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 to all my reviewers. All concrit appreciated.

Disclaimer: I do not own Two-Bit or any of the characters created by S E Hinton or Back 2 Good by Matchbox 20.

“It's nothing/ it's so normal you just stand there/ I could say so much...”

Autumn had unleashed itself on Tulsa at last. After the seemingly unending Indian summer ,Two-Bit had been glad to start walking up the driveway with an accompanying chorus of crunching leaves underneath his feet as he went. That said, the effect was somewhat reduced when it had rained. as it had that afternoon, so instead of the crunching noise he associated with the best of his childhood, Two-Bit found himself walking from his car accompanied by a dull squish and the tiresome dilemma of leaves coating his shoes like feathers to tar.

Soda and Steve were waiting outside his house as he searched for the house keys deep inside his jean pocket. Steve was lying on the porch smoking a cigarette whereas Soda was casually leaning against the post in what Two-Bit felt was an ultimate tribute to the posters of JD hoods in magazines.

“Where’s the camera, posers?” he called cheerfully as he made his way onto the porch.

“Ha ha, very funny Two-Bit,” Steve said as he stood up. “You know what I’m gettin’ you for Christmas?”

“A new car, so we stop wasting our time on that-that thing?” Soda asked hopefully as he looked at Two-Bit’s car, parked a few metres down the road.

“How about a watch, so we ain’t standin’ round in the pissing rain?”

“Hey, I said I had detention!”

“You also said that you would get back for half four, it’s five,” Steve continued moodily. “We’ve been sittin’ around in the pissing rain for half a damn hour,” he raged.

“Oh,” Two-Bit shrugged and grinned. “Guess I forgot, sorry.” Steve sighed, clearly annoyed but taking a deep breath he just shook his head.

“Fuck it, can we get inside though, I’m about frozen,” he complained as Two-Bit opened the door.

It was a tradition that on Wednesday afternoons Soda and Steve came around Two-Bit’s. It had began when Soda dropped out with the hope that they could still hang out like they had used to in school. The freedom in Two-Bit’s home -- which was nearly always empty in the afternoons as his mother took far too many extra shifts and his little sister Peggy was often out with friends -- was incomparable to what could have been received in the other’s houses. Steve’s house was fairly quiet, too quiet in Two-Bit’s opinion, unless his father was in one of ‘those’ moods. Soda’s house was okay, but Two-Bit found now carried an unfamiliar lingering sense of discomfort in the wake of the events of the previous month and was therefore relieved that they had never really had these occasions there.

Two-Bit turned on the battered radio in the living room and adjusted the station to one that played decent music, which roughly meant that the Beatles very rarely featured there.

“How was detention?” Steve asked.

“It was alright, yeah.” Two-Bit grinned. “I met a girl there.” Steve and Soda both raised their eyebrows at Two-Bit. “Her name was Bonnie, Bonnie Cross, Circle, Square? Something like that anyway...”

“Great sign if you can’t remember her name,” Steve dryly said. “So she’s good lookin’?” he challenged.

Two-Bit nodded. “She is pretty good looking-” he paused and decided to perhaps exaggerate slightly. Bonnie had been fairly good looking in that dark haired, dark eyed with pale skin way. She was not like Kathy who was a typically beautiful blonde, but she was not ugly either. “She was hot,” he added finally.

“Really?” Steve questioned. “Then why was she talking to you?”

“Screw you!” Two-Bit laughed.

Soda stood up. “I’m just going to get a drink, want one?”

“Yeah, thanks,” Two-Bit grinned and Steve shook his head.

“Two-Bit, where’d you keep the sodas again?” Soda suddenly asked, walking into the kitchen. Two-Bit had a feeling something was bugging him and hoped it was nothing to do with the fact Soda was still pining, in a respect, for Sandy.

