||The Outsiders|| Oneshots + Imagines

4th of July Special!

The sun was setting in our neighbourhood. We'd gotten together in the lot to hang out and watch the fireworks since it was the 4th. I sipped a Pepsi and watched my friends argue about their teams. I was sitting against a tree as I fought a grin back as I waited for them to realise I hid the football. 

"You always have Johnny on your team, Dally!" Soda said. Oh, this should be good, I thought.

"So? You always have Darry," Dallas replied as he lit a cancer stick. I finally laughed at them, "You guys gotta wait for Two-Bit to get here anyways, stop being like kids." We'd sent Two-Bit on a food run, nothing fancy- just some fast food. I tossed aside the now empty bottle of Pepsi and got up. I quickly glanced at the hollow part of the tree where I stashed the football before making my way over to the boys.

"Hey, (Y/N), you playin' too?" Dally asked me. 

I decided to initiate the chaos, "Yeah, who brought the football?" They went silent and looked at each other. I swear I'd never put so much effort into keeping a neutral expression.

"Didn't Darry bring it?" Ponyboy asked quietly, everyone brought their attention to the eldest Curtis brother.

"Yeah, Darry, where'd you put it?" Soda questioned. Darry looked around with a confused look plastered on his face. "It was sitting somewhere around here..." 

"Or you forgot it," Dally gave a shit-eating grin and I began to wonder if this would go horribly wrong with Dallas Winston here. If this simple joke of mine ended with a fistfight I'd be pissed.

"Geez, you guys are no fun," I made my way back to the tree and retrieved the football, waving it in the air. I made sure the teams were fair after the failed prank, but it was getting a bit too dark outside to play and Two-Bit hadn't come back yet.

"If he got too drunk to remember he's supposed to get food for us, I'm gonna start hiding his beer," Steve said as we sat around a fire in the lot. 

"He's going to miss the fireworks," I sighed, it wouldn't be as fun if someone from the group is missing. Every year we tried to watch the fireworks together. Most years we got to, others we couldn't. Like the year Dallas was in jail; it just wasn't the same with that hood. Or Darry being too tired to hang out. Don't even get me started with Johnny's demon mother...

I always worried about the boys, I guess I was some sort of mother figure to them all. There were only special occasions where they didn't have to worry about anything, and tonight was one of them.

"I got the beer!" Two-Bit yelled as he made it to the lot. 

All of us replied with some variant of "Two-Bit, you were supposed to get food!" 

"Oh, yeah I got that too!"

----

We sat around, eating burgers and laughing together. Even Dally was genuinely laughing, it was quite an achievement.

"Guys, the fireworks started!" I pointed to the starry sky where a large blue firework crackled. All of us went silent as we watched the beautiful colours dance across the sky. I looked over at Darry, he didn't look so stressed anymore. And Johnnycake's eyes weren't so nervous looking. It made them all a little different, even it was only for a short while.

My god it was a wonderful feeling to have them like this. I could finally loosen up a bit, too.

At times it was hard being friends- No, family to these boys, but it was so damn worth it.