Keep On Trying by Another Illusion

Summary: Dealing with the deaths of two friends, Two-Bit uses all his wit to try and keep his remaining friends together, and on meeting someone within detention realises the importance of family and friendship to get through these difficult times. Two-Bit, OMC, OFC 3rd person POV

A.N- I’m British so use British spelling and terminology, which you may know by now! Thanks as ever to my betas and all my reviewers.

Disclaimer: I do not own Two-Bit or any of the characters created by S E Hinton, or ‘A Sadness Runs Through Him’ by The Hoosiers.

Eleven: Shortfall

“He couldn’t be saved / A sadness runs through him …”

Bonnie sighed as she leaned against the wall. The clock opposite her said that she had exactly three minutes before he would be late for school, and that she could only wait for him for the same amount of time or risk another after school detention.

She took a deep breath and bit her lip. It was no good, he was not showing. She picked up her bag and made her way to homeroom slowly, her gaze fixed on the floor. She wasn’t angry and she wasn’t upset - no, she was downright furious.

Marty could be really inconsiderate sometimes and she didn’t know why it bothered her so much this time. It was nothing new, but still infuriating. When she saw him, she would have to fight the urge to kill him.

She bumped into someone and swore, her books spilling out of her arms all over the floor. “I am so sorry,” she said quickly, kneeling down to pick up her stuff.

“It’s no problem,” the person said, she looked at him carefully as she stood up. She recognised him as one of the people that Two-Bit hung around with. “Say, you aren’t seeing Two-Bit Mathews, are you?” he said.

Bonnie shrugged. “I’m not sure.”

“But you went out with him last night?” he asked. She nodded slowly. “So, you’re Detention Girl.”

“Please tell me that Two-Bit doesn’t call me that,” she said, smiling softly.

“Nah, I do. That name there is all me. I’m Steve Randle, one of his buddies.” He looked at her and then then nodded, a stern look on his face. Steve had dark, heavily styled hair which Bonnie suspected took about a tin of Pomade a day to get like that.

“Bonnie, Bonnie Cross,” she said, hoping he would call her something other than Detention Girl.

“Nice to see you, kid,” he said, moving away slightly. Bonnie noticed Steve looked behind him to a dark haired girl in animated conversation with another girl. The girl suddenly looked at Bonnie and Steve.

“And I’m Evie, his girlfriend,” she said loudly as she walked over to them.

“Evie, calm down, baby. This is the girl Two-Bit went out with last night.” Steve walked over to his girlfriend and put his arm around her stiff, bony shoulders.

“Yeah, sure it is, Steve,” she said. “C’mon, we’ve got class now.”

“It’s only homeroom,” Steve said.

“So?” She gave Bonnie one final look, as if she was trying to work out Bonnie and her motives. Her glare thawed slightly and Bonnie hoped that she had realised she wasn’t out to snare Steve from under her nose.

“Are you okay?” someone asked from behind her. She spun around to find Two-Bit, leaning against a locker, grinning. “Man, Evie sure is protective of Steve.”

“Have they been going out long?”

“About a year and a bit now,” he said. “Seriously, they might be the real deal. And if Evie has anything to do with it, they are.” He chuckled and smiled at Bonnie. “Evie’s a nice girl, though. Don’t let her fool ya.”

“Your friend called me Detention Girl,” Bonnie said quietly with a faint grin and Two-Bit laughed.

“Believe me, Bonnie, that is definitely one of the nicer things he’s called some of the girls I know.”

She nodded, feeling slightly disappointed that she was still only a girl he knew and not something more. Still, why should she expect anything? They hadn’t even talked about having another date. There was no reason she should expect something and yet she did.

The bell for homeroom rang and Bonnie sighed loudly, looking around the corridor one last time, worried.

“Are you okay?” Two-Bit asked, a look of concern on his face.

“Yeah,” she lied, running a hand through her hair in frustration. “I mean it’s just Marty went out last night when I was out and he usually comes home around five or maybe seven at the latest, but there’s no sign of him at all this morning,” she said, deciding not to share the fact that the confusing state of her relationship with Two-Bit was making her even more depressed.

“Oh,” he said flatly. “He’ll be alright though, he’s seventeen right? The kid can look after himself, besides he looks tough so he’ll be fine.”

“I know, that’s what I’m worried about,” she quietly admitted. “I had a really good time last night,” she said, deciding to change the subject.

“Yeah? It was good,” he casually replied. “The interrogation was not so fun, but you weren’t bad company.”

