Running Away is Easy

Memories

    (A.N: Sorry for taking so long to release this part, I've been really busy recently, but I hope you all enjoy:)
    My eyes slowly opened as I felt a slight shaking and heard a quiet voice, "Come on sleepyhead, it's time to wake up." I felt Johnny's soft hands on my shoulder gently rocking me back and forth.
    "Already? What time is it?" I asked him while carefully taking his hand off my shoulder and taking hold of it in mine, gently intertwining my fingers with his.
    "Almost 10am. Don't worry I slept in too, last night with everything that happened, I didn't actually end up falling asleep until almost 4 in the morning. Dal's still here, he's downstairs, so if you want to, we can bring him with us to talk to Darry." I looked up at Johnny and noticed he was wearing a pair of jeans, a white t-shirt, and a jacket that was at least a couple sizes too big,
    "Hey, where'd you get your jacket, is it new? I don't think I've seen you wear it before." I asked him.
    "Oh, Dally gave it to me. That was real nice of him, wasn't it?" The corners of his mouth slowly raised in a soft smile. "That reminds me, Dal told me to give you these when you woke up." He reached over to the end of the bed and grabbed a change of clothes, and laid it down beside me.
    An intense heat rushed over my body and I felt nauseous. What was special about Dallas giving him a jacket? I had  given him clothes loads of times, but the one time Dally does it, that makes him some kind of saint? I think Johnny could sense my annoyance, as he began speaking, "I mean, it was a nice gesture of him, but I personally like the green sweatshirt you gave me better." He carefully squeezed my hand.
    "Alright, I'm gon' head downstairs with Dally, you get changed and meet us down there. Sound good?" Johnny asked me.
    "Yeah, sounds good." I replied. As I began getting changed, I also began thinking. I hated how I had gotten mad earlier. Dallas and Johnny were just buddies, and I knew that, but I couldn't help but feel a little bit jealous when Johnny talked about Dal in such a heroic manner. Once I had finished getting changed, I began walking downstairs to meet the others
    Johnny was in the kitchen making a bowl of cereal, and Dally was sat at the table eating some toast with a cup of milk.
    "I don't understand how you drink that stuff on it's own. I mean, chocolate milk's great, but just plain milk on it's own? What kind of maniac drinks plain milk on it's own?" I drank chocolate milk for breakfast everyday, but I've never understood how some people drank just plain milk.
    "Milk's great, it's natural, it's satisfying. You just can't beat it!" Dally sounded real passionate about his love for milk.
    "Dal, are you already high? It's only 10am!" I joked, Johnny and I both looked at each other and bursted out laughing.
    I grabbed a bowl and poured myself some cereal. Once we were all finished our breakfast, I grabbed all of our dishes and put them in the sink. Johnny looked at me as if he was going to ask me a question, then glanced at Dally, and then back at me. He didn't even have to say anything, I already knew what he was going to ask me. I still wasn't sure if I was fully ready for Dallas to know yet, but it felt like we didn't have any other options right now, so I sighed and nodded.
    "Hey Dally, Ponyboy and I were wondering... well you see, you know how we got into a little argument with Darry yesterday? We were wondering if you could come with us to talk to him." Johnny asked Dally.
    Dally looked a little confused, and said, "Yeah sure man, what was the fight about?"
    Johnny kept looking back and forth between me and Dally, I could tell he wanted to talk but didn't quite know what to say, so I stepped in, "Well uh... Johnnycake and I are... yeah and Darry walked in and saw us... then he kicked us out." Johnny and I have never really talked about what we were. I knew we were more then friends, but were we dating? I mean, we hadn't really been on a real date yet, but we both knew we liked each other, but still I didn't quite know what we were.
    "Wait so are y'all dating or..?" Dally asked.
    "Well we don't really have a label yet, but yeah, I guess so." Johnny said.
    "Oh cool." he paused for a second then continued, "So, you two want me to go to Darry and 'knock some' sense into him, you know what I mean?" He lightly chuckled.
    "No! With everything that's happened recently, I'm done with fighting! I just want to go and talk to him. I know Darry respects you, and maybe he'll listen if you talk to him." I explained.
