I do not own The Outsiders. S.E. Hinton does :)
How Pony met Johnny
AN: This is an AU where Johnny meets Pony after the Curtis parents' death.
There wasn't much to do on that very Saturday afternoon.
Darry had to work that day; he had been ill the day before and hadn't been able to go in, so he went in on the Saturday to make up for his time.
Sodapop was on a date with his girlfriend, Sandy; however they hadn't told Steve since they wanted time to themselves.
That left Ponyboy, Two-Bit, Dally and Steve.
Nobody had any ideas on what to do, so Ponyboy had suggested that they go and watch a movie. He had been wanting to see Gone with the Wind for a while now, however he never had time to. That Saturday afternoon was the perfect day to watch it though; he had no homework, and there was nothing else to do.
"I'll go ask Tim and Curly to come too. And I'm bringing my girlfriend," Dallas stated, standing up to go and call his friends. Two-Bit smirked, knowing that he'd more than likely be able to meet a blond broad at the movie-house, while Steve tapped his foot in boredom, wondering why Evie had been ignoring his calls for the past two days.
Ponyboy just stared out of the window, watching the clouds float past the sun. He noticed the Cade boy walking down the street, clutching his ribs in agony. The youngest Curtis felt sorry for the boy, however everybody had said that Johnny cade was strange and Ponyboy didn't want to take the risk of getting his head kicked in.
After Dallas was done speaking to Tim and Curly as well as his current girlfriend, the four greasers set off for the movie-house.
"So, who's this broad you're datin'?" Two-Bit inquired, kicking a few rocks out of the way of his path. Dallas smirked, taking a picture out of his wallet and showing it to the other greaser, who cocked an eyebrow at his friend.
"She's a little young for ya, don't ya think?"
"Nah, it's just for fun. I'll just spend a night with her maybe, and then send her on her way," Dally explained, smirking at his friend's horrified face. "Don't tell me you've never done it before."
"With girls my age maybe, but she looks about thirteen," Two-Bit argued, but Dally just held his hand up, signalling that it was the end of the discussion.
Ponyboy shook his head, not understanding why his friends and brothers always argued about girls. They always used to argue about how gross girls were, and now they argued about which girls were hot and which would be good at kissing.
He tried to understand the science of how different genders could hate each other and then suddenly be attracted to each other. Would he wake up one day and be in-love with girls instead of making it his life goal to avoid them?
Tim and Curly were waiting outside of the movie-house when the four greasers arrived at their destination. They were smoking and having a game of truth or dare, however when Dallas strolled over to them they stopped and stubbed their cigarettes out.
"Who we waitin' on?" Tim asked, noting the other three boys sanding behind Dallas. Each of the boys knew who Tim was, however they didn't like talking to him since he got angry pretty easily.
"Just some broad I'm datin'. One of Steve's friends gave me her number, and we've been speaking ever since. I told her my name was Joseph," Dallas chuckled, shaking his head.
"How old?" Curly asked.
"Bout' thirteen. She gave me her address and everythin'," Dallas smirked, while Curly nodded in response.
Ponyboy shifted his attention to Two-Bit, who was licking his lips. Following Two-Bit's gaze, Pony saw that the older male had his eyes fixed on a group of blond girls. They were all looking at him and giggling, making the teenager chuckle.
"Don't even think about it, Keith," Ponyboy warned, but he knew that his friend was already long gone.
Steve looked at his watch, bored of waiting for Dally's broad. Just as he was about to walk away, a much smaller, dark-haired girl came walking over to the group of greasers.
Dallas smiled, ready to greet his girlfriend; however Tim beat him to it.
"Angie, what are you doing here?" Tim questioned, staring down at the younger girl.
Dally raised his eyebrows, looking from Tim to his girlfriend, then to Curly. They all looked quite alike; they had the same curly hair, the same dark features, the same pale skin…
"I was supposed to be going on a date with some guy called Joseph," the girl stated, looking around.
Tim and Curly immediately looked at Dallas, who compared the photograph in his wallet to the girl standing in-front of him. He realized that they were indeed the same person.
"I didn't even want to come here. But Joseph said if I didn't then he'd hurt me. I wish I hadn't told him our address over the phone now," the girl muttered, shaking her head at her own foolishness.
"Our address?" Dallas asked Tim, clearly bewildered.
Tim didn't say anything to Dallas, and instead looked at the smaller girl standing in-front of him. Curly glared at Dallas, who had his head down.
"Joseph just came over then, Angela. He told us that he doesn't wanna date you no more, so he won't be calling you again," Tim said, smiling at his sister who grinned at him.
"Well thank God for that! I thought Joseph was never gonna leave me alone," Angela exclaimed, rushing off to find somebody to hang out with.
Dallas looked up at the two brothers, who were now seething with hatred and anger.
"Guys, I wouldn't have really done anything to her," the teenager laughed nervously, backing away.