“Second drawer,” he called, hoping this was not attempt of Soda’s to coerce him into going into the kitchen where he would say whatever was wrong. Soda was the was supposed to be the understanding member of their gang, all Two-Bit was the joker and he wasn’t sure how well he could put into words what he really wanted to say to Soda about Sandy. If he thought about it, it was probably along the lines of needing to get over her, because as he much Two-Bit hated to admit it, Sandy probably wasn’t thinking about Soda anymore, therefore it was a wasted effort. Two-Bit suddenly wondered whether his reluctance to date again was more to with everything that had happened around Soda in the last few months, it certainly was a conversation stopper. Besides, he remembered Soda indicating that things with Pony and Darry were still strained and maybe he was nervous about that. That said, the boy needed to get out and see some girls, or he would never get over Sandy.

“Bonnie Cross, name sounds familiar y’know,” Steve slowly said, and Two-Bit was struck by the way he had also felt he had heard of her before. From her behaviour and general demeanour in detention, as well as what he could recall from his scatterbrained memory, Two-Bit would say that she was one of those girl who so quietly sunk into the background of a class, the sort of girl who just drifted through life without really causing a fuss.

“How’s Evie?” Soda asked as he walked back into the kitchen holding two bottles of Pepsi. Two-Bit accepted his and quickly began to take a drink.

“She’s good. She says to tell you that she’s got a friend who is ‘a complete doll’.” Steve grimaced at what he had clearly been forced to say and shuddered before he continued. “This … friend, she thinks, you would get on real good with her, an’ she wants to set you two up.” Two-Bit laughed, Steve’s girlfriend Evie was forever trying to force her friends on the gang in the hopes of becoming a master matchmaker.

Soda squirmed slightly. “Well-”

“She left a month ago, Soda, you need to get over her,” Steve said matter-of-factly. Two-Bit noticed that he had hesitated and wondered if he had been going to add what they were all thinking ‘and she cheated on you’.

“I have to agree with Steve, Soda.” Two-Bit supportively said.

“The only way you will do that though is to go out with some other girls, I mean you used to date different girls all the time. Do you remember that?” he asked accusingly.

“Yeah, I guess.” Soda paused and looked at Steve. “Does it have to be one of Evie’s friends though?” he asked with a grin.

“Hey, I could ask one o’Kathy’s friends but they ain’t so fond of me at the moment.” Two-Bit added as Soda shook his head, grinning. “They saw me talkin’ to this girl and I have a sneaking suspicion that they may be reporting back to Kathy before the night is over.” Steve sniggered and Soda shrugged at Two-Bit sympathetically. “It’s no worry anymore.”

“So Soda what do you say?” Steve asked, looking intently into his friend’s eyes. Soda mumbled uselessly and Two-Bit decided to intervene.

“What the hell have you got to lose from one date, Soda?” he asked. “Anyway, Evie’s got some alright lookin’ mates, I mean some of them aren’t so good but some are alright,” he helpfully reminded him.

There was a drawn out silence as Soda carefully deliberated the situation. “Fine, fine, I’ll do it,” he said reluctantly but with a smile on his face. “How bad can it be?”

“Oh boy, Soda, you sure don’t know what you could be getting into,” Two-Bit laughed, finding the sudden concern in Soda’s face one of the funniest things he had seen all day.

The sound of piano music softly infiltrated the kitchen as Bonnie and her brother walked through the back door after what Bonnie believed had been the world’s longest errand running expedition. She looked around, Marty was sitting on a kitchen counter and the door to the main living room was shut.

“Shut the door, it’s freezing out there!” Marty protested. “Ma’s doing a lesson,” he explained pointing at the closed door. Their mother was a piano teacher, primarily teaching part time within a local music school, but she did a number of lessons within her own home as well. Bonnie wished that she had the musical ability to do more than tunelessly sing along with the radio.

“I never would have guessed by the whole piano music thing,” her older brother commented dryly in response to Marty’s basic statement of fact as he placed his car keys on the kitchen table and shivered slightly. “I’m going to get Lori,” he explained as he left the room.

