Chapter Two

I was still standing out on the porch, lost in my thoughts, when Sam walked up.

"Hey there, Ponyboy," He said cheerfully. "How're you?"

Sam was a good friend of mine, the kind who might some day be my best friend if things worked out well. He was the kind of guy who you just expect to see whistling all the time, if that makes any sense. He was always in a good mood. Everyone liked him, but no one knew just why. The thing was, Sam had something about him, something that made him stand out more than your average guy. I couldn't put my finger on exactly what it was, but I was determined to figure it out someday.

"Not bad," I told him. "You?"

"Me? I'm doin' just fine." He smiled and leaned carefully against the wooden porch stair railing. "Tell ya what, Pony, I'm actually on my way to Merril's place for a party. Wonderin' if you wanted to join me?"

It was exactly the sort of thing that Sam would do, but I didn't feel up to it. There was something about the night that made me automatically want to say no. The thought of crowds of people rubbing up against one another, most of them blitzed off their rockers, for no other reason than for the pursuit of "fun" didn't sound too appealing to me. "Maybe some other time."

He shrugged. Sam didn't let small things get him down. "Alright, if that's what you want. But if you change your mind, you know where to find us." He started walking away from the house.

It was stupid, but I waited for a minute to see if I would hear him whistling. All I heard was the silence of the night.

I didn't really know how Sam and I had gotten to a state where we were friends. All I knew was that after the whole Johnny and Dally thing, he had been the only guy – greaser or soc – to not ask me about the whole thing at all. With that act, he had immediately won my appreciation and admiration. From that point on, we were friends.

And from that point on, he'd been there for me. When the relationship between a girl and I hadn't worked out, he was there to sit and smoke cigarettes with me. And that was just one example. I couldn't understand why, but Sam had stuck by me all the way, even when he didn't have to.

To be honest, a lot of people had stuck by me inmy life. People ranging from my brothers to some of my teachers. People who saw something in me. People who were always telling me that someday I was going places.

Well, I would sure like to know where that place was, and I wouldn't mind knowing exactly when I would start going to these places everyone was talking about, too. I didn't understand how people could look at me and see more than what I saw in myself – an average kid who smoked too much and always looked like he was waiting around for something that might never come.

It was nice outside, but I was getting hungry. I went back into the house and got my food from the oven. Darry had made wild rice and fried chicken. I took my plate of food with me to the living room and sat on the couch to watch television. I wasn't watching anything in particular; I just wanted something that would numb my brain.

The girl on the screen was crying over her boyfriend in the hospital. She had red hair that reminded me of Cherry Valance. Cherry… I didn't even know where she was these days. I missed her, though. I hadn't ever had a talk with her like the one we had had that night at the movies, but I still missed seeing flashes of her red hair and warm smile around school. When Cherry had been in Tulsa, I had known that there was at least someone who understood me. Even though the possibility of us talking had been slim, it had still always been there. Her presence had comforted me.

The people on the TV were crying. It looked like the girl's boyfriend had died. I knew right then that I needed something. I didn't know what, but I needed it. I needed adventure, I needed love, I needed joy, I needed tension, I needed life, even if I didn't know what any of those things were. Maybe I just needed to needsomething.

I yawned abruptly, and was surprised to see how tired I was.


When Darry, Soda, and I were younger, our mom used to tuck each of us into bed every night. But there was a point where Darry, and eventually Soda, began to feel like they were too old for it.

The problem for me was that I wanted to be just as tuff as my brothers, but I still wanted my mom to tuck me into bed. I knew I would have to give something up, but I didn't want to.

One night, I finally made up my mind. Just as my mom was coming into Soda's and my room, I told her that I didn't need to be tucked in anymore. She was surprised, but she didn't make a big deal out of it. I know that she was sad about it, but at the time she pretended like it didn't matter. I did the same thing.

The funny thing, though, was that neither Darry nor Soda noticed, and if they did, they didn't care about it. I had been trying to make myself seem tuff for people who weren't even looking in my direction. And in the end, I realized that it had been a dumb decision that didn't get me anywhere –I was still the same, and I had lost being tucked in by Mom.

That's what life felt like now. It felt like I had lost something – maybe not tonight, but awhile ago – and I hadn't gained anything in the loss.

The thing that kept gnawing at me was that I didn't know what I had lost.

I fell asleep that night, still not knowing.


"Ponyboy," a voice whispered insistently. "Ponyboy, wake up."

I turned over. Maybe if I ignored it, it would go away.

"Durnit, Ponyboy, I ain't kiddin' with ya. Get up, will ya?"

"Gimme a minute," I mumbled. What I really meant was that I wasn't planning on getting up anytime soon, but I figured there was no point in saying that out loud.

"There isn't enough time to give you a minute!" The voice urgently whispered.

The voice wasn't deep enough to be Darry's, and it sure didn't sound anything like Soda's. Curiosity prompted me to open up my eyes, and I found myself staring straight into the face of Sam.

"Sam? What are you doing here?" I whispered, and then felt stupid for whispering. "What time is it? What's going on? Are Darry and Sodapop home?"

"It's 1: 30. I don't know if your brothers are home, but there ain't any cars outside your house. You up, Pony?"

"Yeah, I'm awake. What's goin' on?" I yawned, and it took all my strength to not fall asleep again.

I watched through blurry eyes as Sam agitatedly paced the distance of my room. "Ponyboy, I'm leaving. Are you coming with me?"

The words he said didn't register with me at first. But when they unjumbled themselves in my head, they hit me at full force. "What? What?"

"Some stuff's gone down, and I gotta get outa here. You comin'?"

I stared at him blearily, and the answer was on the tip of my tongue. And then the memory came back to me.

"Johnny?" I called, and started when he rolled over and jumped up almost under my feet. "Come on, Johnny, we're running away."

Johnny hadn't asked any questions.

"Come on, Pony, there isn't much time. I gotta know! Are you coming with me?"

"Yeah," I told him, and I felt mechanical but strangely alive. "Yeah, I'm coming."


A/N: Thanks a lot for reading and reviewing, guys. There's a lot more stuff to come, and I'm looking forward to everyone coming along for the ride. Next chapter the adventure that Pony's been looking for begins (just not in the way that he might like). Questions? Comments? Snide remarks? Drop me a line in a review.