MY CANDY | OUTSIDERS

𝟏𝟒 : 𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐞

- ☹ -

"don't die on me now."

i climbed up into a tree so that none of the soc's would see me, and come attack me. i had a birds-eye view of everything. the soc's walking up to the rest of the greasers, and paul talking to darry.

all of a sudden, before anyone started fighting, we all heard a distant scream.

"you know a rumble ain't a rumble without me!" classic dallas winston. i smirked at him, although he couldn't see me.

then, the first punch was thrown at ponyboy. i flinched hard, and wanted to go down, but i couldn't because it just started. my blood boiled. i watched as soc's and greasers were throwing punches at each other.

i was on the edge, until someone stepped over my line when a stupid soc kicked pony in the stomach. he was even twice the size as ponyboy, which wasn't fair at all.

"all right, that's it!" i yelled, jumping off the tree. a couple of greasers turned their heads to see me running to ponyboy, including dally and sodapop.

as i got to ponyboy, i shoved the soc away from pony, and started punching him. for the split moment that i had, i made sure ponyboy was okay. he had cuts down his face, and a big bruise.

"oh god, ponyboy you okay?" i ask, worrying about him.

"y-yeah." he struggled to string letters together to form words. then, i went back to beating up that soc. i started throwing his head into the ground.

"they're running! look at 'em run, those dirty-" i looked around to see the soc's run out of the field.
darry rushed over to ponyboy to make sure his injuries weren't major, and thankfully it wasn't. the worst he had was a concussion.

as the rest of the gang headed back home, dallas grabbed me by the arm and ponyboy, then rushed us over to his car.

"we're gonna go see that kid." dallas said, with a look of determination. i felt sorrow for dallas. johnny was the only one that dally actually liked.

"y'know, i was crazy for trying to keep that kid outta trouble. y'all better wise up, you get smart like me and nothin' can hurt ya. if you get tough like me, then nothin' can touch ya." dallas punched the dashboard, at the last sentence. i rested my hand on his shoulder.

"dallas, we know it hurts. it's okay." i cooed, hoping he wouldn't get mad. he turned to face me, his eyebrows furrowed. then, his face rested, a frown sitting upon his mouth. he grabbed my hand, and held it for the rest of the ride.

dallas and i helped ponyboy walk over to johnny's room. the doctor took a lot of convincing to let us see johnny, but we made it.

"hey, johnny. we beat the soc's in the rumble tonight." dally announced, trying to act happy.

"no good... fighting's useless." johnny choked out. we were all so upset to see our johnny like this. dallas spoke again.

"y'know you did good johnny, we're all real proud of ya." for a split second, i saw johnny's whole entire face light up. his eyes were glowing, and you could see the slightest smile form on his lips. johnny admired dally, and he must've been so joyful to hear dally say that he was proud of him.

we sat in utter silence for about two minutes, before johnny spoke up, this time.

"lydia, come here." i knelt beside his bed, bringing my face up close so that i could hear him.

"thank you, for everything. don't change for a thing in the world." i shed a tear, hearing these words. it hurt even more than it usually would.

"ponyboy..." johnny whispered.

"stay gold, ponyboy. stay gold." and with that, his head tilted over, and fell limp on his pillow. i was absolutely horrified at the sight. johnny was dead, for real dead.

i couldn't believe how quickly the ones you loved could be gone. with a blink of an eye, johnny died. so how long could it take for anyone else that you loved, to die? not more than a second.

"johnny, don't die on me now. so this what ya get for helpin' people huh? bastards."