AN: IM JUST TRYING THIS STORY OUT. IF YA LIKE IT OR DON'T PLEASE TELL ME! SODA'S ALIVE IN THIS STORY INSTED OF DYIN' IN VIETNAM!!!

WARNING: WILL CONTAIN SOME CHILD ABUSE AND ALCOHOL ABUSE!!!!!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!!!!!!

I was finally home and man did it feel good. Walking through the Tulsa airport with my best friend Steve, I couldn't help but grin at everyone and everything I saw. I never thought I'd miss this town as much as I had. I was so glad to be back here and away from the war.

"Let's get on to your house. I can't wait to see the gang." Steve said as we walked out of the airport and down the street to the bus stop. Darry and Pony doesn't know we're home. They haven't got the slightest clue because Steve and I thought it'd be a fun surprise for them.

After a twenty five minute walk, we find our way back to the street we grew up on. Man, it was like nothing had change yet everything had. Darry's old sneakers I threw up on the telephone wire are still hanging up there from the time I got mad at him for making fun of Steve. The Dingo was a pile of ashes on the ground, which made me wonder what happened. I wrote to Darry and Pony once a week since the time I left but for some reason, I stopped getting letters from Ponyboy around four months before I was released. I got letters from Darry but I was really curious about why Pony stopped writing. I had just shrugged it off the first couple of weeks, thinking it got lost in the mail or something but after months went by and I still got no responce out of my letters I sent him, I knew he wasn't writing back. I wrote him a lot more then, asking what was wrong, why he had stopped writing to me. I still got no reply.

We stopped at the gate of our house. The house had always been run down and beat up looking but for some reason, it just looked more old and torn up then before I left. Maybe I'm imagoning this but from the look on Steve's face, I know I'm not.

"Darry's home." Steve says and I looked to the right to see his truck parked in the driveway.

We walked up the pathway and opened the door with a little caution. We looked around the house, seeing everything looking the same as before. The house was a mess and Mickey Mouse was on the TV.

"Darry?" I called as I walked around the mess of clothes and notebooks.

A loud bang was herd in the kitchen and soon Darry's running out the room. "Soda?" He asked as he looked at me. Soon I'm wrapped up in a bear hug and sobbing into his chest. We pulled Steve into the hug and it was actually kind of a funny sight, seeing two solders and a big muscular man crying and hugging each other.

"So what's been going on?" I asked him as we sat on the couch an hour or so later.

"Nothing much." Darry says as he picks up some of the clothes on the floor and chuncked them in the hall. I couldn't help but notice that all those clothes were black. Not a single colorful shirt or pants in the bunch. "Still roofing houses."

"Man, I never thought I'd miss this place so much." Steve said as he leaned against the couch with his eyes closed, taking in the comfort of our home.

"Tell me about it." I say as I looked around. Nothing really had changed. Same old pictures over the fireplace and walls, same furniture, same paint on walls, same blood stains on wall by the kitchen - wait a minute!

"What happened?" I asked as I walked over towards the entry way to the livingroom from the kitchen. A red blood stain was there and it didn't look too old either. It was the size of a fist, a really big fist.

Darry looked a little nurvous at first but quickly responded. "Oh that. Pony got in a fight as angerly punched the wall. The kid has been having some kind of anger issues lately."

I've always believed in everything Darry said but for some reason, I didn't believe him when he said it. Maybe it was just something in his tone but I'm not sure. You've always trusted Darry to tell the truth. Why stop now? Besides, Pony hasn't been writing to you so maybe Darry was right, maybe he does have anger issues now. After all, you've been gone for a year now, a lot can change. A voice in my head told me.

"Pony never had an anger issue before." Steve said from the couch as he looked around, still taking in that he was really home.

"Well, he's sixteen and has become more wild than you two were." Darry said tiredly. "Things change."

"It's probably just a faze." I say as I sat next to him.

AN: NEXT CHAPTER WILL BE LONGER I PROMISE!!!!!! TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK, GOOD OR BAD!!!!!!!!