It had been over a week since my two best friends had passed away and only with time will your wound heal. It hadn't been the best week of my life but I was accepting it more with everyday I didn't see their faces. I had to accept it. I had to accept it for Ponyboy to be able to accept it.

As I sit in my room now this Sunday morning I stare into my mirror into the green eyes of the girl in front of me. I brush her hair away from her face and tie it up high, even putting a black ribbon in it, standing out from her chocolate brown hair. I rub at her eyes nervously as they are red and puffy from tears. I wipe at her freckled cheeks to wipe away all the splashes of tears. I nervously straighten her white blouse and her black skirt and fix that silver locket around her neck so it sits right.

I nervously open the girl in the mirror's locket and smile slightly at the pictures the girl holds inside it. The one of her parents and the one of the two boys who should have been born brothers. I watch the girl in the mirror smile back and see that lone tear run down her cheek again. As I stand up she stands up. That girl in the mirror is me. No matter how much I wish right now that I wasn't going to Johnnycakes and Dally's funerals I can't deny the fact I am. Playing make believe doesn't work anymore, because they are never coming out from the door and shouting 'BOO!' ever again.

I slip my stocking feet into a pair of my mothers black high heels and open my bedroom door fiddling with the plain silver ring my mother gave me for my thirteenth birthday. I'd only worn it once before. Right now was the right time for it again. I wish I never have to wear it again, for that one wish I'd be truly satisfied.

I walked down the hall of our second floor and walk down our stairs into our lounge room. Two-Bit looked up, looking very uncomfortable in his black suit, and gives me a sad smile but it's a smile all the same and smiles are very welcomed in this household right now.

Steve looks at me nervously from the other end of the couch and Darry barely moved an inch, not even his gaze leaves the wall at which he is staring at. I walked past them both and into the kitchen. Sodapop is sitting at the table nervously awaiting the funeral by drinking chocolate milk. He gives me a smile, its not sad, but its happy. Because he knows that this is right. It needs to be done. I think he's the only one that understands that. As I give him back that smile, mine being more saddened than his, I watch Ponyboy walk into the kitchen looking more depressed than usual. He takes no notice of us and walks out just as fast as he came in.

As Darry instructs us all that its time to leave I follow my brothers outside to their cars along with Steve and Two-Bit when Darry placed a hand on my shoulder and stared into my eye with a sad little smile on his face.

"Pixie, do you mind going with them?" He asked me and I shook my head. "Thank you, Pixie." Then he paused hesitantly, "I love you, Pixie, you do know that, right? Last week just showed me that I need to tell you that more often. I'm not trying to be our parents. I swear."

I nodded and smiled sadly at my oldest brother. "I know, Darry. I love you too, I just was being silly,"

"You had a point, Pixie." He whispered patting my shoulder before he got in the truck with my two other brothers.

I just nodded and slipped into the back seat of Steve's car and closed the door. But the silence in the car was just too much for me. Not even music was being played I had to break it. I'd been surrounded by silence too much lately. We needed to start going back to normal. If this one conversation would help you can bet I'd start it then.

"Is Emily coming?" I asked softly but they heard me.

"I haven't seen her in years." Steve stated.

Two-Bit shrugged. "She sure knows. My mom can't, she tried. Emily has been weird all week. My mom doesn't know what's wrong with her. But she knows about this. She just never said what she was doing."

"How?"

"Moping around." Two-Bit said with a wave of his hand. "Probably boy blues."

"She's never had one." I said without meaning too and I turned red and Two-Bit turned and stared at me. "She's never had one, a boyfriend, I mean."

"Oh." He said raising his brows and saying nothing else.

The rest of the ride was deadly silent as I stared out the window watching trees and buildings fly by. As we arrived at the church I felt my stomach tie up in knots and I felt physically sick at the mere thought of this.

Inside the church not that many people had showed up past us. The Cades had fronted up as well as another couple and a boy and a girl who were with the Cades. None of us knew Johnny had other family but from the look of it they weren't from around here anyway. Sylvia had fronted up as well as Tim Shepard and a few other greasers but other than them it was just us.

Not even Emily had ended up showing.

In the church I sat wedged between Sodapop and Two-Bit saying nothing just staring at my hands. No one wanted to say anything. None of us knew what to say. I knew what to say but I was going to say that when I was by myself. With nothing to say it was a pretty short funeral service and we were by their graves quite a lot quicker than we were when we buried my parents.

As we walked out the church we walked along a winding gravel path to a peaceful place underneath an old tree where two holes had already been dug out. My stomach twisted again inside of me but I just clenched my fists to hold that and my tears back.

I was surrounded, and towered over, by what was left of our gang as we stood around the graves the coffins made their way over. The priest was beginning to say a few more words as they began to lower both coffins and I bit my lip to hold back my tears. The others weren't crying so neither would I.

"Would anyone like to say anything?" The priest asked us kindly.

Before Darry could answer him politely, like I'm sure he was intending to, someone shouted at us to wait. We all turned around and two fourteen year old girls were running over to us. And one of them was Miss Emily Matthews.

