When reality hit Sodapop Curtis, it hit him hard. Harder than either of his brothers, and anyone else he knew, but he didn't know why. It just did.

His parents passed away when he was only 16 years old. They were in an auto-wreck, and when he was first told, he refused to believe it. He spent the next two days in bed, praying that it wasn't true. Begging that someone would tell him it was a mistake, they had the wrong people. But only him and his two brothers were home. They hadn't seen their parents since they left for school the morning of the accident.

When the funeral finally came around, he didn't want to go. But he knew he had to. He only held himself together for Ponyboy, we all knew it, and when they got home that night, he cried himself to sleep. He spent a while locked in his room, alone. He dropped out of school. He went to work and didn't pay attention to anything. They had to remind him that he had a family, friends, the gang.

Because when reality hit Soda, it hit him hard.

•••••••

Darry Curtis was 18 years old, practically a baby when his mom and dad passed away. He took it like a man, never letting anyone even see that he was effected by it. He acted like what happened had happened, and it was fine. Because Ponyboy Michael Curtis, his baby brother was 14, and terrified without his best friend, his brother, Sodapop, who had dispappeared, around.

Ponyboy Curtis was the only one that had cried openly when he found out about his parents. He was a shy boy, a Sophomore at only Freshman age, who was very close with his parents. He didn't understand how they could have left him so soon, how they could have done this to him and his brothers, although, he didn't exactly blame them. They were a mess.

Ponyboy developed nightmares, terrible ones, of his parents accident after the death. He imagined it differently every time, each scarring him a little more. He woke up, crying and terrified every night, too scared to go back to bed.

Finally, he figured out what to do. Stop sleeping. He knew it would be hard, but it was what he had to do. He was afraid of what would happen in his all too real seeming dreams. He couldn't bear losing his mom and dad again. He thought his brothers were lucky they weren't effected like him.

He just didn't know why they were keeping it bottled up.

For him.

A/N: I'm not sure what else I was going to do with this one... 400 words seems... Pretty short to be done with.