An Outsider Love Story

cokes and socs

Hey, we are heading to Tasty Freeze to buy some Cokes." Two-bits voice was quiet as Pony pulled on Dally's jacket. I completely forgot he gave him it.

"Yeah." I stand up for a few seconds to make sure I was steady enough to walk. I take a couple steps forward as two-bit had his arm around my back. Taking care of me as if I was Kathy.

"Thanks, two-bit." He finally lets go as I do good on my own.

"Just looking out for ya kid. Tim will kill us of we didn't take care of you."

"Don't worry about him. He's just a small little kitten." I mumbled as he burst into a laugh.

"You funny gal." Two-bit wipes a pretend tear away. We go outside and start for 10th Street.

"I would drive us but the brakes went out on my car almost killed me and Kathy the other day." Two-bit thumbed for a ride but cars kept going.

"Glad to see you guys are alright." I say.

"Have you met her brother? Now that is a greaser." On one occasion I met Kathy's brother and it was to take her home from my house late in the night. That greaser would pour gallons of hair oil on his head. Then comb it slicked-back saving the oil that dripped out of his hair and put it right back on top.

"Yeah, he sure is a true one." I smiled lightly.

"He's so greasy he glides when he walks. He goes to the barber for an oil change not a haircut." Two-bit cackles.

Finally making it to Tasty Freeze. We each get a Coke and finish drinking it. We get ready to go to the hospital as blue Mustang pulls up. I pulled out my switch to get ready to scare them off as two-bit shakes his head no.

"I'm not going to be jumped again and neither are you and Pony." I look at him. He holds his hands up above his head as Pony stands there scared.

"Stay close." Two-bit says.

"What do they want?" Pony asked.

"I don't know. How many they had in the car?"

"Four or five." Pony answers.

"I promised Johnny while I'm around nobody is going to get jumped." I say quietly as four socs start walking toward us. I flick open my switchblade as the sun gleams off of it. The socs see it. One guy stopped walking for a second then kept coming.

"No jazz before the rumble, you know the rules ape face." Two-bit says.

"We know. I wanna talk to you." The curly brown hair soc says.

"You wanna say that in a nicer manner?" I twirl the blade around in my hand. Something Tim taught me when I was young enough to carry one of these. One wrong move and you could lose a finger.

"May I please talk with you?" The soc says. Pony looks at two-bit and I wondering if he should go or not. It didn't matter to me if he went or not. If these socs jump him or two-bit and I, my blade is going into their hearts.

"Go ahead I'll keep my eye on him." Two-bit says. Pony and the curly hair soc walked all the way to the blue Mustang to talk.

"Speaking of the rumble pal." One of the socs starts.

"Yeah, look at these pants Lola." Two-bit laughs. I keep twirling my knife. The Brumly boys leader and a member show up.

"Check out their pants." Two-bit cackles.

"What are you boys waitin for a flood?"

"I hear they stamp your face into gorilla cookies." One of the Brumly boys laughs out loud with Two-bit. Ok, that joke I cracked a smile at.

"Hahaha, funny." One of the socs says sarcastically.

"Yeah." Two-bit says. The blue Mustang honks the horn is Ponyboy comes walking over to us.

"Your real funny two-bit." Brumly boys member says.

"Come on, lets go." One of the socs says. The three socs walk back to the Mustang.

"Now get the hell out of here." Two-bit says seriously.

"See you at the rumble." One of them calls over their shoulder.

"So what did Mr. Supersoc have to say?" Two-bit ask Pony.

"He ain't a soc. Just a guy that wanted to talk. That was all." Pony walks away from us. I look at two-bit and note that something was going on.

"Take care, take it easy." Two-bit shakes hands with the leader of the Brumly boys. As I do the same. It was a firm yet shaky hand shake. I realized the blade was still twirling in my other hand. I stop twirling it, close it and shove it in my jean pocket. Two-bit walks over to the other Brumly boy member and pretends to shake their hand.

"Take it easy." Two-bit laughs. We  made our way to the hospital and get stopped by a few nurses. Not this again, I'm going to see my boys this time even if it means flipping out my switchblade in front of them. A doctor comes walking down the hallway and stops the nurse from not letting us see them.

"Let them go in, he's been asking for them. It can't hurt now." My heart sank to the ground.

The expression and the way he said that means Johnny doesn't have much time to live. We walk into the room and see Johnny laying on a stretcher face down. His back was burnt so bad you can see the muscle tissue.