sure pretty... - johnny cade

chapter 16 - sticking up

Ponyboy sat on the far end of the row, with Dally beside him. Next to Dally say johnny, and then me.
"Some cute redhead huh?" Dal elbowed pony. The brown haired girl turned around and then leaned towards her friend, snickering. He then put his feet on the back of her chair, one of his feet missing it which made him fall flat to the floor. This made us all burst out laughing. As if nothing had happened, Dally got up again and sharply put his face right next to the girl's and started lighting a cigarette. The red-haired girl didn't seem to really mind it, laughing. "Are you a real redhead?" He asked right into her ear. She didn't reply. "Are you real?" He insisted, putting his feet on her chair. "Stop it, Dal" I muttered under my breath. He didn't seem to hear me. "How do I know if this is your- your real red hair?". He grabbed a piece of her hair. The girls were both laughing by now. None of us laughed, though. We knew Dallas. "Y'know, the same red hair that you have on your- on your... these eyebrows". He looked down and gave a cocky grin. The girl's smile instantly disappeared. "Dallas!" I whisper-yelled. "What, man?!" he whispered back. "Get your feet off my chair and shut your trap" the girl turned, bluntly. Dal swept his tongue along his teeth. "Who's gonna make me? Who, your boyfriend?" He answered in a mocking tone. "I'm gonna get a coke" Johnny got up. I gave him side smile. "Lay off, Dal" Pony chimed in.

The brunette girl whispered to her friend. "I think that's the greaser who just got out of jail or something...". "Sure, whatever you say, honey" he glanced towards her. By now I was almost chewing off my fingernail. Did Dally really feel the need to kill the mood like this? "You better leave us alone or i'll call the cops" the redhead warned, annoyed. "Oh, my, my, you got me scared to death! What am I- What am I gonna do now pony? Huh? This girl's making me shake" He sarcastically answered. Did this girl not know the Tulsa police body knew Dal better than he had known himself by now? "Why don't you leave us alone?" The girl sounded almost given up. "You would-" "Be NICE and leave us alone?!" She interrupted him, raising her voice. "I'm never nice." "Can I interest you in a Coca-Cola or a 7up?"  He continued the conversation like normal, getting all close to her face. "Get lost, hood!" She yelled. I flinched. "Sorry, I... I didn't know you had this problem with yelling in my face..." He said, putting his hands up in the air. "Alright, I'll go. I know when I'm not wanted". He got up and walked away. "Thank the lord" I said, rolling my eyes.

Suddenly, the girl turned around and gave ponyboy a dirty look. "Are you gonna start in on us now too?" she asked, looking him up and down. "No" he answered. "You don't look the type anyway. What's your name?" She now smiled. "Ponyboy Curtis. She chuckled. "That's an original name". "Yeah, my dad, he was an original person. I got a brother named Sodapop. It even says so on his birth certificate!" He added. She laughed. "And what's your name?" She asked, turning to me. "You can call me Laurie, nice to meet you" I smiled. "My name's Sherri. But my friends call me Cherry 'cause of my hair". "Yeah, I know. We go to the same school, you're a cheerleader right?" Pony asked, with Cherry giving him a confused face. "Yeah!" she said. "You don't look old enough to be going to high school" the brunette girl suddenly spoke up. "What's some nice people like you doing hanging around with that trash?" Cherry asked him. Pony looked at the screen. "Dally's my buddy, i'm a greaser too. We're all friends". "Yeah, and unfortunately, he's my brother. I'm sorry for how he acted earlier, with him you just never know what stupid shit he's gonna do next" I said. "Sorry, I didn't know" she apologized. "Uh, your brother, Sodapop, he works at a gasoline station, right? The DX, I think?" she asked pony, changing the subject. "Yeah that's him" he replied. "Wow, Soda the cute one!" The brunette said. "Yeah, he's a doll, should've known you was brothers" Cherry added. Johnny came back from the food stand with a coke with two straws in it. "All good now, Dally's disappeared somewhere" I whispered in his ear. He smiled while I took a sip out of his coke.

