Coffee And Happy Endings (A Johnnyboy AU)

Johnny is found

A/N: I'm putting this at the beginning because in this chapter there's some pretty bad animal cruelty in paragraph 5. You can skip it, but I just thought I'd warn you. Don't read it while you're eating because it might be a little much. I hope you like this chapter, another one should be coming out soon!

Ponyboy's days seemed longer without Johnny to fill them with. He went to work and them went home, occasionally stopping at the 24 hour grocery mart to cry over slices of roast beef and buy groceries. School was hard, but Ponyboy had always been a hard worker. He would go home and study for hours. Ponyboy didn't sleep a lot. He had too much to do.

Keith still came in to get iced coffees sometimes. Ponyboy often got caught up on his life whenever he came in. Apparently a guy Keith had dated for his whole highschool career had found him and they had started dating a few months back. Brian (the highschool guy) had proposed to Keith and they were going to get married. "Summer wedding." Keith had said. Ponyboy was invited. He didn't know if he'd go. He might not. He would have no date. It seemed like everyone was getting a happy ending but him.

Ponyboy was walking home one day and he saw a figure who looked like Johnny. Sam height, build, hair colour and wearing the same leather jacket Johnny normally wore. Ponyboy decided to follow the figure. He walked 75 paces behind the mysterious person. Ponyboy was led down alleyway after alleyway after alleyway. He saw rats as big as cats and cats as big as rats. Torn hats. Bloody baseball bats. Ponyboy stopped because the figure wasn't moving. There was a door. 2 people were standing outside the door. They let the person in. Ponyboy was hiding behind some boxes and as the person turned their head, he saw it wasn't Johnny. They looked like Johnny, but it wasn't him. Ponyboy knew he needed to get in the door somehow. He looked around. The door was the entrance to a small warehouse. There had to be a window or a air duct vent somewhere. Ponyboy couldn't get passed the guards. He just decided to wing it. Ponyboy sauntered up to the door. The guards checked him out. They did a weird hand signal that looked like a thumbs up, which was probably a good sign and one opened the door. They let him in.

Ponyboy stepped inside. It was dark. He could hear dogs barking. People were yelling and screaming and chanting. Ponyboy took another step. He looked around. There were pens everywhere. Ponyboy could see about 7 all about 6 foot squares. People were crowded around each one, chanting. There were dog cages all around too. Some of the cages were full, some were empty. There were big cages and little cages. Big dogs and little dogs. Ponyboy realised where he was. He was in a dog fighting arena.

He walked up to one of the pens and glanced in. There was a tiny Chihuahua and a huge terrier. The terrier's ear was torn, but it wasn't bleeding so it must've been an old wound. The Chihuahua bloomed vicious, but it had a long cut down its back. The terrier's legs were bloody, but not much else. The terrier lunged for the smaller dog and clamped it in its jaws. The terrier crunched and all the bones of the tiny Chihuahua were crushed into dust. The terrier released the corpse of the Chihuahua. It was bloody. Broken. Dead. Half the pen cheered. Ponyboy wondered what person could take joy in the death of another. The death of an innocent animal. The Chihuahua's paw twitched. It was still alive, but barely. The Terrier's paw came down on it. A the life was squished out if it's tiny body the moment the huge paw came down on it. More cheers erupted from the people. Ponyboy was going to be sick. People were just terrible.

Ponyboy stumbled away from the arena. He didn't know how he had  ended up here, but he did know he wanted to leave. Well, he did, he followed the guy, but he had never expected this. An illegal dog fight den. This was new. Ponyboy would never be able to unsee what he did that night. The Chihuahua's lifeless body would forever haunt his dreams. He was about to leave when something caught his eye. Ponyboy turned his head and he saw Johnny.