The two Shepard brothers slowly walked towards Dallas, who backed away even further before running away. Tim and Curly followed him, and Ponyboy frowned.
"Great, so now there's only three of us left," Ponyboy sighed.
"Two," Steve corrected. Ponyboy frowned even deeper, wondering what Steve meant, until the older boy pointed at the group of blond girls. Among the blond girls was Two-Bit Mathews, and of course the blond girls were all over him, or more likely he was all over them.
Ponyboy groaned; he had been left with Steve Randle, the person who disliked him most. He doubted that it would be a very nice experience with just Steve; the teenager would probably just complain about Ponyboy being a tag-along.
"Wait, what are we watching?" Steve asked, scratching his black, curly hair. Ponyboy sighed, knowing that he'd probably be left on his own after he answered.
"Gone with the Wind," he replied, waiting for Steve's expression to change. When it did, Ponyboy just waited for Steve to make up an excuse.
"Ain't that on for four hours? Sorry man, but I've got better things to do," Steve remarked, walking away.
"Like what?!" Ponyboy shouted in annoyance. When Steve didn't respond he spat on the ground, stomping towards the movie-house.
He usually loned watching movies, however today he just wanted somebody with him, and clearly that wasn't happening. Well, that was until he spotted Johnny Cade sitting on the ground, after being kicked out from his house again.
"Hey, you wanna come watch a movie with me?" Ponyboy inquired loudly, forgetting about the rumors that had been spread about Johnny Cade.
Johnny looked up in fear; nobody had ever asked him to watch a movie with him.
"I'm Ponyboy, I've seen you at school before," Ponyboy introduced himself, holding a hand out to help Johnny up. Johnny took the friendly hand and stood up, though he was still a bit cautious.
"M-my name is J-Johnny," the boy replied, shoving his hands in his pockets.
"Nice to meet ya. So, you wanna watch a movie?" Ponyboy repeated, already dragging Johnny towards the movie-house.
"Okay. Uh, what movie?"
"Gone with the Wind."
"Oh, I read that in my English class. It was good," Johnny smiled. "I haven' got any money."
"Don't worry; I took a dollar from my brother's best friend's wallet. Don't tell him that though," Ponyboy chuckled, and Johnny chuckled aswell.
The two watched the movie; both eating popcorn and drinking soda while making some jokes. Johnny didn't understand some of the jokes, but once Ponyboy had explained them logically, Johnny laughed as if he had never laughed before.
Ponyboy noticed a large bruise on Johnny's neck, however he ignored it, hoping it would go away. But every time he looked up at Johnny, more bruises seemed to appear; on his jaw, around his eye, below his ears and so on. Perhaps Johnny was just a clumsy person like Two-Bit; Two-Bit often got bruises whenever he didn't notice that there was a table in-front of him or a shelf above his head.
As much as the young greaser wanted to believe this, he knew it wasn't true. Johnny clearly just had a bad home life, possibly like Steve. Steve used to always make up stories about how he had walked into a wall by accident, or how he had once had a fight with a boy twice his size. It turned out of course, that the boy didn't exist, and the wall couldn't have possibly been hard enough for Steve to break his arm. Maybe Johnny just needed friends as an escape, like Steve.
The movie finished at 8 pm, and Ponyboy knew that he'd have to be home soon or Darry would ground him. Johnny said that his mother would be waiting for him; however by the way he said it, Ponyboy could tell that he was lying.
"Well, I'll speak to you tomorrow, yeah?" he asked as Johnny walked up the path to his house.
Johnny turned around and smiled at the younger boy before nodding.
"Sure," he replied, his voice raspy.
"You should come meet my brothers and my friends. We need more company at the house. I'll meet you at the movie-house at around midday?" Ponyboy asked, and Johnny nodded.
"Midday, okay," Johnny nodded. "Are your friends and brothers nice? They won't mind will they?"
"Of course not. We could use another friend. And most of them are nice."
"Tuff. Well, see you then, Ponyboy," Johnny grinned, opening his front door.
"See ya, Johnny Cade," Ponyboy called, running off to get home before his curfew started.
Johnny smiled and walked into his house, shutting the door and passing his father who was drunk on the sofa.
"Where've you been?" he asked, too tired to stand up and hurt his son.
The boy didn't answer and strolled into his room, locking his door and collapsing on his bed.
"I made a new friend," he whispered, smiling at the mere thought of spending more time with Ponyboy, his new friend.
Little did he know that in a house, someplace else in Tulsa, a boy called Ponyboy was thinking the exact same thing about him.
AN: Hope you enjoyed that one-shot :) Sorry I haven't been updating lately, but usually when we get back to school we get a lot of exams, and it hasn't been any different this year. I've also got a piano exam coming up in about a month, so I've been practicing a lot for that ;) I'd love to hear what you think about this story, and feel free to leave any suggestions for one-shots or short stories :D