Steve never really liked Ponyboy Curtis. He had always been a tagalong kid that he could hardly put up with. If it wasn't for the fact that he was Soda's little brother, he would have dropped kicked him a while ago. However, that had changed. Sure, Ponyboy still annoyed him like no other and he always seemed to get himself wrapped up into a lot of avoidable trouble, but he could no longer say that he despised him. Instead, he felt sorry for him and, in a way, protective. Ever since Soda and Darry both turned their backs on him, he involuntarily picked up the brotherly role. It just sort of happened. He wanted the best for Ponyboy, but it seemed as if another obstacle had popped up that they had to get through in order to achieve that goal.

"We need to find him," Steve declared. He just didn't know where to start. Ponyboy could have been anywhere. He was a hundred percent sure that Gary was taking him somewhere and it wasn't Pony's choice. But none of them knew Gary enough to figure out where he was taking him. Heck, Steve had never even met him. They had to rely on Curly to tell them what he knew about the tattooed greaser. "Any ideas where they might go to?"

Curly looked to the side in thought. He tapped his foot against the tile, clenching and unclenching his jaw repeatedly. "Well, he probably already had the drugs, to begin with. From the little time that I've known him, it was clear that he was really impatient. He probably wants to take advantage of Curtis as soon as possible. Which doesn't give us much time to find him," Curly explained. He scratched at a scar on his face. "There's one place that I could think of..."

Out of everything that was just said, one word stuck out to Johnny like a sore thumb.

"Drugs?" Johnny repeated, eyes wide. He knew that Ponyboy was drinking, but he didn't think that he went as far as taking drugs. He had wondered what Gary had been whispering into his ear and now Johnny knew exactly what they were talking about.

"We'll explain along the way," Steve answered. "We should get going."

Johnny nodded his head. "I'm going to ask Archer to help us look for him."

At the Soc's name, Steve growled. Anger bubbled up inside of him. He hated the Soc for what he did to Ponyboy and didn't understand why Johnny wanted him to help. "Why? He's the cause of all of this. Why bring him along?"

"Because he tried to protect Ponyboy from Gary before the two of them walked away with each other." Johnny stayed perfectly calm, even though Steve was looking at him so intensely. "You know… I don't think that the story that Ponyboy told us was entirely true. Well, it might have been true for him… but it just seems like there's another side of the story that he didn't know about."

"Are you saying that Archer lied to Ponyboy?" Steve furrowed his eyebrows. Johnny nodded in reply. "Why would he do that?"

"I don't know… but we have to find out from Archer."

The three of them quickly searched through the school for the familiar Soc. It didn't take long to find him, however, seeing how he was in the center of a dense crowd. Some people were asking if he was okay while others were laughing at him for getting himself into a random fight. Very few of them commented on how he just took off with his "ex-boyfriend". Archer was smiling thinly, although it was as clear as day that he was uncomfortable. The three greasers, pushed through the crowd of people until they were right in front of the Soc. Immediately, everybody went silent.

"You're coming with us," Steve ordered.

"Why?" Archer questioned, holding his cheek which was already showing signs of a large bruise developing. He narrowed his eyes at them with distrust, but at least he was talking to them.

"You're the one who caused all of this. So, you're going to be the one to fix this."

"Fix what?" He got defensive, stammering his sentences. "I don't have anything that I need to fix."

"Yeah, he's not going anywhere," Barbara added, pulling on Archer's sleeve. "Let's leave."

But Archer stayed in his spot, clenching his jaw tightly. "Yeah…"

Johnny stepped forward, stomach turning. The longer they waited, the more time Gary had with Ponyboy. They didn't have time to argue. "Ponyboy needs your help," Johnny whined. "Please, Archer. He's out there and—"

Archer clicked his tongue, balling up his hands into fists. "Yeah, well if Ponyboy really wants to be with that Gary guy, then so be it. It's not my problem."

Not being able to take it anymore, Steve grabbed Archer's shirt and slammed him into the lockers. He glowered at him. He really didn't like the guy. Steve didn't understand what Ponyboy saw in him, but there had to be something if he liked him. "You're the one who caused this. So, fix what you did," he growled.

