The Konley Effect (summer) ~Johnnyboy/Stevepop

18 joyus reunions

Pony's POV:
July 22nd, Monday
It's my 16th birthday, so it's supposed to really matter. But the one present I want would never be here. It's been over a month now and I've fully accepted that he's not coming back.

So I got up and I grinned when I went to the dining table.

Mom had my French toast, "my favorite!" I tried so hard to sound happy.

Now that I realize it, school is about to start again, and this terrible cycle is going to start over again, without him.

We ate and talking like everything was fine.

Then Darry whipped out keys, keys to a car I could drive if I passed my test tomorrow.

I gasped like I was so excited, so so excited. And then we went in the garage.

It was a old car, like an 80s car. It was pretty damn cool.

"Wow, this so nice to ride around with... you guys in." I made the aching in my soul into a smile.
"I think I'm gonna go finish eating." I turn back around.

"Wait I gotta show you something outside." Momma motions us her way and very soon we're out on the porch looking out.

"Hey, cowboy. You like flowers?"

This beautiful sound goes through my head and I scream like a bitch running his way.

He's holding a huge bouquet of flowers wearing a flower crown. Standing right where he should be. A big black truck parked outside the flower field.

He drops the flowers and I spin him straight off the ground and hug him tighter than I should.

"Holy shit, I don't know what if I would've done another day without you." All the tears I've been holding in come straight out.

I feel our lips connect, "I missed you so much, oh my gosh." He's in a soft whisper.

His hair is all long and curly, the front part in clips. He has a piercing on his left nostril. And he shows me the tear drop tattoo on his finger. The word "mom" is on the inside of it, and on the other side of his hand is a small little pony.

I give him another hug before taking us back up into the house.

We're all in the living room like how things should be, when I hear a knock on the door. Momma gets up to open it.

"Who's that?"

Shana's POV:
It was Johnny's dad, I greeted him and let him in.
I look a mess right now. We all kinda do since it's morning.

He greets everyone especially Pony, "he wouldn't shut up about you. I'm so glad he's back here, because I think he was gonna explode." He rolls his eyes the same way Johnny can.

He chooses to sit by his son.

"What are you wearing?" Johnny frowns.

"Clothes?"

"You look like you're trying very hard to be young."

"I'm not old."

"Is he not your brother?" Steve looks very confused.

"This is my dad." Johnny tells them.

I can't help but laugh, the silence is hilarious.

"How old are you?" Soda looked baffled to say the least.

"Thirty-two."

I laugh even harder at the looks in the room. I felt that same way.

"Fun fact nobody asked for." Kelvin began, "when my wife, well girlfriend at the time, told me she was pregnant I passed out. Like collapsed on the floor." He laughed a little.

"I would've too." Steve agrees.

"What happened next?" Pony looked invested.

"This is the crazy part if I'm being completely honest. I told my parents I was gonna leave her, and my dad beat the complete shit out of me. And my mom said that she'd disown me if I didn't stay with her. So then I stayed with her, and I realized that I really really liked her and I didn't wanna go at all. I was just scared."
Then he keeps going,
"But lucky for me I'll never have to threaten little Johnny with anything, because he's gay." He smiles very proudly.

"You're not cool, or whatever you wanna be." Johnny shrugs.

"Okay." Kelvin says it very sarcastically.

"What are you, Pone?" Darry shrugs.

Pony shrugs harder, "no clue really? Johnnysexual."

We all laugh pretty hard at that.

"I'm just so happy to have you back here." Pony has this shiny look in his eyes. His father used to look like that. Pony got his gray eyes.

"I'm so happy to be here." Johnny laughed a little.

"So... how have things been?" Yes, I dared to ask.

"Um. So the first week was absolutely. Terrifying." Kelvin nodded.

Silence.

"Oh I know. What was that like for you?" All the weeks without him hurt. Just not nearly as much as the one before.
You never realize how slow time moves until you're stuff with three boys and "daddy's not coming home today?" Replaying in your head.

"Oh I was tweaked. I didn't sleep for three days straight and when I did sleep, I would have nightmares about it. It was like a scene as soon as it happened I knew what was wrong. She basically told me... and they ruled it out as accident, but we don't know that." He swallowed and thought.

"Could you tell what she was gone before you saw her? I'm asking because before they called about my husband I felt a sense of like... Someone walking out."

"Oh yeah, I woke up and it literally felt like the house was empty. And I rolled over and touched her back because something just felt wrong. And she wasn't warm like a person under covers should be. She was room temperature like every other non-living thing in the house. And that was so scary." He looked over at me, finally looking up from the ground.

Then smiled, "and then. That one." He pointed at Johnny, "wanted to give me a hard time and curse me out and say it was all my fault. Which I get it, he just needed someone to blame for the time being. But at the beginning of the second week, I told him 'if you don't hop off my dick for three seconds, I'm gonna lay in the middle of the road and die.' And I meant it." He threw his shoulders up and threw them right back down.

"Oh I know you did. It scared the shit out of me."