Yes, it's late, and I'm sorry! My dad had a run-in with some ground and a motorcycle. But I hope you enjoy chapter two.

Darry is terribly OOC.

I own nothing!

That night, I went to sleep trembling.

"Johnny had written that song for us. And me." I thought.

I missed him with everything in me, and as close as we had gotten, I still couldn't figure out why he had left.

I snuggled up to Soda, and then I wiggled out. "Johnny's letter!" I said aloud, causing Soda to stir.

"Wha's go on?" He said, then he snored and I laughed.

I walked back into the dark living room, someone was asleep on the couch. I figured it was Two-Bit or Steve. I found the letter on the floor. I hoped no one had stepped on it. I walked back into my room and flipped on a tiny nightlight and read:

Ponyboy,

Hey man. I hope this letter gets to you before you watch T.V. on the 15th. I'll be singing on there with some buddies of mine. I'm doing real good. I want to come back home and see you guys, but I don't know if I can. We're recording a new song, the one you'll hear last on the 15th. It should be on channel 28, 8 o'clock.

I'll try and call you next week.

Johnny

It was different than all the other letters. It had actual information in it. But it was too late to tell me all this, now. We all watched it already. But he said he was going to try and call us! "Yay!" I thought. Maybe he could come home, at least for a little while. I don't think I had ever old anyone how much I missed him. Not even Sodapop. Soda and I grew apart when Johnny left. Not alot, but some.

I put the letter on my desk and as quietly as possible, got back into bed. I was so very excited that Johnny might finally call us and he may get to come home for a while. I reminded myself not to get too excited about it until I heard from him again.

I squirmed onto the bed and laid on my back. I was staring at the ceiling, vacantly wondering where Johnny was, and what he was doing. The realm of sleep slowly took over me and as I closed my eyes, I faintly heard Johnny's soft voice as I dropped into slumber.

"My bed's so cold, so lonely... No arms, just sheets to hold me... Has this world stopped turning? Are we forever to be apart?"

I opened my eyes to see Steve and Soda standing before me yelling about chocolate cake.

"You don't put enough sugar in the icing!" Steve's defensive argument wasn't a very good one, given that he had Soda's icing around his mouth.

"I put just enough, Steve!" Then Sodapop challenged him to an arm-wrestling match.

"You put too much, Soda, now shut up." I think I was too tired to worry about the following occurrence. Steve sitting on my stomach and Soda tickling my under my arms. A few punches, and a couple kicks, I was free and huffing like a bull.

"Ha-ha. You still gonna quit smoking, Ponyboy?" Darry was chuckling at me.

"I don't guess so." I knew Darry was the only one who would take me seriously this morning. "Come here, Dar." I pulled him into my room.

"What's goin' on Pony?" If you only knew how thankful I was that he wasn't joking around.

"I got a letter from Johnny yesterday."

"Yeah, Soda said something about it." He almost looked worried. "Why, is Johnny okay?"

"I guess he's fine, he said he might try to call and come home for a bit." I felt sad that Johnny missed us, and that he had new buddies. I wanted to see him. I wanted to hug him. But I'd never tell Darry.

He smiled said "Where's that letter?" So I gave it to him.

He looked up from the letter and looked me in the face. "Has he called, yet?"

"No." I said. "It might be a few days. When was it dated?" Of course I hadn't looked at the date.

"The tenth. Shoot! He'll be callin' any day!" Darry looked around, I saw the line that forms on his forehead when Darry's pondering something.

I was suddenly nervous.

The thought that Johnny could be calling any day caught up with me and I almost shuddered. I looked up at Darry. He looked ecstatic, I was shaking in my bare feet.

"Lets go tell the guys!" He walked out. "Hey guys! Ponyboy got a letter from Johnny yesterday!"

I was walking back from my room and I heard Steve say "So? Don't Pony get letters from him all the time?"

"Yeah, but this one says that he's gonna call us soon. Probably in a few days!" The gang went wild with satisfaction.

"Alright!"

"Woo-hoo"

"Oww!"

I heard the whooping and hollering and I felt detached. My thoughts were racing.

"What if he's different?"

"What if he sounds different?"

"What if he don't like us anymore?"

But another part of my brain was saying differently.

"Why are you over-reacting? You just saw him last night. He sounded normal, and he wrote that song for you and the guys. He's no different, and you're not going crazy. It's normal to be thinking like that. I promise."

I calmed myself down by repeating that a few times.

I took a few more deep breaths and steadied myself. Johnny was coming home for a while, he was calling, and I'm gonna get to see him again. Wow. Is this all true?

Riiing, riiing, riiing.

"Hello?" I heard Darry answer the phone. "Johnny! Hey buddy, how's it goin'?"

I turned to stare at Darry, I wished I could hear the other side of the conversation.

"Yeah? That's great. Yeah, we saw you and Bullet For My Valentine on T.V. last night. I didn't know you could sing!" Darry laughed. "Well Johnnycake, who do you wanna talk to?"

"Please be me. Please be me. Please be me!" I cried inside my head, trying not to show it.

"Ponyboy, he wants to talk to you." Darry smiled.

I grabbed the receiver, my hand tingled. "Hey Johnny." I tried not to sound so expectant.

"Glory, it's good to hear your voice." He sounded so beautiful. And thankfully, the same.

"I would say the same, but I heard yours on T.V." He laughed.

"Yeah, I agreed to sing with them. That was my first performance. They were doing a little show near Matt's hometown. They asked me to sing my song with 'em. And it was real nice. Friendly and peaceful." Then there was a kind of awkward silence. And of course, I broke it.

"Are you gonna be able to come home for a while?" I didn't mean to put it out bluntly like that.

"Well, I talked to Matt about the show and the response from the fans and stuff, he says it'll be fine as long as we finish recording that one song."

"Yeah, something about hearts and fire?" I was lying to a degree. I remembered everything about that song. All the way down to how Johnny's face looked while he sang a few select words.

"Hearts Burst Into Fire, yeah."

"You sure can sing good, Johnny."

"Thanks." He stopped talking and I heard a man in the background. He sounded like a nagging wife. "Well Pony I have to go. Manager's getting on my back about staying on the phone. I'll call you guys tomorrow. Is that okay?"

"Yeah! Call back anytime."

"Okay." He paused. "Hey Pony?"

"Yeah?"

"I-I miss you." And my heart melted like butter on the sun. I wanted to say that I missed him, too. I had no luck with that.

"Sorry Ponyboy. The manager needs the phone. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

I almost didn't want to say anything. "Bye."

Click.

"Well, is he gonna be able to come home?" I hadn't noticed that I'd hung up the phone, or that Two-Bit was standing next to me. I guess Steve told him the story.

"He's gonna check with the manager and stuff. He'll call back tomorrow." I said.

The rest of the day was spent normally. Two-Bit stayed and helped dispose of a few beers. Steve and Soda played poker all day. Darry cleaned up a little. The house wasn't very dirty. I read some more on a book that a Socy girl I talk to sometimes recommended. Apathy And Other Small Victories. I liked it. It was very strange, but still good.

The end of the day went similarly to the previous. I was nervous about the next day when I went to sleep and I thought I was going to lose my mind. Being confused about one certain thing can drive you loopy.

Ha. I almost ended it when Pony+Johnny started talking on the phone. But I didn't.

Hearts Burst Into Fire belongs to Bullet For My Valentine.

Apathy And Other Small Victories belongs to Paul Neilan. (And I have no clue why I put it in there, but I love that book and I wanted Ponyboy to read it. lol.)