“Where were you today?” Bonnie asked as Dale left. “You left me in detention, on my own!”

“Sorry, how’d you cope?” he asked insincerely, rolling his sleeve up and looking at a tattoo on his right forearm.

“Fine, I got talking to this guy. It was fun.” She sat down at the table and tapped her fingers on the table. “I ain’t never gonna do that again though!”

“What? Talk to a guy?” Dale asked as he walked back into the room with a tired looking baby in his arms. “I hate to break it to you, sis, but we’re-”

“No Dale,” she interrupted. “I’m never going to skip school with Marty again. Particularly as he couldn’t be asked to go to detention with the sister he so awfully got in trouble!”

“You wanted to see that movie! I merely offered a way to facilitate that want,” he commented casually, stressing the syllables in facilitate, Bonnie crossed her arms completely infuriated.

“So who was this guy?” Dale asked coolly as the overwhelming sense of being confined in by her brothers emerged once again.

“His name was Two-Bit, well that was his nickname.” She hesitated before adding, “He was really nice, a good laugh.” Bonnie looked at Dale anxiously as he walked in, afraid that he might suddenly becoming overbearingly protective about her.

“Hey, I’m not getting involved so don’t look at me like that!” Dale said calmly.

“Good, ‘cause you two sure can kill a girl’s social life,” she said, sighing with relief. “I dread to think of poor Lori when she’s older.” Dale turned behind him to look towards the room his daughter was in and Bonnie felt certain that the poor girl would be very sheltered from the opposite sex for most of her teenage life.

“So Bonnie,” Marty began. “What did I miss today?” he asked. “Any fights, anything remotely newsworthy?”

“They’ll be furious if they-” Bonnie began sternly with completely concern about their parents’ response if they found out Marty was skipping school again.

“They know,” he simply said. “I said I needed a day off and to go to the ol’Doc’s, so they let me.”

“I don’t believe you,” she stubbornly replied.

“Oh well,” he shrugged. “At least you met a guy there, right? We better watch her Dale, she’s turning into a right ol’greaser,” he playfully teased. “I mean she’s going to detention and picking up guys! God knows what she’ll be up to next.”

“Well, what can I say? I clearly have learned from you,” she indignantly replied. “I mean women to you are like an Olympic sport or something, aren’t they?”

Marty half smiled. “You could say that, you could say that.”

“Did you really go to the doctors?” she asked suspiciously, it would not be the first time that Marty had told someone he would go to one place, and in reality had ended up somewhere far more seedy.

“Yeah,” he casually said and crossed his arms as he looked at the ceiling before he realised that Bonnie wanted more of an explanation. “It was the same old stuff, he says I need to sleep more and quit smoking --like that’s gonna happen-- and he wants me to come back in a month.” Bonnie nodded and he leaned against the wall again.

“You could try-” she tentatively began, wishing that Marty would just sometimes put effort into his own life.

“So who was this guy again? I don’t think I was listening.” Marty’s blunt honesty and ability to shamelessly change a subject never ceased to amaze Bonnie who only wished she could have half the courage in her convictions as her brother.

“Thanks! Two-Bit, his nickname was Two-Bit and I-I don’t know his first name,” she lamely admitted.

“Two-Bit?” he paused. “I think that I’m in homeroom with a friend of his. It’s that kid, y’know, the one whose friend killed a Soc, and has a crazy assed name? I swear I’ve heard this Two-Bit’s name, but then again that kid’s got a brother with a crazy name too an’ I might be getting them mixed up.”

“Possibly,” she shrugged. “It won’t come to anything though,” she murmured to herself as she flicked through a magazine that had been discarded on the kitchen table.

“Did you say something?” Marty suddenly asked.

“No,” she said as she smiled at him gently. “You’re clearly hearing things, Marty.” He raised an eyebrow at her sceptically, shrugged and flipped up his jacket collar, paused as he produced a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and walked out of the back door.