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Chapter 14

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"Steve, can I get you anything else? Scotch or a... Some candy or..." Soda was digging around in the Randle's kitchen to find anything to eat. Steve was strewn across the decrypted couch in the living room with a blanket and an Ice pack.

"Naw, I'm good, Soda, thanks!" Steve yelled. I sat back in the loveseat, bouncing my infamous ball on the creaky floor.

"Why's the kid here, So?" Steve asked when he came back in. Soda was clad in some old blue jeans, a red t shirt and he was barefoot, but somehow he looked like the most put together person one could ever lay eyes on.

"He wanted to come. Cheer you up. You're really growing on him," he said, laughing and going back into the kitchen.

"Bullshit, the only thing that's growing on ME are these fucking cancer cells!" Steve started to weez real hard and he looked toward me, craning his neck back.

"I don't want you to seeing me like this, Ponyboy... I'll scare ya," Steve said. He coughed and spit his gunk into the metal bucket Soda put next to the arm of the Sofa. In the hospital, he was tired of running back and forth so when Steve came home today, he put a bucket by the arm and let him spit whatever Into the bucket, including vomit.

"No, I want him to see what this can do to him," Soda said.

"I'm trying, Soda. But you had a cigarette the other day!" Shit. I let it slip.

"I was stressed out and tired and high strung so don't," Soda said. Steve nodded in approval.

"Never thought it would happen to me, Ponyboy, but here I am, Tulsa's first victim of the devil in the lungs," he spit blood in the bucket.

Steve's mom came out of her bedroom, clad in a ripping satin robe, socks with holes in them, makeup so messy, a greasy girl wouldn't dare to wear it. Sodapop a job here was not only to take care of Steve but of his mom too. She started towards the phone. She picked it up shakingly.

"Pete?! Pete, is that you?! Pete! Pete? Pete, it's you! Pete!" She started yelling into the phone.

"Shut up, Ma! He's not there, he's never there!" Steve yelled.

"Pete?! PETE?! ARE YOU THERE, PETE?! PETE!" Steve started coughing again and coughing and began to retch into the bucket until finally something came up. I went over to Steve and held his hair back as Soda went over to Rose and tried to get the phone out of her hand.

"He's never there! He's never been here!" Steve hollered in between retches.

"PETE?! PETE!" His mom screamed. Soda prayed it out of her hands and held it up to his ear before hanging it up.

"Rose, there's no one there. You need to get some rest. You'll feel a lot better," Sodapop said as I rubbed Steve's back as he dipped his head in the bucket.

"Pete will come back, Sodapop?" She asked him.

"We'll find out soon," he said, holding her by one shoulder and into her bedroom. Once she was in there, I waited for Steve to stop. I looked down. Nothing but blood in the bucket.

"I'll help clean ya up this time, Steve," I said, going into the kitchen. Soda was standing over the counter, breathing hard.

I wet a dishrag.

"You okay, Soda?"

"Yeah... She's been like this ever since Pete left...." He said not even looking up. I heard him sniff.

I nodded to myself and walked back into the living room.

"Here," he wanted to wipe his own face and gave me the dirty towel. Soda came in the room.

"Selfish old bitch, eh, Soda?" Steve said.

"I need a minute, Steve," Soda said.

"Aw no. Come on, Soda, I'll get her to-"

"You...RESPECT HER. You respect her because once she's dead she is never coming back!" Soda sneered. I stopped in my tracks. Soda breathed hard again.

"Well I'm sorry she's screaming in the phone for my probably dead father! It's absolutely insane! She needs to be somewhere!"

"Don't you dare get rid of her because once you do, she is never going to come back. She'll be gone. Forever. And your spirit will die once she does. Because you'll break...."

"Soda..."

"You love her, Steve. She's like a mother to me because my own mother is dead, I have to treat her kindly like a son would. I probably care about her more than you, Steve," soda said. I saw Steve gulp.

"I need a minute. I'll be back in like 10 minutes," Soda grabbed his car keys and left the house.