Warning the outsiders and winning Johnny cade

Chapter seventeen

Back at the Curtis' we made lunch and Darry Steve and Sodapop took time off work even though I insisted on them not. The whole gang was there and was being extra nice to me. It was nice but after a while it got weird. I felt like I was a outsider, like a person that didn't speak their language so they were confused and stared at you confusingly and tried to be really nice but weird nice. It was getting annoying. They were treating me different. They kept asking over and over if I was okay and asked about the situation. Then Steve asked for like the 73392729 time,
"Hey Anne are you okay? How are you feeling? Will you explain what happened again?"
"No!"
I shouted standing up from the table.
"Please stop treating me different because of this! Please stop being nice to me! Please stop asking me if I'm okay because for the 5000 time I'm alright! And no I won't explain what happened again because I already said it five times once to you guys, once to the doctor, once to the police man, half to Johnny, and once to cherry! I'm done talking about it! It's awkward and gross and not fun to think back on! You're acting like last night defines me and it doesn't! So just stop! Forget it ever happened to me just think about Johnny!"
They were surprised at first but then understood what I meant and apologized and layed off. I felt bad, I knew they were only trying to help.
"Hey guys,"
I said a few minutes later,
"I'm sorry I know you were just trying to help and be here for me but will you please just stop? I love you guys thank you so much."
And I meant it, I loved each and everyone of them with all my heart. But in a brother-sisterly way. Two bit interrupted my thought and said.
"We're having a rumble tomorrow. With the socs. We already decided to do it and planned it. No weapons just skin. And it's tomorrow. You can come if you want but you shouldn't fight, we don't want you to get hurt."
I thought the idea was plain stupid but they wouldn't listen to me. I eventually stopped trying to tell them not to do it. Too much work.
A few minutes later we visited Johnny, or tried. The doctor finally told us what happened. I told him not to sugar coat it just the plain hard truth. The socs hadn't just gave him a concussion, they found out only after he almost crashed when we were asleep, that they had caused heavy bleeding in his brain, the kind almost no one survives from. They had tried to perform a surgery, but it didn't really work. They said they did the best they could but he only had a 1 in 99 percent chance that he'd live. The doctor said that the rest of today and tomorrow would probably be his last days.
I couldn't help but start crying. Johnny, Johnny was going to die. And it was my fault. I tried everything I could to protect him to protect them. But no. It was my fault. I dropped to the floor crying. The boys all tried to console me but it didn't help much because they were crying too. But eventually we went in the room and all talked to Johnny, being slow and gentle. Everyone talked. We were all mad about what happened. All devastated about johnnys fate. We stayed with him for a long time until we were forced to go. I was beyond devastated. Beyond anything beyond speechless. I didn't know what to say.
We went back home and everyone went on with their lives, or tried to. We all fell asleep.
In the morning Steve soda and Darry went to work. It was Monday and they tried to give me the day off because of all the circumstances. But I decided to go.

At work Me and soda just tried to pretend nothing was wrong, we did everything normally still making jokes and doing silly stuff. I pretended to be okay. But I wasn't. I couldn't stop thinking about Johnny.

After work we were at the Curtis' again.
"I'm gonna beat there faces to the ground tonight!"
They were doing the rumble tonight. I thought it was stupid and useless but they still went on getting ready for it. Rumble time was in thirty minutes.
"Well you guys have fun fighting and getting hurt even though it's useless, I'm going to go spend time with Johnny." Darry drove me to the hospital then he went back to get ready to rumble.