I'm Broken Enough

15

"What do you want to do until dark?" I asked Steve once we had left the school and were walking down the street, since the drive in was only open when it was night.

"Do you wanna hang out with my gang again or-? I totally understand if you don't but-" "yeah sure!" I quickly agreed. I really enjoyed hanging out with his friends the last time that I had, so I definitely had no reason to reject his offer.

As we were walking to his friend's house, I noticed that we were taking a different path than usual. "Are we going a different way?" I asked Steve as I recognized the change in path, and he nodded with a mischievous smirk "yeah I just remembered that Soda's working still for a little while and I wanna go mess with him". I chuckled and shook my head at him, "of course you do Steve".

"I hope it's not busy in here" Steve told me as we approached the door of the DX, and him walking in front of me so he could hold open the door. "Yeah" I agreed and thanked him, walking inside and observing that it was completely empty. "Perfect" Steve smiled as he followed me inside, also noticing the gas station's vacancy.

"Oh Sodaaa!" Steve then called out rather loudly and I gave him a confused look, "what are you doing?" "Calling Soda?" He replied as if it were obvious, to which I shook my head "right but why so loud?". He shrugged at me and walked away further into the building to look for Soda. I chuckled and began to follow him after a second.

"Hello?" We finally heard a voice call back, and shortly after Soda appeared from the back of the gas station. "Hey Soda" Steve then replied nonchalantly, leaning against the counter, "oh Steve it's just you. What're you doing here?" Then he looked over and noticed that I was also here "oh hey y/n good to see you!".

I smiled at him "you too Soda" "we were just stopping by, didn't really have much else to do, I was wondering what you were up to right now" Steve answered his question now. Soda sighed before responding "nothing much, it's completely dead in here" "yeah I see that" Steve responded.

"Glad to see you two talking again" Soda said gesturing his hands towards Steve and I, to which I nodded and Steve replied "yeah well the week of grounding was tough but we're all good now". "Yeah thank god" I groaned, walking over and also leaning against the counter "that was the absolute worst week ever" "for you and me both" Steve agreed making eye contact with me.

Soda let out a small laugh and said "ok love birds we get it you can't spend more than an hour apart" making both of us turn red. "Shut up Soda" Steve quickly replied, but Soda just smirked at him, "when do you get off?" Steve then asked him changing the subject.

"Four, so I still got an hour" Soda replied sighing again "ok well we might just hang around here, keep you entertained and all that good stuff" Steve told him with a smirk. "Nah get out of here I don't need you bugging me" Soda told him, starting to shoo him off. "Ok fine man whatever you say" Steve said shrugging, but getting up and heading towards the door "we're headed for your place then" he said waiting for me to follow.

"See you later Soda" I told him waving goodbye and meeting Steve at the door, which he opened for me "see you guys later!" He answered as we exited the gas station.

"You just can't help yourself but to bother that poor kid" I laughed with Steve as we headed to Soda's house, "it is my life's true calling" Steve said smiling, nudging me with his shoulder which made me laugh more. "The kid also deserves it" Steve laughed with me to which I shook my head "I don't know how that's possible because I've never seen him annoy you like that" "well you've also only seen him a couple of times and Soda and I have been friends our entire lives" Steve replied making me shrug.

I guess he's right about that.

"Hey Pony" Steve greeted Ponyboy as we walked into his house. The kid didn't even look away from his book for a second and replied "hey Steve". "Y/n's here too" Steve then spoke with an annoyed tone, rolling his eyes, and Ponyboy set down his book to look up at us for the first time since we walked through the door, "oh hey y/n!".

I smiled in response "hey Pony" and followed Steve to an empty spot on the couch. "Ok ok I get it everyone here likes y/n now more than me I see how it is" Steve jokingly complained to the rest of the guys in the room, getting a couple of laughs out of them.

"It's hard not to like someone more than you" Two-bit joked back making Steve laugh, "plus, who could hate a little lady like yourself?" Two then spoke directly to me now. "Oh you're too kind" I gave a small laugh at his effort of flattery, and Steve wrapped an arm around my shoulders.

"What're you two doing 'round here anyways?" Two asked us after a minute while he stared at the tv, "we're going to a drive in later" I responded, my heart beating a little faster from my excitement for the movie.

"Aw how cute, the not couple couple is going on a date" Two continued to poke fun at us, mainly Steve because it always irritated him, and he groaned before saying "I just think ol' Two-bit's jealous".

This is what made Two really laugh now, and after a minute he said "the only person I'd be jealous of right now is anyone is sitting in front of a tv with a slice of cake".

But Two-bit was in fact sitting in front of a tv with a slice of cake, half eaten.

He was jealous of no one.

I laughed at his joke but Steve just scoffed, slightly tightening his grip around my shoulders.

The only thing standing between me and my date with Steve was now the day becoming night, so all we could do for now was wait.