Chapter 52 – "Oh, the Melodrama"

Around noon the next day Johnny finally opened his eyes.

"Hey," said Sodapop and got up from his chair. "Hey, Johnnycake. How you feeling?"

Johnny groaned and rubbed his eyes with his free hand.

"I'm hungry..." he said with a low voice. He was actually starving. He had barely eaten anything the past week and now that he had slept so long his body really craved food. He blinked a few times and stretched out his hand towards Sodapop. "Soda..."

"Yeah. Yeah, it's me. Do you remember I was here yesterday?"

"I don't remember much. But I remember you. And you told me that you knew. And you wouldn't leave. I don't remember anything else."

There was a knock on the door and a doctor came in, holding a clipboard.

"Good morning, Johnny," he smiled. "We need to take a blood sample and then we will have a psychologist talk to you."

"Psychologist?" Johnny said and looked confused.

"Yes, Johnny you did try to kill yourself. It's standard procedure."

"I think maybe his problems have been fixed," said Sodapop and ran a gentle hand over Johnny's hair. "But I guess having a talk will be good for him, anyway, don't you, Johnny?"

"M-might be…"

o0o0o

Ponyboy hadn't slept much and came by as soon as Sodapop texted him that Johnny was awake. Sodapop went outside to eat his lunch when Pony came so he could talk to Johnny alone.

"Hi," said Pony and sent Johnny a tentative smile. "Are... Are you feeling better?"

"Yeah. Still tired, though, but they say none of my organs took any damage."

He lay back against the pillow, feeling extremely tired, but he didn't want to sleep when Ponyboy was there, so he forced himself to stay awake.

"Johnny... I'm so, so sorry I was such a jerk. I'm supposed to be your best friend, I should've seen how miserable you were."

"It's okay, Pony," Johnny said and sent him a weak smile. "You were looking out for Soda and I couldn't give you an explanation," he rasped, his throat soar. "And I had been awful cruel to him. I was just trying to protect him. You are still my best friend."

o0o0o

The doctor found the number for Johnny's parents and dialled. He had tried calling the day before, but there had been no answer. This time after 10 rings the phone was finally picked up. It was a woman and the doctor realized she was very drunk. He could barely understand what she was saying, so he hung up and called Mr. Cade's office instead. The secretary put him through.

"Hello, is this Mr. Cade?"

"Yes," said a grumpy voice at the other end of the line.

"This is Doctor Epstein from Windrixville County Hospital. I'm calling because your son, Johnny, was committed yesterday after an attempted suicide. We managed to save his life."

There was a short silence at the other end of the line.

"Suicide? What the hell did he do that for?"

"Well... Obviously he was very unhappy. I understand it had something to do with a break-up."

"That little fool actually managed to pick up a girl?"

The doctor was shocked at the obvious lack of interest in Mr. Cade's son's well-being, and he thought that since he clearly didn't know Johnny was gay, he decided not to correct him on the girl comment.

"Yes. And frankly I'm a little shocked that you don't seem to care that he was in life danger."

"He's a little drama queen is what he is. And I have work to do, so if you'll excuse me."

"You're not even going to come see him?" asked the doctor incredulously.

"He's alright now, ain't he? Then what's the point?"

Mr. Cade hung up and left the doctor staring at the receiver.

o0o0o

Johnny was soon too tired and sore-throated to join in the conversation with more than a few words once in a while, so Pony and Soda started to talk about things to which Johnny could just listen. They talked about the horses and about home life. Of course they left out how lousy Soda had been feeling. Johnny already knew that and there was no point in poking at his bad conscience.

Soda was holding Johnny's hand and letting his fingers run over the smooth skin as they were talking. They told him that Two-Bit had gotten drunk in the kitchen a few weeks ago and Mrs. Harris had put his head into the sink and turned on the cold water. It made Johnny laugh a bit just thinking about the older teen with his head in the sink, Mrs. Harris having him by scruff, yelling at him like a concerned mother. Oh, how he had missed them.

Now that Johnny was doing better and the doctors said he was going to recover completely, Soda was more and more preoccupied with getting back at the Socs. He pulled out his cell and sent Darry a text:

Hey

Johnny's doing okay

You talk to the principal yet?

Soda

o0o0o

Darry rubbed his temples. He had been talking to the principal for about an hour and had yelled so loudly that Lauren, who had been sitting at her desk outside the principal's office, had become a little scared of him.

It had gotten him nowhere, however. Johnny had always been weird, the principal said, and the last few weeks he had been skipping classes so much that he had actually thought about expelling him. So trying to commit suicide was probably just a stunt to get attention. His father had warned him that Johnny always wanted attention and would do anything to get it. There was no evidence that the boys and Sandy had done anything, and Dallas' testimony was as solid as a wet paper bag.

o0o0o

I have talked to him

He doesn't believe it

Darry

Sodapop stared at the display for a whole minute, having difficulty believing what it said. Then he texted a message to Steve:

You coming by after school?