"Hey, how come we don't see your brother at school anymore? Has he been working full time since your parents died?" The brunette asked. I shot johnny a confused look. Weird topic to bring up. Pony looked down. "He's a dropout" he said, lowering his head and his voice. "Oh, that's too bad" she replied. Suddenly, Dally appeared again, arms full with soda cups. He handed one to each girl and sat next to Cherry, smoking his cigarette. "Here, I thought this might cool you off" he said, looking back at the screen. Cherry shot him the dirtiest look. Suddenly, she dumped her whole drink on his face. "Maybe that'll cool you off, until you learn to talk and act decent, then I might cool off too!" she yelled. That didn't stop him. "Fiery, huh? Just how I like them!" He snaked his arms around her waist and got all up in her face. "Get off! Get off me!" she screamed, slapping him away. Suddenly johnny got up from his seat. "Look, leave her alone, Dal!" he said. Dally stopped in his tracks. "What'd you say?" He asked. "Come on, you heard me, leave her alone" he repeated. "What'd you say you little shit? What'd you say to me?!" Dally repeated. "C'mon..." Johnny talked now almost in a whisper. "Wiseass" Dal replied. Johnny gulped. Dally just got up all annoyed while people yelled at him to sit down and walked away, all of us looking at him. "Ugh, he's such an asshole sometimes" I half-whispered to johnny. He squeezed my hand. Cherry turned around. "Thank you, he had me scared to death" She thanked johnny. "Well, you sure didn't show it. Ain't nobody talk to Dal like that" he shrugged. "From what I saw, you do" she added. "Why don't y'all come sit up here with us, so you can protect us" the other girl suggested, the 'protecting' part aimed more towards the boys than me, but whatever. "What do you think, man? Come on" Johnny asked ponyboy. "Might as well" he shrugged. Johnny got up and reached his hand out to me, smiling to reassure me that he wanted me to come with him. I grabbed his hand and smiled back.

Cherry saw my hand laced to johnny's and smiled at me, adding a wink. I winked back two times. "At least with that I know they don't want anything from him or I was about to throw hands" I thought to myself, sitting down. "How old are y'all?" the brunette asked. "Fourteen" pony answered. "Sixteen" me and johnny answered. "I thought you were all-" "Sixteen". Cherry cut her off. I was thankful for that, because johnny hated that he looked younger than what he actually was. I supposed she had thought about it. "How come y'all ain't scared of us like you was Dally?" Johnny asked. "You're too sweet looking to scare anyone. Besides, I know about Dallas Winston" She replied. "So you've said" I muttered under my breath, for only me and maybe johnny to hear, rolling my eyes. I mean, he could be an ass, but she had forgotten this was still my brother we were talking about. "Y'all don't look mean" she added. "Yeah, right, we're young and innocent" pony sarcastically said. "No... just not dirty" she replied. "Come on, Dal's okay, I mean, he's tough and all, but he's a cool ol' guy if you get to know him" johnny defended him. "He'd leave you alone if he knew who you were" pony added. "Well I'm glad he doesn't know us" the girl said.

Suddenly, two-bit appeared screaming from behind johnny, grabbing his shoulders and nearly scaring the both of us to death. "Get out of my hair!" Johnny gasped. "Here kid, have a beer it'll settle your nerves" he said, handing johnny a drink inside a brown bag. "Well now! Who we got here? Your great grandmothers?" He asked, pulling johnny's chair out of the way leaving us a bit more apart from them. The girls laughed. "What are you young ladies doing hanging out with these greasers anyway, huh?" he kept talking. "Well, Dal was bothering 'em so they wanted us to sit up with them" johnny explained. "He was, huh?" two asked. "Where is old Dal now anyway?" he added. Suddenly, Tim from the Shepard outfit came up next to ponyboy. " Yeah, where is old Dally?" He asked, all of us looking up to him. "He left, Tim" pony answered him. "Hey, I know he slashed my tires!" He raised his voice. "Look, he- he left. He's not here, really. You guys seen Dally?" Pony asked, turning to all of us. "No, no" we all answered. "Yeah, well I'll be looking for him" Tim finished, walking away. "Hey, does old Dally have a switchblade on him?" Two broke the silence. "I don't think so" Johnny replied. "Then he'll be good, Tim will fight fair" he said. "Yeah, like it's that easy, if he dies, you'll just bury him, no sweat!" Marcia laughed. "You dig okay baby" Two smiled at her and started sweet talking her. Johnny and I were right beside them, johnny's seat literally glued to Marcia's, so it was weird. We moved our seats farther to the side and he put his arm around me. I layed my head against his chest, closing my eyes while he gave me a kiss on the forehead.

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To be continued... I was literally fucking brutally crying like a second ago and then Dream sweet in Sea Major came on and it motivated me to write on here so ig that's what we're doing rn. Sorry for not updating these days ive just not had time lmfao 😭😭

anyway omfg I just saw the story reached like 1k reads thank you so much!😭❤️