    "Alright, Alright. I'll try just talking to him, but I can't make any guarantees." Dally replied. I was starting to get a little worried, I didn't want anyone else getting hurt.
Dally drove us all to my house. I was starting to feel real sick. What if Dally wouldn't be able to talk to Darry, and we really end up out of the house for good. Or what if one of them accidentally lets something slip out and the whole gang ends up finding out about me and Johnny. And what if they aren't anymore supportive than Darry is. No. I had to stop thinking about the what ifs. I got mad at Johnny for saying what if, so I can't say it either.
As we walked up to the door, Johnny grabbed my hand and gently squeezed it. My palms were sweaty and my vision was blurry as I pushed open the screen door. The whole gang was there. Steve and Two-bit were on the couch eating chocolate cake, Two had a bottle of beer in his hand, and Darry and Sodapop were in the kitchen. I looked around and realized that this might be the last time we would all be together in the same room. The people who I had called my family for my whole life might soon be nothing more than a memory to me.
"Oh hey Pony! Where have you been?" Soda saw us an smiled.
Darry looked up at us and his eyebrows furrowed in anger, "I told you two to get out of here." he said in a steady voice.
"Darry, what are you talking about?" Soda questioned, his smile turning into a look of confusion.
"Listen here pal, you're gon' apologize to these two boys are we're gonna have a problem." Dally demanded.
"I said get the hell out. This ain't Ponyboy's house anymore." He said in the same steady voice. I almost felt dumb for thinking Darry would change how he was thinking. Almost. There still had to be some hope for him, right? I mean, Darry was still my big brother. He raised me, took care of me, he was family, and no family would stop loving someone over something like this.
"Will one of you please explain what's going on?" Steve sprang up from the couch and asked.
"Alright. I'll tell you what's going on. These two little queers were having a make out session in Ponys' room, so I kicked them out of my house, and I ain't apologizing for it." Darry said.
My stomach dropped, and every single sound in that house was drowned out by the noise of my heart beating. There I was, in the middle of the living room with the whole gang staring at me. Man, I hated having people stare at me. It made me feel embarrassed, like I had done something wrong. I knew I didn't do anything wrong, but the rest of the gang didn't. To them, this was some kind of crime. Suddenly, I remembered the day at the courthouse.
It was only 2 days ago, but it felt like years ago. Almost like it was a completely different life time. I remembered the feeling when the judge called out my name, and Soda had to nudge on my arm because I wasn't paying attention. I remembered the way my face went bright red when everyone in the courthouse was looking at me. I remembered the way I felt like I was going to be sick. I remembered the judge questioning me about my home life, and how I was doing in school. I remembered the look of pure joy on Darry's face when the judge said he would have full custody of me and Soda. I remembered the relief I felt when I was told I wouldn't be put into a boys home. But that's all I was doing, I was only remembering. All these things I was remembering, all the moments and feelings that were rushing back to me were nothing more then memories. If I had known what would come of all this, would I have answered the judges questions differently? What if I said I didn't like living with my brothers. What if I had mentioned that I had been flunking recently. What if... shit, I'm doing it again I thought to myself. I have to stop thinking about the what if's.
"Alright, that's it buddy. You ain't gonna be talking about Johnny and Pony like that, you hear me?" Dally's voice broke into my thoughts. Dally looked at Darry for a moment and than pushed him. This is exactly what I told him not to do. Fighting doesn't do any good. If anyone, Dally should know that.
    Darry looked angrier than ever, and next thing I knew he formed his hand into a fist and raised his arm, getting ready to punch Dally. But he missed. Well, he did hit someone, but that someone wasn't Dally.
    I collapsed to the ground, and Johnny rushed down to my side. He held on to my hand with tears running down his deep rosey cheeks. Man, even crying he looked pretty. He was saying something, but my ears were ringing so bad I couldn't hear him. I felt blood oozing out of my nose. I brought my hand up to my face to wipe it and I could feel that it was already starting to bruise.
    "Hey! Don't you touch him!" I heard Two-bit scream. I saw him get up off the couch and push Darry. After that I heard lots of commotion, but those were the only words I could really make out. I tried to sit up, but instead, everything just went black.