Just friends, best friends -Johnnyboy

Part fifteen: Johnny

I woke up the next morning to the smell of strong, cheap cologne and cigars. I felt almost a sense of deja vu, I've smelt these combinations together many times before. I rubbed my eyes and fluffed my hair a bit. I had a dream that I remembered, I usually never remember them, but this one stayed with me. It was me and Ponyboy, we were together, at our tree and we were laughing, then suddenly he just disappeared into thin air and was replaced with a black shadow. I didn't understand the meaning, I mean, dreams are supposed to have meanings right? 

"Hey! Morning sleepy boy." Jan walked in with orange juice and sat beside me.

"Gee thanks." I took a sip.

"We have a party tonight, it's gonna be here, you okay with that?" She said suddenly.

I looked up from the cup, "Uh yeah yeah sure." I stuttered.

"Sure?" 

"Yeah it's no problem." I smiled and got up to put day clothes on.

I looked back at January, her neck was flooded with hickeys and her leftover makeup was messy. 

"Rough night?" I said turning my body.

She whipped around, "What you mean?" 

"Your neck, Jan." I smirked.

She peeked outside the door then back at me. "How else do you think I got us a place to stay?" Smiling, she always looked like she knew she was in charge. I loved that about her.

"Well I'll get dressed then we're going to the gas station, if you wanna come." She said fixing her hair.

"Yeah, I'll tag along." I walked towards the bed to make it.

She strutted out into the one bathroom of the house. I reached over to my jean jacket and reached out a folded paper. It was a letter Pony had written me a while ago, it read:

Dearest Johnny,

I know things are hard at home, and I know they always have been, I just wanted to say that I'm always here for you and I love you endlessly. More than any sunset, more than any paperback novel and of course more than the stars and moon combined. I hope things get better, I also hope that one day, we will have a house of our very own, together. I can't wait to marry you Johnathan Cade, god I am so excited to just leave this place and only be with you, forever, if you'll have it. I hope you do.

Love,

Ponyboy Curtis

I couldn't tell you how many times I've read that letter, it's practically memorized by now. Everytime I read it, I get emotional, thinking about how lucky I am to have him. And how I possibly could have screwed it up. I love him, so damn much and it hurts being miles away from him, it makes my heart physically hurt. I couldn't go back, not without Jan, I couldn't do that to her, but I also can't be away from Pony this long. I told myself I'll be at this party, for Jan, then I'm leaving.

"JOHNNYY!" I heard a voice yell from the front door. I sprung up leaving the letter on the desk in the corner, I grabbed my jacket and headed out.

"Ready to go?" Jan said with a big smile.

"Yeah." I smiled back.

"Will's gonna meet us later, perhaps at the DQ?" She asked.

"Works with me." I giggled.

We left the house and started the short walk to the gas station, it wasn't super hot out, but it was warm enough. January was wearing a short red dress and black tights, they were ripped. She had her red lipstick on she always had. As we arrived to the station, Jan stopped and turned to me. She pulled out a lollipop.

"Watch this." She began walking toward a stranger.

"Well hello sir." She licked the sweet.

"Hello young lady," he looked her up and down.

"Would you be ever so kind as to buy a pack of cigars for me? You see, I'm simply not old enough." She sucked on the sucker more and leaned in.

"I-uh I suppose," He seemed intimidated.

She signaled him to lean down as she placed a kiss on his old cheek, leaving an imprint of red. She had that look again, I've always called it the boss lady look, we used to joke about it.

The old man hurried into the shop as she miandered towards me, you could see the shock on my face from a thousand miles away. 

"Cool? Huh." She licked the lollipop once more before chucking it.

"Psh, yeah holy shit." I shrugged.

She did an evil looking smile and started toward the older man, grabbing the cigars ever so gracefully. And blew him a kiss.

"XO, bitch." She said laughing.

I could barely control my laughter as we speed walked in the opposite direction.

"What's in the bag?" I questioned.

She pulled out a black dress and some jewellery.

"The boys love red." She joked.

"So, I've heard." I chuckled along.

We were walking for a bit when we stumbled along an old abandoned building, it looked like a church, or what was left of one. I looked at Jan and she smirked walking towards it. I followed. It looked like it had been half burned down, like there was a fire. How strange. 

"Damn what happened here?" Jan exclaimed stepping over a pile of wood. I looked around and saw materials and other things lying all around.

"Looks like a fire happened." I said picking something up, it looked like a piece of clothing. 

God, glad I wasn't caught in this fire. *;)*

"You think we should be here? Maybe they're rebuilding it?" I put the clothing back down.

"Not a chance! This place looks worse than the gym storage room." Jan replied sarcastically.

We began walking towards what was the inside. I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw an almost untouched copy of Gone with The Wind. I picked it up in shock, I couldn't believe it. Out of all the things that could have survived this fire, this book was one of them.

"Jan, look at this!" I exclaimed running towards her.

"Holy shit." She took it from me.

"Hey doesn't Ponboy love this book?" "You should give this to him, a real treasure." She suggested.

"Good idea," I said reaching for it.

"How authentic it is." She said as we broke into laughter.

"Mm, we should head back to Will's." She said all of a sudden.

"Oh, yeah." I shrugged.

We began to walk off into the dead grass, taking the book with us.