Forever Apart (Johnny Cade) {The Outsiders}

Thirteen

The next four days went by slow. It felt like two weeks to me. We slept on one blanket and used the second for warmth at night. We spent the days listening to Ponyboy read, we smoked, and played some card games.

I told stories about my life in New York. I told them about my mom and the adventures we went on. I told them about my best friends in school and how one got her heartbroken by a jock and completely changed over night. I hadn't written to them nor had they to me. I hoped they were doing well, or at least better than I was.

There was one night where I couldn't sleep. I had tossed and turned all night, dreaming about what happened at the water fountain. I could feel his hands on my skin and could hear his voice in my head. I couldn't handle it. So I went outside and sat in the grass. I crossed my legs and picked at the grass while I waited for the sunrise.

"You think she'll ever be okay?" Ponyboy asked Johnny. The two watched me through the broken window with the sunrise painting the sky.

"I hope so," Johnny said with a shrug. "She told me she wants to run away together. Go find a life without socs and greasers." Johnny gulped and then turned to Ponyboy. "I don't think this was what she meant though."

I must have been out there for half an hour before Ponyboy and Johnny came outside too.

"What are you doing out here?" Johnny asked me. He sat on one side and Ponyboy sat on the other.

"Couldn't sleep," I muttered.

"Boy, the sunrise sure is pretty," Johnny said. "All the gold and silver. Too bad it can't stay like that all the time."

"Nothing gold can stay," Ponyboy said.

"Huh?"

"Natures first green is gold, her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaves a flower, but only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf, so Eden sank to grief. So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay," Ponyboy recited.

"Where did you learn that?" Johnny asked him.

"Robert Frost wrote it. I always remembered it because I didn't quite know what he meant by it," Ponyboy explained. We all looked around at the sky, the beautiful painted sky. I wasn't one for sunrises and sunsets like Ponyboy. I preferred the stars. I felt closer to my mom when the stars were out.

"I never noticed those little things until I met you, Ponyboy," I said. "Like the sunsets and the colors of the sky when the sun rises. The shapes clouds take and the way people dress. You're so-so..."

"Observant," Johnny finished my sentence.

"Yes, thank you." I smiled at Johnny and he smiled back. It was a big smile, one that made me absolutely blush.

"You two are great listeners. I don't think I could tell Steve or Two-Bit any of this stuff, they wouldn't care," Ponyboy said. "Only you two and Sodapop. And maybe Cherry Valence." His cheeks blushed when he smiled.

"I think Cherry stole your heart," I teased.

"Yeah," Ponyboy chuckled. "I think she did too."

I glanced at Johnny and then down at the ground. If it were different circumstances, I'd be running into that sunrise with him, going who knows where. But we had to be careful after everything that had happened. We had to act with delicacy.