Johnnyboy

Chapter 7

Cars drove by us, their lights flashing in our eyes. Pony and I were holding hands, walking close to each other to exchange body heat in the chilly breeze. We were walking to the Nighty Double, the place that Pony, Dally, I met Cherry Valance and Marcia, two Socs. That was also the place that Dally was going. I hoped he wasn't going to annoy Soc girls like that again.

I didn't know the movie that was playing. Mostly because the past two months, Pony and I have been away in that house together, so I hadn't seen many upcoming movie trailers or whatever. There weren't many Socs here. Well, there weren't many people here to be exact. It was quite empty for a, I don't know, Sunday night.

"Hey, I see Dal. Let's go," Ponyboy said.

I saw Dally. His legs were on top of the chair in front of him and he was smoking a cigarette. He didn't seem to be bothering anyone, which was odd behavior from Dallas Winston. Though, he was acting quite strange ever since the day we decided to run off. We walked over to him and sat next to him. It was the same seats we were in that night I killed the Soc.

"Hey, Dally," Pony said.

He looked over at us. "Oh. What're you two doin' here?"

"We don't have anywhere to go. I'm not goin' back to Darry's home," Pony said quietly. "Uh, you gotta weed?"

"Yeah, sure." Dally said, pulling a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and handing one to Pony and I. We both lit ours.

Dally continued, "Could always go back to the place in Broken Arrow, I don't know."

I looked at Pony, who shrugged. "I guess. But what about Sodapop?" His ears started to get red.

"I'll come pick you up whenever somethin' happens," Dally replied, looking at the movie screen.

"Alright," Pony said, and then he turned to me. "Johnnycakes, you cool?"

I nodded and smiled. Ponyboy smiled back. Dally was still watching the movie, smoking a cigarette. Pony looked forward at the movie screen, but I could tell he wasn't paying much attention to the actual movie.

Dally stood up. "So do you two wanna go or somethin'?"

"Well, yeah," Pony said, looking at me.

Dally put the cigarette in his mouth. "Don't sass me, mister." He smiled.

We left the Nightly Double, ducking as we walked past the movie screen so we wouldn't bother people. Well, only Pony and I did that. Dally didn't care.

We hopped in the car and started to drive off. Ponyboy looked at me with a weird look, but then he looked away. I didn't ask him what was with the look. I stared out the window as we drove. It seemed to me like the world just got smaller and smaller the more we drove. The realization that the world wasn't as big as I always dreamed it would be. I tried to think of more thoughts, ideas, but before I knew it, my eyes closed and everything went dark.

"Johnny? Wake up, we're here," someone said, shaking my shoulder.

It was Pony. I opened my eyes. I was still a little tired, but I got out of the car and walked towards the door with Pony and Dally. I turned around.

"You two have a good night. I'll come back and update what's happenin' with Soda. Night," Dally said, waving.

Pony and I opened the door. It was just how we left it. What was I really expecting? Some Socs to have robbed the place? Of course it was the same. We went upstairs together and started to put on our pajamas together. By now, we were fine getting dressed and undressed in front of each other. We crawled into bed, and laid there for a little while. Both of us stared at the ceiling for a little bit. I looked over at Pony, who's eyes were starting to get glassy. I moved closer to him and put my hand on his shoulder.