Bri's POV
June 2, 2018

Jenni, Lillian, and I helped the boys unpack to officially move into their old-new home. It took a couple of weeks. Lillian and Darry set the living room and kitchen back to its original glory, while I helped Soda put his and Ponyboys rooms back together. I think Jenni and Ponyboy were unpacking Darry's stuff, and set up the boys' parents room back to exactly the way they left it.

"After this, why don't we go visit your grandpa?" Soda suggested after he put up a car poster next to his bed.

"Two?" I asked. I was making the bed with his blue sheets. We had dusted and vacuumed the room first so it was nice and clean before we started stuffing it with his belongings.

"That's the guy." Soda grinned.

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea."

When Soda and I finished decorating his room, it looked almost exactly the same as it did fifty years ago. The only thing to change was to take the wooden boards off of the windows, but those were outside.

"Does this look the same?" I asked Soda, even though I knew it was.

"Nothing will ever be the same without the others," he said with a frown. He pulled me into a hug and finished, "but, yeah, the room looks the same."

Lillian was helping Darry clean up the rest of the house while Pony and Jenni were still in their parents room. We snuck out and hopped into my car, and we made the quick drive over to my grandfathers house.

Soda knocked on his off-white door. He still lives in the greaser side of town, the east side where the Curtis house resided. He doesn't live in the house he grew up in, but he lives pretty close.

"It's open!" He yelled from inside.

Soda opened the door for me and we walked in. Two was sitting in his recliner and watching a Saturday morning cartoon. Typical.

"Hey, Grandpa Two." It felt too weird to call him K, or Keith anymore. He has always been Two-Bit, and he always will.

"Two?" Grandpa snickered and look up at us.

"Howdy, Two-Bit," Soda said, suppressing his excitement. Besides Steve, this is the first member of the gang he has seen in this century.

"I don't believe my eyes." He stood up from his arm chair and walked over to us. He looked about the same, his previously thick head of hair was grey and thinning, and he grew out a Van Dyke beard, and he was now wearing thin, circular glasses. He stood with a slight hunch, and he moved slowly.

"Bri?" He folded his glasses and stuck them on the table.

I smiled and nodded.

"Sodapop?" He turned to Soda.

"Yeah, man." Soda grinned widely.

"It is okay that I call you, Two, right?" I asked.

"By all means!" He exclaimed and threw his arms up in the air excitedly. "It don't feel right if you call me K, or Keith. Yuck."

"That's exactly what I thought," I chuckled. "Now, what about the grandpa part?"

"Either or," he said with a shrug. "Just don't go around calling me Two around your mama. I wanted you kids to call me Grandpa Two growing up but your mom said, 'it's too inappropriate of a nickname'." He mocked her and rolled his eyes.

"Makes sense," I chuckled.

"I can't believe I ain't seen you in... what... fifty years!" He said enthusiastically.

"And I can't believe I ain't seen you in two weeks!" Soda stated in the same tone.

"It's only been two weeks?" He cocked his grey eyebrow.

"Yep," Soda said with a nod.

"And you ain't come to visit?" He scoffed offendedly.

"We're sorry!" I laughed. "We were setting their house up."

"How are the others?" He asked.

"Jenni had been going around introducing Pony to her friends so he can fit in with the upcoming school year," I told him. Last year, we tried to keep everyone away from the other students as much as we could. Now, we want them to be as involved as possible to try to give them normal lives.

"Jenni is your sister, right? Your younger sister?"

"That's right. She is also your other granddaughter."

"Oh, right," he said with a laugh. "I keep forgetting you two are the same person."

I think he was referring to me as his friend, Bri, and me as his granddaughter. I began to wonder how many times he has seen me the past few years and was desperate to talk to me about the 60. Maybe that's why growing up I remember him enthusiastically telling me all about his stories from when he was growing up, and really making me fall in love with the 60s.

"I have something I want to show you," he said.

"What is it?" Soda asked.

Grandpa led us to a shelf he had in his living room. It was stacked full with pictures in frames that he has kept for decades. He handed us an old brown frame with a rustic photograph on the inside and he asked, "remember this day?"

It was a picture of all of us standing in the back of Darry's truck. I was standing between Soda and Dally with my hands behind my back and a big smile to the camera.

