˙˚∘⊹🦋⊹∘˚˙ Butterfly in the Moonlight

- CHAPTER 7 -

Ponyboy had left a few minutes ago, since Darry wanted him home by 9. That left Rylee and Johnny alone at the Lot with their barely lit fire.

"So I uh.." Rylee starts off. "I guess we never really talked talked.. you know what I mean?" She tried to explain herself.

"I get what you mean." Johnny looked at her as he was laying down. "Are you staying out here..?"

Rylee nodded. "Yeah. I don't want to go home yet." She laughed it off as she soon moved her body so she could lay down. "Look at the stars.." Rylee pointed out as she smiled up at the stars.

"You like space?" Johnny questioned as he slightly scooted a bit closer, a bit anxious of moving closer as to not scare her. "I never really understood it, to be honest." He chuckled as he lays his head on the mattress.

"Oh my stars, I've always LOVED space. Look, there's that constellation-" Rylee pointed out with her index finger as she started to rattle off names of constellations and types of stars.

Johnny just laid down and listened, sometimes popping into her rambles to ask any questions. Soon enough, she fell silent. Her head rested on a bump of her jacket as she laid curled up in a ball.

Johnny poked his head from over the mattress to see her. He huffed at himself and argued with himself mentally, wanting to either move her so she could stay warm or just leave her. He groaned before pushing himself off the mattress, and carefully picking up Rylee and placing her on the mattress.

Rylee didn't stir, she was a heavy sleeper. She just moved back into a ball and rolled over to face the fire. Johnny quickly threw down some sticks into the fire and pulled out his lighter to add a bit more heat to the flame.

Soon, after the flames were burning brighter, he laid down beside the mattress and fell asleep beside her.
———
Rylee woke up first. Blinking her eyes and rolling around trying to find her glasses. Rylee felt her fingers graze Johnny's arm instead of her glasses which were near him.

She panicked and moved her hand away, quickly flustered by the accidental contact. Rylee rolled over and grabbed the glasses with her hand, and settled them back on her face.

Her hair was slightly fluffed up, which she took out her pocket mirror and flipped it open, looking at herself in the mirror. She looked at her face, she didn't have much on her face, however a few specks of scars and a scar on the right side of her lip. It was a dumb scar, in her opinion, it was from her falling off the patio while trying to hang one of her hanging pots.

Her parents never let that joke die. Always saying whenever she's on the patio, flowering or anything, "Don't fall off Rylee!" or something like that. It always made her mad..but she loved them anyways, even if they weren't the best.

Yeah, they ignored her and never really bothered to ask her about her band concerts, or her choir concerts, or pep band, or anything that she did. But they still somewhat cared, in some sorts.

Rylee folded her arms on her chest as she stared up at the sunset. On a nearby plant, a butterfly laid there. She noticed it and smiled at it, soon shutting her eyes to just bathe in the morning sun.

She was half asleep, half awake, when the butterfly landed on her folded hands, nuzzling itself between her fingers as she didn't stir.

Johnny did wake up, groggy as he groaned. He rubbed his eyes to get rid of the sleepiness and he stretched, making a soft moan of relief as his body allowed him to become more comfortable.

He was cold, not overly cold that his fingers were numbing but just chilly cold. Johnny gazed upwards before blinking and rolling towards the darker part where the sun wasn't pointed directly at his eyes. Johnny messed with the dry grass between his finger tips, soon picking it and throwing it into the dead fire.
———
Rylee was walking Johnny to the Curtis house, her hands stuffed in her pockets as she and Johnny smoked a cigarette together as they walked.

"I'm sorry," Rylee started off. "For falling asleep last night." She laughed it off with a nervous chuckle.

"Oh, I don't mind at all." Johnny replied with a smile. "I fell asleep right after, pretty sure."

Rylee fixed her hair as she took out the cigarette from her mouth, puffing out the smoke. "Still, I wanted to get to know ya a bit more." She smiled at him.

"Well, I got a question.." Johnny points to his lips, meaning her scar on the lip and cheek. "Where did those come from?"

Rylee couldn't think straight, she knew the lip thing wasn't bad it was the cheek scars. It was from when she got beat up after Johnny against Bob. "Well.." Rylee coughed awkwardly into her elbow. "I got the cheek ones from uh, a fight, about three years ago. Though I barely remember it." She lied. "And the lip one was from me falling off my patio."

"Ohh, I can't believe it left marks. Were you on rocks or somethin'?" Johnny joked.

Rylee looked to the side. "I guess yeah."

"Never thought you would be a fighting kind of girl. However last night proved to me that you are a fighting kind of girl." Johnny smiled at Rylee. She looked back a tiny bit and focused her eyes on the ground.

Rylee just nodded and knocked on the Curtis boys front door. Darry opened the door, and invited them in.

Rylee looked up at the clock on the wall, it was only nine in the morning. Tomorrow she had a band contest, it wasn't marching band luckily, it was just plain old concert band.

"You guys hungry for breakfast?" Sodapop asks the duo, "Considering you both were alone all night." He raises his eyebrows in a joking and teasing way.

Rylee's face was the first to immediately become red. She couldn't even respond, she wanted to spit back a comeback but she couldn't think of any. "Screw you." Was all she could muster up as she rubbed the bridge of her nose, trying to cover the blush all over her face.

Johnny just never responded, just looking to the side and blushing as well. What a awkward duo they were, and the gang found that absolutely hilarious.