Tough Love, Johnny Cade (Jally)

Thirteen: Beautiful

"Drive! Drive!" Dally dove into the backseat and Two was hitting the gas before the door was closed. We drove away from the angry crowd of Socs and screeched onto the road.

Dally had knocked out that one Soc, and most of them came at him. Two-Bit knocked down two of them before starting the car and yelling at Dally. Dally had knocked out another Soc, and floored three of them, but he was still out numbered. He'd been hit a few times, and his nose was bleeding. They'd started getting the upper hand.

"Jesus, have you ever seen so many Socs?" Dally had his nose in his hand, and I was shuffling through the glove box looking for a handkerchief or something.

"Still!" Two-Bit laughed as he finally slowed his driving. "You took out like half of those guys, and fended off all the others! Those guys are going to have nightmares about you, yes sir!"

"Who knows, maybe they'll be good dreams." Dally was smiling wearily, exhausted. Two-Bit chucked and I finally passed him some napkins.

I found myself zoning out the rest of the way back to the Curtis'. Dally and Two-Bit were talking about the Socs, but I was focusing on the purple skyline.

"You okay, Johnny?"

I looked back at Dally. We were turning onto the street the house was on.

"They didn't spook ya', did they?"

"No, I'm alright." I said. Dally's face was all bloody between his nose and his mouth. His nose didn't look broken, but they musta' got him pretty good. Dally had blood on his T-shirt and hands as well. When we pulled into the driveway, Ponyboy peeked his head out of the front door.

"I thought you guys went out to eat." Pony said as we approached the porch. Then he saw where the skin had been broken along Two-Bit's cheekbone. "Jesus, I'll get out the first aid." He hurried back in the house. Two-Bit tromped up the porch steps, following.

"I'm not going in there, I'm still bleeding." Dally said. Two nodded and went inside. Dally sat on the porch furniture and tipped his head back, pinching his nose.

"I'll go get some rags." I said, opening the door. Dally nodded the best he could with his head back like that. I went inside and made my way through the hall. Two-Bit was explaining what had happened to Pony and Soda as Pony tried to clean him up in the bathroom. I went into the kitchen, only to find Darry there.

"What's going on?" He asked, checking me over.

"Dally and Two had a brief moment with a group of Socs outside of Cattleman's." I said. "They're okay, but Dally's got a nasty nose bleed. I was coming to get him a wet rag. He won't come inside until he's cleaned up."

"Alright." Darry put his hands on his hip, looking back at the countertop behind him. "There's some rags in the drawer second to the last, under those boxes. There's some cut up old shirts too, bring him a few black ones to stop the bleeding."

"Okay, thanks." I gathered a rag or two and a big peice of old T-shirt cloth from the drawer. I wet the rags at the sink, promptly ringing out the excess water.

"Do you need any help?" Darry asked as I turned to leave the room.

"Uh, no I got it." I nodded and started for the hallway before stopping again and looking back at Darry. "Thanks, really."

Darry smiled. He knew what I meant. "Anytime, Johnny Cade."

I brought everything out to Dally, handing him the black cloth.

"To stop the bleeding."

"Yeah, thanks." Dally brought it to his nose and tilted his head back down. "I think the bleeding is slowing, there's just still a lot."