Sarah126: thanks :)
yeah, I try to update every day
glad you like it

amy/krista: oh, I see :)
thank you very much :)
well, Pony didn't know Selena before, but Johnny did. so Johnny explained Pony (3 chapter)
amy: I hope you aren't confused anymore, if you still are, please let me know :)


7. Mutual trust

Meanwhile Pony arrived at the brothel.
He sneaked into the room of Selena again unnoticed.

When he entered Selena smiled at him and they hugged briefly.

"Where are ya livin' actually, Ponyboy?" Selena asked, after they sat down on the bed.

She wouldn't ask him right after his parents, because she heard before that they were dead.
And she wouldn't remind Pony of them unnecessarily.
She hadn't any idea that she was doing exactly this; however just even by the fact that she was there.
So she asked him this way for his descent.

"I live together with my both brothers in the 'East Side'. I'm a Greaser." Pony answered a bit hesitating.
Selena nodded. She knew about the fight 'Socs against Greasers'.
She told, "Well, ya already know what I am.
But do ya know, Pony, Mike ain't always been like that.
I got to know him as a nice, friendly and lovin' man. And I fell in love with him right away.
He was the first love of my life.
But he changed by and by. He started to gamble our little bit of money away.
Then he became hot-tempered and beat me.
And in the end he turned me into one of his whores.
I realized too late how and who Mike is in reality."

Then she looked at Pony sadly. Ponyboy stretched his hand out and put it shyly on hers.
There she looked him straight into the eyes and smiled.

But Ponyboy noticed that this smile didn't come whole-heartedly.
He could read a lot of pain in it.
And Pony felt already there and then that something really bad would happen!
And it saddened him, because he didn't know it exactly, so that he could have prevented it.

And the more he noticed this pain, which definitely had arisen by Mike, the bigger became Pony's hate of him. How could Mike just do such a thing to 'his' Selena, who always was so good and kind to everybody?

That's why he asked, "Why are ya still stayin' with Mike at all?
He just uses ya disrespectful, beats ya and faces ya to prostitute.
Ya just can't put up with it that easy!"
Selena smiled at him and answered, "I don't put up with it that easy.
I hate my 'job' and I do it with a real disgust; yeah, I feel it as a bad humiliation, but meanwhile I realized that I can't do anythin' against it
I know that ya can't understand that I put up with all this here of Mike. But I still love him somehow!
Besides he definitely wouldn't let me go voluntarily...
I'm scared of him. We all are scared. That's why we do nothin' against him.
He doesn't treat only me that bad, also the other whores here.
We trust us mutual and help us, but we don't trust Mike and are scared of him...
And even though he only regards me as one of his money-yieldin' whores, I still love him... But he doesn't return my love..."
"I'm sorry..." Pony said sadly.
He didn't wanna that his 'mother' would suffer.

"It's all right! It ain't ya fault. I told the others 'bout ya. Two of them are called Betty and Caroline. They've got the rooms left and right beside me.
That's why I get along with 'em very well. I really can trust 'em. They're even somethin' like my best friends.
They promised me to protect ya from Mike and to help ya to come here unsighted from Mike."
Pony smiled about this well-meant step.

After that the both talked together quite a while.
Selena asked Pony for his brothers.
And Ponyboy told her about them and about the others from the gang; about his best buddy Johnny, the dreaded Dally, the fond of life Two-Bit and Soda's best buddy Steve.

Then Selena said to Ponyboy, "I'm sorry, Pony, but now my 'job' is waitin' for me again."
And she watched him sadly. Ponyboy didn't look less sad, but he accepted it.
She rose from the bed and walked to the door.
There she meant to Pony that he still should wait a moment. Short time later she came back with two other prostitutes again, which introduced themselves as Betty and Caroline.
The both led Ponyboy safe and unsighted from Mike to the front door, after Selena and Pony said goodbye to each other.
After he was brought to the door by the both he thanked and also said goodbye to them and set off home.

Some time went by.
Ponyboy told lies to Darry and Soda that he always would meet with Johnny.
But actually he really hadn't seen Johnny some time any more, because he was at Selena most of the time.