37. Phone Calls
We headed back to the apartment, both of us keeping an eye out. After everything that had been happening, I was jumpier than ever, and Johnny was kind of skittish too, even though he'd been dealing with it better than I had. I couldn't get it out of my head…my thoughts ran in a loop. Richard, cigarette burns, Rita, Lianne, the guys in the store, getting jumped. It was like I was stuck, and I hated it. I hated being this way. I knew Johnny was worried and I'd spent most of the last week terrified he was going to up and go home, leaving me alone again. I wouldn't blame him. He had every right to want to go home.
It was just like right after our parents had died…I'd lay awake so many nights, scared out of my mind that Darry was going to come to his senses and send me off so that he could go to school. I knew it was selfish, but I'd almost been relieved when he'd gotten a job roofing houses full time. That meant he planned on putting off school for at least a little while. Then I'd felt awful for being relieved. Darry didn't deserve to work like an old man, and Johnny didn't deserve to be stuck here with me, always in danger of getting jumped and spending all his free time working.
But Johnny had told me he wasn't going anywhere. I'd finally gotten up the courage to urge him to go on home…to get to safety, and he'd just held me, assuring me he wasn't going anywhere without me. I didn't have any right to be as happy as I was…to be this relieved. But I was. And when we'd gone to the library together, I'd barely been able to focus on my book, I was so glad he wasn't leaving me.
Then Sue had showed up, and I wondered if she'd followed us or something. It didn't seem likely that she'd just run into us…I'd never seen her at the library before. But there she was, inviting us to go swimming. I wanted to…it sounded like fun, and she'd said it would be okay to swim in my shirt and shorts.
Back home, I had gone during the summer plenty of times, either to the public pool or to the lake with my parents and Darry and Soda. We'd all learned how to swim at the lake, and it was so hot out…it would feel great. As long as I didn't have to take my shirt off, I was in, even though I probably shouldn't get that cut on my side wet.
I'd said yes, regardless, and Johnny and I headed home to change into shorts, then hurried to the store where she was waiting. Together, we all walked the couple of blocks to the public pool where all sorts of people were splashing around, little kids in the shallow end with their parents and a couple of guys our age horsing around in the deep end. Girls lay out in the chairs around the pool, talking and laughing, and above it all was the lifeguard, keeping a close eye out.
Johnny pulled off his shirt and we both sat down on the ledge in the middle. Sue pulled off her cover, revealing a swimsuit that left her shoulders bare…it had a skirt that covered just a few inches of her thighs and I tried not to keep looking, my ears hot again. She left her cover-up up on the chair with Johnny's shirt and sat down beside us, sliding into the water. I tried not to stare at her shoulders and found Johnny grinning down at his lap.
Planting a hand against his back, I shoved, laughing when he went sprawling into the water, squeaking before he went under.
Sue put a hand over her mouth and giggled when he came up to the surface, incredulous as he stared up at me.
"What the hell, man!" he asked, but he couldn't help grinning any more than I could help laughing and he grabbed my leg, yanking hard until I was pulled in beside them, forgetting all about my arms as I was pulled under. I shoved him off, kicking my legs and treading water as Sue slid into the pool. "Jerk," he grumbled, but he was smiling when he splashed me. Sue squealed, ducking like she wasn't already in a pool.
"Where's your cousin?" I asked her, turning to her in the pool.
She rolled her eyes. "He doesn't come with me everywhere, you know." She met my eyes, then Johnny's. "I mean…with what happened to you guys, he's been around more…mostly at night." Johnny grunted and I nodded. "I know…you guys got jumped walking home, right?"
I shrugged, staring down at the water.
"Yeah, but we're fine," Johnny told her firmly.
"You guys fight a lot back home?" she wondered, sounding more curious than judgemental.
"Sometimes." Johnny shrugged, making it obvious he didn't want to talk about it.
"We rumble, but not with knives or anything," I told her, not wanting her to think we were hoods or something, even though we kind of were. "And we don't jump people."
"Doesn't seem to stop them from jumping us." Johnny grinned, elbowing me, and I had to smile, shrugging. He wasn't wrong.
"Those guys that came in the store were causing trouble at our church a while ago…the ones I told you about." I nodded. "They're dangerous. They were fighting with a gang of guys up here…I thought they were gone."
"Don't worry about it," Johnny tried to reassure her. "Our cousin's taking care of it."
I was glad he remembered who James was supposed to be to us. With all the lies we were telling, I was staring to get mixed up.
