Disclaimer: I have said it before, and I shall say it again. I'm not S.E.Hinton. If I were, I would not be writing this. I would be sitting at home answering fan mail and writing famous novels for y'all to read.

On with the show…

Chapter Five
Thinking It Through

Nate walked home with me. I led for a while, but I soon realized that I had no clue where I was or where I was headin'.

"Nate, where the heck are we? And why didn't you bring the truck?"

"Matt, we live right down the road," he sighed, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Well, how was I supposed to know? I was unconscious, remember?"

"WHAT! Darry called and told me that you got scraped up a little and that they were taking care of you, but they didn't mention anything about you getting knocked out!"

I just shrugged a shoulder as he unlocked the front door of our house. I tried to make it to my room, which was small and dingy, just like the rest of the house, but better than being with a stressed Nate, when he said, "Matt, get over here, now!"

I sighed, then went into the living room. I plopped down on the old couch we got from a garage sale (that's where we got most of our furniture: garage sales, discount stores, flea markets) waiting for whatever was coming next.

He sat down in an old armchair across from me and stared at me with his hard, cold, blue eyes. They didn't used to be that way, but they were now. I don't know why, but in a way, he kinda reminded me of Darry. His eyes had the same set to them, too.

But in a way that look was almost scary, like he could read your thoughts just by looking at you. And I preferred to keep my thoughts to myself, thank you very much.

But Nate continued to stare at me before he said, "Now, Matt, I want you to tell me what happened. Don't skip anything. I wanna know who did this, and I wanna know the truth about it, savvy?"

I sighed but nodded. There was no getting out of it, no matter how much I didn't want to relate my experience.

"Well, I was walking home from school just like normal. I hadn't seen the gang all day. It seemed as though they had been avoiding me all day. So I started off home, and when I looked behind me, I noticed them following me. I waited up for them, and… I dunno… I guess they decided to gang up on me. The only other thing I remember was pain and falling to the ground. Then I woke up at the Curtises where only one person has a normal first name."

Nate stared at me for a while again, then decided that I didn't lie. "So your friends did this to you?" he asked again, just to verify he had heard correctly.

"Those lousy-" He went on to call them every name he could think up before saying, "I don't want you to hang around with them anymore."

No kidding. "Then who should I hang out with?" I asked, just out of curiosity. There was no way I could take my old friends back after what they did to me.

"What about that kid. Horse-guy, or something. He looked like he was almost your age."

I nodded.

"Besides, you owe all them your presence. They saved you ya know."

Again I nodded. I felt worse than ever, but if they hadn't come along I'd probably be hanging around dead in a gutter somewhere. I asked him, "Do ya think I look as bad as I feel?"

He laughed, then said, "Even worse. I'm just gonna have to hope your school doesn't report me for child abuse. We'd have social workers swarming around this place."

I nodded, then went to my room. I had to think.

Why did they do this to me? Even if I was a greaser now, I thought that they had more morals than that. There had to be something more to it than that.

It was then it hit me. It had been my idea to go beat up the greasers that day. So it was my fault that Bob had died – even if Bob had his own excuse for going with me since I'd heard him say something about his girlfriend associating with the greasers. Even if I had remained a soc, they would have still been after me.

It was then I knew that from now on, I had to be careful. My old friends had become new enemies. And the people I used to hate were now my only allies.

- - - - -

Now, on to the reviews…

Hahukum Konn- Thanks for the email, I feel a lot better now that I know I got it right. And in my reply I explained about the knife thing… so the only thing left to say is No, the greasers don't know about Matt yet. I think he will tell Pony at least, but I think he's gonna keep to himself that it was his fault Bob died. And if Bob hadn't died neither would have Johnny and Dally. Hope this is a little bit longer for ya. Probably isn't but sry.

Babygurl33- Yeah, poor Johnny and Dal, they were so young…. I think Pony will know soon that Matt was a soc, but he's gonna keep the fact that he jumped him and Johnny a secret, at least for a while.

Steves-girl- Yeah, I wish they were my boys, too. Whenever I write a novel or a story I tend to think of the characters as my guys too, even though I'm just the writer and my characters are usually a couple of years older than me!

Purified Darkness- Lol. Hope this is a soon enough update for ya. At least its sooner than two years! ;)

Dark Destiny2000- Yeah, so sad. But it is these things that make us who we are and who we are going to become. Okay, I sound like some old monk who does nothing but pretends to be wise! But yeah, Nate's starting to realize that the greasers are okay guys. They did save his little brother, after all.

PLEASE REVIEW. I look forward to them so much. They really make my day. I'm aiming for around six this time so please help me make my goal before I update.

Bookworm

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