Tough Love, Johnny Cade (Jally)

Eighteen: Feelings

"Johnnykid, what are you doing?"

"Huh?" I sat up hastily. Blinking up, there was Two-Bit. He looked down at me with a strange look of confusion, relief, and that comical expression he always has.

"What are the two of you doing out here, Pony's worried sick." He said.

I looked down. Dallas was laying there, arousing in the shade of the tree. My face grew warm, and probably several shades darker than it should have been.

"I-" I managed to say, although it sound more like 'A-ye!'. Two looked at me funny and I hid behind my hair as Dally sat up.

"Y'all know it's almost 11AM, right?" Two said, helping Dally to his feet. I stumbled to my feet behind him.

"No, actually, we didn't." Dally said, grabbing his T-shirt from the grass and shaking it off. He tossed his shirt over his shoulder and pulled out a pack of cigarettes.

"Well I've been looking for you for nearly two hours." Two-Bit said. "Come on, Ponyboy's been waiting at camp in case you guys came back."

Two-Bit headed for the trees, and I followed behind him, Dally following behind me. We walked in total silence until we came back across camp. Pony eventually noticed us coming through the grass and he jumped up from his place by the fire. He jogged over to us, and we met halfway.

"Glory, you two scared me half to death, where were you?!" He said, his face pale. I couldn't help but chuckle softly to myself.

"What is it?" Pony asked, frowning at me.

I shook my head. "It's just that you sound kind of like Darry."

Ponyboy cracked a sheepish grin. "Yeah, s'pose you're right." He chuckled. "But actually, where did you go?"

"Sleep." Dally said, taking a drag off his cigarette. "You see Johnny here, he's not real used to sleeping with blankets, he needed to sleep on the ground."

"Hey!" I said. Dally ignored me and Two-Bit laughed.

"But Dal, you were the only one sleeping on the ground!" Two laughed. "Johnny here was sleeping on you!"

"Uh- got cold." I muttered to the ground, hiding behind my hair.

"Apparently Dally wasn't cold, he didn't even have his shirt on." Two-Bit said. He slapped me on the back. "Come on, let's all eat."

We all settled for eggs and boloney sandwiches. Pony offered to make me eggs, but I said I preferred my eggs fried. Ponyboy was having his scrambled, so he asked Dally if he could make them, since Dally was having them same as me. At that point, I'd rather just have no eggs at all, but Dally did make them. He grumbled the whole time, but something about that I found admirable.

I found myself sitting between Two-Bit and Pony. I wasn't really sure why, but ever since everything had happened with Dally, I felt more comfortable being around different people. It wasn't that a part of me didn't want to sit with Dally. It's just that I didn't want my heartbeat racing with my body. I was putting together my sandwich when I caught Ponyboy taking a big bite into his.

Without thinking I said, "I thought you hated baloney."

Pony frowned over at me, swallowing his bite. "I... don't really have a problem with baloney, actually." He said slowly, confused. Then he chuckled. "Where'd you get that?"

"I-" I felt my face grew hot. Thinking about it, I wasn't even sure why I thought that in the first place, I didn't recall anything about him disliking baloney. "I don't know, must have been someone else, I guess." I said.