A few feet away some guys were swimming, splashing and laughing, one of them jumping on the other's back. I wondered if they were related or just friends. The sight of it made me miss the rest of the gang. Johnny must have noticed because the next thing I knew, he was shoving me under water, climbing on my back, and I squirmed under him, throwing him off. Sue laughed when I splashed him again, so I used both hands and splashed her as hard as I could. She squealed again, laughing out loud, and got me back.
Something loud splashed behind me then, and we all moved forward, Sue grinning. "Speak of the devil and he shall appear," she called, and Johnny and I turned to find Marcus and two of his equally large friends. A third friend was standing outside the chain link fence and waved, heading down the street away from us. Marcus waved, then turned to us.
"Hey kids," he nodded to Johnny and me. "Heard you two got jumped again."
"We're fine," I told him, trying to sound firm.
"Yeah, you look it too." Marcus snorted. "Your buddy James came by the store a few days ago. He said you two were in some trouble. Seems like you get into trouble a lot."
I couldn't argue. He was right. It seemed to follow us around.
"But I appreciate what you two did. If you guys hadn't taken care of those guys…well…Sue and my uncle are some of the only family I got left, and the cops weren't gonna take care of it. So thanks." He held out a hand to me, and after hesitating a second, I took it.
"James is your cousin, huh?" The guy on his left asked. He was looking at us dubiously, but I just nodded.
"Mike, Patrick, this is Jesse." He indicated the one who'd spoken, the one I'd seen around with him at the store before. "And this is Thomas." The two guys nodded a greeting to us.
"You're the two that came to church last week, right? My old man was pissed." Thomas chuckled. "He's telling everyone next week you're gonna bring firecrackers."
Johnny grinned. "Damn. How'd he figure it out?"
"I don't even know where to get firecrackers around here," I told them, making them all chuckle.
"Yeah, I told him you two were just weird kids that worked for my uncle," Marcus put in, and Sue punched his shoulder.
"They aren't weird. Be nice."
He rolled his eyes, grabbing her around the waist and throwing her up and into the water again. She laughed, splashing him, and his buddies chuckled.
While Marcus went to grab her again, Thomas turned back to us, talking quietly. "Your cousin told us what happened. With Peter and his guys. Next Friday, after you guys get off work, a couple of our pals are gonna meet up with your cousin, and we're all gonna rumble with Pete."
"You guys…you ain't gotta do that," Johnny muttered, shaking his head. "You ain't gotta get involved."
"You two are working for Mr. Williams, and you saved Sue. That means you're one of us now." Thomas reached out, ruffling Johnny's hair, splashing him in the process, and Johnny halfheartedly splashed him back, laughing a little. "Never thought I'd be saying that to a couple of scrawny white boys but…"
We all laughed aloud then, and Sue and Marcus swam back over, her kicking at him and hiding behind us like we were gonna be able to protect her.
I had to admit, I was a little relieved. I mean, I felt bad, accepting help from some strangers, but if they were willing to help us, then, at the moment, I would take it. I was stubborn, but I wasn't that stubborn. Darry was always telling me to use my head, and I was finally gonna listen. 'Cause if we got jumped gain, they might hurt us real bad. And Johnny didn't deserve that. Last time had been bad enough, but it was getting worse. Johnny and I were scared to walk home alone at night after work. We never left the apartment at night anymore, and we didn't go anyplace after work. I figured James and his friends were having some trouble too, but he never complained or anything. No way they were just targeting the two of us.
Johnny lifted an eyebrow at me as the two guys started wrestling in the water, keeping it contained so the lifeguard wouldn't get upset. "Think we ought to go to that rumble?"
"Probably," I admitted. "I mean…it's kind of my fault."
"Think James'll let us?" he asked.
"Let us? Man, we just show up," I told him with a smirk.
It wasn't long before we were pulled into Jesse and Thomas's underwater wrestling match, with Marcus and Sue joining in. At first I was kind of stiff with the two of them, but they reminded me of Two-Bit, so soon we were wrestling and playing until the sun was starting to set and they closed the pool for the evening.
We dried off in the little locker room, me changing in a bathroom stall into a new pair of jeans and a long sleeved shirt that Dally had given me. It was still hot out even though it was getting dark, so it felt nice, walking outside and warming up. Marcus and Sue parted ways with us when we got close to her dad's shop, and Jesse left as soon as we left the pool, calling out a good night.
Thomas stuck with us, though, and neither of us questioned him walking us home, him talking about nothing in particular as we all walked. I did find out that he had a big brother off at college, and that his dad kept a baseball bat under his pew at the church just in case Pete and his guys came back. Quite a few of his dad's friends did too. He told me that when I'd first come in, a few of them had been worried, but I was such a scrawny little kid none of them had been worried. He'd been laughing when he'd said it, though, so I didn't take offense, just laughed along with Johnny. Then when we reached the apartment, he waved, heading off in the direction he'd come, making me wonder how far out of his way he'd gone to walk us.