I wanna talk

Soda

Johnny was lying with his eyes closed, almost asleep and holding onto Sodapop's hand. He wanted him nearby all the time. There was a knock on the door and he slowly opened his eyes, seeing a familiar face in the doorway.

"Hello, my two sugar pies," smiled Mrs. Harris as she walked in with a basket on her arm. Johnny could smell the home cooked food right away.

"I brought you some food. It's bad enough you're in the hospital, but you don't have to starve as well."

"They do serve food here," Soda said with a smile.

Mrs. Harris shook her head. "What they serve here ain't food, but I guess it's a waste of time telling that to someone with your cooking skills."

Johnny snickered.

Mrs. Harris looked at him and smiled. "There is that smile and laugh I love so much."

"Yes. Always with my cooking," said Soda. "I'm glad there's something that people can always amuse themselves over."

"Aww, sorry, honey," Mrs. Harris said and kissed his cheek.

"He actually can make a few decent things," Johnny said in defense of his boyfriend.

"Well, he better, if he's going to take care of you. I ain't flying to wherever you two end up living to feed you poor kids."

"I bet she is," said Sodapop to Johnny.

o0o0o

Steve came by a few hours later.

"Hey. What's up?" he said, looking at Johnny, who was now asleep, and then Sodapop.

"He's gonna be okay. But he was really lucky, and if Dally hadn't..." Soda couldn't finish the sentence. "Darry had a long discussion with the principal. He says he ain't gonna do nothin' about it unless there's proof. Which there ain't - since he doesn't consider either ours or Dally's word valid."

Steve emitted a long string of curses, trying to keep his voice down to not wake up Johnny. Finally he stopped his rant and asked, "What do you wanna do?"

"I want them to pay. I know we can't give 'em everything they deserve, but they need to know they didn't win this. I was thinking: Have a talk with them. Challenge them to a fight. If they say no, they're showing themselves as cowards. If they say yes, we'll beat the living shit outta them and they'll be humiliated. What do you think about that?"

Steve raised his eyebrows. He was always up for a good fight but they were only him and Soda. Maybe Two-Bit, but Steve wasn't sure he could get into any sort of trouble without being sent to prison. Darry would definitely go to prison for attacking students. Johnny, of course, could not fight, and there was no way in hell Darry would let Ponyboy join.

"You know I'm game, but we're only two people and they're like… five? Six?"

"Six, I think," said Sodapop. "Well, we can't ask Two-Bit to join, because he might get in trouble if he messes up, but he'll be mad if we don't at least give him the option. Pony's gonna wanna fight even if he has to sneak out to do it. And I was thinking... How 'bout we ask Dallas? He might jump at the chance to join a proper rumble. He'd be a real good man to have on our side, too."

"Sure thing. But you ask him. I ain't in the mood for having to beg that guy." Not that Steve thought they would need to beg. Dallas seemed to love fighting so having the opportunity to kick some ass would probably appeal to him.

"Sure, I'll ask Dallas. But it'd be great if you could join me when I talk to the Socs, just as a back-up. They've more than proved that nothing is beneath them, so they might have a go at me."

"You know I will, man," Steve said.

Sodapop looked at his watch. "Pony will be back to visit after track practice. He can stay with Johnny while we go talk to them."

"Sounds like a plan," Steve said. He fidget a little in his seat, uncomfortable. There was something he had to tell his friend. "Soda?"

"Yeah?"

"Um… That day of the tournament... I told… well, I told Johnny to stay away 'cause he might stress you out and make you lose focus." Steve looked serious and nervous. "I made him really upset and I think he went back to his room and… So it's kind of my fault he tried to kill himself. But I had no idea he would do something like that. I was just trying to be a good friend and all. Well… I just thought you should know."

Sodapop looked at Steve for a second. "It's alright. You didn't know."

"I know, but I still feel bad about it and I wanted you to know. I'm gonna talk to Johnny as well when he feels better."

o0o0o

Two hours later Sodapop and Steve walked down the hallway of the house Bob and David lived in. They knew for sure that those two were in on it. Johnny had said that Harry and Victor had been there when they had threatened him, as well as a guy he didn't remember the name of. Sodapop guessed it might be Randy. He was always hanging around Bob. Or maybe it was Kyle. Or they were both in on it.

Sodapop stopped in front of the dorm and knocked on the door. They could heard laughter and noise from a computer game. A voice came closer to the door, still laughing before opening the door.

It was David and he still had a smirk on his face as he gave Soda and Steve the elevator look.

"What do you lowlifes want?"

"Your head on a plate if it weren't illegal," said Sodapop in a cold voice.

Bob, who saw who it was, got up and joined David at the door.

