A/N: Okay readers, I would just like to take a quick moment and thank you all for your support during the journey of this story! I've had many plans for this story, but have also ran into many blocks of not knowing where any of it was going. I've thoroughly enjoyed writing this story and the challenges it has given me! That previous chapter was a tough one to write, it was definitely a big bump in the character's journeys and I went through a lot of emotions writing it. I can't wait to see where else this goes, thank you all for being amazing with this story and any of my other stories any of you read as well!

Ponyboy stood up, closed his blade, and slid it into his back pocket. There wasn't a feeling of shock or panic. In fact, it helped put away the anger he was feeling towards Steve and his actions that night. It made him feel a little more forgiving about the situation. He didn't know how Soda would feel about that, but Pony wasn't going to jump to talk to him about it. Clearly Soda wasn't going to be happy for awhile based off the bruises from their fight. Ponyboy wasn't as worried if Steve didn't come over though. Not this time. For the first time in a long time, he felt in control of his own mind and feelings. He felt he found a way to ease any more worries, anxieties, or fear.

The same could not be said at the Randle household. Steve had completely undressed from his clothes stained with mud and blood. He was sitting in the tub, letting the shower run over him, as he drastically tried to wash his arm. He was desperate to get the bleeding to stop.

"Oh please God, damnit!" he cursed out as he continued seeing blood tint into the water stream as it rushed down the drain. Steve knew he hadn't cut too deep. At least he was sure he hadn't. Maybe it depended on which part of the arm? Some of the blood had to also be from getting hit in the head from Yale, or the fight with Soda. Steve truly had no idea, and it was causing him to panic. He was trying to find reasons and excuses for the blood and the way his arm felt, but it wasn't bringing him any ease.

Pony suddenly heard something coming near him. He got ready, half expecting it to be Socs ready to jump him. It was very late at night after all. He saw a figure slowly approaching. As it got closer, Pony began recognizing the body.

"Johnny?"

The figure looked up at the voice and responded, "Ponyboy? Is that you?"

"Yeah," Ponyboy pulled down his sweater sleeve. He didn't care if the blood stained. It was too dark out for Johnny to see it anyway. "Are your parents up this late arguing?"

"Not exactly. They were asleep, then my mom got up and saw me in my room and asked me why I was home, so I just willingly left," Johnny explained.

"I'm sorry Johnnycake."

"Don't worry about it man, I made my move before anything could happen. What are you doing out here?"

"Nothing," Ponyboy lied, "I just went for a walk."

As the boys began to walk, Johnny could sense something more was going on among Pony's silence, "Did something happen at home?"

"Not exactly. Steve went back to Yale."

Johnny's head shot up and looked at Pony's figure in the darkness, "What?"

"Yeah he did," Pony shook his head, trying to keep his anger down, "He fucking did." Pony didn't want to get too worked up. He wouldn't know how to handle that right now after just cutting his arm.

"So what happened? Is he okay?"

"Yeah I guess so. Soda came back and was bruised up though. They got in a fight."

"I can't say I blame him," Johnny admitted.

The boys walked up to the front door of the Curtis house. "Me either," Pony said grabbing the doorknob. They walked inside the house, finding Soda on the couch watching TV, a beer sitting on the coffee table. "Need to drink the pain away huh?" Pony asked.

"No kidding," Soda looked over, "Hey Johnny."

"Hey Soda. Ponyboy told me about Steve."

Soda sighed, "Yeah. It wasn't a happy ending as you can tell."

"What are you going to do?" Johnny asked.

Soda shrugged, "I don't know. I really don't know."

As Soda and Johnny's conversation went on, Pony got alerted by the sudden liquid slowly going down his arm. He quickly brought his arm out of sight before anyone noticed. He had no idea how his sleeve looked, and he wasn't about to check. "I'll be right back," Pony said rushing up the stairs.

Johnny looked at Soda, "Pony must not be taking it too well since he had to go on a walk."

"No," Soda shook his head, "That's why I was even more mad. I knew it was going to hurt my little brother. My best friend hurt my little brother again."

Upstairs, Pony took the sweater off and groaned. There was quite a bit of a stain. Too much for Darry to just simply ignore. Pony crouched down, opened his bottom dresser drawer and shoved the sweater under some shorts. He'd have to try and remember to just take care of it later. Opening his bedroom door, Pony checked for anyone, and hurried down the hall into the bathroom. He turned the sink on and began washing off his arm. Watching some of the fresh blood wash down the drain was bringing another form of satisfaction to the young greaser.

"Please God no," Steve begged through stinging tears, "I didn't mean it. I didn't...just make it stop please!" Steve could feel his heart ready to beat out of his chest. He could feel his throat closing shut. His lungs burned. The shower seemed to be getting smaller. The walls were coming together. The world was just caving in on him.

"Please, please, please," Steve continued to beg, his cries becoming more of a whisper. He closed his eyes tight, trying to breathe slowly. When he opened his eyes again, he saw the blood running through the water had become less and less. He could feel the weight coming off his back. "Oh thank you God." Steve shut off the shower and stepped out. He weakly wrapped a towel around his waist. He looked into the mirror. He saw a bruise from his fight with Soda, he could feel the throb from the blow into the back of his head, and the fresh cut on his arm. That was enough for the night. He could feel his body finally caving in. As soon as he got into his bedroom, he got a fresh pair of boxers on, and crashed onto his bed.

Ponyboy was able to get his arm cleaned up and in a fresh t-shirt. He went back downstairs to Soda and Johnny.

