˙˚∘⊹🦋⊹∘˚˙ Butterfly in the Moonlight

- CHAPTER 12 -

Johnny, Ponyboy and Rylee sat in the church. It had been hours, and Rylee looked outside, her bag laid beside her as she looked at the sunset.

A small butterfly flew in through the broken window, and landed onto Rylee's hand. Rylee looked down, and rolled her hand over; the butterfly crawling over to lay in her palm.

Rylee smiled at it, "Guys look!-" She raised the butterfly up next to her face with a wide smile. "It loves me."

Johnny faintly blushed, then laughing at the sight nervously. He never really thought she would have a wholesome side to her. "What's its name?" He asks her, soon hearing Ponyboy get up and go outside.

"It's name..hmm.." Rylee pondered to herself. "How about Rade?" She laughed at the name. "That's her name, Rade."

Rylee set her hand in her lap as she looked at Johnny. The bright orange glow surrounding the back of her head like a halo. "So uh, about what you wanted to talk about?" Rylee moved off the church seat, and then sat down in front of Johnny.

"Oh..uhm." Johnny thought to himself about how he wanted to word it. "So..in the past few months, I've been having these..dreams, I guess. Memories from the past. In the dream, I remember a girl. She looks a lot like you. She had long black hair, dull grey eyes, pale skin, she was wearing a light blue and white outfit that day. Do you think..that was you?"

Rylee froze as he mentioned it. She bit the inside of her cheek, thinking about what Dallas had told her just a few days ago. She took a deep breath. "Was it on Greaser territory, was it a group of four, three boys and one girl?" Rylee asked, her breath hitching in her chest.

"Yeah..Rylee, were you the one who walked me home that day?" Johnny questioned, his eyes slightly watering.

Rylee nodded, looking her head down in shame. "Yeah. That was me. It was Randy, Bob, and some other Soc. I'm so sorry-" He cut her off with pulling her into a tight hug. Rylee froze and she felt the butterfly move from her palm, she watched it crawl onto Johnny's knee.

"I never told you thank you." Johnny mumbled into her shoulder. "So thank you. For helping me that day, no one else was there and you decided to take a beating from your friends to protect me."

Rylee stayed silent as she felt his tears start to soak her shirt. She soon felt her own tears dribble down her cheeks. "It was..better than watching and letting you guys get abused over stupid shit. I'm sorry for not stepping in sooner."

"You still protected me."

"I hoped I did."

The two went silent as Rylee soon pulled him into the hug. Johnny on his knees while Rylee was sitting up on her ankles. The two breathed shakily, both trying to calm themselves from the tears and overwhelming memories of that day.

Ponyboy walked into the church. Making a whistling sound which made Rylee and Johnny push apart and them to look at each other embarrassingly.

"That was fucking funny." Ponyboy snorted as he looked at Rylee and Johnny's red faces. "Want me to leave you two lovebirds alone?" He jokes as he felt a book get thrown into his leg. "Ow! What the fuck!-"

"We are not lovebirds!-" Rylee groaned out with a red face. Johnny nodded and agreed with what she said.

"I doubt that." Ponyboy jokes again, smiling cockily. "Oh, by the way, Rylee, if you want to take some photos of the stars, there's plenty out now."

Rylee's eyes lit up as she stood up, quickly grabbing her camera from the bag. Then she headed outside to take some photos on the back hill of where the church was.

That left Johnny and Ponyboy alone in the church.

"Soooo care to explain that?" Ponyboy teases Johnny, who grew more red by the second. "I mean, y'all were hugging for how long? Maybe fiveish minutes?"

"I don't know Pony..I felt my heart beating faster. What does that mean? I don't really know why my heart started racin'.." Johnny explained to Ponyboy, his face still red. "Does that mean I..I like her, or somethin'?"

"Oh my God." Ponyboy smiled widely. "You have a crush Johnny!"

"Shut your mouth Ponyboy!" Johnny put his hand across Ponyboy's mouth, trying to keep him quiet. "I don't want her to hear it.."

"You're just embarrassed of ittttt, come on, maybe it'll be a good time to tell her." Ponyboy offered, giving a hopeful smile.

"Right now?" Johnny quizzed as he looked out the window to see Rylee laying in the grass, looking at the stars.

"No! Like, tomorrow, or something." Ponyboy groaned as he rubbed his nose. "Why would you confess to her now?"

Johnny shrugged. "How am I supposed to know-"
———
The next morning, Rylee was asleep out on the grass, her camera laying beside her head. Johnny was up before them because he heard a car outside, he bolted to sit straight up and he looked at the car. It was only Dallas's.

"Dally.." Johnny breathed in relief. Dallas walked in and tossed him some hair dye and some bleach, along with a pair of hair cutting scissors. "What's all this for?"

"What do you think, Johnnycake." Dally rolled his eyes. "Y'all are going to cut your hair and bleach or dye it. Wake up Ponyboy, I'll go get Rylee. I brought food in the car too."

Johnny nodded as he looked at the supplies. A pair of silver hair cutting scissors, a bottle of bleach, and two colored dye bottles. One purple and one red. He shook Ponyboy's shoulder. "Pony, wake up." Johnny spoke in a hushed whisper. "We are cutting our hair."
———
Rylee focused closely at the mirror, holding the switchblade tightly in her right hand, looking for a good length to cut her hair. She glared as her tongue poked out of her lips.

"You gunna cut it sometime today?" Dallas scoffed as he leaned against the church bench. "You ain't gotta make it look pretty."

Ponyboy was outside, trying to get rid of some of the bleach, and Johnny was laying down on a church bench, fidgeting with one of Rylee's necklaces.

"I'm trying to cut a good length.." Rylee huffed as she finally found a good, short and messy length. "I'm going to miss my long hair.."

"You'll grow it back." Johnny mentions with a slight smile. "I'm sure of it."

Rylee's switchblade cut through the thin hair with ease. She looked down at the hair that was falling to the ground. Pursing her lips as she did it to the other side. Her knees were throbbing from sitting too long in a kneeling position but she didn't really care, nor notice it.

Rylee reached for some of the hair dye, squeezing some into her hand as she puts some of the purple onto the right side of her scalp and then red on the other side.

Rylee soon stood up and walked outside to wash off her hands of the dye and extra hair.