sure pretty... - johnny cade

chapter 6 - maybe he was right

For the next week or so, I kept growing closer to all the gang. I went over to the curtis house often and I had already gone to watch 2 movies with ponyboy and started a book he recommended. He's a really nice kid. I also started becoming especially close with soda and two, they were really fun to hang out with and I went to see a drag race with them. Overall, I had already long forgotten about my school friends.

I pushed through the doors of the DX and went over to sodapop, he was working his shift inside on the counter. I saw two soc girls desperately trying to flirt with him, so I decided I wanted to make them mad. "Hey soda" I said in a very sweet voice, walking over to him and looping my arm onto his. The soc girls gave me two really dirty looks and rushed to walk out of the store. I let go of soda's arm and started laughing with him. "Did you see the looks they gave me? They were clawing their nails into me with their eyes" I said. He continued to laugh while handing me over the usual pack of cigarettes I always got there. "Ya know laurie, you gotta stop doing that otherwise we're gonna be left with no clients". I chuckled when I suddenly heard the store doorbell ring and a soc guy came in wearing some khakis and a horrible vest with a button-up shirt underneath. I pulled myself up and sat down on the counter, leaning down to sodapop's ear and whispering jokes about the guy.

He tried hard to contain his laugh, but we both couldn't hold it in and just bursted out laughing. The soc guy turned his head to us harshly and silently put his stuff on the counter, looking like he wanted to fight us. When he was gone, I jumped back down off the counter and started walking away. "Anyways sodapop, thanks for the cigarettes, I better get going" I said still looking at him. "No problem, one day you'll have to pay me though!" he joked. "Yeah yeah whatever you say" I laughed and walked out of the store. I wanted to go to the park again. I really appreciated my alone time as well, and the park was very peaceful to me, even with all the kids running around. However, I knew I wasn't gonna get much alone time as soon as I saw two and johnny leaning against a tree talking about something. I blushed a bit when I saw johnny was there. I had also seen him all week  and everything, but I was still kind of embarrassed.

Two noticed me and started elbowing johnny, whispering something to his ear. Johnny gave him a death stare and turned red. "Weird" I thought. "Hey, what's up man!" said two-bit greeting me as soon as he saw me, putting his hand on my shoulder. "Hey guys, nothing much, just went over to the DX to scare soc girls away from soda and make fun of some preppy soc guys" I said, remembering and giving a light chuckle. "That's how it's done" said two. "What are you up to?" I asked. "Nothing much, I was actually just about to go, right johnny?" spoke two again, elbowing johnny one more time. "Oh, yeah he was... wanna do something laurie? I'm bored" johnny finally spoke up. "Yeah sure, I'm honestly bored as well" I replied. "Yeahhh, you guys go hang out together" said two giving me a funny look and stepping aside. We said our goodbyes and I started walking with johnny.

"Hey, what was that all about?" I asked him. "What was what?" he said confused. "Y'know, two was acting real funny back there" I said, turning my face to him. "Oh it's nothing, just ignore him, ya know how he is sometimes" he replied, looking down to his feet for a moment. "Hey johnny, you up for some dinner at the diner a few blocks away? I'm kinda hungry" I suddenly asked, starting to like the idea of eating some fries. "Sure, why not?" he smiled. When we sat down, I started to look through the menu and decided on a cheeseburger and fries, and johnny settled on the same thing. The waitress walked over to us. "Hello and welcome to city diner, what can I get for you?" she asked with a bright smile. "Hey, i'll get the cheeseburger and fries please" johnny told her. "Alright, cheeseburger and fries, and for your girlfriend?" she said, still looking at johnny. I noticed my cheeks get slightly red, and I could see his got even more. "Oh, uh, she's not- well anyway, the same for her thank you" he said turning to look at me. "Noted, thank you! You guys make an amazing couple by the way" spoke the waitress again. By now my cheeks probably looked like the ketchup bottle I had to my left. Normally I wouldn't have even thought about it, but when I actually liked the guy it was really embarrassing. I decided to just play it cool, even if I didn't feel cool with it. "Well thank you" I told her, turning my head up to her but keeping my eyes on johnny the whole time. She walked away and I turned my head back to him.

