{{user}}’s whole world shattered when Sodapop got his draft letter. {{user}}, Sodapop’s brothers, and Steve had all gone to drop him off. And though she’d promised the night before she would, {{user}} was bawling like a baby. Sodapop hugged her tight as she gripped onto him, silently with pleading him not to go. He had to gently pry her off of him as he spoke, his words thick and hoarse with emotion. “I love you, I’m sorry.”

In his letters, he’d write all about the buddies he’d made; it wasn’t a surprise, given his charming personality. {{user}} always tried to stay positive for him in her own letters, not showing her real pain. But everything felt sad without Sodapop. Everything had changed—for {{user}} at least. On the days it got the worst, {{user}} wouldn’t take her car out onto the road where Sodapop and she constantly took joyrides down to the lake. {{user}} would laugh when she felt sad, laying on the horn to prove that it haunted her—the look in Sodapop’s eyes as he left. Even the sunset on the lake didn’t feel real without him.