"Oh, yeah," I laughed. I did not realize before that I was the only person smiling in the picture. I can still remember the sun that was in my eyes, forcing me to squint a little.

"Me too," Soda said, smiling at the memory. "Look, Bri, you're cheesing."

I remembered that day so vividly because we were all driving in Darry's truck, around the back roads, and a tire blew. There wasn't a spare. We passed the time until a tow truck came by playing cards and the guys were smoking and had contests on who could smoke a pack the fastest without getting a head rush and dizzy or sick. We had the tow truck guy take our picture because we made so many fond memories that day. We were stuck on the side of the road on that blistering hot day for hours.

Soda was still dating Sandy at this time, so it was before the Windrixville incident. I noticed another picture towards the back of his collection where we were all flipping off the camera, except for Dally. Soda had said something funny, so I was looking at him with a laugh and I noticed that Dally was gazing at me when the photo was taken.

"That sure was a fun day." Grandpa Two smiled at the photo before putting it down. "Or this one." He took out another photo, that was hidden behind all the others. It was a picture of him and I, in our graduation caps and gowns, showing off our diplomas. It was taken just less than a month ago.

"I keep this one hidden otherwise people would ask questions," he chuckled.

"What kind of questions?" Soda asked.

"Like, 'oh, is that you and your girlfriend?', 'why is the photo in such high quality if you were a teenager?' and 'why is there a picture of you as a teenager and your granddaughter, you weirdo?'" He said in a funny high-pitched voice. "Your mom would be real confused if she saw this."

"That would be bad," I laughed. "Good call."

"If it wasn't for you, Bri, I would not have so many pictures of the gang. We never really ever took any pictures, but you did."

"Oh, yeah," I said. It annoyed them at first but they got used to it. I love taking pictures, it's my favorite way to preserve memories. And I'm so glad I did.

"Now, I'm so damn old, I can't even touch my toes," Two snarled as he put the picture back.

"Could you ever touch your toes, Two?" Soda questioned.

"No... but now I can't even attempt without throwing my back out." He rolled his eyes. "It just seems like you guys get to stay young for forever!"

"I'm technically nineteen years old but I have to say that I'm eighteen," I reminded him just to try to make him feel better.

"You might wanna run that by me again, darlin', I think you confused my ears." Two scratched his head. "You kids want any chocolate cake?"

"Yes, please," Soda said.

We followed my grandpa into the kitchen. He shuffled to the cabinet to grab some plates and he said, "it's in the fridge if you could take it out."

"Who taught you how to make cake?" Soda asked, as he was digging around the fridge.

"I've always known!" Two defended himself. "I just hated making it. It's pretty damn good, if I do say so myself."

"Mine is probably better," Soda gloated.

"You always put too much sugar in yours," Two said, grabbing a few forks from his silverware drawer.

"That's not true!" Soda grabbed the cake and closed the fridge with his hip. "Bri, tell the old coot that my cake is not too sweet."

I made a hissing sound with my mouth before responding. "I'm going to have to side with Two on this one. It's a little sweet."

"Y'all are just a bunch of haters," Soda muttered as he stuck his finger on the side of the cake and licked the frosting off.

"You're outta your mind, Soda," Two laughed, then coughed into his elbow. He took out a knife and started cutting us pieces. He put them on the plates, and I took my fork and dug in.

"Wow, this is fantastic," I complimented.

"I admit, it's good," Soda said and took another bite.

"I told you so." Two smiled and spooned a chunk of cake into his mouth. "Probably not as good as Darry's cake."

"No offense, but no ones cake is as good as Darry's cake," Soda laughed. Then he stopped and looked at me to say in a very serious tone, "except for yours."

"Thank you," I chuckled and kept eating my cake.

"By the way." Soda swallowed one of his bites. "How are the others?"

"Oh, yeah." Two rubbed the back of his neck. "Johnny moved in with Dally to Buck's place for a long time. His parents were real mad, but they also didn't give a shit. Steve works at the Grease Monkey now, and I'm here."

"Do Dally and Johnny still live together?" Soda asked.

"Oh, no. No, no, no. They moved out of Buck's a real long time ago. Johnny met a girl and moved to Oklahoma City for a while. But, um, Dally's been arrested."

"No surprise there." I rolled my eyes.

"No, he did something real bad." Two quieted down, as if Dally was in the room and we were talking about him. "He got twenty years in the slammer. It was all over the news."

