Annabelle's Daisys.

Chapter7--

Part 1

I leaned against the door jam of the kitchen smoking, and I saw Pony before he saw me. He came on rushing out the bathroom in only a towel wrapped around his waist in all his glory and I smiled. "Hey." I said quietly, laughing when He jumped, and clutched his towel closer to his waist.
Beauty.
Perfection.
Ponyboy Michael Curtis.
"Damn, where the hell did y'all come from?!" He panted.
Two-bit saw his face from around me, and howled like a dog in laughter. I took a drag.
Ponyboy's eyes didn't waver. "Well, can your ears get red, Pony! You act like I ain't never seen a naked boy before! I live with Noah, and he does somma them cartwheels down the steps, stark naked. Now get your pretty-boy butt in some pants, and hurry the hell up." I blew my smoke out on the side, out of the line of Two-bit's face.
Walking down the hall, Pony looked over his shoulder, and said. "Boy howdy, Belle, you sure look nice!"
"Why, thanks," I winked, and he blushed a light pink, and I thought, Hey, he doesn't look too bad half naked, with a small laugh. "Do I really look that good?"
Two-Bit shook his head, taking a swig of his Pepsi, and grinning at me. "Ugh, no. You look damn awful! You oughtta come with a warning, with a face like that."
"You know what I think Two-Bit?"
"What's that?"
"That you're no count hood, a JD, scum on the floor of society!" I grinned and poked his Mickey Mouse tee shirt, and he grabbed my finger like a child.
I sighed, and slouched a little. "You gotta girlfriend, there, Keith?"
"Mm-hmmm!" Releasing my finger, he put his hands in his pockets, and nodded happily.
"Blonde?"
"Yep."
"Figures." I said, faking being a little put-out. He believed me, and looked a little bit sorry.
Laughing, he threw an arm around my waist and pulled me close. "Awe, Annabelle, you know always my best girl!" Two-Bit planted a wet kiss on my cheek, but not the kind you give a girl you're sweet on, the kind you give you kid sister. And Two-Bit had plenty of practice. He had one.
"You got yourself a secret boyfriend?"
I turned to him, standing in the doorway, and put my hands on my hips. "Now whatever made you think that, Two-Bit?"
He shrugged. "I don't never see ya with any boys 'cept Me, or Johnny or Ponyboy..." His voice trailed off, and it was my turn to shrug. That one stung. It shouldn't've, but it did. The reason I didn't have a boyfriend, was that I was waiting, for Pony.
"Hey, you ready?" Ponyboy's sweet voice called, putting his hand out as he shuffled past me, grabbing my hand, and making my heart race. "Where we going?" He turned to Two-Bit who looked startled and a bit funny with one eyebrow cocked. In between laughs, he said, "The creek,  buddy!"
Pony led the way to the lot where I'd fell asleep and Sodapop found me a day earlier, and sprawled out on an old carseat was Johnny Cade. Johnny heard us coming, and stood and look up with his big black, fearful eyes, widened like a puppy dog that'd been kicked around too many times, his tan skin, perfect untill it met the scars some Socs gave him on his face, still handsome though, shorter than Pony but a bit taller than me... All this sweet boy knew was hurt, and all he got was pain. Johnny didn't deserve what he got. Even if he does carry a knife, or isn't the richest guy in town, or smokes, or slicks his hair with grease (thought it'll never stay up off his forehead) doesn't mean he's a bad person. Johnny was kinder than anyone I know, and, if another Soc came at him thinking they'd have a scrawny little hood who'd be easy to jump, they'd have a another thing coming! "Annabelle? You look-!" Not letting his finish, I ran forward to hug him around the waist before I'd thought it all the way through, and Johnny, very hesitantly, hugged me back.
I stepped back to stand in between Two-Bit and Ponyboy, and grinned. "Sorry, it's just... I ain't seen you since I was at the hospital!" I sighed, and he nodded gravely. My heat beat rapidly when Ponyboy laced his fingers through mine again, and Two-Bit eyeing us very knowingly, even a little bit suspicously. Blushing from my hairline to my collarbone, a very, very deep red, I looked away, in to the grass hoping he would look away. Thankfully, when Johnny spoke again, he did.
"Nah, don't be."Johnny said, digressing the subject, which I was grateful for. "I should be sorry! Sorry I ain't been able to ask you how ya been! Should you be walking on it?"
"Nup. She don't walk on it Johnny-cake, she's so greasy she slides!"
The boys thought this was hilarious; I shrugged it off, feeling my curls bounce up and down around my shoulders, and feeling Ponyboy standing closer than six inches, and it was crazy, irrational, and comepletely the best feeling ever.
Hanging upside down on a limb of an oak tree by the crooks of my knees, I stared down at Ponyboy, as he looked without a though into the babbling waters of the Tallie creek.
"Damn, it's hot. It's like the end of cigarette out today!" I agreed, I'd already taken off my button-up, and it was swaying in the little wind there was on another   Two-bit cried from the ground, next to Ponyboy, and he took a puff of a cancer-stick. "Come on down here, pretty little Ice-Queen, and plant a fat kiss on me. I need to cool off." Two-bit joked, and puckered his lips out for me.
Anger struck across Pony's face, and Two-Bit saw this.
With a small cuff on his shoulder, Two-Bit apologized. "Oh, Ponyboy, loosen up! I ain't tryna steal your girl!"
Johnny laughed a little louder, and harder than usual, and he gave Pony a look like 'take-it-or-leave-it'.
Pony turned up to grin at me, his eyebrow arched, looking more like Sodapop then ever, even upside down. I laughed, and shrugged.
"I'm hot!" I whined, and then it dawned on me. "I have a brilliant, beyond brilliant idea."