The bitter cold of night gnawed at my skin as I tried to stay warm. Ponyboy left me here, though I don't mind. I could have gone with him, but I stupidly chose not to. The fire we had built had long been burned out and the shivers that were rocking through me seemed to get worse. Man, it was cold. I sat up to see newspapers scattered around me. These would work. Collecting them, I covered my body with them to keep me warm and soon, I was asleep.

O.o--o.O

"Umph! Johnny, we gotta get out of here!" A scared Ponyboy cried through a tear-stained face as he tripped over me. I sat straight up, though the air was knocked out of me, making me feel a bit dizzy.

When air was regained, and my vision became clear, I pushed myself off the ground and looked at Ponyboy. "What's the matter, Pony?" I asked. Seeing him look like this frightened me. "What happened?"

"You got a smoke, Johnny? I'm scared to death." he said, his voice quivering with fright. I got out my pack of smokes and handed him one, which he preceded to light and take a drag of.

"Ponyboy, tell me what's the matter with you." I said, trying to gain more confidence.

"Darry hit me! Oh, c'mon Johnnycake, we're running away!" Pony stuck the smoke in his mouth and grabbed my hand, and starting to fly towards the park.

"What?! Pony-" but I couldn't get the rest of my sentence out. Pony had tripped, causing me to stumble and land headfirst in the dirt. When I found that I could push myself up into a sitting position, I did so and looked around to see Pony taking a very long drag on his cigarette.

"Ponyboy, we can't run away." The poor boy looked scared to death, and he probably was. To my surprise, he nodded in agreement and looked around nervously.

"Yeah, I know… I don't know what I was thinkin'… C'mon, let's go to the park and maybe I'll cool off." he said shakily. I couldn't help but smile as I got up and shoved my hands into my pockets. The park wasn't that far from the lot, so we would be there in less than five minutes. Soon I needed a smoke, so I took one out and lit it.

"Ponyboy… What do you mean Darry hit you?" I asked suddenly, curiosity pouring out of me.

"I… I dunno.. We got into this big fight over me comin' home at three… And then he yelled at Soda, so I yelled back... And then he hit me. We used to get along fine before mom and dad died! But I don't know what happened, Johnny! I don't know why we fight so much now."

I grunted at that, not sure whether I liked it better when my Dad was hittin' me or ignorin' me. My eyes soon landed on Pony, he was shivering from the cold and I put my arms around him in an effort to comfort him and to warm him up.

"It'll be okay, Pony. I'm sure Darry didn't mean it." I said with a small smile as we reached the jungle gym.

That's when things went wrong.

A blue Mustang pulled up at the side of the park and four Socs got out of it. My whole body tensed when I realized that they were heading our way. "Should we run for it?" I asked, prepared to do that at a moment's notice.

Ponyboy took a drag of his ever shortening weed and looked at me. "Just stay cool, man."

That's when I saw it. They were the ones who'd beaten me up a while back. "It's that guy with the rings, man." I said quietly as he walked up to us.

"Aren't these the ones that tried to…pick up on our women?" he asked his goons, they all laughed and some gave a "yeah" or an "uh-huh" and with each noise I was getting tenser and tenser. Truth was I was scared, I didn't want to get hurt again.

Bob, I think his name was, or the one with the rings took a swing from his beer and broke out in a bunch of giggles, his goons followed suit, even though it didn't make much sense.

"Hey, hey! You know what a Grease is?" a different one piped up, "white trash with long, greasy hair." He sneered at Ponyboy and I, and then broke out into a fit of giggles. My throat was dry, as if I hadn't had anything to drink in days, and when I tried to swallow, it sent pin-pricks down my throat and I ended up in a fit of coughing, which had Ponyboy thumping me on my back. He was right back on the bar that he was hanging from when I could breathe again. The other Socs laughed and the ring leader tossed the rest of his booze on Ponyboy who flinched, and almost lost his balance from the bar that he was hanging off of.

"Yeah? Well you know what a Soc is?" Ponyboy retorted. As he was speaking, I almost jumped out of my skin. I looked at him, why was he egging them on? Was he trying to get us killed?

"What?" The reply was a bored one, as if the Socs weren't worthy of insults.

"White trash with Mustangs and madras." Ponyboy spit at him and started off at a sprint, which had me immediately following him.

