Did she just say she loved me?
I haven't had no one say 'I love you' to me but mom, dad, Darry and Soda. What surprised me the most was I said, "I love you too." I don't say that too much. I usually say, "You too" or "Mhm, yeah." I've especially never said it to a girl. I'm still debating in my head if I meant it in a friendly way, or more than that.
"C'mon Ponyboy, let's swing."
Jamie ran over to her usual swing at the end and I occupied the one next to her. I lit a cancer stick and blew a smoke circle. I was thankful for the unusual silence we were stuck in so it gave me more time to think about what I was going to say next.
"Did you mean it?" She asked curiously.
"Mean what?" I asked clulessly.
"'I love you, too' Did you really mean it?"
It took me a while to respond. Maybe I really did mean it like that. Maybe I really did love Jamie.
"Yeah. I meant it." I said taking a long drag of smoke, "Did you mean it?"
"Yeah." She said smiling and biting the corner of her lip.
While I took another long drag on my cigarette, I looked at Jamie. I never noticed how perfectly brown her eyes were, or how smooth her skin looks. Her hair looks so soft I just want to reach out and touch it. That cute little smile that played on her lips made me nervous and weak in the knees. And the way the sun is hitting her just enhances her beauty.
"Ponyboy?" She asked, looking at me funny, "You got your head in the clouds again?" She laughed.
Her laugh made me smile and I said, "Yeah. Hey, let's head home now. I'm starvin'."
She nodded and we started walking home in the most comfortable silence imaginable while we stole glances at eachother.
"Hey, you're birthday's comin' up, right?" I asked curiously.
"Yeah.." She said dully, "Next month."
I frowned. I knew she was leavin' next month and I wished she really didn't have to.
Jamie's P.O.V
A sudden rush of sadness overcame me. I wouldn't even be with my best friends on my birthday. No home made chocolate cake from Soda. No birthday wrestling bashes from Darry and Two-Bit. No hanging out all day with Ponyboy and messing around. Some birthday this is going to be...
I heard a honking from a couple blocks behind us. I turned around to see a red mustang slowly approaching us with two guys haning their heads out of the window.
I faced forward again. "Pony, run." I muttered.
"What?" He asked.
"Run." I said again, hearing the mustang coming closer, "Run!"
We both shot off as a fast pace and started running faster and faster as the yeling and screaming of, "Filthy greasers!" was coming nearer.
I looked around and there were absolutley no people, which means no help. This was seeming all too farmiliar.
"Pony! Run!" I said while we were sprinting down the deserted street. "Run and keep running!"
"No! I can't leave you!" He said tears rolling down his face.
Oh God, please don't be exaclty like my dream..
"Yes you can Pony! Yes you can! I'll hold them off but I want you to keep running!" I yelled, frustrated that he was being so stubborn. He nodded and ran ahead of me.
"Greasers! Where ya goin'! Don't ya wanna see what's behind door number one!" I pushed Ponyboy forward more when I heard a gunshot and a pain in my back occured.
Well shit, this didn't happen in my dream.
"Got her!" They were yelling. I felt the blood trickling down my back but I didn't care, all I wanted was to get to the nearest hospital as soon as possible.
The Soc's had left and I stopped running, gasping for air. Ponyboy had been gasping for air and stopped too but he was supporting me.
"Jamie? Jamie!" I heard Steve yell. He ran up beside me and saw my back.
"What happened Pony?" Steve asked forcefully.
"Soc's... gun..." I heard him gasp out.
Steve picked me up and ran with Ponyboy ckose behind him. And the last thing I heard before I blacked out was, "God Jamie, stay with us."
Ponyboy's P.O.V
"So, doc, what's gonna happen here with Jamie?" Steve asked nervously. Steve really didn't like me too much, but Jamie is practically like his little sister and he couldn't let anything happen to her. And he's too worried to really care about me.
The doctor looked nervously at the clip board he carried in his arms, "Well, it's hard to say right now-"
"Whadda you mean it's hard to tell! Aren't y'all supposed to know stuff about these situations!"
