hello again!

okay i seriously have a problem with this story because i am obsessed

okay sooooo i've given names to the leaders of each gang that is not recognized much. basically, every gang that fights alongside the Curtis and Shepard gangs: Brumly and The River Kings. i guess the wiki says those are the other two gangs. hopefully that's true lolol

but i love the amount of...love! it's insane. i haven't had a story be this successful or steal my time in a LONG time!

this one was so fun to write. more characters are introduced, and i'm not sure if they'll stay around, but i just couldn't let this idea slide.

here we are with another section :)

-endless

back down

Rumbles give me life.

For the longest time, Darry was our strongest guy, our leader, standing right in the middle of the line. He'd throw Socs far and wide, tackle them to the ground and slam their heads into the mud. He'd keep an eye on Pony and I, and if any Socs were planning to come at us from behind, he'd be on them in an instant. He'd grab 'em by their shirt and catapult them across the dead grass. And they ran from him, scared out of their minds, screaming no matter if they were terrified or they were hurt.

When I came home from 'Nam, that changed real quick. I was the one throwing Socs left and right. I was the one kicking their heads in. I was the guy that everyone looked to for the descent onto the fighting line. I was the leader now, the only one who could give that nod, that signal, to meet the Socs in the middle as we charged at them. Their screams were entirely of pain, of suffering, of sheer terror.

And I reveled in it. I got high off of it.

There's a reason why Socs are afraid to fight me. They shiver in their pristine shoes as they stare at me in the front row. I'm the last person they want to get close to. I would smile at their fearful eyes, their shivering bodies, their twitching arms and legs.

They're itching for a fight, as always.

But not with me. Never with me.

"What should we do?"

Soda is dead asleep, but each leader several gangs stare right at him as if he can give orders. Tim Shepard and Victor Brumly are the only two I recognize, and Tim stands at the farthest point in the room, near the window. His brother Curly stands next to him in silence.

Darry leans back against the wall. "He's not ready to do this," he says, his eyes like ice. "He can't even stay awake. He's delirious." I'm forced back to the other morning, where we all woke up at Soda's bedside, and when he awoke, he started screaming. I quickly reached over Two and held onto his arm, feeling the paralyzed muscles trying to find strength. He tried to swipe at Darry, but Two-Bit leaped over the other side of the bed and held his other arm down. I painfully watched as Darry and Pony tried explaining where he was, that he was okay, and Soda growled at them like we were all wild animals.

It had taken what seemed like a thousand and one drugs to get him in this state. Here we are: back at stage one.

Victor holds Darry's gaze. "We ain't got much time. The Socs are invading our property." I smirk inside of my head. By property, he means our kid brothers and sisters. What a way to describe protection.

Pony puts his two cents into the conversation. "What if we -"

"We don't answer to you." Tim cuts Pony off. Pony flinches at the tone in his voice.

"They need to be taken care of," Thomas, the leader of The River Kings, adds.

"I realize that. But -" Darry gestures to Soda, who remains conked out on drugs, "- he's got bigger things on his mind."

Tim opens his mouth to retort, but I beat him. "You haven't come to us since our last rumble. Why should we add ourselves into the mess?"

"It involves all of us," Victor states coldly. It feels like both of their gangs are in the room, stealing all of the air and creating such an intense pressure that I can barely breathe.

The River Kings leader hasn't spoken a word. I look at him, and he's looking at me, clearly sizing each other up. If given the chance, I could totally fuck up his face, but I know Darry is more diplomatic than that. If Soda wasn't knocked out, I know he would side with them because of Pony. Any sort of threat to his younger brother would send Soda into a fierce rant, and once it took us three hours to calm him down. His protection of Ponyboy runs deeper than anything I know.

"We aren't provoking them to fight yet." Darry's voice is taut with authority.

"Why not?" Victor challenges. Beside him, Tim and Curly nod along. "You said yet. That means we'll fight eventually. So why not now?"

Ponyboy stands at Soda's bedside. "We can all handle ourselves until Soda's better."

Curly grunts from the window. "If."

Immediately Darry steps forward. Two-Bit and I realize that he's about to explode, so we put ourselves between him and and Tim, who stands in front of his brother. Both sets of eyes are calculating and flying around the room, as if trying to figure out a vantage point. Two-Bit, Pony, and I flank Darry as he leans forward and looks each leader, and even Curly, in the eye. I can feel his blood burning, and his hands grip the blanket so that he has stability.

"Don't mess with anyone, you hear?" Darry hisses the words. "Until he's better, you're answering to me."

Pride soars through me at Darry's words. I knew he had been shocked, and maybe even jealous, of Soda since his reign had come to an end. No one expected it to happen. No one could've predicted that the other three gangs would vote for Soda to be on the front line, our spokesperson, our mediator. But in a way, I think our gang felt that Darry's power was falling through the cracks.

I grunt in satisfaction as they all back down. They shuffle past all of us, and Two-Bit and I follow them out the door before turning to Darry.

Our tough guy is back.