Happy New Year!

Thank you to all the readers that had submitted possible nicknames for Ponyboy! After reading through them, two options were the most popular, so I will be using those two throughout the story. The two top nicknames are Roadrunner and Marian. Roadrunner was originally suggested by Countess of Crime but also a guest reviewer suggested it as well. Marian, who was Robin Hood's love interest in the story, was suggested by another guest reviewer and by gibby. The nicknames will be debuting in a future chapter. I still really appreciate all of the other nicknames that were suggested.

o-o-o

Ponyboy was missing. It had been hours past his curfew, and he had yet to return home. Usually, the gang wouldn't be too worried about it. However, the school called hours ago to report that he was missing and Two-Bit was one hundred percent sure that he had driven the younger boy there that morning. Their first thought was that he had bailed after being dropped off but Ponyboy had never been one to do that. But, then again, Pony had been different after he started dating Archer. He was bolder and more willing to try new things. Archer was changing him for the better or for the worse—they have yet decided on that.

Currently, the gang—minus Soda and Darry—were all cramped together in Ponyboy's bedroom to see if they could find anything that would hint to where he was.

"There has to be something," Johnny mumbled.

The gang searched every nook and cranny of the bedroom, but they didn't find anything. It was just an ordinary bedroom. That was until Johnny looked under the bed where he saw a lone box. He pulled it out, noticing how there was no dust on it. Ponyboy had opened the box recently.

Johnny opened it, half expecting it to be empty. After all, what could something in one small, measly box tell them? He didn't expect to find notes, however.

He lifted one and carefully smoothed it out. His eyes scanned the paper, and what was written on it caused his blood to run cold. He opened up more of the notes, reading similar, hateful sentences. They were horrible. The notes were mostly either suggestions for him to take his own life or threats. Other notes were insults. All of them, though, were about his sexuality. Johnny's hands shook as a numbing feeling washed over him.

How could anyone write this? They had to be from people at his school. Johnny wouldn't know why Ponyboy would ever write these notes to himself.

"Hey, what do you have there? Did you find something?" he heard Two-Bit ask. Nodding numbly, Johnny handed him the notes and the gang members that were in the room looked over his shoulders to read them as well. Two-Bit filtered through them, eyes growing wide at the words. His smile that had always adorned his face was long gone. Even Steve and Dally were shocked at what they had found. Although, that quickly transitioned to rage.

"They're all like that… There are so many different handwritings… So many different people…" Johnny said, mouth dry.

"You don't think that Ponyboy's getting bullied, do you?" Two-Bit put the notes back, unable to read any more of them. It was hard to imagine Ponyboy being bullied. It was more like he didn't want to ever imagine it though.

"What do you think? He's gay and a greaser that's taking advanced classes. Ponyboy's practically asking to be the target of bullying," Steve bluntly retorted.

Two-Bit whipped his head to Steve, glaring daggers. "Don't act like this is nothing!" he snapped so sharply that Johnny was afraid that he was going to sock the other.

Steve held up his hands. "I don't think this is nothing. I'm worried about him just like everyone else is. I'm just stating the obvious. If he wanted to stay out of trouble, he would have kept his trap shut about him being gay. We should have expected the backlash was going to follow him at school."

"Steve's right," Dally stepped in. "It's something that we should have known was happening."

"It's horrible…" Johnny said. "He's been keeping the notes and reading them all the time."

"I wonder if he's okay," Two-Bit mumbled, calming down some.

Dally shook his head, clenching his teeth. "Hell no. Not from this. Nobody could be okay after all of the stuff that Ponyboy's been through," he growled.

"I just don't know why we never noticed what was going on. I mean, we all knew about the tension that he had with his brothers, but we never went further than that."

The gang went silent. They all wondered the same thing. They thought his isolation and glumness had solely been because of his brothers being homophobic.

"Ponyboy has always been good at hiding things from us," Steve pointed out. "He may be the youngest and the most sensitive, but he has a nasty habit of lying. It probably comes from all of the movies he watches."

"I've never really noticed," Dally admitted, a bit of shame showing on his face. "He's always seemed alright and is always smiling whenever I see him."

"Smiling doesn't mean that you're okay," Johnny said out of nowhere. His hands clenched into trembling fists. "Sometimes, the people that smile the most are the most broken."

"He's never here anymore anyway. It's hard to tell," Steve added.

