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CHAPTER VII BRUISES !
USUALLY JOHNNY WAS GOOD AT HIDING THE bruises and scars he had. His hair normally could cover the bruises on the side of his face and the way his hair fell in his eyes it hid the black eyes he often sported. Johnny's jean jacket usually covered the bruises on his arms and the jeans hid the bruises on his legs. He was good at hiding that his parents treated him as if he was a punching bag.
Not only did his parents physically abuse him, they verbally abused him. They yelled at him to remind him of the failure he was, to remind him that he never mattered, to remind him he was weak and unloved. To remind him that he was too stupid to understand the real world.
However, they only yelled at him when they drunk. The moments in which his parents weren't wasted they spent time yelling at each other. Neither of his parents ever had the guts to actually leave and he doesn't really know why.
Johnny holds onto the memories of when he was younger, about six or seven, his parents got along, his mother made nice dinners, his father played with Johnny outside. As Johnny turned ten everything seemed to change, he wasn't a little boy anymore. He was growing up. His parents were the parents that took the phrase "I wish they would stay little forever" too seriously.
They wanted nothing to do with him as he grew up, he learned to fend for himself, he learned everything by himself. The only thing he couldn't protect himself from was his parents.
Their words came so easily even though they were drunk, their hits came so quickly even though they were drunk. Their words were like knives that left Johnny with scars. Their insults were hits of reality that left bruises.
As he stared at his reflection in the mirror of the Curtis' bathroom he felt sick to his stomach as he saw that the bruises on his face were visible. He immediately regretted agreeing to Patty's idea of him taking Jenny to the dance as she went with Randy.
Randy was a Soc who beat up Greasers. Johnny was a Greaser. He had prepared himself for the insults he knew he would hear from Randy and he wondered if Patty would agree with Randy or stick up for Johnny.
The knock on the bathroom door brought Johnny out of his trance, "Johnnycake, Jenny is here."
"What?" Johnny mumbles, "I was meeting them at Way Out."
"Not anymore," Ponyboy says, "Can I come in?"
Johnny opens the door for him and Ponyboy snickers to himself as he looks over Johnny's suit (that was actually one of Darry's very old suits), "It's nice."
