I didn't realize what was happening, everything was a daze. The socs, alcohol, a blade, and my neck was all I could remember. "Hey Randy, this grease isn't like the other one, maybe he does want to join his parents." He moved the blade away from my neck and reality struck. The socs were going to kill me. "DARRY!" I yelled, I should've just called him, or told Soda I needed a ride home. "SHUT HIM UP!"

The Randy guy pulled something out of his pocket. "Here Bob, shove this down his throat." Before I could scream again Bob was shoving something down my throat, muffling my screams, if hurt like hell. The alcohol on the rag burned my throat. I have no idea how Two-Bit, Dally, and Steve can drink this stuff.

The blade was at my arm now; he put it at my shoulder and ran it down making a cut all the way to my wrist, missing all major veins, luckily. "He's still shaking." One of the guy's holding my arms said. "Yea, too bad he won't live to tell this story." I got punched in the face, then stomach, then arm on the cut they just gave me. It was bleeding pretty badly.

I knew for sure I was going to die, I just lay there, limp with my eyes closed waiting for them to kill me. "Hey Get away from the kid!" a voice yelled, it scared me and the socs. The blade fell and cut my neck some more, I thought it was another social coming to kill me. But the socs jumped up and ran away, I was still on the ground and someone was getting closer.

"Curtis, you okay?" I swear I knew the voice, I just couldn't remember. "Get up kid, I'm taking you home." I opened my eyes, which I didn't even realize were closed and there stood Tim Shepard. "Get up; I don't have all night, kid." He snapped at me, I was still on the ground scared out of my mind. I was worse than Johnny was. "Oh my god, I have to do everything myself." He mumbled to himself before leaning down, grabbing my arms and getting me up on my feet.

"Ow." I said while pulling away from him once I was up on my feet. He let go of my arms looking a little concerned but immediately went back to his gang leader self. "I don't care that your arm hurts, why are you even out this late?" he demanded to know, grabbing onto my non bleeding arm and dragging me home. "Track let out late, and I walked home." "Stupid kid." He said loud enough so I could hear, thinking about it now I was stupid. I should have just got a ride home from the coach, he would've been happy to give me a ride.

Tim kept practically dragging me home, I didn't want to go there and face Darry, he would fix my arm then yell at me of how stupid it was to walk home. And really, I was getting a little dizzy from blood loss; the cuts on my arms and neck were still bleeding freely.

Before I knew it we were outside of my house, I stopped and started trying to pull away from Tim. "Damnit." He started; I knew what was coming next. "Darrel Curtis, get out here and get your kid brother!"

Soda's POV

It was eight o'clock, Ponyboy was supposed to be home hours ago. "Soda, quit pacing around the room, I'm getting dizzy." Johnny said, he voice a little louder than usual. I guess you would get dizzy staring at me walking around the room like I was; it's just not like Ponyboy to be late like this. Darry's already back from work. In fact all of us were getting worried, whether we admitted it or not, the tension in the room grew. Dally had a look of hatred on his face, Darry a look of worry. Two-Bit was trying to have a huge smile on his face but it just looked stupid, Johnny looked scared. Dally, who was sitting next to him, was talking to him in a quiet voice. It reminded me of Pony and I, whenever he started freaking out over something I would talk to him in that voice. Dallas may not admit it, but he cares about Johnny. Even Steve was worried, he tried to look like he didn't care that Pony was missing, but since I've known him for so long I could see past that look.

I was the most worried, Ponyboy was my baby brother. It would be impossible for me to live without him. I love him with all my heart, right before mom and dad left, she told me that family is important, no matter how much trouble life brings, never forget them. It was almost as is she knew she wasn't going to be returning home that night. If Ponyboy never comes home, I will just die. Our family has been through too much to lose another member.

The clock clicked every second it's been eight thousand one hundred seconds since six o'clock, the time he was supposed to get home. All I could think of was the worst possibilities. "What if he got hit by a train? Or got jumped and they killed him? Or got kidnapped? Or somebo-" "Soda, please stop giving the worst possibilities and try thinking of something good." Darry said interrupting me, I could think of something good, something bad happened to my brother and I knew it.

I don't know if it was my brother senses or something but I felt the need to go out and look for Ponyboy. If he got jumped they could've left him there to die like they did with Johnny. He would turn into Johnny, the little scared puppy lost in a crowd. It broke my heart to imagine my brother like that, Johnny, even before the jumping was always scared 'cause of his damn parents. But there's nothing we can do about those bastards, but we can beat those socs heads in if they touch my brother.

We hear the gate open and close, I thought it was Ponyboy, but we heard multiple pairs of footsteps. I froze instantly thinking of the cops, it was like this when we heard of mom and dad's deaths. The steps immediately stopped like the two were struggling. "Damnit." We heard a voice say, none of us knew who it was except for Dally, his head immediately shot up. "Shepard." He said in a low voice. "Darrel Curtis, get out here and get your kid brother!" Tim yelled, so it was him who was struggling with Ponyboy. Of course Ponyboy would be the only idiot to try and do the opposite of what a Shepard tells him.

Darry got up and walked to the door, when he opened it we could hear Pony struggling to get out of Tim's grasp. "Tim let, me go." "Not until you get in the god damn house." He hissed. "Darry, took you long enough, I found this boy getting jumped by some socs, walking home from track." After that was said I immediately looked at Two-Bit. He usually picked him up from track, I was now wondering why he didn't. "Come on Ponyboy." Darry said walking out of the house, we heard Ponyboy struggling even more, as if he didn't want to come inside. "Thanks Tim." Darry said in a low voice, the struggling had stopped so I was guessing Darry picked Ponyboy up and Ponyboy was just now realizing he couldn't get away. "No problem, don't want no fellow greasers getting killed, and tell Dallas that I'll be looking for him, I mean the son of a bitch that slashed my tires."

I looked over at Dally who was smiling. Darry walked back up the steps and I looked over at him and Ponyboy then froze.