Pony's POV
She was gorgeous. Radiant, more like it... She had gold hair that, although was matted and tangled from the jumping, shimmered and glowed like a late August sunrise. She had fair, porcelain-like skin and high cheekbones and dimples right at the sides of her lips. However, what caught me the most were her eyes...
I think you can tell a lot about a person by their eyes. Johnny's eyes always held a hurt and frightened expression to them, while Dally's eyes, for example, were hard and inhuman; his eyes never seemed to have seen a good part of the world, and that's what separated the two. Johnny's eyes were always looking, but never seemed to find any beauty; whereas Dallas didn't see a point in searching in the first place.
Kathlee's eyes were metallic; a shimmering shade of cobalt blue that held every emotion imaginable.
It made her unimaginable.
She was perfect.
"Ponyboy!" I heard Two-Bit yell.
They can't be back already, can they? As selfish as it may seem, given the circumstances, I wanted to be alone with the beautiful girl lying in front of me just a little longer. To get to know her a little better, maybe.
"Pony, c'mon man, get the door!" Steve grunted.
I got up, smiling at Kathlee and explaining to her that it was just the gang getting home. I hurried over to the door, nearly tripping on the coffee table before reaching the rickety old screen and frame, and I swear I heard Kathlee hold back a giggle.
"Dammit Pone...I thought you were Mr. Big Shot track star, how come you couldn't have made it here any faster?" Steve questioned, anger laced through his every word.
I kept my head down right after I pushed back the handle. I didn't want to see Steve or any of the other guys mad at me; God knows I see it enough with Darry as my older brother.
"Sorry guys, I was with Kathlee, I wanted to make sure she wouldn't get spooked when y'all came bustling in like a herd of horses... Why couldn't you have got the door on yer own anyways?" I asked, finally looking up for the first time, "what's in the boxes?"
"We went to the Rexall!" Soda exclaimed, bouncing up and down like a ball.
"Looking for any kinda remedy that heals sore throats," Darry continued, "and since there were so many different legends for what works best, we all got a different box full of stuff to try."
I started to nod and smile at the gang's mismatched reasoning until I heard a groan from the living room.
Soda and Johnny made it to Kathlee first, but I was the one who got closest to her; making sure she knew I was there.
"Kathlee, Kathlee hun, you okay?" Soda asked. She grunted back in response.
"Here, here give this to the kid," Steve said, handing me a warm Rexall thermos full of what seemed to be Lemon Tea.
"Gladly." I smiled down at her, and felt my eyes brighten up just at the sight of her smirking, looking back up at me. I could spend the rest of my life like that, getting lost in her shimmering silver eyes.
"Thank...you..." She smiled bigger than before, and I wanted desperately to draw her. The way her cheeks got rounder and higher, the way her dimples showed and her lips separated into a soft pink crescent moon. She looked alive; fully alive. And although her smile was beautiful, it seemed more of a comfort mechanism towards whomever was looking at her. She smiled to make others happy; and from what I know now, everything she did, she did to make people happy. She put herself second, and thought it was best to go through life like that.
It hurt her.
"Better?" Darry smiled, looking down over the couch where Kathlee was lying.
"Much..." She said, and with that, her eyes fluttered shut; she was out like a light, still faintly holding her thermos of tea. We all got up and moved away from her, near the hallway to let her sleep peacefully.
"Man..." Johnny started, looking over to the kitchen table where all the boxes had been placed, "y'all better get sick fast, so we ain't wasting all that dumb stuff..."
"Will do!" Soda sighed dramatically before falsely fainting onto Steve's shoulder.
"Hey...where's Dally? Didn't he go to the Rexall with y'all?" I asked.
"Well he was going to come 'til he thought of something he said would 'help her more'" Johnny started, "said we'd see him later."
"I'm not sure if I wanna see what Dally thinks will help that poor girl later on..." Darry sighed.
"And speaking of her," Two-Bit continued, "what are we gonna do...? Pony, did'ya find anything out about where she lives or somethin'?"
Her family, he meant.
Kathlee's family...
Did she have a family, like the Socs did, all put together and loving? Or a family like Johnny's, where although all the members were together, there seemed to never be an ounce of love? Or maybe she had a family like mine, where although people were missing, they filled the void that they're parents left with more love for and appreciation for each other than they had before.
I looked over at the scared-looking fragile girl sprawled over our couch and thought about it. She was wearing plain old skinny blue jeans that had rips in the knees and thighs, with an old blue sweater of mine that we put overtop of her to cover her torn apart tee. What kind of home did she come from?
"Pony...?" Johnny butted into my thoughts, pulling on the sleeve of my plaid button down.
"Ponyboy, snap out of it, what'd she tell you?"
I blinked and looked back at the gang. Steve had said the last part and moved himself in front of my face in an attempt to get my attention.
"Hey day-dreamer, you gonna start talkin'?" he said, snapping his fingers in front of my nose.
"Right, sorry..." I said, looking off away from the gang and pushing Steve's hand away.
"She didn't say anything about where she's from, but I s'pose we could ask her when she..." I trailed off. I must've seen that wrong, I thought, standing up and making my way over to Kathlee.
"Ponyboy, whatcha doin' man? She's sleeping, let her be..." Darry whispered harshly.
"Just hold on a sec..." I insisted.
She was facing away from me as I kneeled down in front of the couch and looked more intently at the small patch of bare back that I could see where her shirt had come up.
"She gets belted..." I whispered, "that's where she comes from. A home where nobody loves her...they hurt her..."
Tears started to brim over my eyes as I dropped my head into my hands.
"They...hurt...her." I was crying now.
Kathlee was perfect. She had angel eyes and a soft, china-doll-like face that matched her rivetingly beautiful golden hair that she wore in ringlet waves. I think I loved her, and I'd only ever talked to her for a few minutes.
She had deep, red lines that stretched from her hip to the middle of her back, criss-crossed and mismatched.
And that was only from the small part of her back that I saw...
Her family hurt her, like Johnny's family did to him. Saying I was angry would be an understatement; even though saying that at that very moment, I wanted to do something to the people hurting her, would be a lie.
To be honest, it was true. I couldn't care less about any of the heartless monsters making their kids feel helpless and weak. They didn't deserve to be cared about in any regard. Although, I'd care about the product. The victim of the relentless bullying and negligence; I'd care for her angel eyes, and soft, china-doll-like face. I'd care for the way she smiled and the way she wore her golden hair. I'd care for the strong, beautiful girl that lied before me like my life depended on it, and that was for certain. I'd care for her using every reason I could under the sun, and becauseI loved her. I'd do everything I could to keep the sparkle in her eyes and the life in her smile, and so help me God, I'd care for Kathlee or die trying.
