7. Running

Pony made dinner that night before either of her brothers got home, needing something to keep her busy since she'd done most of her homework during lunch. Spaghetti was easy, and she snacked on a slice of garlic bread fresh out of the oven as she stirred the pasta and baked another batch, wincing when it burned her tongue. She hadn't eaten since breakfast and was starving, plus her brothers were always hungry, so she figured they'd have no problem finishing the extra bread. Pony was just considering grabbing a slice of chocolate cake to tide her over when her brothers came through the front door, Soda kicking his shoes off in the middle of the floor and Darry hanging up his tool belt and rolling his eyes as he stepped around Sodapop.

"Smells good!" Soda called, pushing past Darry and swiping the half eaten slice of garlic bread from Pony's hand.

"Hey!"

Soda took a big bite, then leaned in close while Darry was still in the living room. "Steve told me what happened."

"Great."

"You okay?"

"I'm fine. It was nothing."

They both quit talking when Darry came in the kitchen, and Pony grabbed another slice of garlic bread to eat, jerking out of the way when Soda, who'd devoured the first slice, tried to grab it. She licked the whole thing before he could take it from her and he stuck out his tongue at her, fighting to keep from laughing.

"Is that all the bread?" Darry asked, taking another slice from the plate she'd put them on to cool, and she shook her head.

"There's more in the oven."

"Thanks, Pone."

When Darry stepped into the bathroom to take a shower, the door latching behind him, Soda turned to her, serious once more. "What happened at school?"

"I thought Steve told you," she grumbled, and Soda gave her a look.

"Pony…"

"It was nothing. He just…he thought I saw Bob that night or something."

"Why?"

She shrugged. "Because I was there, I guess. Steve took care of him." It almost hurt to admit it, but she was glad he'd been there…that he'd stepped in. "Don't tell Darry? Please?"

He sighed, shaking his head, but he gave in pretty quick. "Alright. But if he tries something else, I'm going to come up to that school and take care of him myself."

"He ain't gonna try nothing else."

Like always, the three of them sat down to dinner together, Pony spooning pasta onto plates and Soda scarfing down more bread. She only managed two and half bites of her own food when Darry started drilling her about school. "You got any homework?"

"Finished it."

"Let me look at it after dinner."

"Fine."

"You have any tests this week?"

"Math."

"You study for it?"

"Yeah."

"You doing okay in all your classes?"

"Yep." She took another bite, hoping that might slow him down. Thankfully Soda cut in, putting an end to the interrogation.

"Where'd they have you working today, Dar?"

Pony tuned out his answer, trying not to let how irritated she was show on her face. Dary had never been like this with Soda…had never asked him a million questions about school and homework and had never kept tabs on every place he ever went. With Soda, he could have a normal conversation. With her, it was always like he thought she was doing something wrong and he was trying to catch her out.

Soda and Darry cleaned up after dinner since she'd cooked, and Pony brought him her homework like he'd told her to. It was fine, as always, and then she headed back to her room, grabbing a book and ignoring the sounds of them talking in the living room, the TV going as Soda massaged Darry's shoulders and scolded him for carrying too many bundles of roofing up the ladder at once.

Johnny was nowhere to be found the next morning, and she didn't see him in the hallway between classes either, but she guessed that was to be expected. She still needed to apologize to him. Steve and Keith were around though. Steve didn't go out of his way to talk to her, but he'd nod hello and everyone could tell he was keeping an eye on her. Keith showed up at her locker a couple of times between classes, making small talk and acting cheerful, but his eyes were always scanning the hallway.

She didn't see Susie until art class, and once again, they ignored each other, the two of them sitting on opposite sides of the table and working on their own projects.

She heard the whispering in the halls all day. Some of those socs thought she knew something about Bob for some reason. Especially Allen. He didn't approach her again, probably because Steve and Keith were always around, but they couldn't stop people from talking, and when she was changing into her running clothes out in the locker rooms out by the track, a girl she'd only talked to a couple of times approached her. "Hey, Pony."

"Hey, Mary." She pulled her shirt on and sat down to lace up her shoes, wondering what she wanted but not wanting to be rude.

