Let It Be Me

Part 15

Pony was checking out the bruises on his face in the living room mirror. He and Johnny had cleaned up and bandaged their wounds but they were still looking pretty worked over.

"Darry's gonna be ripped" he said with a crooked grin. He turned his cheek to Johnny. "What do you think, Johnnycake? Think it makes me look tough?" Johnny made a face and then winced from the painful bruise that had formed over his cheekbone.

"You look like a greaser alright" he said evenly.

Pony smiled as Johnny grabbed one of the shot glasses off the table and poured himself a drink. His hands were trembling slightly.

I glanced over at Carl still pushed up against the wall. A line of drool was starting to form in the corner of his open mouth and Two-Bit's intricately detailed sketch of a penis had smudged across his cheek. It kind of resembled an oak tree with bushes and two giant acorns at the bottom now.

"He's not with Shepard is he?" I asked holding out my shot glass as Pony poured. He shook his head.

"No. Carl works at the DX." He noticed my confusion and grinned. "On Sundays."

"Just Sundays?" He nodded.

"That's Vic's son. Him and Victor run the place Sundays."

"You let the owner's son pass out drunk on your floor?" Somehow that seemed like a dumb move. Pony shrugged.

"Yeah. Vic's a cool guy. He ain't gonna fire Soda if that's what you mean."

He moved over to Eva and tipped the bottle over her plastic cup. Eva never used shot glasses. She couldn't understand why anyone would take a drink one small sip at a time. She just didn't have the patience for that. And she had a tolerance for alcohol like you read about. Her fingers swept upward, instructing Pony to keep pouring until his eyes widened.

"You know that's whiskey, right?" She put a hand on her hip.

"Just pour, little man. I have a lot of catching up to do."

She drank down the booze and dropped the cup to her side, only wincing slightly from the taste.

"Damn, you're worse than Callie" Pony said wide eyed. My jaw dropped and I leaned over and hit him in the stomach, hard, before I had even thought about what I was doing. He doubled over with a sort of gasp and my hand flew over my mouth.

"Oh my God. I'm so sorry!" For a moment he couldn't speak. Finally he stood up again and put on a straight face, trying to disguise his agony.

"It's ok. You just picked a bad spot, that's all."

Oh my God, you idiot! You just watched him get kicked in the ribs a hundred times. What is wrong with you?

I put my hands on his stomach as though I could somehow hold the guts in that were now about to spill out all over the floor. I tried not to notice how his abs rippled under my fingers.

"I didn't mean that." He smiled and held onto my hands.

"It's ok, really. I can handle Soc's and greasers, I'm pretty sure I can handle a hit from Callie Reese. You aint' that tough."

I tried to pull my hands away so I could wind up and try again just for spite but he tightened his grip and held them against his chest. He was unnaturally strong for a guy with a medium build. His whole torso was rock hard and must have been pure muscle. I struggled senselessly against his grip.

"You kind of remind me of a fierce...I don't know....little kitten or something" he mocked. I struggled harder but the movement from pulling against him was throwing me off balance. To add to my problems, the shot I'd just had suddenly caught up with me. I felt a wave of heat and then my head swam and my eyes went out of focus. I stopped struggling and closed my eyes, leaning my head on his chest to brace myself.