"Well that was weird" I told him. His face was still a bit red. "Hah, yeah" he answered. I really didn't want the situation to turn awkward, so I came up with an interesting conversation and changed the topic. After a while, it was back to normal again, but I was still thinking about it sometimes, and I felt he was too. After eating dinner, we decided to go over to my backyard, as I really wanted to watch the sunset. Johnny also really digs them, thanks to ponyboy, which I didn't know. We were sitting on the steps of the back door and we were already in a deep conversation about life from the walk to my house. I let the conversation die down a bit as the sunset was going to start and by the time the sun started to go down, we were both sitting in a comfortable silence, enjoying the view. I started to get tired, so I unconsciously put my head on johnny's shoulder. I noticed him move his head a bit towards me, as if he was looking down at me, but he finally just rested his cheek against my head. The sunset was ending and I was so tired from the week in general I felt myself dozing off to sleep in the same position.

I slowly opened my eyes in what felt like a second later, and I noticed that in my sleep, I had turned my knees over to the side completely and my arms were now around johnny's neck, with my chin fully on his upper back and my neck over his shoulder as if I was hugging him. He had his arms lightly wrapped around my back now. I noticed what I was doing and without thinking pulled away quickly. Why did I keep embarrassing myself? I could just imagine my asleep self hugging johnny out of nowhere and him probably thinking I was awake and everything. "Hey, what happened? You okay?" he said, as he noticed I had pulled away so abruptly. "Yeah, I'm really sorry, I must have hugged you while I was asleep" I said, looking back at him. "Oh don't be sorry, it's okay" he answered giving me a side smile. I felt my heart flutter a bit with that. "How long was I asleep for anyway?" I asked him. "Not very long, probably 20 minutes or so, you just took a nap on me" he said laughing. "Alright, sorry about that again" I replied giving a nervous laugh. "Hey, don't worry, it was nice" he said with a quieter tone, looking back at me. I turned red once again. Damn how I hate being so prone to blushing. "Well, I should get going back inside, see you tomorrow?" I changed the topic again while standing up. "Sure, I'll see ya around" he smiled and walked away kicking some rocks on the ground. "Please be careful" I thought to myself, thinking about the socs that could be around at this time already.

I started to stress about it more for a few seconds, until I impulsively hollered for him to come back. "Johnny wait! Come here for a second" I raised my voice as he wasn't that close to me, and started moving over there anyway. He turned around. "Johnny, you sure you'll be okay to walk home in the dark, I mean, it is a saturday and socs bring their sorry asses over here while drunk all of the time" I hurried to say. "Don't sweat it laurie, i'll be fine, plus y'know I'm walking over to the lot right now so it's not really far from here. I'll be okay, really". But that did it for me. "Oh no no, don't go to the lot now, c'mon, stay here with me? I mean, my folks won't be home until tomorrow night and you know Dally ain't coming over here on a saturday" I asked him. I really didn't want him going to the lot today, he would probably get jumped. Saturdays were bad days over here. "Really, I wouldn't wanna be a burden, I'll be fine" he said, still with a calm tone. I insisted. "I won't shut up until you give in ya know that right?" I joked, smiling at him. He thought for a moment. "Well if you put on that face, I have to stay" he laughed, "but just for today, alright?" he argued. "Yay!!" I cheered, giving a mini applause and opening the door.

I went up to Dally's room and gave johnny something to change into for the night, even if he protested at first. I told him he could sleep in Dal's room if he wanted, as he obviously wouldn't mind anyway. It was still early to go to sleep, so I asked johnny if he wanted to see if they were playing anything interesting on the tv. We sat down on the couch and started watching some cheesy christmas movie. It was still weeks away, but people get in the spirit as soon as they can, so we watched it anyway. After a while I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore so I gave in and fell asleep then and there on the couch.

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This is like, insanely long but I was inspired 😭😭 I love this chapter sm it's so cute ahh ❤️