Mary leaned in, scanning the nearly empty room, then lowered her voice. "I heard you were at the drive-in on Saturday."

Pony nodded, wondering how many times she was going to have to explain this. Three other girls had already asked her about it, whispering before class or passing her notes. "Yeah, I ran into Dallas Winston and Johnny Cade there."

Mary's eyes widened and she leaned in. "Dallas Winston? Really?" She grinned like she was looking for gossip but Pony just shrugged, not having any to give her.

"Yeah. He's buddies with my big brother."

"Sodapop, right? Works at the DX?"

Pony nodded.

"He's real cute. I can't believe he runs around with Dallas Winston."

Pony shrugged noncommittal, although sometimes she wondered the same thing.

"So… you didn't see anything? Saturday night?"

"Nope." Pony tied her shoes, forcing her face into what she hoped was nonchalance. "Dally went with me to get some popcorn, and then we went back and sat with Johnny. We were sitting behind Cherry when she got the news," she told her, lowering her voice too and hoping that this tidbit satisfied her. "She was real upset…crying and everything. Everybody was freaking out. Dally didn't want to stick around for when the cops showed up since he's always in trouble, so we left and he walked me home."

"Everybody knows Cherry's stuck up. Besides, I heard Bob used to jump greaser kids all the time…like, young kids. And he'd get drunk and beat people up. It's a wonder he didn't crash his car before now. He was always driving drunk."

Pony nodded. Everybody knew Bob by reputation. She wanted to know if Mary knew anything about Allen, but she sure didn't want to draw anymore attention to herself, so she just followed her out to the track, taking her spot with the rest of the team to do warmups.

She'd joined the track team back in 6th grade…it had been her dad's idea. He'd told her that it would be another way to get scholarships for college, and since she'd always been a pretty fast runner, she'd agreed. It had been Darry's last year of high school, and he'd been working and playing football, but he'd given her rides home from track practice sometimes and had come with the rest of the family to watch her run when he could. Before too long, she'd been winning most of her races. Him and Soda would always cheer so loud she could hear them when she crossed the finish line, and when she'd go to meet them afterwards, Darry would carry her around on his back and her parents would take them out for ice cream.

Her first meet of the season was in a few weeks. She hadn't said anything to either of her brothers about it…not when they were both working full time.

Pony pushed all of that out of her mind and just focused on warming up. She'd always loved running. When the track season got into full swing, she'd run around the school track on the weekends if she could get a ride, or go running during the day if both her brothers were working and no one was there to catch her out on her own. She'd thought maybe Susie would go on runs with her. But she knew that wasn't going to happen. Not now. Because Susie had already quit.

No one asked her about it, and she was glad to only think about pushups and situps, then jumping jacks and stretching. And then finally, they were lining up, fingers just touching the ground as they got into place to race.

When she was running, she didn't think about Bob or Darry or Susie. Instead, she thought about one foot in front of the other, make sure to breathe, take long steps, don't hunch over, get into a rhythm, keep breathing, don't look at anyone else, focus on yourself. Her dad had taught her a lot of it, and Darry too, but she cleared her mind of the two of them and just ran. As practice wore on she pushed through her exhaustion and the pangs in her stomach since she'd skipped lunch again and the cramp in her side that showed up right at the end. She pushed and she pushed and then, before she knew it, it was over.

Pony stood under the shower head for longer than the other girls, closing her eyes and letting the warm water wash it all away. As she scrubbed her hair, she did her best not to think. She didn't want to get in her own head again. If she let her mind wander, her thoughts would go back to all the things she couldn't let herself think about, especially not while she was in public. So she cleared her mind for as long as she could, then dried off and pulled on her jeans and t-shirt.

Technically she was supposed to get someone to walk with her, or call someone for a ride after track practice, but that wasn't going to happen. Since her fight with Susie, she'd been avoiding Keith as best she could in the halls, afraid he'd figure something out, especially when her and Susie weren't speaking to each other. That would be a pretty clear sign that something was wrong. Then she might have to admit to why exactly they had fought, and it was so dumb she didn't even want to say it out loud.

