The Outsiders II: The Outcasts

by

~Miriah~of~the~Wind~

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Chapter 9: Love of a Greaser

"Hey, Ponyboy, you okay?" I tried to shake out of it. That voice......it belonged to Two-bit. I tried to get up but Steve told me to lay back. As it turned out Mrs. Cade had heard me and was enraged. I was knocked out for a couple of hours. Even though it was a couple of hours I could still feel the back of my head very painful. Mrs. Cade sure had a good throwing arm.

"I'm gonna take a walk around the park." I said. I needed to get away for a while and there's something that park does to make itself completely deserted. With the exception of Bob's death the park was over all very pretty, especially around a sunset, which thank God, I was just in time for. I sat there on the fountain's edge a voice startled me.

"Isn't so pretty, yet so far away." I looked around to see Johnny had just entered the park too with tears streaming down his face. The whole gang had wondered 'why in the name of all that was sensible' we went here anyway. Johnny and I though it was a nice park and one death of a Soc wasn't gonna keep us from going there.

"Sorry about my mom, ya know, earlier today?" Johnny said.

"Never mind that, what about you?" I urged it seemed to me he was more depressed than I had ever seen.

"It's Miriah." he said quietly and he tried to hold back his tears.

"Yeah, what about her?" I asked.

"She dumped me." he replied quietly.

"What?!?" I couldn't believe it! Those two were really hitting it off and I even saw Miriah endue her mother's wrath after she rejected Randy. Why she'd go and do that for?

"She dumped me."Johnny said, "She was at her house when a couple of Socs came by and told her they were gonna kill me if I didn't stay away from her." he took his eyes off the sunset and turned to me, "She told me she loved me but that it would be selfish on her side to have me murdered for it. All this just because I'm a Greaser! Why can't they just leave us alone. It's bad enough when they yell, "GREASER" in their fancy cars or when they jump us but do they have to insist on interfering with our love lives too. I remembered when Sandy was gonna out with Soda all the cheerleaders would trip her in the hall and some of the Socs even stepped on her when she tripped and when Sylvia was still with Dally the Soc boys would flirt with her, right in front of Dally too! You know they still tease Evie about havin' a guy who works at a gas station? And now this." I stared at Johnny. I had never heard of Sandy being tripped or Evie being tormented or Sylvia was flirted with right from the start. Was that what drove Sandy away? The Socs who made her life miserable because of her love for a Greaser?

"What am I gonna do, Ponyboy?" Johnny asked me now his head in his hands. Something in my head told me it was too late. There IS nothing we could do. We were just a couple of Greasers and maybe it was Johnny's fault. Maybe he should have known better than to think he could be with a Soc. I mean maybe integrating with anyone not our kind was causing more trouble than it worth. But then I tried to think were Miriah might be right now. Haughty and high right now, talking to some rich friends of hers, talking about cars and movies and cute boys and Greasers. Miriah would tell them that she once dated one and the others would gasp and say, 'what was it like?' or somethin' like that not knowing that Johnny was here practically dying without her.

It was then that I came upon Cherry Valence words, "I wasn't trying to give you charity, Ponyboy. I only wanted to help. I liked you from the start... the way you talked. You're a nice kid, Ponyboy. Do you realize how scarce nice kids are nowadays? Wouldn't you try to help me if you could?" I got another image of Miriah but now a different one. Miriah sitting on her bed crying her tears out because it all just wasn't fair. Because she loved her man, even if he was a hood with no money and nothing to offer her except himself and his absolute devotion, but she wouldn't want to see him hurt or dead. Yet she could never see him again so it was almost the same thing. I sat there with Johnny and wondered if Miriah missed Johnny as much as Johnny missed her. The first image I got of Miriah, ya know the high and haughty one, I actually couldn't believe I saw Miriah like that. That wasn't the girl Johnny fell in love with. Miriah was hurt, quiet and soft spoken. She didn't have Janet's strength or Claudia's beauty but she did know things that could change lives I bet. Like her own.....

"Johnny I have an idea." I said, "But were gonna need the other's help."

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