Chapter 8: The Rumble (part 2)

Pony's POV

We are all back at my house and we are getting ready for the rumble. I am in the bathroom looking at my face in the mirror. Steve and Soda are playing cards in the kitchen and all the others are in the living room. "Hey Soda," I shout out the bathroom door. "Yeah?" He shouts back. "When did you start shaving?" I can hear him chuckle and I can almost picture his smirk. "What, you planning to grow a beard for the rumble kid?" "No!" I yell. "Just curious is all." "Well I started shaving at 15 and Darry started shaving at 13, so you will probably start... never," Soda cracks and I scowl at him. "You're real funny ya know. We should send you to Reader's Digest. I hear they pay a lot for funny things."

I finish my hair and, as I walk out of the bathroom, I see that Soda, Steve, Johnny, and I have really over done the grease. But hey! Tonight is the night that we should be proud of us. I walk into the living room and Dally is wearing the shirt that shows off all his muscles but other than that, no one seems to have changed for the night. "Ponyboy, I don't think you should be in the rumble," Darry tells me and I flip. "What?! I can do this Darry!" He seems reluctant to answer but eventually nods. "I know you can. Fine, i am just worried about ya kid. You look a little sick and with everything going on..." His voice trails off and I know he is thinking about Lily. "Darry," I say, putting a hand on his shoulder. "i got this. And Johnny and I will work together, so I won't be alone."

Darry nods again. Good. For a second there, I thought I wasn't going. Suddenly, Two-Bit runs out the door and does a flip off the porch and we all grin before following. Darry took a class at the Y over the summer two years ago and then he taught us everything he knew. Soda does a cartwheel into a round off and then a front flip. Steve does 3 back handsprings before running into a car (which I thoroughly enjoyed). Johnny and I went front to front with me doing a handstand and did a two person cartwheel a couple times. Finally, Darry comes out doing an aerial into a back handspring and then a back flip. He was always a show off.

We started walking to the place where the rumble was and we were hyped. Two was drinking beer like he does before a rumble (and every other day) and we were all just shouting like crazy people until Darry told Soda, Johnny, and I something. "All right you three. If the cops show up, you beat it, ok? We'll go to jail but you three'll get the boys home." We nod, though we are still smiling slightly. As we reach the site of the rumble, I see that the Shepard gang is already here.

"Where's Curly?" I ask, and I see Johnny is confused too. ¨Curly's in the cooler. Cops picked him up after he told them to take their badges and shove it up their ass'," Tim says, shaking his head but I can see that he is a little proud of his younger brother. ¨So, where's Dally and the chick? We need every man we got.¨ ¨Dally and Lily are in the hospital. Dally just has some burns and they won't let him out, but Lily...she a bit worse...¨ I trail off, since I don't want to explain what happened to her for fear that I might start crying.

Thankfully, Tim understood and just nodded. ¨Well, you better fight hard or we're gonna lose,¨ he says and I stand up straighter and nod. Soon enough, the socs drove up in their mustangs and I growled at them, even though they couldn't hear me, I had to do something. They all walked over here with their heads held high like they were better than us. One of them stepped out and I noticed it was Paul, Darry's old friend. ¨So which of ya'll is strong enough to take on me?¨ He says very stuck up. As expected, Darry stepped forward and squared up to Paul.

They were having a very quiet conversation that no one could hear but I knew one of them was going to punch when, ¨Hey!¨ Darry, like the rest of us, looked up. There was Dally running in his normal clothes trying to get to us. Paul took the advantage of him being distracted and socked him in the jaw, causing Darry to fall back slightly. Everyone else begins to brawl with the other side, as if that was the starting signal; the rumble had begun.

Johnny and I took on a bigger guy who was punching the lights out of smaller greaser. We circled around him before Johnny jumped on his large back. While the soc was distracted, I side kicked him in the gut and punched him in the nose; the saying is true, the bigger they are, the harder they fall. As he fell, Johnny jumped off his back and rolled into a standing position.