Pony was almost past the bleachers before she noticed Johnny Cade sitting on the top row, hunched over as he watched her. She paused, eyes wide, then tried for a smile that felt guilty. She hadn't meant to bite his head off. Johnny was kind of like the whole gang's little brother…he was quieter than the rest of the guys, and he walked around with his head down like he was waiting for someone to kick him. She guessed that was because of his parents. But he was still a good fighter, and he was always willing to walk her places, never even acting irritated with her for it or nothing. "Uh…hey," she muttered.

He nodded to her, his expression hard to read, but he jumped up and joined her, stopping a few feet away. "Hey. Soda asked me if I could walk you home. After practice."

"Oh. Um…you…you don't have to."

He shrugged. "I don't mind."

She couldn't argue with that, so they headed down the road in awkward silence, Pony wishing she could find the right words to apologize but not knowing what they were. Johnny had always been real nice to her, and he'd waited around to walk her home, and he sure hadn't done nothing to make her snap at him like she had. So, giving up on finding the right words and deciding to just suffer through the wrong ones, she blurted out the best apology she could manage.

"I'm sorry about what I said. Yesterday."

Her voice was too loud in the silence between them and he jumped a little, turning to her with wide eyes, but she went on, a little quieter this time.

"I shouldn't…I mean, I was mad about something else but you didn't do nothing and I shouldn't have said that. To you. About…about your parents. That was…it was really awful and…I didn't mean it."

She stared down at the sidewalk, too ashamed to face him, but after a moment, Johnny bumped her shoulder with his, and when she glanced at him, he'd softened, his smile sad. "That's alright. It was true…what you said about my folks."

"But that's not because of you! That's because they're terrible."

He snorted at the passion in her voice, grinning at her and shaking his head. But then he sobered a little, lowering his voice. "Do you really think Darry doesn't want you around?"

Pony shrugged. "It don't matter," she told him, uncomfortable. "Anyway, thanks for walking me."

"Steve told me what happened with Russell. He was Bob's friend, right?"

"Yeah." She didn't want to talk about him either, but it was better than telling him that yes, she really was pretty sure that Darry wished he could get rid of her, and it was somehow because of her…because she couldn't manage to get along with him and she'd made him give up his whole life just to take care of her and no matter what she did, she couldn't make him happy.

"He hurt you?"

"Nah. Steve stopped him. I don't know why he thinks I know anything." She shrugged. "I was with Dally the whole time."

It hit her then, what she'd just said. Because Johnny had been there. He knew that she'd gone to the bathroom first, and that Dally had gone to find her before they'd come back with popcorn and drinks. He knew that she hadn't been with Dally the whole time. When she looked over at him again, he was watching her real close, and she knew he wanted to ask. But she sent him a silent plea not to. She didn't want to talk about it…didn't want to keep trying to lie when every part of her wanted to fall into Soda's arms crying, or even Darry's, and tell them what he'd tried to do to her, and how she'd been forced to stop him.

"We won't let him bug you," Johnny told her simply after a moment, and she smiled, grateful that he'd let it go and grateful that he'd have her back.

Johnny stuck around the house, the two of them working on their homework at the kitchen table, and it wasn't exactly like having Susie there, but he was a good friend too. Sometimes she forgot that because he was one of the guys. He even asked her for help with math once, and he wasn't embarrassed or nothing to ask a girl for help. Once they were done, they watched TV for a while, him telling her about Dally's race the night before. He'd watched Dally race and ride horses in the rodeo lots of times, and she always had a million questions. She wished she could go, but Darry didn't like her going alone, or even just with Johnny, since it could get so rough, and he sure never had time to take her.

When it was almost time for her brothers to get home, Pony made hot dogs for dinner, and at her insistence, then Soda's, Johnny stayed and ate with them. Darry was in a good mood despite working all day, and after the kitchen was clean, the four of them watched TV in the living room, Darry reading his newspaper and Soda and Pony and Johnny playing cards. And for the first time in a long time, it felt like she was finally, finally doing something right.

Thanks for reading!