"Can you blame him for not being around anymore with how Soda and Darry are treating him? I wouldn't want to be here either," Dally said. None of them wanted to be around anymore and they weren't getting the full force of it. Ponyboy was receiving all of the blows.

"I just wish he was more open with us," Two-Bit sighed. They all agreed.

"The kid's always trying to act tough. Especially when it comes to dealing with Socs."

That's when a horrible realization washed over the four greasers. The notes mentioned people threatening to hurt him. What if he was in trouble that very second or bleeding like a pig somewhere?

"Do you think he was jumped?" Two-Bit asked, becoming even more serious than he was before. "If the notes were true then…"

Their breaths hitched as the box slipped out of Two-Bit's hands. The notes scattered across the floor as the four of them sprinted out of the house to look for Ponyboy.

They just hoped that they weren't too late.

But, even with the frantic hunting, they didn't find him. The four greasers met back at the Curtis's house the next morning. They had been searching for him all night.

"Have you found him yet?" Two-Bit asked, breathless from running around.

"Does it look like I found him?" Steve replied, agitated. "He's just gone."

"Well he couldn't have just disappeared," Dally pointed out.

Johnny licked his chapped lips, imagining the worst scenarios in his head. "You don't think…" he breathed. "You don't think that he was kidnapped, do you?"

None of them wanted that to be true.

"Man, if we find out that the kid was with Archer the entire time…" Dally started, crossing his arms over his chest. His eyes narrowed with annoyance at the thought. But even though the thought annoyed him, he was still worried. "After all of this…"

"I hope that he was," Johnny said.

"Where could that kid have gone?" Steve asked even though nobody knew the answer to it.

Darry looked up from his morning newspaper. He couldn't see why they were all so worried about Ponyboy. If he had anything to worry about, it would be the fact that he was probably spending time with Archer and getting even more influenced by him. That Archer was bad news and he wished that Ponyboy could see that. "He better not be with him," he spoke up. "The last thing that he needs is to be influenced by that fag. Other than that, who cares if he's gone? We wanted him out of the house from the start of him coming out as gay."

The house fell silent for a long moment as the gang looked incredulously at Darry. They knew that he didn't want Ponyboy in the house anymore, but it was still unbelievable to hear it coming out of his mouth.

Dally was the first to speak up. "Are you fucking kidding me, man?" he snarled, seeing red. "Your brother is missing and you don't care? And, Soda, why aren't you caring?"

Soda only stared at him blankly. "I don't consider him my brother anymore," he said.

Before anybody could react, Soda, who was the closest at the time, was slammed into the wall. The house shook, some picture frames falling onto the floor. Soda gasped out in pain and shock, holding his breath when he saw the fury in Dally's eyes. He gulped.

"What happened to the Soda and Darry that we all knew?! They wouldn't act like this," Dally growled. "After everything that Pony went through… is going through right now… this is how you're acting? We just found notes from his classmates, threatening him. What happened to the Soda who would comfort Pony through any pain that he was feeling?"

"I'm still me. I just don't want anything to do with Ponyboy anymore," Soda answered.

Dally's teeth clenched as he brought up his fist. He couldn't take it anymore. Every inch of him wanted to punch the daylights out of Soda and Darry. Maybe then they would see that they were wrong. But, before he could punch Soda, a hand touched his shoulder.

"Fighting isn't going to help anything," Johnny reasoned, removing his hand. Dally eyed the smaller male, almost challengingly. Another long moment passed before the hood let go of Soda who couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.

At that exact moment, the door opened and Ponyboy stepped inside with Archer right on his heel. He examined the scene in front of him in confusion. Even though Dally was no longer about to sock Soda, it was still obvious that something of that caliber happened.

"What did I miss?" he asked, blinking innocently.

"Ponyboy!" Two-Bit exclaimed in relief and surprise.

"Hi?"

"He was with Archer," Steve pointed out the obvious. He sighed, glad that the search was over.

"We looked all over for you, but we couldn't find you," Johnny explained. "The school said that you weren't there."

"I was sleeping over at Archer's place."

"Couldn't you have called to tell everyone where you were?" Dally asked a bit too sternly.