"Get 'em!" I heard them yell as they began to chase us through the park. We got to the fountain, then I tripped and the Socs took me down. I cried out for Pony, which made him turn around and look at me. This allowed Bob and another Soc to take him down, kicking and punching him.

A kick was landed to my head and I saw stars. My lip was cracked and I could feel the blood running down my face, until I could taste it in my mouth.

"Johnny!" Ponyboy's cries sent shivers down my spine, they were mixed with splashes and that made me assume the worst; they were going to drown him. My heart started beating faster than it already had been as I tried to reach him.

"Pony!"

Another kick was landed to my chest and it knocked the wind out of me. I rolled over, wincing at the pain, and coughed out blood.

"Stay there, kid." One of them said as he landed another blow just to make sure that I stayed on the ground. They jogged over to where they were attacking Ponyboy and joined in on what they called fun. Rage flowed through my veins and I took out my switch. I painfully pulled myself up, bending over a bit from the pain.

"Let go of him." I ordered, my eyes like daggers. One of them looked at me and smirked as if I wouldn't do anything. I started to walk over to them and my hand twitched, as if it wanted blood.

The leader of the group turned to look at me, still holding drowning Pony. He had a smug look on his face.

"What are you gonna do kid? You can't defend yourself. Look at those scars I gave you." He sneered. All of the Socs turned from the fountain and crossed their arms.

"I can do a lot." I said, trying to sound tuff, but naturally, it sounded stupid and got laughed at. The leader took a swing at me and before I could stop it, my blade caught him in his chest and he looked at me as if I were insane. In my peripheral, I could see Pony collapsing onto the ground next to the fountain, unconscious. From the rush of what was happening, I didn't may too much attention to him.

"Shit, man! Run!" One of them called as he started to run away from the scene, the other's quickly following suit. Some looked back, horror on their faces.

I watched as the Soc fell to the ground in a crumpled heap with my blade in his chest. Soon, I followed him and fell to my knees as if I couldn't believe what I had done. I was scared out of my mind… I yanked the blade out of his chest and tried to stop the bleeding even though I knew it was a waste of time. He was already dead.

I'd killed him…

The thought ran through my head and I rolled over and hurled my guts out. I was disgusted with myself and with the scene; there was blood everywhere. What would my dad do when he found out? Or worse, what would Dally do? Man, I would definitely get it then; Dally was so protective over me. He said if I ever went to jail, he was gonna skin me.

The thought of him was comforting to me. The thought of his face, of his rare smile, it made all this that much brighter. I pushed myself back up against the fountain and tried to think of how I could get out of this… But I wasn't no lawyer! What did I know about convictions or whatever?

A moan came from nearby the fountain and I soon realized that about an hour passed while I had been staring blankly at my blade. My head swirled and I saw Pony coming to. Ponyboy. I had forgotten about him and I mentally kicked myself for it. It was him I was protecting.

"Johnny?" Ponyboy asked blindly after hacking up water. He looked around to me and all I could do was stare at my blood drenched blade.

"I killed him" Ponyboy rolled out of the fountain and onto the ground as if to get a better look at me, a confused expression on his face.

"What?"

"I killed that boy." Ponyboy looked at the body and then back at me, eyes wide. His face grew pale and he looked queasy.

"I think I'm gonna be sick…." He said, groaning a bit.

"Go ahead, man. I won't look at you." I said quietly, staring into the now red glint on the blade I held. As he came back over to where I sat, I didn't look at him full on. I could tell he was trembling. Scared. So was I…

"You really killed him, huh, Johnny?"

"Yeah…" I could hear my own voice quavering. "I had to. They were drowning you, Pony. And they had a blade. They were gonna beat me up…"

"Like…like they did before?" He asked me, making me look up towards him.

I didn't speak for a moment, gazing back towards the blade. "Yeah." I finally spoke up. "Like they did before."

"Pony what are we gonna do? We… I don't think that we can stay here." I said, trying to control my panic filled voice.

"We can't run away, Johnny. We have to tell someone. Maybe we could go tell Da-"

"We can't tell Dally!" I cried, eyes growing in diameter. Ponyboy shook his head,

"I was going to say Darry, or even Soda. Dally would kill us if he found out." I nodded at that, Darry would skin me alive, but something in me said that I wouldn't care. If he did, then at least I would get the feeling that he cared about me. That was really all I wanted in this world; for Dally to be proud of me, to care about me.

