It was late at night when I finally heard Steve come home. He had told me he was going out after work, not giving me too much detail about it. It seemed like he was doing that a lot lately. He would go out and not come home until the early hours of the morning. Most of the times, he would be drunk.

Normally, if I went to bed before Steve, he would try to be quiet when getting into bed, not wanting to wake me. When he was drunk, he would just fall into bed, causing me to bounce on the bed and wake up. I would always be able to smell the alcohol on his breath. His words would come out in a slur and he either wouldn't make any sense or he would be incredibly rude and mean to me. I was tired of it.

I decided to wait up for him tonight. I wanted to know why he was doing this. I knew something had to be wrong with him.

"What are you doing up?" He asked, looking at me with hard eyes. He definitely wasn't as drunk as he could be.

"I want to know why you're doing this. You're quiet and distant with me before you leave for work, as soon as you get off you're gone somewhere getting drunk. You don't come home til the early hours of the morning. I think I deserve an explanation for why you're acting like this." I said to him.

"Why do you care? I'm sure while I'm not around you're probably screwing some guy right?" He spat at me.

"What are you even talking about?" I asked him, shock written all over my face.

"Don't play stupid! If you aren't with me, you're with some other guy. Don't you have any friends that are girls?"

I couldn't believe this. The idiot actually thought I was cheating on him.

"You actually believe that I'm cheating on you?" He didn't answer this, he just glared at me. I scoffed, shaking my head. "This is just unbelievable."

"I should've known better! I should've known with all the guys you hang around with that you would cheat on me!" Steve yelled.

"I'm not cheating on you!" I yelled back.

"A liar and a whore! You're nothing but trash!"

"Steve!" I yelled, my voice cracking.

"Who was it? Was it a Soc or a Greaser? Who knows? Maybe it was one of my boys." His voice got incredibly low.

"Get out." I said to him.

"My pleasure!" He yelled again, slamming the door on his way out.

I went to bed, not actually sleeping. I spent the rest of the night crying.

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I woke up to cold sheets, immediately remembering the fight Steve and I had the night before. I got up and took a shower, hoping it would ease my nerves.

I decided to go over to the Curtis house to see my friends. I knew Soda, Steve, and Darry were at work. The boys had the day off from school. I knew Ponyboy would definitely be at the house. There was no telling with the others.

I walked in through the front door to see Ponyboy on the couch watching tv. No one else was in sight. I plopped down beside of him.

"You alright?" He asked.

"Not really. Why?" I asked, looking at him curiously.

"Oh, Steve might've mentioned a fight the two of you had."

I just sighed and ran a hand through my hair.

"Look Ariana, he seemed pretty upset about it honestly. I think you should talk to him when he gets off work. Trust me, he definitely has a lot of explaining to do." Ponyboy said, looking at me with worried eyes.

"Alright Pony, I'll talk to him." I said, both of us going back to the show on tv.

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I was already back at home when Steve walked through the front door.

"Ariana?" Steve called out. He sounded scared.

"Yeah?" I asked him.

"I am so sorry babygirl. I shouldn't have acted the way I did or said any of the things that I did. I was a complete idiot. I don't know why I did the things that I did. Well, yeah I actually do, I was jealous Ariana. I was scared that maybe you were gonna leave me for somebody else. I know you have a lot of friends that are guys, and I'm okay with that, I really am. It's just some of those Greasers, I don't know them. I don't know if I could trust them, you know. I see how all the Soc boys look at you, and I don't like that at all. Look, baby please. Please forgive me. I was a jerk to you. I'm so sorry." Steve said, his words coming out in a rush, but I could still understand everything he said. He sounded so desperate.

"It's okay. I forgive you Steve." I said. He immediately grabbed me and pulled me in for a hug.

"You really should've just came to me about this though. Instead of you getting drunk and avoiding me, we could've just talked it out." I said to him.

"I know baby. I'll never do something like that again." He said, leaning his forehead against mine.

"Promise?" I asked.

"Promise." He answered, before leaning down and giving me a sweet kiss on the lips.