I turned to face Johnny when a soc punched me in the jaw and made me fall. Johnny was having his own problems with another soc and it didn't look good for either of us until our savior came...also known as Dally pulling both of them off of us. All of the socs fled the scene and us greaser's just jumped up in joy, whooping and hollering. Johnny and I embraced and Dally came up to the two of us, not as happy.

¨Oh yeah, why are you here, Dally?¨ I ask, still smiling. Dally grimaces, ¨You both need to come with me, now." He takes our wrists and drags us to his T-Bird and Johnny and I groan in pain since those last socs did a number on us. He throws us into the back seat and almost jumps into the front seat before gunning it. ¨Dally, what is going on?!¨ Johnny asks, worry in his voice. ¨It's Lily. The docs said that...they said that they were gonna take her off the machines...¨ Dally states, but I can tell there is some strain in his voice. ¨What?! Aren't they supposed to get family's permission or something?¨ I almost screamed, scared for Lily's safety. Daly growled, ¨Your bitch of a mother came in.¨

¨I should have known,¨ Johnny grits his teeth, his eyes welling up with tears. ¨How much time do we have?!¨ I yell move forward to fast causing me to get dizzy and to fall back into my seat, holding my stomach. ¨I don't know! I'm driving as fast as this piece of junk will let me!¨ As if on que, we begin to here sirens following us and my head begins to spin watching the red and blue lights. ¨Damn...Pony can you pretend to be hurt?¨ Dally whispers to me and I groan back, ¨Not a problem.¨

As the officer knocks on the window, Dally puts on a scared face that I know is fake. ¨Sir, you know that you were driving 10 miles over the speed limit?¨ He says, taking out his note pad. ¨Yes, officer,¨ Dally starts. ¨But I have to take this guy to the hospital. He had a motorcycle crash and needs medical attention.¨ The cop looks back at me and I moan in pain again. ¨Oh, well that's alright. Would you like a police escort to the hospital?¨ He ask, pointing to his car. ¨That would be nice," Dally says as the officer walk back to his car. ¨Sucker...¨

We get to the hospital fast because of the police escort and Dally gets me out of the back and puts my arm around his shoulder before waving his arm at the cop car as to tell the officer that he was no longer needed. As it drove off, Dally let go of me and sprinted into the hospital, Johnny and I at his heels. We check in (Dally pretty much scribbled our names onto the visitor sheet) and ran to get to Lily's room before it was to late. As we get there a doctor was going in as well looking solemn. ¨Wait!¨ Johnny shouts, getting the doctor's attention.

¨You can't pull her plug...you can't...¨ Johnny begins to cry as he almost begs the doctor. Dally's eyes flash wildly before he pins the doctor to the wall with his switch. ¨Listen here! You pull her plug, and I will kill you,¨ Dally growls, but his lip was quivering and I know he was just scared for Lily. The doctor sighed, ¨Look, as much as I don't want to do it, I have to. The only thing I can do is let you have some time together before I...¨ He didn't finish but he didn't have to.

We nod solemnly as the doctor steps out of the doorway and walks back down the hallway. As the three of us walk into Lily's room, I can see that Johnny is ripping at the seems and his eyes are getting foggy. ¨Can you guys leave me alone with her for a little?¨ Dally asks very softly, as though he might break something if he went any higher. Johnny and I nod, leaving Dally in the room to say goodbye.

Dally's POV

I kneel down next to her bed and watch her breath slowly and softly. ¨Lily...you gotta wake up Darling, please,¨ I beg grabbing her hand and holding it tightly in my grip. ¨God damn it, you have to come back. Your brother would be broken without you Lil! The gang would miss you...I would miss you,¨ I say, the tears starting to pour down my face. ¨God, you don't know how much I would miss you! PLEASE wake up Lily! You can't leave me like this...I love you...¨ I sob, hugging her close to me. ¨I love you so much it hurts, and I can't live without you. I know I sound like a sap, but if you live through this, I'll be the sappiest person ever! Just please...don't me here alone.¨

I wipe the tears off my face, more ready to come down at the drop of a hat. Silently getting up, I kiss her lightly on the forehead before trialing down to softly place my tear covered lips to her pale and dry ones. I walk to the door before something happens that I will never forget...

¨Hey...What I miss?¨