"Hey, you doing okay Pony?" Soda asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"I just know what happened with Steve...it's a lot and it's not fair to you."

Pony shook his head, "No, it's not. Not to you either. I'm okay though. I'm just really tired."

"I am too. I think it's time to try and sleep after this mess."

"Night Johnnycake," Pony said as the brothers headed upstairs.

"I should be asking if you're okay too."

"Huh?" Soda asked.

"Well you got in a fight with Steve. That's unheard of for you guys. That's going to get around town and everyone's going to find out why, and it ain't going to be a secret that he and Tim stole a car," Pony said, "Steve could get in some serious trouble."

"I know," Soda sighed, "I just can't think that far ahead right now."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to stress you out."

"It's okay Ponyboy. It ain't your fault."

"Soda, I don't know if I want to talk to him tomorrow," Pony looked down to the floor. He was still feeling numb to the situation, more upset than mad. "He might try to talk to me, and I don't know if I want to talk to him."

"You don't have to," Soda said. He felt down that Pony had to be in the position he was in. He would have felt better if it was an argument just between him and Steve. Having Pony involved was making it harder for Soda. "I'm feeling the same way. I don't know if I will be able to. But we got in a fight, so he may not even try to talk to me. I'm not going to tell you how to handle it though. Just see how you feel in the morning."

A realization came over Pony in that moment, "Soda, Darry doesn't even know what happened tonight. It's so late right now."

Soda slowly shook his head, "Yeah, he has no idea. Golly, he's going to know something was up though when we sleep until the afternoon."

Ponyboy crashed onto the bed and pulled the covers over himself, "Well, better get started on that right now."

Soda lazily walked into the kitchen the next morning.

"What the hell happened to you?"

He expected to hear that, knowing his older brother was already making coffee and breakfast. There was no point in twisting the story. Soda was still feeling mad at Steve, so he was willing to tell the whole truth.

"Me and Steve got into a fight late last night."

"What happened?" Darry asked, as he neglected the eggs cooking right behind him on the stove.

Soda sighed, "He went back to Yale."

"What!" Darry barked. He held himself back from yelling anything else, remembering Johnny was just asleep on the couch.

Soda slowly nodded, "Yep. Him and Tim successfully stole the car." Soda wasn't usually a coffee drinker, but he was going to need it. He poured himself a cup, added sugar, and turned to face Darry, watching his expression change into a shock mixed with anger.

"They didn't," was all Darry could manage to say.

"Yeah they did," Soda shrugged.

"Are you hurting?"

Soda shook his head, "Not too badly. I've had worst hits to the face."

"Does Ponyboy know?"

"Oh yeah. The only reason I found out is because Pony was having a bad feeling about something so I went to check it out."

Darry rolled his eyes, "I swear that kid has physic powers sometimes."

"Well it's good, because otherwise I probably would have never known."

"Until he gets arrested."

"Yeah, I don't now what's going to happen to him. They may call the cops, but they may not because they are also a druggie group and don't want to get the fuzz involved in their business. They probably got the car because of drug deals."

"How's Ponyboy with all of this?" Darry asked.

"Darry, the eggs are waiting," Soda smirked.

"Oh yeah," Darry quickly turned to flip the eggs over, "But how is Ponyboy?"

"I don't know. He went for a walk after I got home, but when he got back with Johnny he seemed okay. He didn't seem to be going over the edge."

"Well, did you make sure he didn't try to do anything?"

Soda felt his heart skip a beat, "Shit, I didn't even think of that. I'm sorry Darry, I was so worked up over Steve and everything. Pony goes on walks all the time, so it didn't seem out of the ordinary."

"Don't worry about it little buddy. I probably would've thought the same thing. I'll talk to him about it later."

"Darry, you aren't going to strip search him are you?"

"No of course not. I'll ask how he's feeling about Steve, and see if he says anything. He seemed pretty willing to tell us how he's thought about doing it."

Soda went back to Steve's warning about Ponyboy being so willing to talk about it, how it could mean Pony isn't concerned or doesn't care much about the effects of cutting as an escape. "Alright. I don't know what to do though Darry. I thought I'd wake up knowing how I feel, but I don't. Do I go talk to Steve?"

"Honestly Soda, I wouldn't care for him to be over here right now. I'd be knocking his lights out for doing something so damn stupid again."

"I just got so mad at him for hurting Ponyboy again. He says he wants to be there for him, and not see him go down the same road, but that's exactly what he's going to do to Ponyboy is put him down that same road."

Steve woke up that morning in a daze. His head had a dull ache, his body was sore, his face hurt, and his arm had a sting to it. That sting. In a flash, Steve was awake and sitting up on his bed. There it was. A fresh open wound going down his arm. "Oh my God," Steve said quietly, realizing he had actually done that. He hadn't done that in a long time, and it was waving him with uneasy emotions. He felt scared he could do it again, he felt mad that he resorted to it, he felt wanting of it even more to stop what he was going through, to stop the feelings that were coming over him in that instant.

"No," Steve slammed his hand over the cut, causing a slight sting, "Shit."

Soda may have been pissed at him, but Steve could only hope that his desperate plea would put those emotions aside.

He got to his phone and dialed the Curtis number. Knowing one of three brothers could answer, Steve wasn't sure who he wanted to pick up the phone. Darry would be the most dangerous for Steve, depending on how much he knew of the previous night.

"Hello?"

"Soda?" Steve asked, feeling a little relieved he answered.

"What do you want?" Soda asked sourly.

"Soda please don't hang up," Steve begged as he spoke quickly, "I...I...I fell back..."