouldn't be able to take it. That's why I have to go, and you guys have to take care of yourselves. I'm leaving ya'll the house." "You can't be serious!" Mack argued. "You can't do this to us!" "Listen," Darry said back. "I'm going to college and that's final!" Darry quickly jumped up, he walked out the door, slamming it behind him.

Just as he had walked out, Two-Bit and Steve walked in. Instead of the happy, laughing, faces that we usually always saw with them, we saw sad, long, faces that looked like they were in a bad mood. "Hey guys," I said softly as they sat on the couch with me and Mack. "Ya'll wanna go do something?" Mack asked, trying to cheer things up. The way she did that reminded me so much of Soda because he was that way. He always was trying to cheer things up like that. "How 'bout we go get a beer?" Two-Bit asked. Steve looked at him annoyingly as well as Mack as Steve said, "Is all you can think about beer?! I can't believe you! Even in a moment like this, when we've lost people we care about AGAIN, you're still thinking about beer. You're sick!" Two-Bit glared at him. "Hey you watch it bud!" he yelled. "You don't even know what you're talking about. Maybe beer is the answer for me to get my mind of things." "Oh sure!" Steve yelled back. "Your answer for EVERYTHING is beer! That's a real good answer Two-Bit!" "Steve I'm telling ya, you better watch it and shut your trap!" "Make me!" Steve yelled back. Two-Bit pushed Steve and they started shoving each other violently. Before we knew it Steve hit Two-Bit, right in the jaw. "Stop!" I yelled. I had had enough at that point. "I can't believe you two are actually fighting! You need to just cut it out! It ain't doing no good anyways! We're all just in a bad mood because we're all just truly sad. There's no need to take it out on each other!" Steve just gave me a disgusted look. "Whatever!" he shouted. "I'm outta here!" Mack looked pretty angry too. "Me too!" She shouted. They both walked outside, and I started to run after them but Two-Bit held me back. "Don't bother," he said. "So, wanna go to the Dingo to get a drink, sis?" I smiled at him when he called me sis. I kind of needed someone to call me that at the moment. "Sure," I replied. "Maybe a drink will calm my nerves." Boy, it sure did.

We walked into the Dingo after miles of walking, even though it wasn't too far from the house. I walked in and we sat at the bar. We didn't have any ID's, but Two-Bit was old enough to drink, so I figured he could get the bartender to let it slide. Then, a handsome bartender walked up. I looked hard at him and realized that it was the same bartender that I was talking to the night I got kidnapped. "Hey Kat!" he exclaimed. "You remembered me?" I questioned. "Well, I just couldn't forget that pretty little face now could I?" He winked at me and I blushed, and then I realized what I was doing. I was flirting. Here my boyfriend had just left to go to war, and I was FLIRTING! I suddenly felt like I jerk, which I totally should have. "So what can I get ya'll?" he said. "Two beers please," I replied with a smile. He nodded and started to turn around. "Wait," I said. He turned back around. "Yeah dollface?" "I never got your name," I continued. "Wes," he said with a huge smile. "Wes Pillsbury." He turned back around to get our two beers and I thought to myself, What a nice name. Why was I doing this? I shouldn't be flirting with a bartender. I was in love with Sodapop, right? RIGHT? Oh lawd, I thought. Kit Kat found herself a new beverage.