"Johnny, get your lazy butt in here!" My mother yelled later that night. I had been in my room, trying to read a book that Ponyboy had let me borrow when she yelled for me to go out into the living room. Sighing, I tucked the book under my jacket and went to where my mother stood with her hands on her hips. "What do you see all over this floor?"

I knew she was talking about the broken glass from a broken beer bottle that had been thrown during a fight she had with my old man less than an hour before. The lamp was leaning against the wall where it looked like it was about to fall over, and a small table was turned upside down. It was the usual seen after an argument with the usual outcome.

""I'll tell you what I see," My mother continued. "I see a mess and a lazy no good son who would rather run around with a bunch of hoodlums than do any work around this house."

She was screaming and I knew that she could be heard down at the Curtis's house. Ponyboy had told me that once and it embarrassed me to know that my friends could hear her yelling at me. It's bad enough for me to have to listen to her screaming at me. But my friends and the rest of the neighborhood shouldn't have to hear it, too.

"I am sick and tired of coming home to a messy house!" My mother screamed, her face turning bright red like it always did when she yelled at me. "Do you hear me?"

I silently nodded. There wasn't much I could say. Besides, she was still yelling about a bunch of things that she was hacked off at. It wasn't just about the house being a mess, that was just her way of getting started. She yelled at me to clean up the mess, which I did while she continued to yell about anything she could think of.

"I don't know why you spend time running around with those hoodlums," She screamed and I focused on picking up the pieces of broken glass so I wouldn't have to look at her. My friends might be greasers but we are not hoodlums. "All they do is cause trouble, robbing stores and ending up in jail. What the hell is wrong with you? Why can't you have any decent friends?"

I stood up and silently threw the broken glass that I had picked up into the garbage can that was already overflowing in the kitchen. It always amazes and even mystifies my friends that I never yell back at my mother or take a swing at my old man in self-defense, but I can't bring myself to do that. Not even if I want to. It's not that I'm weak or afraid to do either of those things, I just think it's better to just do as I'm told, even if it means having a new bruise the next day. At least I know that I'm showing some respect to my folks even if they can't respect me.

"What is this?" My mother asked, picking up the book that had fallen out of my jacket while I was cleaning. "I know you're not reading this. You're too stupid to be able to read a book like like this."

"Ponyboy let me borrow it," I said softly. "He said I could take as long as I need to read it."

"He's the youngest Curtis boy, right?" I nodded. "Another no good little hood running the streets. I'm surprised he can read. Lord knows the others don't have much of an education. Here, take your stupid book and get out of my sight," My mother said, her voice hoarse from yelling. "You make me sick."

I reached out and took the book from her and walked out the front door. It was already dark out, but I figured that I could go to the vacant lot and try to read under the street lamp. If I wanted to, I could have gone to the Curtis's or even to Two-Bits, but I felt like being alone. Besides, I wanted to see if I could understand the book without Ponyboy explaining it to me.

When I got to the vacant lot, I sat down under the street lamp with my back up against the pole. Then I took the book out of my jacket and opened it to the second page where I had left off. I'm a slow reader and when I try to understand what I'm reading, I'm even slower. But I was determined to get through the first chapter even if it took me all night to read it.

The vacant lot probably isn't the safest place to be reading a book at night, but I usually end up spending the night there anyway so, it doesn't bother me too much. The only time I get really nervous is if an unfamilar car drives by because you don't know who's in it. But usually, it's Steve or Two-Bit who are driving around late at night or sometimes Dally if he manages to borrow a car from someone. Once in a while they'll insist that I go with them instead of spending the night sleeping on the mixture of grass and gravel which isn't the most comfortable thing to sleep on. But you get used to it.

I was almost done reading the apge I was on when I heard the familar whistle of our gang and Tim Shepard's. I returned it and looked up from the book to see who had been whistling. It was Two-Bit and as usual, he was grinning happily.

"Hey Two-Bit," I said when he reached me. "Where's your car?"

"It's at the DX waiting for the engine to get looked at," Two-Bit replied. "What do you have there?"

"It's one of Pony's books," I explained, holding it up so he could see the cover. "He's letting me borrow it for awhile."

Two-Bit sat down next to me. "Is it any good?"

"I've only read two pages," I told him. Knowing that he was making conversation on purpose so that I would talk. Two-Bit does that a lot.

"Do you want to see what I got today?" Two-Bit asked me, his happy grin changing to a mischievious one. I shrugged my shoulders and he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a black handled switch blade.

"That's tuff," I said in awe as he flipped the blade open.

"I spent two hours wandering around the hardware store to get it," Two-Bit said proudly. "I know that place like the back of my hand now and it was well worth it."

"Are you going to use it?" I asked.

"In a fight? Oh no, this is just a show piece," Two-Bit answered. "I'd be crazy to want to use this baby in a rumble. I worked to hard to get it."

I knew that to him, wandering around a store for a few hours just to slip something under his leather jacket and walk out with it is hard work. But, I also know that he's so slick, he could have just walked into that hardware store, grabbed the black handled switch blade and walked out right away with no one suspecting a thing. He never lets on that he's stealing anything, and sometimes, he'll buy something like a pack of gum just so that the people working think that's all he came for when he's really walking out the door with a couple of magazines tucked under his jacket. Magazines that would make your face turn red in embarrassment even if no one else is in the room.

"Don't you want to go to my place to spend the night?" Two-Bit was asking me. "It gets awfully chilly out here at night now."

"I don't know Two-Bit," I said slowly, not wanting to say no but not wanting to say yes either. "I kind of wanted to read some more and I don't want to disturb your mom and sister."

"Shoot kid, they won't mind," Two-Bit replied as he lit up a cigarette. "Besides, my mom has been asking why I always spend time at the Curtis's instead of bringing my friends over to our place. She'd like to see you."

"And Karen?" I asked, thinking of TWo-Bit's nine year old sister.

"She'd be thrilled to have you there. You know how she likes to bug you and the other guys when you come over," Two-Bit said fondly. "But don't let her know that I told you that. So, are you coming over or not?"

I sighed as I stood up. "I might as well. Knowing you, I'll end up going anyway."

"You got that right," Two-Bit said as he returned his new blade to his back pocket. "And to think, you were going to sleep out here when you have other places to go to. All you have to do is show up and ask if you can spend the night, you don't have to sleep in the lot."

"I know," I muttered.

"So why don't you?" Two-Bit looked at me as we walked and I shrugged. "Kid, someday we're going to have you and Ponyboy talking so much that we'll be begging both of you to stop. The two of you are so quiet; it would be nice to know what your thinknig once in awhile."

I didn't reply as we turned down the street that led to his house because I knew that I didn't need to. Two-Bit was done trying to get me to talk for the night and he had already started to tell me stories about the customers who had been in the hardware store while he was wandering around there earlier that day.