Frau Bielschmidt: there will definitely be more Dally, though I don't know if he and Connie will meet, we'll have to wait and see! Thank you for your review.
Josh Voices Swayla Audio Fics: Don't worry we have some time before that.
HappierThanMost: Hey Happier! Yes, I wanted to show the origins of the whole jumping, that domino effect that just spiraled out of control. A bit like West side story.
DoingItForJohnny: Thank you for your sweet review! I loved Johnny as a little girl, he was always my favorite Outsider. But there are so few stories that do him justice, so I decided to take the matter into my own hands. This is also pre jumped Johnny, so his sass is more intact.
tomeii: I'm glad you loved the nose kiss!
bookgirl18: no kidding right!
Chapter XXIII
S*S
Jesus Hallelujah...
Sometimes when he was with the guys, it was unavoidable that the topic sometimes turned to girls. And attempts made to kiss 'em an' more.
Two-Bit always said that if you could get a kiss, it was best...
Ya' know, on second thought, forget Two-Bit. Forget Soda, Dally, Steve, and Darry.
They weren't him, and sure as hell weren't with Wendy right now, feeling her small timid hands carefully fluttering up to his shoulders, fisting in his jacket's collar. They weren't here like he was, with strands of her vanilla-scented hair brushing against his chin.
So for once, he'd let his inner Two-Bit and co' take the night off. They couldn't help him here no-how.
So on its own accord, the hand Johnny'd used to guide him to Wendy's kiss dropped from her chin, hesitated, then drifted around to hold the nape of her neck, brushing her ear. And the freehand that thus far been hangin' limp at his side came up to cautiously touch her waist. Before finally getting the courage to wrap around her, tug her closer. Like two of 'em puzzle pieces Ponyboy loved so much. At least that was the plan, till a surprised sounding squeak escaped her mouth. Which was enough to make him spring-on backward, equally stunned and wide-eyed as the girl before him.
They both swallowed, and Johnny felt his eyes flicker to her lips before going up to her robin's-eggs for eyes, within the shadows of her hair...an' all that trembling starlight way up in the sky, he saw there mirrored, shimmering.
At him.
For him.
God Almighty.
For once there was no East Side, no West Side. No Greasers or Socs...no Tulsa, Oklahoma. Just the autumn wind in the rustling trees, clouds over a witch's moon, and Wendy Marie, her pink mouth forming the softest of 'o' while her fingers touch the spot where his mouth had been over her own.
Jesus H. Christ, his face had to be burning copper. He swallowed again on reflex, licking his lips and tasting her lip bam on 'em. His hands retreated to his pockets as he rocked on his heels slightly. Both of them were looking just 'bout anywhere save each other. Then, cobalt pools began seeking out his black embers, just as they looked for her own. They managed to hold their gaze just long enough to silently ask -and answer- the unspoken question between them.
When they glanced away again, they were both smiling in the dark. Johnny cocked an eyebrow. Wendy muffled a giggle.
And the laughing trees around them looked on, satisfied. Johnny shook his head, wondering if this heady, weightless, loopy feeling was what it was like to be drunk. This had to be a dream, 'cause it was too darn good to be substantial.
"Johnny?"
"Yeah?"
"I...I gotta get home now," Wendy finished, apologetic, hands fiddling in front of herself.
Oh.
"Uh, yeah," he answered, hand yanking at his bangs before his brain re-linked with his common sense. He nodded. "Yeah."
They started walking again, no longer afraid of the shadows. All too soon her house came into view, gold glowing in the dark. Wendy stepped out, but Johnny stayed just within the treeline, watching her cross back over into her world-
But when she reached her three-season porch door, she looked back, those big robin's egg eyes locking on his, before the biggest damn grin he'd ever seen bloomed on her face like an easter lily.
For him.
Just for him.
And damn if that wasn't enough to have him grinning back, just as much.
S*S
Wendy was still fluttering somewhere between cloud seven and nine, the taste of cigarette smoke and coca-cola on her mouth when -
"Wendy?"
She got one last surprise, in a night that been full of surprises.
"Dad?" she goggled, astonished to see him still up, waiting at the dinner table. Usually, his energy on the weekends didn't let him last past nine, milking his day-off for all it was worth.
"Wendy," her father said again, soft concern and questions in his voice with that soft earth for eyes. "Honey, your sister told me you had a date tonight. I was waiting for you...why didn't you tell me?"
The silence stretched between them, screeched between them, really, as Wendy fumbled and flopped for anything to say other than the truth -because I didn't think you'd hear me.
And he hadn't -Frank Allen hadn't seen or heard any evil with his children since Mama's death. Which was another way of saying he hadn't seen or heard them at all. Otherwise, he would know that Connie snuck out of the house every week without fail. He'd know that the boys had become too defensive a unit together, that they held each other back in school, scared to be apart. He'd know... know that his elder daughter had blackmailed his younger, and taken steps to protect her.