"I guess we can go to Darry… But in the morning, I think we should tell the police." I said with a small shiver. The thought of cops throwing me in jail, or shooting me down, was scary.

"Alright… Johnny?"

"Yeah?"

"What'll happen if... you go to jail?" The younger boy asked me. I looked at him for a second then stood up, holding out my hand for him to take, which he did.

"Then I guess I go to jail. I did kill him." I said with a small shrug of my shoulders. I started walking towards Pony's house with him in tow, wondering how I was going to tell his brother. And then there was the fact that Dallas was soon to know. Ponyboy shrugged at my comment and soon we were at his house. I opened the door only to see two sleeping friends. Soda, his light brown, greased back hair a messy mop, laying down on the couch, his arms and legs flung out in every which way, his mouth hanging open with a noise reminiscent to snoring coming out of his mouth. And Darry, his short blonde hair with the little swirl of hair in the middle of his forehead, sitting in the chair, his head fallen forward.

"I think they stayed up waiting for me." Ponyboy whispered. Darry's head moved and he snorted. He looked up and a noise like a startled grunt came from his throat.

"Ponyboy!" Soon Darry was up and put of the chair running towards Ponyboy and I, scooping Pony up in his arms and hugging him tightly.

"Ponyboy, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. I don't know what was going through my head. I didn't mean to hit you, I-"

"Darry, it's ok." All the commotion had Soda up and rubbing his eyes. He sat up and stretched. "Man, Pony, you sure had us scared." he said lazily, then his gaze fell on me and his face scrunched up.

"Johnnycake? What're you doing here?" A hot blush crept into my cheeks and I tried to avoid his gaze.

"I… I had to come home with Ponyboy. I hope you don't mind." My voice was stiff with fear and I guess Soda and Darry could sense it because Darry let go and looked at Soda then back at me.

"What happened, Johnny?" Darry asked me.

"I, uh…" I couldn't find my voice I didn't know how to tell them.

"Johnny, what happened to you face?" Soda was up, off the couch and over to me, taking my face in his hands and looking over my face.

"What do you mean?" That's when Soda touched it. My face stung like a thousand bees had hit it at once.

"Ouch!"

Soda's touch was gone and so was he, into the kitchen, shuffling things around in the ice box. Soon he was back with a pack of ice. He handed it to me.

"Put that over your face." he said, taking the ice from me and doing it for me.

"P-Ponyboy and I got jumped…" I couldn't talk anymore, I was crying to hard. I didn't know what to say, and I was so scared that Darry and Soda were gonna get mad, which I knew that they were.

"Johnny killed the Soc." Pony finally said after minutes of nothing but me crying. Soda almost dropped the bag of ice, and Darry's jaw dropped.

"Johnny did what?"

"They was drowning me! They wouldn't stop, so Johnny…he did it! All of the others ran." I could have kissed Pony.

"What'd you do with the body?" Soda asked. Pony and I looked at each other and then back at the other two boys.

"We didn't think to do anything with it." I said quietly, my crying had finally stopped and now all that had to go back to normal was my heart rate.

"Good, at least you didn't try to hide the evidence." Darry said sarcastically, rolling his eyes and walking over to the telephone.

"I'm gonna call Dally and the rest and tell them to get over here." Fear trickled down my spine and I shook my head violently.

"N-no! Please don't tell Dallas." I cried, running over to Darry.

"I gotta, kid, he's the only one that's been in a murder wrap. He'll know what to do." Darry said. My face fell as I realized that he was right and we had to call Dally. He was about the only one that might be able to get us out of this mess.

"And in the morning you're gonna have to go downtown and tell them what happened." Soda said to me as he put the ice back on my face. Pony was silent as he walked to the couch and fell on it. He looked exhausted.

"Why don't you boys go on into your bedroom, Pony, and get some sleep, we'll wake you up when the others get here." Darry told us, more of an order than a request. Pony and I nodded, grateful, and dragged ourselves into the bed room. We were both asleep before our head hit the pillows. We hadn't even bothered to get under the covers we were so tired.

The last thing that I remembered before sweet sleep fell over my eyes was Darry's voice.

"I haven't the slightest idea why they came here and not there, Dallas."