Change! I have changed Molly's tumor from a liver tumor to a brain tumor. Julie wins! LOL.

Johnny's POV

Dear Johnny,

I doubt you really want to hear this, but I figured you'd be upset if I didn't tell you. Steve's been hurt. It's not serious and he'll be out of the hospital by the time you read this. He was stabbed with a broken beer bottle. But that's not the worst of it. His father was the one who stabbed him. He's kicked Steve out for good this time. It worries me because he seems bitter and angry at the world. He doesn't talk much about what happened, but you can see how angry it makes him. I hope he'll be okay. The gang's really falling apart, Johnny, and it scares me.

Though the gang will always be here, I don't know if they'll be okay themselves. No one seems at 100 at the moment. Two-Bit seems the best, but even he seems to be hiding something from us. It seems ironic that we can all have something bad happening to us and not be able to tell each other what's wrong. We're all too stubborn and prideful, I guess. Darry seems okay, too, but he has to work so hard all the time. He had an ulcer and scared me and Soda something awful. He's okay, though. He had to get some prescription pills to help with pain and heal it and stuff, but that's about the worst of it. I'd be surprised if he's taking them when he's supposed to, which is once a day.

I don't know what to do, Johnny. Sometimes I think that things are better, only to have something else bad happen. It's hard, but I'm trying to fight it.

Your friend,

Ponyboy

I sat back against the wall from my place on the floor. What was happening to the gang? It was like Pony said, we're falling apart.

I buried my face in my hands, fighting tears. Darry was hurting. Dallas was nonexistent. Two-Bit was hiding something. Steve was angry. Soda was exhausted. Pony was fighting depression. And I...well, I was trying to deal with the fact that my parents don't love me.

It seemed wrong that we've ended up this way. A matter of months ago we'd all be care-free. But then the impossible happened and our world fell to pieces. It wasn't fair. Nothing was fair. How could this be happening?

I looked up to the top bunk where Tom was laying. He looked like he was asleep, but I found he was awake when he spoke to me.

"Life happens," He said simply.

"What?"

"You got another letter, right? From that kid who's practically dying, just in the inside? You're wondering why these things happen. It doesn't make sense, but this is life. No one said it was going to be easy."

I started at the information he was able to pull out of the brief times I had talked to him about Pony and the letters. I wondered if he'd read them.

"So what do you do about?" I asked, as though he had all the answers.

"You just keep on living until it gets better. It will. It just might take a little longer than you'd like."

I sighed. Life was hard. No one said it was easy. Why do we even bother going through such things?

"Because." I looked up. Tom had read my thoughts once more.

"Because why?"

"Because we know those we love will be there with us to the end."

Tom turned over and soon I could hear his timed breathing. This time he really was asleep.

Was Tom right? Was it worth fighting, just because those we love will be there when it's over? I wasn't so sure.

Darry's POV

It was early in the morning and I had to get to work. I went into the kitchen to take my pills.

I had thought of a plan to help it. I had cut all the pills in half and decided to take them every other day. Thankfully, today was one of the days to take them.

If Soda or Pony found out, they'd be upset, but I didn't care. I couldn't afford to keep paying for medication that cost as much as it did. It wasn't worth a few hours of painlessness.

I went to the shower to clean up, though I'd just be going to a job where I'd get filthy.

Before I did, I peaked into Soda and Pony's room. Pony was sleeping at an odd angle, his body almost diagonal. Soda was curled into a ball. Though it was winter, it wasn't that could here in Oklahoma. We rarely got the worst of the cold. I wondered if Soda was cold, though.

I went into their room and felt Soda's forehead. There was no fever, so if he was cold, it was the room's temperature.

I pulled the blanket, balled up at the end of the bed, up over Soda's sleeping form. He sighed contentedly when the blanket fell over him.

I went around to Pony's side and watched him sleep. I felt the pain twist inside once more as I saw how thin he had gotten. He'd never been particularly big, but now he was way too thin. I wished I could do more to remedy that, but I was gone throughout each of his meals.