"What did he do?" I asked.

"I ain't never seen nothing like it in my days—"

"Two." Soda snapped his fingers. "Focus."

"Oh, right. He robbed a couple of grocery stores."

"That ain't so bad." Soda shrugged. "He's done it before."

"Has he done it armed with a heater?" Two asked, not really looking for an answer.

"Armed robbery?" I asked.

"Bingo," Two said.

"And he got twenty years?" I asked.

"I think he got it extended because he yelled, 'can't catch me you fuckin' coppers!' and he resisted arrest."

"How?" I asked. I chuckled a little, it definitely sounds like something Dally would say.

"Not sure, but he didn't get a felony for it. Thank god."

"How long ago was that?" Soda asked.

"Twenty years next month, actually."

"Talk about good timing," Soda exhaled.

"No kidding," I said.

"I've visited him a few times, he sure does talk about y'all a lot," Two said. "He won't admit it, but he misses y'all like crazy. We all did."

"We should visit him." I turned to Soda and he nodded at my idea.

"If you're lucky, you'll see Johnny too," Two said.  "Word has it that Johnny visits Dally nearly every day."

"How's he holding up?" Soda asked.

"He was awfully sad about it. It ain't like he was still living with Dally though, Johnny has his own family."

"He does?" I asked.

"We all do! Not everyone stays teenagers forever. Unlike y'all."

I fake laughed. "You're funny."

"Dally's been married five times. He ended up marrying Sylvia for a year or two."

"He married Sylvia?" I asked with a snarl. I did not like Sylvia, I wish he didn't go back to her.

Two nodded. "Twice, I think. So I guess he has been married six times."

"I told him to dump her for good," Soda grunted.

"His longest marriage was five years, and now he's got... I want to say thirteen kids... I think."

"Thirteen?" I just about choked on the number.

"Steve married Evie and they've got three kids, and five grandkids. Johnny married a girl I don't think y'all met, and had two kids, and another that they adopted. They have seven grandkids, I believe. And you know who I've got," Two explained.

"Wow." I exhaled shakily. "You guys really have grown up."

"Sad to say." Two clicked his tongue.

"You still fun greasers?" Soda asked.

"You know, kid, times change and people change. Hard to believe, but I've grown. If I ain't, then Bri wouldn't be in our lives now, would she?"

"Guess not." Soda grinned and pulled me closer to him, wrapping his arm around me.

"I would suggest going to see old Dal soon." Two checked his watch, "Johnny usually visits him around this time, and it's quite the drive."

"Thanks, Two." It felt weird to call him Two, I am so used to calling him Grandpa when he looks like an old man.

"You wanna come, buddy?" Soda asked.

"I would, but I don't want to." He laughed at his stupid joke. "I'm just goofin'. I think I'm just going to stay home and watch a little NBA before tidying up a bit."

"Then I think we are going to head out," I stated.

Soda and I started to make our way towards the door and Two said, "tell Dal I said hello."

"We will," I promised.

"See you later, man," Soda said.

"By the way, thanks," I said as I opened the door. I looked over at my grandpa with my hand on the door handle.

"For what, darlin'?" Two asked, leaning against his dining table with his arms crossed over his thick chest.

"I'm not sure if you remember this, but you were willing to go all the way to Texas to find me, Pony, and Johnny back in '65. I never got a chance to say, but thank you. It really means a lot."

"Ah, shoot, it was nothing." He smiled bashfully. I could tell that he appreciated me thanking him, even if it was over fifty years overdue. He really did love us so much, he was willing to cross state lines for us. I will always be grateful for that.

"Bye, kids." Two waved us goodbye.

We walked down the short driveway to my car and Soda blasted the air conditioning as soon as I started the engine so we did not cook in the hot little box.

"It makes me sad that he ain't the same Two-Bit that I'm used to," Soda stated with sorrow in his voice as he played with the window power switch.

"He is still the same guy you and I both know and love," I explained. "He is just older, and more mature. That's all."

"Everything is goin' to be awfully different."

"It takes some getting used to, but you'll love it. Trust me." I smiled at him.

I backed out of the driveway and turned onto the road to get out of the neighborhood. Soda smiled back at me, and continued to look out the window. He doesn't really like change, but this was a big change for everyone.