“Gee, thanks,” she said, smiling nervously. “It was uh, fun. I-I had a good time.”

“Yeah, me too,” he said.

This conversation was turning out even worse than their previous ones had. Bonnie bit her lip and fiddled with the edge of her sleeve.

“I should go to homeroom,” she said quietly.

“I’ll see you in Algebra then,” he said, smiling at her. Two-Bit was obviously not aware that Bonnie had been hoping their date had been more than the usual ‘okay time’ or ‘not bad’. She had been secretly hoping he would perhaps realise he loved her and then he’d sweep her off her feet and they’d live happily ever after.

She shook her head before quickly making her way to homeroom, not looking behind her to see if Two-Bit was watching or not.

She’d been reading too many novels, and her life would never be a Regency romance. What would Lizzie Bennett do? she wondered with a sigh.

“So what are we going to do?” Steve asked as they drove back into school after grabbing lunch. They had deliberately taken as little time as possible eating so that they could work on planning their next course of action against the Socs who bothered Ponyboy yesterday.

“I don’t know,” Two-Bit said carefully, “we could just make it worse. We could start the whole fucking mess again.”.

“Yeah,” Steve said, nodding.

“But I want to get even with them Socs, I really do.” He opened a packet of chips. “They can’t go round botherin’ Pony, or anyone for that matter. They don’t own the fucking place, no matter how much their daddies give them,” he said coldly. .

“I know,” Steve said darkly. “You got any ideas?”

“I think we need to go talk to them,” he said, nodding at his sudden idea.

“Are you crazy? Do you think talkin’ will solve anything?”

Two-Bit grinned. “This type o’ talking will.”

Steve smiled and shook his head. “We can’t tell Pony then.”

Two-Bit shrugged, pulling the collar of his jacket up. “They’ll be by the gym, that group always is.”

They pulled into the school, and quickly got out. Even as they walked towards the gym, Two-Bit felt that both Steve and he had absolutely no idea what they were getting themselves into.

The Socs were hanging out by the gym, laughing about something. They stopped when they saw Two-Bit and Steve coming and Two-Bit automatically put his hands on his blade, ready.

“Aren’t you out of your proper place?” a Soc in a yellow sweater said coolly.

“Yeah. Why don’t you get back to the sewer you greasy selves come from?” one of them said.

“Ah hell, after you came and visited us yesterday we thought the whole territory thing was over,” Two-Bit said, smiling coolly.

“Especially after kicking your asses in the rumble,” Steve commented casually, folding his arms.

“Yeah?” one of them challenged.

“Yeah,” Steve replied.

“So, anyway, as much as we would like to stand around and talk, we just want to say this --” Two-Bit said, grabbing one of the Socs by the arm, “-- stay the fuck away from me and my friends, okay?”

“Or what?” the guy asked, mock bravado covering his face.

Two-Bit reached in his pocket and flicked out his blade. “Or you might wind up seeing your pal Bobby sooner than you thought.”

“You threatening me?”

“Yes,” he said. “What? Are you going to run to a teacher, or your Mommy?” The Soc reddened and Two-Bit grinned.

“I think our work here is done,” Steve said brightly.

“I agree,” Two-Bit said, smiling. “Remember our little chat now, boys.”

They walked away to join the mass of the students making their way to class. Lunch was over, the school week was nearly over and Two-Bit could feel the Friday afternoon buzz in the air.

“Why are you so happy?” Two-Bit asked Steve, yawning loudly. Steve couldn’t be that happy about the weekend, Two-Bit suspected, Steve had to work.

“I got their hubcaps,” Steve said in a low voice as they walked to class. “I got them earlier. I mean, I was thinking of doing something a bit more spectacular, but I figured my talents were wasted on them.”

Two-Bit grinned. “Nice work there, Steve.”

“I do my best,” Steve modestly said, grinning. Two-Bit shook his head and walked into his classroom.

Bonnie slammed the textbook shut and irritably groaned. “That’s it, Lori, I can’t take anymore of this French work.”

Lori gurgled and smiled from her high-chair.

“That’s it, kiddo, you smile at my pain,” Bonnie said with a laugh. She looked at the clock to her right; it was nearly five o’clock and Bonnie was stuck babysitting Lori while Dale worked overtime and she waited for her mother to get back from a piano lesson. She knew her Dad wouldn’t be home until at least seven; there was trouble at the factory. Lori wasn’t too much trouble --though she was teething and could be more grumpy, grizzly and moody than usual-- so Bonnie was not particularly bothered about looking after her.