"That fag did it to himself," one of Archer's friends retorted. Steve almost spun around and punched whoever said that. Fortunately, though, Curly was already on it. He socked them, sending them crashing into the crowd that was around them. Curly nodded to him in which Steve sent him back a look of thanks.

"You have no idea what's he's been doing to cope, right?" Steve asked.

Archer almost didn't want to know. He nervously licked his busted lips. "What is he doing?" he murmured.

"He's been blackout drinking and doing drugs. He's going with Gary right now to get more."

Feeling his heart stop, Archer's eyes grew wide. Ponyboy was turning to drugs and alcohol because of him. It just wasn't right. That idiot. He shouldn't be doing that because of him. Why did Ponyboy have to fall for him?

"Gary has some sick plan up his sleeve for him," Curly added. "So, are you going to help him or not?"

What should he do? Should he help Pony or continue in this act that was killing him on the inside? The answer should have been obvious. His nails were digging crescents into his palms. "But," he stared, voice slightly shaking. "He made it clear that he wanted nothing to do with me."

"Archer… Ponyboy still likes you," Johnny said. "We need to hurry, or we may all just lose him forever."

There was no question left in Archer's mind at those words. He nodded. "Let's go."

o-o-o

Ponyboy may have made a mistake. After leaving with Gary, he had somehow made his way back to the graffitied roof with him. He was swinging his legs off of the ledge, looking down at the ground which seemed miles away. Wind combed through his greasy hair, sending shivers down his spine. He resisted the urge to hug himself, opting to dig his fingers into the roof as a way to help prevent him from falling to his demise. It would only take one small push and he would be dead… and, frankly enough, Ponyboy didn't trust Gary. But, yet, he chose to come with him… for drugs.

But it wasn't his fault! Archer just made me so angry. Who was he to determine who he could be with?

However, he couldn't lie to himself. When Archer defended him and fought for him… it really touched him. If only he did that from the very beginning. Maybe he wouldn't be in this mess.

What was he doing with his life?

Suddenly, a hand was placed on his knee, making Pony's blood run cold. He shivered as it felt like a spider was crawling up his leg. He tightly shut his eyes, pursing his lips.

Oh, man… He really shouldn't have gone with Gary.

He shoved the hand off of him, much to Gary's annoyance. He roughly grabbed Pony's wrists, digging his nails painfully into them. Involuntarily, Ponyboy yelped. His eyes watered as he glared at Gary.

"You want the drugs, don't you?" Gary hissed.

Ponyboy scrunched up his nose in anger. He ripped his arm out of Gary's hold. "Then give me the drugs. You don't have to touch me," he growled.

Rolling his eyes, Gary reached into his backpack and pulled out two small, orange pill containers. He held them out for Ponyboy to take, but before the younger boy had the chance to grab them, Gary pulled them away. "Do you honestly believe that I'm just going to give them to you?"

"What do you mean by that?" This couldn't be good. "You said that—"

"I said that I could hook you up with drugs. I didn't say that they were free."

He should have known better. Ponyboy wanted to hit his own head against the wall. How could he be so stupid?

"What do you want?" Ponyboy asked through clenched teeth.

Smirking, Gary pressed the bottles into Ponyboy's hands, much to his confusion. What was he doing? Warily, Pony slipped one of the bottles into his back pocket, eyeing the other male suspiciously. Why was he giving him them before he told him what he wanted? It didn't make any sense. What exactly was Gary planning?

He got the answer soon afterward.

Before he had time to react, Gary's face was inches away from his own. He tried to lean back, but a hand crept behind him, holding him in place. He couldn't move. All he could do was stare at Gary. His heart stopped, breath cutting itself off. Ponyboy was squeezing the bottle that was still in his hands so tightly that it felt like it was going to break under the pressure.

What should he do? What was he supposed to do?

His brain went blank as he was trying to figure out how to get away.

No. This couldn't be happening to him.

He shouldn't have gone with Gary. He was finally going to pay for all of his mistakes, but this seemed like it would be too cruel of a punishment.