James lifted an eyebrow when we entered the apartment, both of our hair still wet. I'd talked to him a little the night before, but since he'd yelled at me…glory I was pathetic. Someone yelled at me and immediately I was scared of them forever.
He'd snapped at me. So what? So had Two-Bit and Dallas and even Steve at different points, and I sure wasn't scared of any of them. Well, sometimes I was scared of Dally, but not too bad. Hell, Sodapop had yelled at me once or twice, but that didn't mean I was ever scared of my brother! Darry neither, and heaven knew he'd done his share of snapping at me. I wasn't always like that. It's what I kept telling myself, furious that I acted like a baby nowadays. It was Richard's fault. Glory, I hated him. He'd ruined my life. He'd ruined everything.
"You're wet," James told us, his voice dry.
"We went swimming," I told him, determined not to be afraid. Or, rather, not to show him I was afraid. I'd had fun. Glory, I couldn't remember the last time I'd really had fun without being scared. But today, with Sue and Johnny, it had just been great. I'd missed that so much. More than I'd realized. I felt lighter, like a weight had been lifted off my chest. Johnny wasn't gonna leave me here. We were gonna be okay. James was going to take care of these guys after us and things back home were gonna be fine. They had to be. It would all work out.
"I'm gonna take a shower," Johnny spoke up, heading over to the bathroom and I stood awkwardly in the living room with James sitting in his chair.
"You can sit down, kid," he told me, voice quiet. On the table in front of him, he had a game of solitaire laid out that he was losing.
"I'll get your couch wet," I waved the offer off, sitting on the floor in front of it instead. We'd checked out a couple of books before leaving the library in a hurry, just the ones Johnny and I had grabbed and one more each. I figured we'd have to go back before the end of the week since we'd read them so fast. Or maybe we could do something else with Sue…the thought made me want to smile at the floor but I did my best not to. She was real pretty and nice to us and everything, but I knew nothing could come of it, even if I was ever brave enough to ask her out or something.
"They let you swim in a long sleeved t-shirt?"
"Yep," I told him, wrapping a towel I'd taken from his bathroom around my shoulders so I wouldn't get the bottom of the sofa wet.
"You gonna hide your arms forever?" he asked.
I ignored him for a minute, staring down at the carpet as the shower turned on. Then I shrugged. "Maybe."
"Your brothers are gonna wanna see, and they don't sound like the kind of guys to take no for an answer."
I wanted to insist. I wanted to tell him that I'd never show anyone and I'd never even look at my arms again. But it was stupid and I knew it. I knew I was being stupid and ridiculous and irrational. "You're right…they're not," I told him, trying to grin. I knew it came off as weak and scared, just like I was these days. The gang would be ashamed of me, that was for sure. No way I'd be any good in a rumble right now. I was just some scared kid. Unless I swung the other way, then I was practically a killer. I wanted to talk to Darry and Soda about this so bad, but I knew it would just worry them so much. I could never tell them about this, I knew. Besides, there was nothing they could do. I was being selfish. "I'll have to show them at some point."
"Don't worry about it, kid. Wear the long sleeves as long as you want. But don't let nobody bug you about those marks on your arms or nothing. None of that was your fault," he assured me. "You ain't gotta be embarrassed about it. Hell, I got a couple of scars myself." He pointed at his neck, hidden under his hair. "My old man got pissed at me once…threw a plate. A piece of it got me here. Broke my nose once too. I mean, it ain't too crooked, but still." He shrugged. "It ain't nothing to be ashamed of is all I'm saying."
He went back to his card game, putting one of his two's down on one of the stacks. Leaning in, I got a better look.
"Might as well start over, man," I told him, smiling a little. "You're gonna lose."
"Hell, kid, I'll win one way or another."
I snorted. He sounded like my brother. He'd flip the whole deck over until he got all the cards straightened out. I would see Sodapop again soon, I told myself as Johnny emerged from the shower, and I went into the bathroom, taking a shower and changing into new clothes.
We both dropped into our respective beds after I was done with my shower, James heading out to work and leaving us alone for the night. I wasn't really worried. Neither was Johnny. No one had bugged us here, at least not yet, and I think they'd have to be pretty ballsy to try and bust into James's apartment. We hadn't gotten any more information about the rumble yet, nor had we been invited to fight in it. I wasn't upset about it. I didn't want to fight in a New York rumble with a bunch of hoods, but I would.