I brushed at his hair with my fingers, smiling down at him. I wish life hadn't been so hard on him.

Dad, Mom, have I really messed things up?

I went out of there room so I wouldn't wake them. When I got out of the shower, the sun was just coming up.

I sighed. Another day to get through. I wasn't looking forward to it. I wanted to stay home. I wanted to spend time with Pony and Soda. I wanted to make their pains go away. I wanted to make them feel better.

But what I want doesn't matter. It's what I need. And what I need to do is get to work and provide the money for them, even if I couldn't provide my company or comfort to them.

It wasn't fair. But who said life was fair?

Two-Bit's POV

I carried Molly into her room. I covered her up with the blanket and leaned down and kissed her forehead. I hated how sentimental I was being, but she was my sister and she deserved all the love I could give her, in such a short amount of time.

I went to bed shortly after. It was strange that I was actually in my house at night. I rarely came here before. I'd stop in for a meal here and there or spend part of the night after I'd had my fill of alcohol. Mom was never mean about what I did. She didn't order me around and I was thankful. I would have been gone years ago if she had.

I awoke in the middle of the night. Sweat poured down my face and I was shaking all over. A nightmare that seemed all too real had awoken me. It was too real because it had once happened.

"If you hadn't noticed it within a few months, she'd be dead. She has some time, maybe four months at most. I suggest you take the most of what time you have left."

"What about surgery? What about treatments? Can't you do something about it?" I demanded.

"With where the tumor is positioned in her brain, surgery has a higher chance of killing her than healing her. There is no treatment available to your sister. The tumor is too large. We can try using radiation, but I'm afraid it'll cause more pain than healing. Even if we try chemotherapy or radiation, there won't be a cure for the tumor."

I sank down into the chair behind me. It couldn't be possible. It didn't seem real. It wasn't right. It wasn't fair. Then again, life wasn't fair. It never had been. It wasn't when Dad walked out on us. It wasn't when Johnny's parents beat him and now he was behind bars. It wasn't when the Curtis parents died in a car accident. It wasn't when Steve's dad told him to get out and never come back. It wasn't fair that Pony lost part of his leg and couldn't walk. It wasn't fair that Darry and Soda had to work so hard. It wasn't fair that Dallas blamed himself so much over what had happened that he got stoned just to take away the pain. It wasn't fair then and it isn't fair now. You learned to deal with it after a while.

That was two months ago. Would Molly die within the next two months? Though I wasn't around enough to really know my sister, I still loved her and wanted to protect her from this. I promised I wouldn't let anything happen to her, but it was an empty promise, one I couldn't keep.

She was going to die and me and my mother would never be the same.

Dallas' POV

I stumbled through the dark alley. I was meeting Jimmy Collins so he could hook me up with some more drugs. I hadn't had any for two whole days and I was beginning to freak.

I got to the back of the alley. It was too dark for me to see. I took out the lighter in my pocket and lit it. Jimmy wasn't there yet.

I waited in the corner, leaning against the cold brick wall.

A few minutes later, I heard Jimmy call my name.

"Dallas?" He said.

"I'm back here," I said quietly so no one would hear us. There was always a fear of getting caught, though I didn't care if I was. I was just doing it for Jimmy's sake.

He came into the light of my lighter. When we were standing face-to-face, I doused the flame.

"You bring it?" I asked.

"Yes. It's right here. You got the money?"

"No, dumb ass. I thought you'd give it to me for free," I said sarcastically but with anger too.

"All right, all right. Pay up." I stuck the money in his hand, holding out the other. He placed the bag of drugs in my hand as he took the money.

"What's going on back here?" A deep voice asked and then I light was shined on us.

Panicking, I bolted. Jimmy had already tried to make a run for it.

"Stop or I'll shoot!"

Go ahead. It'll make me fell a lot better. I thought as I continued to run.

Something hit me hard from behind and I fell down, unconscious before I even hit the ground.