'Archer… Save me,' he pleaded, although he didn't know why. Archer wasn't going to help him. He didn't even like him. He was doomed. Gary was so close to him now.

"Get away from him!" someone screamed from far away, causing Gary to freeze in his place. Ponyboy's heart started to pound against his chest again. He knew that voice.

"Archer!" Ponyboy screamed, hope flooding him. He actually came!

o-o-o

When Archer, Johnny, Steve, and Curly ran up to the roof, they were expecting to see many things. They had already expected the worse before leaving the school. They burst open the roof door, winded from running up the many flights of stairs. They looked around frantically for Ponyboy and Gary. At first, they thought that the location was wrong, seeing how it didn't seem like anybody was there, but then they saw two figures at the edge, almost just outside of their vision.

The two of them were close together, merely inches, if not centimeters, apart. Ponyboy was leaning a bit back, clearly trying to get away from the other. He looked so scared that it seemed like he was going to shit himself. As soon as they saw the two of them, anger skyrocketed inside of the four. They were going to murder Gary. Even Johnny wanted to do something to him.

"Get away from him!" Archer screamed, charging at the duo.

Ponyboy's head snapped towards him, eyes blown wide. "Archer!" he exclaimed.

Archer got to him in seconds flat. He grabbed Ponyboy, successfully ripping him away from the other greaser and the edge of the roof. He ignored the curses that left Gary's mouth as he started to drag the younger teen away, pushing him against the graffitied wall. He pinned his hands by his head, eyes stern. Out of his control, Ponyboy's heart hammered against his chest as butterflies fluttered in his stomach. His breath hitched and he couldn't understand why.

Why? After everything that Archer did to him, why did he still feel like this when he was nearby? He shouldn't be feeling like this. Especially since Archer didn't like him back and was dating someone else.

"What the hell do you think that you're doing?!" Archer bellowed so loudly that Ponyboy almost couldn't understand him.

He kept up a straight face, although it was hard for him to do so. As morbid as it was, he yearned for that icy, numbing feeling in his chest again. He didn't want to continue falling for the Soc. Why couldn't his heart see that he only brought him pain? He was glad and grateful that Archer had saved him, but he knew that after this, he wouldn't even speak to him.

"Leave me alone," Ponyboy mumbled, remembering the bottle that was still in his hand. He just had to take them, and he would feel alright again. One pill would take away the pain. He gripped the bottle tightly, hoping that Archer wouldn't notice the movement at all, but he did. Growling, Archer pried open his hand with his own, much to Ponyboy's dismay. He grabbed the pill bottle and brandished it in front of him as he looked at the contents inside of it.

"Opioids?" Archer hissed, glaring daggers at him. "Ponyboy, what the hell were you thinking?! These could easily kill you!"

Ponyboy almost snorted at that. "It's not like you care anyway."

Archer shook his head, defeated. He swallowed down his saliva to relieve his dry throat. "You're so wrong…" He had caused this. He was the reason why Ponyboy had turned to drugs and started to spiral out of control. He did it, so he had to fix it.

"Am I really though?"

Ponyboy was waiting for him to answer him, however, Archer kept his mouth shut. He wanted to shout his feelings out to the whole world, but he was terrified of doing so. He was a chicken and other people were paying the price for it. If only he weren't so scared. Archer sighed, shaking the bottle. "You're not taking any of this. I'm getting rid of it."

Gaping, Ponyboy whined, struggling against Archer's hold. The drug was his outlet. He didn't want it to be taken away from him. He needed it. "Give that back! That's mine!"

"Not a chance, Roadrunner."

In an instant, Ponyboy froze. That nickname... Archer still called him that? After all of this?

He couldn't help the blush that colored his cheeks as Archer leaned forward, breath brushing past his nose. Ponyboy took a deep breath, smelling the mint of his toothpaste. His legs felt weak, barely holding himself up. If Archer wasn't holding onto him, he was sure that he would have already fallen down.

He should have been repulsed by Archer, but he was only falling for him more. Why?

