Tough Love, Johnny Cade (Jally)

Twelve: Punch

That night, I had one of those dreams again. It was about Dally, but this time, I don't think he was hurt.

Even so, I know it's one of those dreams because I had the same feeling I did last time. Like it was real, like I was someone standing by and watching it happen.

Dally was sat at a table with one chair. He was leaned back, his feet kicked up on it. He was talking to a man in a hat, though I never got a good look at him. Dally was saying something- probably something impish by his common expression. I couldn't tell what anyone was saying becuase everything was muffled. I could still hear the voices, but it was like they had all been blurred.

Even though the dream didn't scare me, I still woke up sweating, my heart pounding. I was on the Curtis' couch, covered in the spare plaid blanket. I was the only one in the room. There was the usual commotion in the kitchen, and I headed in to check it out.

"Yeah, you gave us all a scare man." Soda was saying. He was serving Dally a plate of eggs, which was weird, because Dally was never much of a breakfast guy.

"I wish I'd been here." Steve said. Looking around, I realized someone was missing.

"Where's Two-Bit?" I asked, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

"He was our partying last night, who knows." Pony said, scrambling eggs. He glanced up at me. "Say, your face is puffy Johnny. What's that about?"

"Allergies?" Darry handed me a plate with a slice of chocolate cake. "Me too."

Darry winked at me, and I nodded, sitting at the table by Steve. Darry had been generous to try and shake the subject like that. He knew well my face was puffy from all the crying I did last night. I was still out of sorts from everything. I was nervous to be around Dally and Darry, hell, I was nervous to look at Pony in Soda's presence. And if I really must include Steve, I was already pretty sure he thought I was a buzzkill because I hang out with Pony. So everyone was putting me on edge this morning.

"Man, I slept like a baby!" Dally was saying, stretching.

"Didn't you sleep on the ground? At the lot?" Steve asked, a cake crumb falling from his mouth.

"Yeah, and it was great." Dally said. He took a bite of eggs.

"Okay, Mister Sunshine." Pony was scooping his eggs out of the pan into his plate.

Dally shrugged, before making an attempt at a forkful of Steve's cake. Steve was too fast though. The two started bickering, and the room started bustling with excitement. I thought Dally was acting strange this morning, and I concluded that him pointing out his good sleep may have been him communicating that he didn't dream. I had, which made that a little odd. At this point, these appearances weren't weird anymore. I just wanted to figure out what the hell they were.

And not be torched before I get the chance to.

At the end of breakfast, the phone rang. Soda left the room to go get it.

"It's Two-Bit." Soda said when he came back. "He found a pay phone, he got kicked out of the party place, and he left his car here."

"Yeah, he was telling me about going to the party yesterday." Dally said. "I know the neighborhood, I'll go look for him."

I stood at the sink rinsing my dish. Dally came up and handed me his too.

"Hey, Johnny, why don't we go do something later?" He said quietly, not to interrupt the general conversation at the table.

"Why?" I asked, kind of bluntly. Cake wasn't settling so well with me, everyone was putting me on edge.

"Well the movies was a bust, remember? I was thinking we find something else to do."