But he hadn't. He didn't. And it hurt painfully, like a chasm in her gut to think that protection a father should offer a daughter were just whispers in the rain. Life hadn't been meant to go this way for them, Wendy was sure. She wanted to stamp her foot. It was wrong, it had all gone all wrong. And the wrong had begun for the Allen family with the loss of her mother. Mama owned another dark pit in her gut...that swallowing chasm filled with three years of futile fears and disappointments. Wendy had learned to toss her regrets into that pit, her sister's betrayal, her fears for the twins. She also tried to cast her feelings for Johnny there when he brushed her off that day...cast them in and covered it in the dirt but the disappointments were never gone, never forgotten.
Only buried.
"I'm sorry Daddy," Wendy whispered. "I just forgot s'all."
Her father accepted this unquestioningly, tried. He shuffled forward and tugged his second daughter into a ghost of an embrace, and Wendy bit her lip. Hard.
"Okay sweetheart," he said, kissing the top of her head. Which was more attention than her siblings ever got. He stepped back, nodded. "Get to bed through, you have school tomorrow."
"Okay, Dad."
She was about to go, when suddenly her father pulled her back, face puzzle as he took another sniff of her hair. Wendy winced -oh crap.
"Wendy," Frank exclaimed, plain astonishment on his face. "Were you smoking tonight?"
Only second-handed, the thought came to her, before she shooed it off -back to Two-Bit Matthews where it belonged.
"No Dad," she said honestly. "I was at the drive-in, and lots of people smoke there."
Frank relaxed. "Alright then, but mind you don't start. That ruins your teeth, and you have the most beautiful smile Wendybird."
He paused and seemed to consider something. "...I haven't seen a lot of it lately."
You haven't seen much of anything. Out loud, Wendy said, "I'm tired, Dad."
"...Alright. Get to bed honey."
As she climbed the stairs, Wendy let her hand trail slowly over the pale wood, watching the moonlight catch in the crystal tear-drops of the overhead chandelier, seeing her self fractured and broken into a million little Wendys. And she had no way of deciding which one she truly was.
She glanced down, allowing herself to ponder why she didn't want to share Johnny with her father -and by extension her family. They were far from close-minded people...Dad came from pretty humble origins himself -a poor farm boy in Maryland, during the Depression. And he'd married a woman he rescued with the U.S. Army from a Nazi prison camp. A woman with nothing more than the clothes on her back, a number on her wrist, and her smile to her name. For all his faults, snobbery wasn't one of them.
When Frank Allen looked at you, he saw you and treated you accordingly.
So no...it wasn't any of that. If Wendy was being honest with herself, it was Connie who was the leading factor in wanting to keep Johnny away from her home life. Cause she did not want to deal with her sister, and the justifiable fury she would feel if she saw Dad waiting up for Wendy. Waiting to question her about her date, maybe even talk with her boyfriend, setting down rules.
Cause Connie went on dates all the time, and Dad had never once done the same for her.
S*S
After washing up for bed, and checking on her brothers -finding that tonight, they had fallen asleep in the same bunk, Superman and Spiderman comics spread between them- Wendy settled on her own bed, content to flip through one of her own books before lights out.
At least, that been the plan. Then the phone on her bedside rang, nearly sending Wendy off through the roof. When she gathered herself and managed to seize the thing before it rang again, she forgot to introduce herself as she answered.
"Hello?" Wendy said, stupidly.
"Uh, hi. Is Wendy Allen there?" an answering autumn rasp replied. Which was enough to get her frazzled brain back in working order.
"Johnny?" she said, and there was a soft, breathy quilty to her voice that Wendy had never heard from herself before. From Connie occasionally, on a more artificial note, and Cherry on a genuine one, when they talked about their dates. But never from herself. "Johnny that's you?"
She could almost see him shuffle on the other end of the line. "Uh, yeah, it's me Wen...you mind that I'm callin'?"
"No, of course not," Wendy hastily reassured him, shifting to sit cross-legged on her white comforter. "Just...you've never have before."
He coughed, a little embarrassed like. "Yeah, I know. I'm sorry Wen, I wanted to a few times, but...never did."
"Oh. Okay, but where...oh God, you're not at home are you?" and with every word, Wendy's voice rose an octave, till it was nearly a squeak. But Johnny scoffed down the line.
"Nah, I'm not at home -wouldn't be peaceful nuff to call from there anyways. M' back at the Curtis'...gon' stay the night I think."
Her shoulders slumped. "Oh, that's good."
She didn't even try an hide her relief, and it was easy for Johnny to pick up on.