Archer finally let go of him and Ponyboy felt his legs give out. He collapsed to the floor, feeling dizzy. His vision swayed, going back and forth between focused and unfocused. He breathed heavily as he tried to calm down his racing heart. He just wanted it to be normal around him. He weakly watched as Archer tossed the pill bottle off of the roof, letting out a quiet whine.

Suddenly, Gary was right behind Archer. He pulled out his switchblade and pressed it against Archer's jugular. "That was expensive. Are you going to pay for that with your life?" he growled. Archer gulped, feeling a trickle of blood fall down his throat.

But that was about it. While Gary was distracted with Archer, Curly and Steve managed to sneak up behind him. Curly raised am empty, glass bottle that he had found over his head, eyes cold. He swung it down, shattering it on top of Gary's head, causing him to go rigid. And, in that instant, Steve tore the armed hand away from Archer who let out a big gasp of air in relief. He cradled his cut on his neck, wincing slightly.

"It's about time you guys stepped in. What took you?" Archer breathed out, shaking a bit from the adrenaline. He watched as Curly and Steve both grabbed Gary's arms who looked dazed from the impact, but not knocked out.

"You're lucky that we even saved you at all," Steve retorted, turning his attention back to Gary. "You're coming with us."

The two greasers started to drag Gary away until he was out of their vision ranges. As Ponyboy turned back to Archer, he could have sworn he heard some muffled screams coming from the direction that Steve and Curly walked off to, but that didn't really matter to him. What mattered most was the Soc that was standing in front of him.

Both of them didn't know what they were going to say to each other. What else was there to say?

Luckily, Johnny stepped up. His eyebrows were knitted together in worry. "Ponyboy…" he started. "Why are you taking drugs? None of this is like you at all."

But Ponyboy couldn't answer that question. He didn't know why either. It was like he had lost himself altogether. He looked down at his hands, ashamed of himself. He knew that he was going down the wrong path, but he just didn't know why he continued down it and getting himself more lost than he already was. He let out a long sigh, biting his bottom lip.

"Look at me, Ponyboy," Johnny ordered in a strict tone that he wasn't used to hearing too often. He almost never speaks with that type of tone. Ponyboy must have really gone off the cliff. He looked up at Johnny who knelt down beside him. "What happened to the sunset and book-loving greaser who always had his head in the clouds?"

"I… I don't know," Ponyboy mumbled so quietly that Johnny almost didn't hear him.

"You do know."

Ponyboy shook his head. "That part of me got lost when Archer came into my life."

Wrong. Ponyboy was so wrong. Why couldn't he see that? "No, you didn't. You didn't get lost when you met Archer. You were given a map."

Looking at Johnny quizzically, Ponyboy tilted his head to the side. "What do you mean by that?"

"Both of you added to each other. What one trait a person had, the other didn't. Being with him filled those empty traits and made you more complete. What changed you was the drugs. Instead of allowing yourself to heal, you decided to skip on the pain and let drugs and alcohol do the work for you."

"But at least it did something."

Johnny sighed. "You're not getting the point. Ponyboy, you're worrying everyone. You may think that you're preventing pain, but you're only hurting everyone else instead."

Ponyboy shut his mouth, feeling his throat close up. If he felt terrible before, he sure felt awful now.

Both Steve and Curly returned at that moment. Gary was no longer with them.

"We took care of him. He won't be bothering you ever again," Curly explained after noticing Ponyboy looking for Gary. Nobody had any complaints about that.

"Good…" Ponyboy mumbled. He was relieved that Gary wouldn't try anything on him again.

"But, kid, back to what Johnny was saying. Drugs mess you up. Don't do them," Steve commented.

"It really does," Curly added, crossing his arms. However, Ponyboy didn't want to just let go of the drugs. He didn't think that he was able to heal by himself. He wasn't strong enough. The drugs were another option for him that seemed a hundred times easier. "I've done some really shitty things while being drugged up."

"But I've seen you guys do drugs," he challenged. "You do it all the time."

"But that doesn't mean you have to do it," Steve shot back. "Stop trying to act tough and be yourself."

