✓ | falling ➝ j. cade

vii. brown's record shop

❝CAN'T YOU
SEE? WE CAN BE SOMETHING
IF WE TRIED. JUST TELL ME
HOW TO MAKE YOU MINE.❞
- THE GIRL AND THE DREAMCATCHER, MAKE YOU STAY

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That Friday after classes were dismissed for the weekend, Theodosia caught Johnny on the way to his locker, assumedly before he found Two-Bit, Steve, and Ponyboy and left for the weekend.

"Johnny!" Theodosia hollered, grabbing the Greaser by his shoulder."Wait up! I need to ask you something."

Johnny had jumped at the touch of her hand. If Theodosia noticed the reaction, she didn't let on. He stopped to face the red head. Theodosia's hand fell from Johnny's shoulder to tuck fallen strands of hair behind her ear.

"Yeah?"

"Do you wanna read some of Romeo and Juliet tonight? Cherry has the football game," Theodosia offered.

"I thought you had to work," Johnny scrunched his eyebrows together, remembering what Theodosia had said days earlier.

"I do, but it's always slow and kinda boring. I figured it'd be nice to have some company," Theodosia shrugged, a small smile illuminating her features.

"It's always just you?" Johnny asked, genuinely curious.

The two walked to Johnny's locker. He spun in his combination and opened it. Johnny put away his English books and locked his locker. He never took his textbooks home. Johnny was afraid that they would probably get destroyed, and Johnny couldn't afford to pay the school any money. So, it wasn't that he was a lazy student. He was just a student with a bad home life. Besides, Johnny got most of his homework done in his study hall. Steve would try to explain it to him, but that didn't always work out very well.

"Yeah," Theodosia answered, nodding."Mr. Brown originally wanted someone to work my shift with me, but I insisted I could do it myself."

"If you don't mind me askin', why do you work? Most chicks 'round here don't."

"I wanted to help my mom with the bills. Money's been sorta tight the past couple years, and I wanted to help. So, since Mr. Brown's a pretty good friend of my mother's, I ended up getting an interview and later the job," Theodosia explained.

"Do you like it?"

Theodosia nodded,"I do. I basically listen to records all day. It's nice."

When Johnny didn't respond, Theodosia started talking again. She did that a lot, or so Johnny had noticed. She talked when things got awkward, but he didn't mind. Theodosia was good at filling silences with her stories. They were interesting. Plus, he always learned a lot about her through those.

"I also volunteer at the old folks home. There's so many war vets there."

Johnny scrunched his eyebrows together,"What made you wanna volunteer there?"

Johnny didn't understand why Theodosia would want to be in that environment. He had never enjoyed going. Johnny had been known to visit the Curtis grandparents with Ponyboy's family. Going with the Curtises had always made it more bearable. They went up until they died a few years back. The two had died within an hour of each other. Johnny recalled Sodapop saying that they couldn't live without each other with a sad smile. After that, Johnny hadn't gone back to the old folks home. To add to his reasons to avoid going, he never knew how to act around elders. To be fair, though, Johnny didn't know how to act around a lot of people.