Chapter Nineteen: Unraveled Secrets

"Dally?" Johnny appeared at Tim and Curly Shepard's house. Tim was lighting a cigarette, Curly was seething with a lump of ice on his face, and there was beer spilled everywhere.

The damage had already been done and Dally was nowhere to be found. Johnny sighed in frustration. If I were Dally, where would I go? He thought to himself. Hmmm…

"I knew I'd find you here," Johnny announced triumphantly upon his arrival in the Curtis' dishwasher. "Dally, what's up? I haven't ever seen you this down!"

Dallas Winston, toughest hood in all of Tulsa, was moping in a pool of suds. "Johnny," he wailed. "What am I gonna do?"

"Tell Suze. Then she can tell Soda."

"What can she tell him? He'd never believe her."

"Why not?" Johnny said logically. "Whoever got Sandy knocked up, Suze can tell Soda who it was and say that he told her and she thought it was only right that she told him—"

"I'm telling you, man, it ain't possible. There ain't no way he'd buy it. You know Soda, he's too loyal to everybody, the stupid—" Dally proceeded to curse Soda out with a sort of miserable affection.

"He's gotta know, Dally, or we'll never get out of this place! You gotta tell Suze—"

Furiously, Dally rounded on Johnny. "Tell her what? To tell Soda that his best friend got completely drunk and was outta his mind that night at Buck's when he and Sandy went upstairs, and I saw them and I didn't stop them? Now do you know why I couldn't tell him, or say anything, even to you or Suze? Do you have any damn idea how it feels to know I could have stopped it?"

Johnny's mouth had dropped open and his eyes had bugged out. He looked like a stunned fish. When he regained his voice, all he could do was blubber. "Dally…I don't…I'm sorry. I didn't…"

"Shut up, kid," Dally growled. "How could you know? But Soda can't find out. He still loves Sandy."

"He's gotten over her."

"So you want to get him hurt all over again? Great pal you are, Johnny," Dally said. And then, as if it had just occurred to him, he snapped, "And don't you go telling Suze none of this neither, do you hear—damn, where'd the kid go? JOHNNY! I'M GONNA KILL YA!"

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"Suze," Johnny said, appearing right in front of her. She gasped and stopped in her tracks just before she walked through him.

"What?" she demanded. Then, seeing his panicked expression, she asked, concerned, "What happened?"

"It's Dally," Johnny said in a rush. Suze could barely make out the words, he was talking so fast. "He didn't get Sandy pregnant, but he knows who did. He saw them at Buck's, and the guy was drunk outta his mind and he was taking Sandy upstairs and Sandy wasn't resisting, and Dally says he coulda stopped them but he didn't and that's why he doesn't wanna tell—"

"Whatever he said, it's all a lie!" Dally roared, fading in and cutting Johnny off.

"She's got to know, Dally, it's her job!"

"Well, we can't trust her not to tell Soda!"

"That's why I'm telling her, nitwit!"

"Nitwit? Is that the best you can come up with?"

"GUYS!" Suze barked. "Johnny already told me most of it. You just have to tell me who it was."

"You can't let Soda know that!" Dally shouted, looking thoroughly panicked. "He'll never forgive the guy, if he decides to believe it!"

"He has to know who it was!" Johnny interrupted. "Suze, it was Steve!"

Dead silence. Dally took a deep, shuddering breath to calm himself before saying in a strangled voice, "Johnny Cade, you are a dead man. Dead dead man, I mean."

But Suze wasn't paying attention to them anymore. The gears were turning in her head. She nodded slowly. "Okay," she said. "I've got an idea. Soda can find out, but he doesn't have to know it was Steve."

"What if he has to know it was Steve for us to be free?" Johnny demanded.

"Okay, so then he will find out," Suze said agreeably.

"No!" Dally cut in. "He can't find out! It'd kill him!"

"So we'll alter the facts a little bit," Suze said. "We can do that, just as long as we're fudging them and not changing them."

"And how exactly do you propose to let him know?" Dally demanded haughtily.

Suze told them. They liked the idea. They liked the idea very much.

"So it's settled then," Suze said, very much pleased with herself. "Plan goes into operation tomorrow."

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"Did you find out?" Ponyboy asked Suze quietly in class the next day.

"Yeah," Suze whispered back. "Don't worry. I've got it covered."

"So what is it?" Ponyboy pressed.

"You'll find out soon enough," Suze smirked. "Believe me, you will."

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Sorry so short. Either next chapter or the one after will be the last one.