He didn't want to be himself though. That self was the one everybody hated; the one that Archer was disgusted about. He picked at his jeans, looking back down. However, that didn't last long at all. Archer grabbed his chin and forced him to look him straight in the eyes.

"Ponyboy, promise that you won't take any more drugs?" he asked, hoping that Ponyboy would agree. But the younger male kept his mouth shut. Why does he have to be so stubborn? Archer held a stern look to show how serious he was. "Promise me, Ponyboy."

For a while, they just stared at each other until Ponyboy couldn't take it any longer. He briefly nodded his head. "I promise," he reluctantly declared.

Satisfied with that answer, Archer let go of his chin. "Don't go breaking that promise, you hear? Don't lie to me and I won't lie to you."

However, even though Archer said that, he knew that he was probably going to be lying for quite a while more, much to his dismay.

"We should get back," Curly stated, looking up at the sky which had clouded over. "I don't want to get rained on."

"Yeah," Archer agreed. "Let's go."

o-o-o

As soon as Ponyboy returned home, he instantly went to the bathroom, pulling out the extra bottle of opioids that he had hidden in his back pocket. He was glad that nobody thought anything of it even though there was an obvious pill bottle sticking out for them to see. He turned the bottle around in his hand, eyes glazing over.

These could easily kill him if he didn't watch himself. He wasn't sure how many he was supposed to take but he knew that opioids were supposed to be really strong.

You're a burden.

You always get yourself into trouble.

Nobody loves you.

You're going to be alone forever.

Those sentences were loudly screaming in his head and all he wanted to do was silence them forever. There was one thing that he could think of that would both end his pain and silence those voices, and that was the opioids.

He could end it all right then and there. There would be no more pain.

Slowly, Ponyboy dumped the contents of the bottle into his hand. He stared long and hard at them, not moving an inch.

All he had to do was swallow them down.

Just do it!

Do it!

DO IT!

'Don't lie to me.'

When he heard Archer's voice in his head, he snapped out of it, eyes growing wide. There was something wrong with him. Why was he like this? He was seriously messed up. He didn't want to die.

Ponyboy shook his head. He couldn't take the pills. He promised he wouldn't and the last thing that he wanted to do was lie.

Christ, what was wrong with him? He used to not have these impulses at all and now it's all he could think about. It was because he was gay, he was sure of it. Maybe Soda and Darry were right. What if being gay was seriously wrong? He had thought that it was a way of life that he had no control over… but he wished that he could have been "normal" again. He wanted everything to go back to how they were before.

He needed everything to go back to normal and he first had to get rid of the drug.

Taking a deep breath and counting down, he dumped the pills in the toilet, flushing them down. To think that they were going to go into his body.

Sighing, Ponyboy exiting the bathroom. He wished that he could just erase anything about himself. He stopped when heard Soda and Darry mutter to each other in the kitchen. Great. Exactly what he needed. Maybe he could escape to his room without them throwing slurs at him. He started to tiptoe to his bedroom, making sure that they wouldn't hear him.

"Ponyboy, come here," he heard Darry call out suddenly.

Damn it.

Ponyboy entered the kitchen, feeling tense. "What is it?" he asked through clenched teeth.

Darry placed down a flyer in front of Ponyboy who tentatively picked it up. His eyes scanned the paper.

"Correctional therapy…" Pony read out loud before realization of what that flyer meant hit him. They wanted to send him. He snapped his head up. But it couldn't be true, right? "What's the meaning of this?"

"Soda and I had been talking about sending you to be… corrected… for quite some time now. I don't care about how much money we are going to have to pay for this. You're messed up. You need to become better."

Darry was right, he was messed up and it all stemmed from him being gay. There was something wrong with him and he needed to get that fixed. Ponyboy pursed his lip, shoving his clammy hands under his armpits. He wanted things to go back to normal and if this would help, he wanted to do it. And that was the only reason he said, "Okay, I'll go."

He wanted to make up for his mistakes, but he didn't know that he was walking right into another one.

o-o-o

Long ago, a reviewer suggested the conversion therapy idea. So, I'm putting it in now. xD