Ponyboy pursed his lips. He should have done so, but one of his brothers would have probably picked up the phone. If that would have happened, it wouldn't have ended up well for him. His eyes shifted to his brothers before lowering to the floor. He definitely didn't want to hear them talk more slander about him in front of him. Archer glanced over, watching Ponyboy's expression in his peripheral vision. He sighed before answering for him. "He was really sick, so I let him rest at my place," he explained.

Johnny turned back to his best friend, looking worried again. His eyebrows knitted together, although they were almost unnoticeable due to his bangs covering them. "You were sick?" he asked.

The other boy nodded, giving him a thin smile. "I feel a lot better now thanks to Robin Hood over here," he chuckled but ended up coughing. He grimaced. It still didn't sound healthy, but he expected that the cough was going to stay for a while longer. He sheepishly chuckled. "I'm still a bit sick though."

"I'm just glad that you're okay. We all thought you were jumped or something," Two-Bit breathed. It wasn't uncommon for someone to get jumped in their neighborhood. Ponyboy would have passed off what he had said as nothing. However, something about how he said it hinted towards something else. Ponyboy glanced around, seeing how Steve, Johnny, Dally, and Two-Bit were all looking at him cautiously. It was like they had something big that they wanted to ask but were worried that he was going to break or something.

"Is there something else you wanted to say to me?" Pony tried, a sick feeling growing in his gut. He just didn't know if it was from his illness or not. He couldn't shake off the feeling that something big was going to happen though.

The gang members, excluding his brothers, all looked at each other tentatively, confirming his suspicion. They did have something major that they wanted to talk about. He swallowed thickly, waiting for them to start speaking.

"Are you okay?" Johnny suddenly asked.

That was the question?

"Am I okay?" Ponyboy repeated. Why was Johnny asking if he was okay all of a sudden? "Why wouldn't I be okay?"

"Ponyboy…" The two of them stared into each other's eyes for a long moment. That one simple question wasn't the one he truly wanted to ask. Pony's heart started to beat faster. But it wasn't the same as it was with Archer. His heart was beating faster because he was scared. He didn't want them to ask their question. Ponyboy wanted to stay oblivious.

"We know about the notes," Dally cut in. And, in an instant, time froze for Ponyboy. His eyes grew wider than plates, heart beating so fast that it went numb. Did he hear them right? They couldn't have known about the notes. No, he refused to believe them. There was no way this was happening to him. His luck couldn't have been that bad.

"The…" he swallowed, trying to play dumb. "The notes?"

"The ones under your bed in the box."

They knew.

No. No. No.

How could they have found out? Then it dawned on it. They went into his room.

His legs moved on their own, shakily running towards his bedroom. Everything around him moved in a blur as he ripped open the door, seeing the toppled over box and the notes that were scattered across the floor. He couldn't breathe. This wasn't real. This had to be some sort of nightmare. But he knew that it wasn't a dream.

They all knew. They weren't supposed to know.

He stumbled over to the pile and fell to his knees. His backpack which he was wearing the entire time slipped off of his shoulder. Tears were threatening to spill out of his eyes, making them turn glassy.

What was going to happen now? All of the threats. The gang wouldn't want anything to do with him now. They were all that he had left. Nobody ever wants to be affiliated with someone who was going through so much.

Feet pounded closer to him and before he knew it, the gang and Archer were standing by the doorframe. Pony didn't look up at them. He was unable to. He was too ashamed.

"What are those?" Archer asked, stepping closer. He grabbed one, slapping away Ponyboy's hand when he tried to snatch it away. The Soc read the words on them, mouth suddenly turning dry. "Who wrote these?"

"I don't know," Ponyboy answered honestly, voice trembling. He didn't know what he was going to do now. He prayed for Archer to do something; to find a way to make the gang forget. Only then would things go back to normal. But he knew that it wasn't ever going to happen. After all, Archer wasn't a miracle worker.

Archer looked at the pile again. "Are these all of the notes?"

Ponyboy hesitated at that question. His eyes flickered to his backpack where he still had the newspapers tucked inside. Unfortunately for him, Archer noticed the quick glance and reached for the bag. When he wrapped one of his hands around a strap, he tried to pull it away from the other boy, but Ponyboy panicked. He held onto it as tightly ask he could, starting a game of tug-of-war.

"No!" he yelled, not caring that he was acting like a little kid. They couldn't find out about the newspapers as well.

"Let go!" Archer ordered, clenching his teeth in irritation.

"No!"

"Ponyboy!"