"Wait!" She shouted running over, a girl with pretty light brown hair right behind her. "Wait for me." She whispered as she stopped by the open graves looking very flushed.

"Sorry?' The priest asked her looking confused.

"We were late." The other girl supplied as Emily looked very flustered and the other girl looked apologetic. "Got a bit lost, sorry," she said putting her arm around Emily whose eyes were staring at the two coffins as they began to fill with tears.

"That's alright," he said kindly and looked to us all collectively again. "Would anyone like to say any final goodbyes? Any more words?"

"That's alright," Darry informed him politely when Emily interrupted him.

"I do," she whispered nervously.

My own eyes were on her and Darry was staring at her like he'd never seen her before. I'm not even sure if he recognized her. Ponyboy I'm not sure was even aware of her presence and both Sodapop and Steve had their mouths wide open. Like I've said, Emily wasn't eleven anymore.

"Please go on." The priest said kindly and Emily's friend squeezed her hand.

"I want to tell them I'm sorry." Emily said sounding very choked up as her friend held her hand tighter. "I'm sorry that I wasn't there for the past few years to just be with them as friends." Emily said her voice cracking and she finally started crying. "And to Dally that I listened to what he said, I'm gonna do what he told me to do." Then she laughed nervously. "And they really are perfect together too. He was right." Then she began sobbing loudly and that set me off.

"Em, you need to finish it," her friend whispered to her. "You said you would of."

Emily nodded with determination but the tears fell freely from her face and mine. "And Johnny, you were the best person in this world and you deserved so much more than you got and I'm so sorry you had to see me like that."

Emily just stopped speaking as she was crying so loudly and heavily she didn't look like she'd continue. The Cades and most of the others had wandered off. I don't think they wanted to see the hysteric tears of a teenage girl but she was only setting me off and she wasn't calming even though her friend really looked to be trying.

I took a deep breath and spoke up. "You both meant so much to all of us and we'll miss you both so much. And Dally, she's done what's right. She came back." I whispered quietly as the priest passed us all some of that dirt and we threw it over.

I watched Emily throw it and she sniffed and threw a letter on Johnny's grave before Steve walked away containing his own grief. I glanced to Emily and watched her in the arms of her friend who was crying too. Two-Bit had walked over to his sister and was hugging the two teenaged girls and I felt Sodapop's arms go around me.

"She's done what's right. She looks different but she's still Emily." He told me with a sad smile. "They're better off now. I knew you'd talk properly."

"I knew I would too." I whispered as I ran a hand through my hair.

"I didn't think she'd show, you know." Two-Bit told me as he squeezed my hand.

I nodded and stifled my sobs. "Neither. But she's here."

Emily's friend had broken away from her and was smiling sadly and trying to offer condolences to her when Darry stepped in. It was the most beautiful thing I had actually ever seen. He just took her in his arms like a brother should take a sister. But it was just the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen as Darry saw her as he always had. A kid and even though he hadn't seen her for all these years he did what was right. Accept her coming back without a second thought to the reason.

I smiled sadly and fell into Two-Bit's arms as I cried softly to myself.

"It's for the best now you know," The girl told me and Two-Bit.

Two-Bit looked at her. "What's for the best?"

"This." She said with a wave of her hand to the two fresh graves that they were filling in. "From what Emily's told me at least they'll be in a happier place than in Tulsa."

I nodded. "Yeah they will." I whispered as Two-Bit wandered off. None of the others understood what I had meant by that when I'd tried to say it before asides from Sodapop.

"You know what's the best thing?" The girl asked me.

I stated her in the eye and smiled softly. "What?"

"They'll always be forever young. Captured in the best place of their lives. In their youth." She told me with a genuine smile. "Always to be youth. It's for the best. If only Emily would believe me."

"But it is," I whispered as I began crying again. "Thank you, uh?"

"Ashley," she told me before wandering back over to Emily and I looked to the two fresh graves my lip trembling with the fresh floods of tears that seem to be never-ending.

As I looked to the two patches of earth in between the lush green grass of Tulsa Cemetery I didn't bother to wipe away my tears. There lay two of my best friends. An older brother and a little brother. Dallas Winston and Johnny Cade. The rebel and the puppy. I smiled sadly as I knelt down by the graves. Ignoring the fact I was wearing my good skirt and a pair of tights. Sitting on the grass I looked at the graves and my body shook with tears.

They were finally at a resting place. It was time for me to say goodbye but I couldn't bear to part with them. That little bit of me that was holding onto them had gone away. They were truly gone and I'd finally began to accept that fact. Looking at the two places in the earth that would be forever theres I thought of what Emily's friend Ashley said. It was true. They might not be around forever but they had something I know they would have wanted. Youth. They would always be young. Forever Young.

A/N: I updated sooner than I expected and I feel like crying. This is the last chapter of Forever Young and I will dearly miss posting it. I have the first few chapters of the sequel written up and I'll be posting that as a new story soon enough I promise. I want to thank every single person who reviewed me, it was much appreciated, and that was what has encouraged me to keep on with my writing. Anyway, this is so sad for me right now, but I hope you've enjoyed the story as much as I enjoyed writing it. Now please give me that one last review!

Much love,

Rachel