"Were ya worried about me?" he asked, and Wendy could hear a hint of a smile in his voice. It wasn't one she could echo though.
"Yes I was," she told him softly. "I...I worry about you, Johnny. Always."
That brought on another round of silence. And call her crazy, but Wendy would swear in court that Johnny's silences were a language all their own. This was his 'taken back' silence. The one he fell into whenever his paradigms shifted.
Flushing slightly, Wendy tugged at the hem of her nightdress, making sure it was below her knees. "So, why'd you call tonight then?"
That brought on his 'startled' silence. "Well, I just figured I probably should n' all, since you're my girl now-"
Wendy squealed, she couldn't help it.
Unfortunately, Johnny heard, and he must've taken it the wrong way, 'cause he immediately started backpedaling. "Well I mean, uh -you don't have to be my girl-"
"Nonono, I'm your girl!" Wendy rushed out, nearly blurted. She flushed, her voice growing smaller. "I'm your girl...um if you like, that is."
That brought on his 'realizing' silence, followed by a small hum.
"I guess you're my girl then," he said, and there was more than just a smile in his voice now. There was joy...and something akin to pride -like he was proud of her. That bubble of happiness was brimming over the top at this point.
"Guess so," Wendy answered, biting back a grin herself. For a moment, the silence stretched comfortably between them, and Wendy curled against her pillows, blanketed by the sound of Johnny's breathing. There was an easy rhythm to it -she could be lulled to sleep if she wasn't careful.
"Hey...Wendy?" Johnny's voice sounded worried all of a sudden, and Wendy snapped up, alarmed.
"What is it?"
"Ya ditched Pescare at the drive-in..." he said it slowly, almost scientifically, like a detective trying to solve a crime. Wendy blinked, not fully seeing the problem here. "Well, yeah, I did."
"That's not gonna cause you trouble is it?" he sounded more anxious now, his quiet autumn rasp stronger than she'd ever heard it. "He won't bother ya none will he?"
"I doubt it," she assured him, going over what she knew of Jack before nodding in satisfaction. "I think the novelty will of worn off now since it wasn't worth his wild, and he'll find some other girl to make time with...or make her life hell. One or the other."
"Ya sure?"
"Positive. Don't worry 'bout that."
"Hey, if ya can worry 'bout me, then I get to worry 'bout you. That my job now, ain't it?"
Wendy suddenly had to blink very hard. Her hand coming up to hide her mouth for a moment.
"Wen-?"
"Hey Johnny?" she finally asked, in an attempt to rouse the conversation back to something lighthearted.
"Yeah?"
"What's your favorite color?" It was the first thing she thought of...but it was also something Wendy been wondering about for a long time. Personally, given his jacket, she wondered if it wasn't blue like her. Or maybe black like his t-shirt. Either or would suit Johnny in its own right she thought.
...and both looked good on him besides.
Evidently, Johnny hadn't expected this, 'cause he slipped back into 'startled' silence. "My favorite color?"
"Uh-huh," even though she knew he couldn't see her, Wendy nodded.
"Why you'd want to know that?" he asked, sounding baffled.
"Well, I know a lot about you...your friends, your home-life, what music you like...but all this time I never learned your favorite color. Isn't that strange?"
Johnny seemed to consider this, and Wendy could almost the phone being adjusted against his jaw.
"Guess ya gotta point there...your favorite color blue right?"
"Right."
"How come?"
Wendy perked up.
"Blue's the color that lets you get closest to heaven," she told him eagerly, "Closer to the sky, and closer to the sea. I love the sea. Went there on vacation to cap cod when I was little -when you see it, hear it, you never forget it. It just so...safe. Whenever I see blue, I feel like nothing can harm me...maybe that's a little stupid, but lots of cultures like the Greeks thought blue could ward off the evil eye."
"No kiddin'?"
"Nope. Now how 'bout you? What's your favorite color?"
Silence again, and this time, Wendy couldn't read it, couldn't translate it. She'd just started to think she might ask the question again or forget it all entirely when at last Johnny breathed out and answered her.
"Ya know, I don't think I have a favorite color Wendy," he admitted. "Never really took the time to think 'bout stuff like that."
Wendy's throat flexed at that, a little bit. What was life without color? A life where you were forced to keep your vision narrow just to get by?
"But...tell ya what Wendy," Johnny continued, and something in his voice become quietly determined. "I'll sleep on it, and when I got my favorite color I'll tell you first off. Sound good?"
Wendy softened and gave the affirmative. "See you in school then?"
"See you in school."
Read and review! Well, they're finally together! Back to school next chapter and some more development in their relationship -I'm going for while mature, they both are still teenagers and this is their first love. The title of this chapter is from West Side Story, the song helped me write this chapter.