With one final hard tug, Archer managed to rip the backpack away. He quickly unzipped it and Ponyboy watched in horror as he found the pile of newspaper articles about homosexual people being murdered. Before Archer could utter a word about the finding, something in Ponyboy snapped. He felt his whole world crash upon him; crushing him. He couldn't take it anymore. The anxiety was too much. It felt like he was suffocating and all he wanted was for everything to stop so that he could breathe again.

"Get out…" he weakly and quietly mumbled.

"Ponyboy, we—" Johnny started but Ponyboy didn't want to listen to anybody. Johnny was not an exception. Everything around him turned blurry, tears only moments away from spilling.

"Get out!" he bellowed, eyes shutting tightly as he bent over to almost be curled up into a ball. His breathing started to become erratic to the point of hyperventilation. But he couldn't stop screaming as if he were a broken record. "Get out! Get out! Get out!"

"Hey, kid—" Steve tried, but again, Pony screamed.

"Leave me alone! Please, just leave me alone! I want to be alone!"

"Listen—" Dally started.

"No! Get out! Leave me alone!"

"We should leave him alone," Johnny quietly suggested much to Ponyboy's relief. The gang mumbled lowly to one another—words that Pony couldn't hear. But eventually, though, they reluctantly walked away, leaving only him and Archer in the room.

"Ponyboy…" Archer started, unsure about what he was supposed to say. But, when he saw that Ponyboy wasn't breathing correctly, he crouched down beside him. He placed a hand on the other's back and gently stroked it with his thumb. "Hey, breathe. It's going to be alright. I'm right here."

Eventually, after many minutes of whispering soothing words, Ponyboy started to calm down. He reopened his eyes and looked at his fake boyfriend pitifully, eyes red and puffy. He pulled up a quivering, fake smile that only lasted on his face for a few seconds before falling. It hurt Archer to look at his expression. "Archer, you too," Pony shakily said, voice cracking. "Can you leave me alone?"

"I don't think you should be left alone right now."

"Please… Archer, do this for me."

Archer fell silent before he nodded. If that was what Ponyboy wanted, then he should comply. Maybe being alone would do him good, despite what he just said. It could help him sort everything out. "Alright… but, don't do anything stupid, alright?"

Ponyboy didn't answer the question.

The Soc frowned. "I'm being serious, Ponyboy. Don't do anything dumb. Can you promise me that?"

The other boy stayed silent, looking down at his hands.

"Ponyboy, answer me."

"I promise I won't do anything dumb," Ponyboy finally agreed.

"Good. Don't break it."

When Archer left the room, Ponyboy broke down in tears again.

o-o-o

Archer shouldn't be caring at all. Why should he care that Ponyboy was receiving all that hate? It wasn't really hurting him or his plan. Ponyboy was a greaser that he knew was still going to help him even with all the notes and newspapers. Nothing more.

But then why did he care so much? Why did he feel so angry?

He silently drove his car to one of his friend's house where all of his friends were going to be hanging out for the rest of the day. They were all lounged in the living room, drinking bottles of beer that his friend's parents failed to hide. Archer was grateful for the drink when he was handed a bottle. He needed it to get his mind off of Ponyboy. But no matter how many swigs he took, the greaser kept appearing in his head.

He glanced at his friends who were chatting about some topic that he wasn't too invested in. He had to ask them about the notes. They most likely knew about it. "Hey," he began, causing their attention to shift towards him. "Do any of you know about the notes and newspapers that Ponyboy has been getting?"

"The greaser?" one of his friends hummed out before snorting. "Yeah, we put in some of them, but the entire school's doing it as well."

Archer took a swig of his beer, clutching the bottle so tightly that it felt like it was going to shatter if he put any more pressure on it.

"Why? Are you worried about the grease?" another friend teasingly asked.

Was he worried? He shook his head. He wasn't supposed to be worried about him. "Just tone down the insults a bit."

His friend scoffed. "Why do you care? He's a greaser and a fag."

"Yeah, but I still need him to participate. You're scaring him away. I don't want to keep doing damage control."

"You're no fun." the other Soc huffed, clicking his tongue in annoyance.

"Well, let's see who will more fun when this is all over. Now, are you all going to do it or not?"

His friends nodded and Archer let a small smile slip on his face. It was a small feat, but he hoped that Ponyboy would appreciate it.