This fic is becoming pretty popular. Better than I expected. Keep the reviews coming.

Chapter 5: Lifestyle

After a while of riding around, going into gas stations, and disturbing the peace, Dally was pulled over for speeding. He had mouthed off to the cop so he had to go to the station. The cop had just left the car, Louis, and Johnny there. Dally said to just leave the car there. It was payback for Buck cheating in the card game they played last week.

"Is he going to be okay?" asked Louis concerned about Dally.

"Yeah. That kind of stuff usually happens around him. The town isn't that far away. It'll only take about four or five minutes to get there."

"Okay. Johnny…I have a question. Do you have a certain feeling around Dally?"

Johnny was a little nervous to answer question. He had never told anyone else in the gang how he felt about Dally. Everyone else thought as him as a wild kid with a huge attitude. Johnny never shared his opinion with anyone else. He really didn't talk much at all.

"Well. I don't know about everybody else. But I feel protected around Dally. He's pretty gallant."

Louis didn't even know what 'gallant' meant. But he did sort of feel protected around him. It was probably because he had kept those socs from hurting him. It was a different feeling than from when he was protected by someone before…

Louis shook his head quickly. He didn't want to think about that. He was trying to get away from that thought.

"How do you feel about him?" asked Johnny breaking Louis' thoughts.

"Um. I'm not sure yet."

The two teenagers reached the town. It was sundown by then. Johnny then said to Louis.

"C'mon. I want to show you somewhere."

"Where?" asked Louis curiously.

"It's a place near Pony, Soda and Darry's house. We call it the lot. It's a good place to talk."

Johnny and Louis walked up to the lot and sat down. Louis liked the feel of this place. He had really never felt so comfortable anywhere.

"You know. I really feel like you're a friend. Even though I just met you," said Johnny.

"Same here," said Louis.

"Do you like it here, Louis?"

"Pretty much."

"Hm. It's okay?"

"You don't like it."

"To tell you the truth. I probably would have run away a million times. But Ponyboy kept reminding me of good stuff. Like sunsets. You ever seen one?"

"No."

"Me neither. I hope I see one in the future."

"Well. I think I gonna like it here. I think you guys are fun. The Curtis brothers are pretty nice. You're good to talk to, and I feel protected around Dally. I haven't met Steve yet."

"He saw you this morning. You were still asleep."

"Oh."

Johnny continued.

"I some times come over here to sleep when my folks are arguing. They do that a lot. I'm like a ghost in there. Unless my dad's hitting me, or when my mom's yelling at me."

"For what?" asked Louis. He didn't know Johnny had it this bad.

"I guess to take out anger."

Suddenly a figure stepped up in front of them. Louis looked up to see Sodapop.

"Hey, Johnny, Louis," he greeted.

"Hey Soda," said Johnny in a quiet voice. Soda turned to Louis.

"You need to come on home. Darry wants to get you set up."

"Okay," said Louis getting up. Soda then directed his attention to Johnny.

"Johnny. You wanna come on home with us?"

"I might sleep out here. I'll come to your house later on, maybe."

"Okay."

Soda and Louis walked over to the Curtis house. Soda then asked Louis,

"What did you do today?"

" I talked Johnny mostly. Dally had gotten arrested for driving too fast. What did you do?"

"I went to work at the DX. Darry has the weekend off and spent half the day resting his back at home. When I got off work, we hung out a little. By the way, do you know where Ponyboy is?"

"No. He stayed at the Movie Theater after Dally came."

"Hm. Is your leg any better?"

"Yeah."

"That's good. We're gonna give you Pony's old clothes. You're a little smaller than him, so they should fit pretty well."

"Okay."

They reached the house and Soda directed him to him and Ponyboy's room. Soda reached into a drawer and pulled out handfuls of clothes. He threw them onto the bed.

"Try them on," said Soda.

"In front of you?"

"Oh. Sorry. Close the door and knock when you're finished trying them on. The ones you can't fit just leave them on the bed. The ones that fit, just put them back into the drawer."

Soda went out of the room, and Louis shut the door. He tried on all of the clothes. There was one shirt that swallowed him so he left it on the bed. All of the pants had fit him. He put back on his regular clothes and knocked on the door. Soda walked in.

"Just this shirt," said Louis holding it up.

"Oops. Sorry. That's my shirt. We always get our laundry mixed up."

At that moment, Soda and Louis heard shouting from the living room. Darry was yelling at Ponyboy. For not letting anyone know where he was all day.

Soda sighed. He turned to Louis.

"Sorry you have to hear this. I'll just have to remind them we have a guest in the house. Darry gets angry at Ponyboy every once in a while. I'm going to go see if I can defend him real quick."

Soda put the shirt down and walked up to the front. Louis just sat down on the bed. He looked up at the sky. He then said,

"Please. Keep helping me."