“Did Marty tell you where he was going?” Bonnie asked uselessly.

“Why would I tell a baby who can’t talk where I was going?” a deep voice --Marty-- said from behind her.

“Marty,” she said, “where have you been?”

“I’ve been around,” he said softly, walking to the fridge. “I’ve been around.” He was wearing the same red t-shirt and jeans she had seen him in last night, but now were dirty and stained with something Bonnie couldn’t quite identify, though she had her suspicions.

“Where?”

“Don’t nag me, Bonnie.”

“You just vanished,” she said, pressing him further.

“Is that a problem?” he asked, tired. “I hardly have to hold your hand and walk you to the bus, do I? You don’t really need me around. ‘Sides, I’m the type of guy who does take off, and you know that.”

Bonnie looked at Lori and pulled a face at her. “You could have told someone,” she said quietly as the baby giggled and reached out to try and grab her aunt by the nose.

“I did, I told Lori,” he said with a cheeky smile.

“But … Marty what’s going on?” she asked, her voice heavy and her worry all too visible despite her deceptively calm posture.

“Shorty, don’t worry. I had a rough night so I went out, that’s all,” he said, looking at her reassuringly. “Shit, don’t look at me like that, Bonnie. I’m sorry I worried you, I didn’t think you’d even notice.” Marty exhaled slowly and ran a hand through his hair nervously. Bonnie noticed that his hand was shaking and concern swept over her.

“I did though, we all did,” she said, sad at the idea that Marty would be beneath anyone’s notice, especially his family’s. She couldn’t imagine what he’d gone through that would make him think he was worth so little.

“Even Dale?” he asked as he opened a carton of juice.

“To an extent,” she said dubiously. Bonnie wondered how she could ever have believed that it was easier to deny Marty’s scars, to pretend they didn’t exist, than it was with Dale’s. Looking at her brother at that moment in the kitchen, with a hopeless expression on his face, a look that was so painful it broke her heart, she knew that he tried to bury his scars deep until they ate away at him. She could pretend when he was doing well, when that haunted look was gone from his eyes and his smiles didn’t seem forced. This wasn’t one of those times.

“So how was the date?” Marty asked suddenly.

“Good.”

“Just good?” Marty asked calmly.

“I really like him, I just don’t know if he likes me like that.”

“He will, or he’s both crazy an’ doomed. Dale and I meant what we said to him”

“And what was that?”

“Just that we would take care of you, and that he shouldn’t upset you.”

“Thanks, Marty,” Bonnie said, unable to keep the anger out of her voice. Her brothers could be so frustrating sometimes.

“No problem,” he said grinning. “We got any aspirin? I feel like someone’s bashed my head into a wall.”

“Charming. Third drawer,” she said, watching him rummage through the drawer until he found the bottle. He took tablets without water and winced as he raised the tablet to his mouth. “Marty … are you okay?”

“Yeah, course I am,” he said in a way that made Bonnie know that he wasn’t. “I’m going to my room.”

As he walked away, Bonnie noticed that he was limping heavily. She sighed, something was wrong with Marty, again. It was beginning to seem to her that he could not be saved, that he would never truly let go off his demons, and that his worst enemy was himself.

She swallowed and looked at Lori. “C’mon you, let’s get you to bed.”

Two-Bit grinned widely as he walked into Charlie’s. It was Friday night and he had the whole weekend ahead of him to see friends, have a few beers, and just generally forget about what had happened during the week; he could definitely do with forgetting about those Socs definitely. He felt lucky too; he had a sneaking suspicion that he might be able to beat Adam at poker tonight.

Adam and some of the Shepard gang were playing pool when he walked over to them. By Will’s frowns, Two-Bit concluded that Billy was beating him. He grinned to himself, Will was such a proud guy that losing would really irritate him.

“Hey Two-Bit,” Adam said, looking up from his bottle of beer, watching with a smirk as Will set up his next shot.

“Hi, Adam,” he said, casually. “Will losing?”

“Shut the fuck up,” Will said in a low, even voice as he aimed carefully but then missed his shot completely.

Two-Bit and Adam sniggered, exchanging grins.

“Want a beer?” Adam said, a glint in his eye. Two-Bit was no fool to this old, tired routine. Adam wanted to get him soused so that he would screw up in poker later on and lose all his money. Still, Two-Bit had a few cards up his sleeve, and besides, Adam’s friends were lousy at poker, he could easily win all their money.

“Sure,” he said, grinning confidently.