Jonny's Death
Dally's POV
I rushed Ponyboy through the hospital, desperate to see Jonny before- A doctor tried to stop us and brought me out of my train of thought. "I'm sorry, boys, but he's dying." The doctor said sympathetically. Normally sympathy was the last thing I wanted to see, but at the moment I didn't care. Jonny was dying! Jonny was dying and I was going to change that.
"We gotta see him." I order, flicking out Tow-bits blade and letting the doctor have a good look at it, hoping to intimidate him. "We're gonna see him him and if you give me any static you'll end up on your own operatin' table." I silently cursed, even I could tell that my voice was shaking which wouldn't help my threat. True to my thoughts that doctor didn't even blink.
"You can see him, but it's because you're his friends, not because of that knife." I stared at him for a second. If he was letting us in it could only be because Jonny was really bad, or because he was up to something. After a moment I decided to take the risk, if Jonny was dying I wanted to see him before he went. I put the blade away.
When we walked into Jonny's room I could tell that Ponyboy was having the same thought as me: It's too late, he's already dead. My throat constricted, but I made myself swallow. "Jonnycake?" I had to know if he was already dead. "Jonny?" Weakly Jonny moved, and slowly opened his eyes. "Hey." He murmured softly, probably unable to speak any louder.
"We won." I told him, keeping true to the promise I had made before leaving. "We beat the Socs. We stomped them-chased them outa our territory." I wanted him to know he'd be safe if he got better. From the looks of it though, he wasn't going to.
"Useless... fighting is no good..." I couldn't believe him. Fighting is what kept us alive, if we didn't fight, they'd hurt -even kill- us! Then I noticed how pale he was. He's not gonna make it. I felt as though someone had punched me real hard in the gut.
"They're still writing editorials about you in the paper." If he was going to die, I wanted him to know that he wasn't ever gonna be forgotten. "For being a hero and all." I added, wanting him to know why. "Yeah, they're calling you a hero now and heroizin' all the greasers. We're all proud of you, buddy." I had said the last part in a rush, worried that he would die before I finished and tried to keep the emotions out of my voice so that Jonny wouldn't worry.
"Ponyboy." He said softly, Ponyboy came up to his bed and leaned over him to catch whatever he wanted to say. I'm not sure if he said all he wanted to say, but when Pony stood up Jonny was dead. There was small clump of hair that Jonny couldn't keep in place for the life of him, my throat closed at the thought and I fought back tears. I pushed the hair back. "Never could keep that hair back" I started to babble. "... that's what you get for tryin' to help people, you little punk, that's what you get." It hurt me worse than anything else ever has and suddenly I couldn't look at him one more time. It hurt so much! I turned around and punched the wall. It hurt, but I had predicted that, it was what I wanted, it reminded me that I still had control over something, but not everything. "Danmit, Jonny..." I trailed off unsure of what I wanted to say... or do. "Don't die, please don't die..." I knew that my begging was useless, but it was all I could think of to do. Ponyboy was still there. I'd forgotten about him. He was just standing there, concerned about my outburst. Didn't he miss Jonny? Didn't he realize that Jonny wasn't ever coming back? I felt angry, remembering all the mistreatment and injustice I had received. If I didn't do something soon I felt as though I was going to explode and that's when I decided to do something. As I ran out of the hospital I wanted to make someone else hurt too, I just didn't know who it was or how I was going to do it. Yet.