"Yes," The doctor said scared, "But the bullet had nearly pierced her lung and it's hard to tell how much damage it really caused. Her surgery today helped, but it it's still hard to say. Plus she's exhausted, stressed... I don't know how much longer she'll last."
Steve started getting teary eyed but held it back and sat back down next to me, holding his head up with one hand. I didn't want to say anything, because I wasn't sure what to say. Steve is like Dally in a way. I got Darry and Soda, Dally had Johnny, Two-Bit has Jamie, and Steve sorta shared Jamie with Two-Bit. It's not fair to him. Even though he is best friends with Soda, it don't really make up for being an only child and Jamie was always there for Steve.
"Where is she! WHERE IS SHE?" Two-Bit barged into the waiting room, yelling at us.
"Can I help you, sir?" Said a nurse walking by.
"Jamie Sanders. What room?" He asked hurriedly walking up to her.
"Umm.. Sanders... Ah. Room 109. Only family are allowed to see her. Are you related to her?"
"Yeah, she's my cousin."
"Alright," She said writing on a piece of paper and putting it on Two-Bit's shirt, "You can go in. But you two," She said pointing to me and Steve, "You can't go."
"Why not!" Steve almost screamed.
"Only family." She said firmly.
"Umm, no offense miss, but we are family," I said, almost breaking down in tears. Being in this hospital gave me too many memories.
She looked at us in a weird way before saying we could go in and she gave us the same papers on our shirt.
We all ran to her room all the way down the hallway in 'Critical Condition' until we saw the name Jamie Sanders on the door written on a clipboard. We slowly walked in to see Jamie hooked up to loud bleeping machines that blinked and moved and did whatever they were supposed to do. It hurt for me to see her like this. No one wants to see their best friend hooked up to so many tubes.
A nurse walked in with a clipboard and started writing notes while we watched silently.
"Nurse, can you please tell us what's really the matter with her?" Two-Bit asked with a shaky and cracked voice.
She looked down at her clipboard and stared hard.
"Umm.. It seems that her lung had been nearly pierced by a bullet and has damaged an artery and she has suffered partial damage to her lung." She stopped and looked at us. We all had tears in our eyes and mine were coming down the hardest.
"Look boys, this is something that really can be fixed. Her surgery today should help her heal until her second surgery tomorrow-"
"MAYBE SHE WON'T LAST THAT LONG!" Two-Bit yelled. "SHE COULD DIE TODAY! DON'T YOU PEOPLE THINK?" He screamed and ran out of the room, crying his eyes out.
This is all my fault. If we had just gotten home just a little sooner, if I hadn't run ahead of her, I would be in her postition and she would be watching me. Perfectly content and in perfect condition. I could barely watch her laying there, hardly breathing. Tears started streaming down my cheeks, I walked closer to her. Steve couldn't take it and ran out of the room like Two-Bit did.
I sat beside her and just watched her. She was so pale.
"Jamie, I know you hear me. I know you can hear me, now, you just listen! I'll talk, but you listen. Please don't do this. Please don't go..." I begged, "We need you. Two-Bit needs you, Steve needs you, I need you." I lowered my head and tried not to look at her so much. "We can't lose you. We've already lost two friends, we can't lose you too." I grabbed her hand, 'C'mon. You wouldn't leave us here. We can't live without you. Especially me, " Tears were coming too fast, "I was lost. You helped me a lot through my life nad if I lose you, I'll be lost all over again. It's not fair! I can't do this! Jamie I love you. I love you alot, Jamie. Just show me a sign, that you're gonna be alright." I waited for a moment and nothing happened.
This isn't fair. The only thing that could run through my mind was that my best friend, the one girl that I really love, might die. It could be today, tomorrow, or even the next day. But whatever the circumstances, until I hear from the doctors, I don't know how long she'll really last.
I leaned back, still holding her hand, and started bawling until I felt something. I looked down at our hands and her hand had tightened around mine.