Honestly, I just wanted to call Darry and Soda. I hadn't since the night before we'd been jumped, and I felt bad. I knew they were worried. Johnny had said so. Apparently he'd talked to Dal. But I was afraid they'd know something was wrong. And they would. Darry and Sodapop always knew when something was wrong, even over the phone. And they would worry about me even more than they already were and then they wouldn't be able to focus on their own lives and they might get hurt or one of Richard's guys would get to them. I didn't want them to worry anymore. I just wanted to do whatever it took to get home.
I was thinking about going back, screw what everyone else thought, and just talk to the police. Get them to arrest Richard and I'd be safe…safer. I mean, his guys might still be after me, but I was okay with being babysat for a while. Heck, I'd hang out with Steve all day if it meant I got to go home.
Actually, I kind of missed Steve.
Johnny was asleep when the phone rang, and on the floor he groaned and rolled over. He was pretty tired from swimming…I figured we might sleep in the next day instead of going back to church. I liked going though…thought maybe I might try and go back when we got home.
Then again, I thought, remembering the way those people had looked at us, maybe not.
James had gone to work a few hours earlier, and Johnny and I had both laid down, trying to get some sleep. It had been a long day, and I was pretty tired, but I thought the phone might be one of my brothers. Picking it up, I glanced at Johnny who had only rolled over, burying his head in the pillow on the floor.
"Hello?" I asked, cautious.
"Hi. Um…is this Ponyboy?"
I froze. It was a girl's voice, and immediately my heart was racing. It didn't sound like Susie. I wanted to hang up, but whoever it was had this number somehow, and knew I was here.
"Who is this?" I demanded.
"It's Rita," she told me quietly, and I dropped my head back against the sofa, feeling my eyes get hot.
"Rita?"
"Yeah," she whispered.
I remembered it then, all the memories flooding back. Sleeping on the floor. Or laying on the floor, unable to get up, blood dripping down my throat as I'd coughed it up and onto the carpet. Her screams and the pounding on the door. Her patching me up after, never meeting my eyes.
Pinching my nose, I swallowed hard, trying to force the tears back.
"Hey." I matched her tone. "Yeah, it's me."
"Oh God, Ponyboy…I thought you were dead."
I wondered where she was that she had to whisper but didn't ask. She was crying, like she had really been torn up about it, which surprised me, because she'd never seemed to care too much if I lived or died. I mean, sure, I'd helped her out, but she'd never really acknowledged it. Just helped me and patched me up a little when I was too bad off to get up on my own.
"Nah…I got away," I told her, grinning a little in the dark. I couldn't believe it either to be honest. Thank god for Dallas Winston.
"How?" she asked, incredulous.
I shook my head. "Doesn't matter." I didn't want to think about that night. None of it. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah. I'm out of that place. Was staying with my boyfriend but…turns out he's as much of an asshole as Richard."
I flinched. "Yeah?"
"Yeah…I took some money from Richard when I left…I'm staying with a friend now. He hasn't found me yet."
"Where are you?" I wondered.
She was quiet for a moment before answering. "Tulsa."
"How…how did you get this number?" I asked slowly, confused. I mean, I was glad she was okay, but I didn't understand why she was calling. Or how she'd found me.
"Susie Matthews. I caught her outside the DX a few days ago. Your friends are all keeping a close eye on her. But your big brother took her to the library the day after and she gave me the number."
"Why?" I knew Susie wouldn't just give out the number to where I was staying to anyone. "What's going on?"
"They're after you. Your friends too."
"Yeah, I already knew that." I glanced at Johnny, but he hadn't even stirred.
"I told Susie that I'd think about going to the cops if she gave me this number."
"But…why? Why did you want to talk to me?" I left the other part, that she never had wanted to talk to me, unsaid.
"They're going to hurt your friends at some point. Probably your brothers too."
"They can take care of themselves," I insisted, not wanting to accept that possibility…that they really couldn't. That even with Tim and everyone looking out for them, something could happen. "Why did you want to talk to me, Rita?"
"I just…I need to know why," she told me, confusing me even more.
"Why what?" I asked. It was getting late and I was exhausted, my eyes closing. I knew I should call my brothers but I just wanted to sleep.
"Why did you do it? You put yourself on the top of his list, you know? He would have left you alone. You could have just hid like Mark and Tyler until your hearing. It passed, you know? Your brothers could have gotten you back and you could have gone home…it was your fault that he was so hard on you." Her voice was hard, but I knew she wasn't mad or even being mean. She just didn't understand. She hadn't grown up with people that cared about her, I guessed…had never seen it before.
Still, my eyes got wet at the thought. I could have gone home. She was right. If I hadn't interfered, he might have left me alone. I'd put myself in his way. Over and over.
"Why did you do it?"
I swallowed hard, wiping my eyes and telling the truth. "Because it's what my big brothers would have done."
