˙˚∘⊹🦋⊹∘˚˙ Butterfly in the Moonlight

- CHAPTER 5 -

Dallas froze at her finishing her sentence. He looked her up and down, then quickly took a quick gaze at Johnny. "You're kidding." He mumbled after a while.

Rylee shook her head. "Do you think he remembers me?" She gasped out, slowly the anxiety was consuming her.

Dallas grabbed onto her shoulders and stared her dead in the eyes. "If he does, you two could talk about it alone at the Lot. If he doesn't, maybe tell him once you two become friends, alright?" Dallas asked her as he fixed her hair and then his own.

Rylee nodded as she bit her lip. "Yeah. Yeah let's do that." She smiled as she spoke, trying to hide the nervousness behind a smile.

Dallas turned and shoved her forward, trying to get her into the group. She rubbed her arms up and down as she sits down beside Johnny and Ponyboy, who had made room.

Rylee curled her legs up against her chest. Her glasses were tilted to the side as she fixed her hair then her glasses. She could feel all the gangs eyes taking random glances towards her, probably not used to a lady there in the same house.

"So, Rylee," Darry starts off as he brought out some breakfast for everyone. "Have you ate? If not I can make some more."

Rylee didn't eat anything, she wasn't even focused about eating because of her panicking over a simple outfit. Then again, she hardly ate anything in the morning anyways. "Nah. I didn't eat but I'm not overly hungry, but thank you." She brushed it off with a small wave and a smile.

She watched as the rest of the gang got up to get their plates of breakfast. Rylee removed her glasses to wipe them off, blinking at the sudden difference of her eyes and then wiping off the glasses.

The gang then sat back down at their respective spots, or stood depending on the person. She messed with her hoodie zipper for a long while as she listened closely to the other conversations around her. Some were of school talk, or about her..she was a tad bit nervous about that but not overly, and other things that didn't really matter.

After a while of just listening to people talk, Johnny manages to talk a bit to her. He tilts his head like a lost puppy, "Rylee?"

Rylee cocks her head up from staring at her lap. She quickly puts on her glasses, "Hm?" Rylee replied in a question, not really, just a small to make him realize she was listening.

"I uh.." He stumbled over his words looking for the right word, "I like your glasses.." Ponyboy poked his head from behind him and gave him a thumbs up with a toothy grin; and Johnny had a slowly growing red face.

Rylee's face warmed up, she wasn't used to compliments at all. "Oh..!-" Was all she could muster up, before coughing into her elbow. "Uh- uhm.." Rylee desperately looked for a word, trying to not seem rude, "Thank you..!" She finally replied with a anxious smile.

Johnny and her made eye contact, then looked away from each other with awkward faces displayed on their faces.

"Yo gang," Dallas finally speaks up after leaning against the wall and chatting with Two-Bit, who was watching Mickey Mouse on the TV, "Maybe..ugh this sounds stupid, but since we have like, four kids still 'round, we could do hide and seek. Well, at that weird abandoned house down the street."

Rylee scoffed at the idea. Not cause she hated it, it's just she absolutely hated the dark and was horrible at hide and seek. Reluctantly, though, she nodded and gave a thumbs up with a seemingly "angry" face, but she wasn't even that mad.

Ponyboy laughed at the idea, seeming like it was strange coming from Dally himself but he agreed with it, nudging Johnny to get him to try it out.

"Come on Rylee," Dally teased with a cocky smirk. "You're so angry all the time."

Rylee's face turned to a small scowl, flipping him off with her middle finger, which still had chipped nail polish on it. "I'm not even angry." She scoffed as she stared at her lap.

"You look so angry, like Darry here." Dally and Ponyboy both snorted at that, same with Sodapop. "You both need to loosen up."

"Meh meh meh.." Rylee mimicked with her hand mimicking a talking motion. "Yeah, yeah, you say that Dallas."
———
It was about 7 o clock in the evening. The gang and Rylee, their added plus one, had just gotten back from the movies since it hadn't poured rain all day that day.

Rylee had her hands stuffed into her jacket pockets and her glasses were on her head; trying to get used to the darkness in front of her eyes.

"Alrighty," Dally said. "We have about five of us, me, Two-Bit, Johnny, Ponyboy, and Rylee. How do y'all wanna do this?"

Ponyboy offered an idea, "I would say teams, but one of us would be alone. Unless one of the people are fine with that."

Rylee shrugged. "I don't mind bein' alone. I've been alone on teams for this for like, ever." She replied to Ponyboy's comment.

"Nah, you're new. You ain't gunna be alone. How 'bout this, Johnny and Rylee, you two together 'cause you two are the most awkward and silent of the group so far, Pony and Two-Bit together and I'll seek first." Dally claimed as he faced the barely lit street. "Y'all better get runnin', I ain't gunna take it easy on y'all."

Ponyboy and Two-Bit darted towards the back of the house. Rylee held out her hand for Johnny, waiting for him to grab it. "Come on." She choked out with a bit of nervousness, "I have a great place."

Johnny never replied, just nodded and held her hand as she bolted into the house. She quickly put on her glasses so she could maybe see better; she lead him up the stairs and up into a area that had very rickety rafters up in the ceiling. Yet it was dark, so it would conceal them both.

"You know how to climb?" Rylee asks as she waited for Johnny to answer, a hand on her hip and her face in a questioning look.

Johnny nodded, and soon jumped up onto a rafter, soon standing up and walking across it to get up into one more rafter.

Rylee followed in suit, with a bit of struggle since she was shorter than the beams themselves; however she was able to jump from rafter to rafter, even helping Johnny onto a taller beam.

Rylee sat crossed legged on the rafter, humming quietly as she wiped off her glasses again to rid of any dust. Soon raising them to peer through them with her eyes before putting them on.

Johnny let his legs dangle over the edge of the rafter, kind of lightly kicking the air. He felt his heart race. He ain't ever been alone with a girl before, at least one who was somewhat similar to him. However he felt some weird feeling that he had met her before, or at least recognized her.

Johnny and Rylee didn't talk, not really even looking at each other unless it was quick peaks at each other and hiding themselves in their shirts or their jackets.

The stairs to the upper area stirred as many sets of footsteps came up the old stairs. Rylee tilted her head to see closer to the door. She guessed that Dally had found the other two.

Oh how she was horribly wrong.

She immediately recognized the figure in the door frame, and so did Johnny.

They both felt their hearts race.

Fuck.