"I knew you guys were scumbags, but I had never imagined you could be so nasty and low. Yeah, I know what you did, you shitheads. And it's time you grow a pair and settle this properly. So if ya'll ain't complete cowards, you and the rest who were in on this meet us in a fair fight."

David laughed a bit, but realizing that Soda was serious, he stopped. "Yeah? You wanna fight us, pretty boy? Go ahead. We'll kick your face in and you'll be kicked out of school. And then your precious little boyfriend is going to be worm-food in a week."

Steve grabbed a solid hold of Soda's shoulder, afraid he would throw himself at David in rage.

"I still think it's too bad that he broke up with you," commented Bob. "I would've loved to see you crash with that horse."

"Well?" asked Sodapop, keeping his anger at bay. "What do you say? Too scared?"

"Man, I ain't scared of a couple of punks like you," said David. "Just name time and place and me and the boys will be there to hear you beg for mercy."

Sodapop gave David a note with his phone number on it. "Call when you've talked to the others, and we'll arrange time and place."

"Thanks. I feel honored," David grinned sarcastically and pocketed the note before going back into the dorm and shutting the door.

Steve walked with Soda back to the apartment as Sodapop wanted to get some clean clothes and pick up a few magazines he could read whenever Johnny was sleeping. Steve didn't blame him for wanting to pick something up. The magazines they had at the hospital were mostly about famous people and fashion. Not really Soda's kind of reading material.

Sodapop took a quick shower before heading out again. He hadn't had one since the competition and he was still in his riding clothes. And there was one more thing he wanted to do before going back to the hospital: talk to Dallas Winston.

They finally found him hanging on a corner, smoking.

"So the kid made it? Heard he tried to off himself. Oh, the melodrama," Dallas said, shaking his head. "I wouldn't exactly have thought you were worth killing yourself over, Curtis. You can't be that great in bed."

Sodapop overheard the insult and told Dally about the fight.

"I ain't asking ya to join, I just wanted to tell you and say that if you wanted to help, we'd be grateful."

Dallas looked at him for a minute and then snuffed his cigarette.

"Sure. I never say no to a good fight and an opportunity to kick those stuck up snobs' asses. I'll bring Tim."

"Thanks!" grinned Sodapop. "You'll be a great help. And I already owe you for telling me about what you heard. If you hadn't..."

"You don't owe me shit, Curtis," said Dallas, giving Sodapop an irritated look as if he had just said something insulting.

As they walked away, Steve mumbled something about how charming Dallas sure was. Dallas was hard to figure out. He could just have acted like nothing with the info he heard, but he chose to tell Sodapop even though everyone knew he wasn't fond of him.

o0o0o

When Sodapop got back to the hospital, Johnny was sitting on the edge of the bed, eating some soup the nurse had brought him.

"I gotta get back," said Ponyboy. "Got a lot of school work to catch up on. Darry ain't letting me go to classes but I still gotta study for the exams, you know. You coming home later, Soda?"

"Yeah, I guess. But not for at least another couple of hours. I wanna stay as long as they'll let me."

With Johnny being conscious and his condition stable, it was very unlikely that they would let Soda stay another night.

Ponyboy said good night to Johnny and left the two alone.

"Hey, baby," said Sodapop and sat down on the bed next to Johnny. "Are you feeling a little better?" he asked and brushed a tuft of hair behind Johnny's ear.

Johnny nodded slowly and looked up at him before resting his head on Soda's shoulder.

"I just... I just don't wanna be alone here. "

Soda took Johnny's hand and kissed the top of his head.

"Do you think you could stay the night? Or I could come with you home?" asked Johnny. Just thinking about being left alone made his stomach clench.

Sodapop sighed. "Gee, I don't know, Johnny. I don't think they'll let me stay. Or let you go home. And frankly, I ain't too confident about you leaving here already, either. I wanna make sure you're 100% fine. This is the second time I thought I'd lost you – well, third if you count the break-up – so forgive me if I'm a little over-protective."

Johnny nodded resignedly. "Will you stay a bit, at least? Maybe lie with me? I missed it... "

The only place Johnny ever felt truly safe was in Soda's arms.

Sodapop smiled. "I'll stay until they kick me out, and I'll be back as soon as they'll let me in. And I'll try sweet talking the nurses to give me some extra time. I might have a chance there." He thought about Johnny's other request for a moment. "I'm pretty sure it ain't allowed to lie with the patients, but what the hell. If we stay on top of the covers, what's the harm?"

Johnny smiled as Soda climbed onto the bed and lay down next to him, pulling him close. He rested his head on Soda's chest and listened to his breathing. It made him relax and it didn't take long before he drifted off to sleep.

Soda buried his nose in Johnny's hair and breathed in. He didn't exactly smell clean - not having had a shower for several days - but he smelled of Johnny, and that was just about the best smell Sodapop could think of right now.


A/N: Remember to check out the illustration for the chapter (link on my profile).