I was just doing some homework, like always. My life felt like homework, sometimes. I was in all the smart classes with all the socs, put up a year and all. All these kids, all the rich socs were going to college, this was guaranteed for them. Nothing was guaranteed for me. I had to work for everything. I guess it was fine. What else could you do?
In odd quiet moments I missed my parents. I knew I was too young for them both to be gone like this, but again, there wasn't anything that could be done about it. They were just gone and that was that. But I thought about them and I felt this ache, this deep sadness like nothing I'd felt before, it washed over me, it pummeled me.
I heard our screen door open and kind of slam the way it did, because it was missing that bar thing that could make it close softly. It announced every coming and going, that slam. I sat up a little, lifting my eyes from the text that I'd just been reduced to reading and re-reading. It was time to take a break anyway.
"Hey, man," Johnny said, standing in the doorway to my room.
"Hey," I said, watching him. He wore faded jeans and the jean jacket like he always did, and his eyes were dark and suspicious. He always had that look, that anxious haunted look. But it wasn't the dominant expression right now. He wasn't upset or anything, but that look was always there beneath whatever cool and calmness he was trying to fake.
I stood up and stretched and looked into the darkness outside the window. I wanted to go somewhere suddenly. I was tired of being cooped up in the house.
"Wanna go somewhere?" I said to Johnny, and I knew he'd agree. He went along. So he nodded and I hunted around for a jacket and a few bucks so maybe we could play pinball or pool or something somewhere. I couldn't find my jacket, I probably left it at school or something. I was always leaving things places, and it drove Darry nuts since we couldn't afford to always be buying new things, but I couldn't help it, I was so scatterbrained. So I just took Soda's leather jacket and I tucked a pack of cigarettes into the pocket and we left.
"Were you in school today?" I asked him, lighting up a cigarette as we neared the vacant lot. I noticed the shiny scar on his cheek. He was looking down as we walked and when I asked him that he glanced up at me for a second.
"No," he said softly, lighting his own cigarette. I couldn't believe the amount of school he skipped, but his parents didn't really care. I'm sure they've yelled at him about it, since they yell at him for everything, and if the school called about it his old man might even beat him over it, but his parents didn't really care. So he didn't go.
But I didn't say anything, I'd just wondered since I hadn't seen him. But I was pretty busy at school and he wasn't in any of my classes, even though we were in the same grade now. If he kept up all his skipping he'd probably just drop out like Soda did.
We played pinball for awhile and some pool but we ran out of money and we left. I was thinking about my homework and some projects for school and college, that ever present goal. Get to college. Get out of this squalor. We were passing the park and nearing Johnny's house. His parents were home, the house was lit up like a Christmas tree, and as we got closer we could hear them fighting. I looked over at Johnny and saw that expressionless look he'd get, and I thought about how different we were, me and him. I was thinking about school and the future, and he was probably thinking about not getting killed at his house tonight.
"C'mon," I said, putting my arm around his shoulders, "let's just go to my house,"
"Yeah, alright," he said.
At my house I had to get back to my homework, so I left Johnny in the living room to watch T.V. He could fall asleep on the couch if he wanted to. Darry didn't mind. He said anyone could come and crash here if they needed to, and I couldn't think of anybody who needed to more than Johnny.