Okay, chapter 9, here it is. I'm going to end this story soon. I hope you like it!!

Chapter 9

Pony's POV

There wasn't much conversation in the car. There isn't much to talk about on the way to the hospital. Jamie just stared out the window. I was in the middle and Johnny was next to me. Soda was in front and Darry was driving. I don't know why Soda wanted to come. I guess he was bored, since Steve was out with Evie. Nobody said a word. It was awkward. Especially since Soda is never quiet. So much for that.

"Hey Darry, why are girls so weird?" Soda can be random at times.

"What are you talking about?" Darry took his eyes off the road for a minute and cocked an eyebrow, just like Two-Bit.

"Okay. There's this girl. She comes into the gas station, and said hi, so I said hi." Soda just stared out the windshield.

"And?" Darry said, looking at him again.

"And, that's it" Soda gave him a weird look, which made me kind of laugh.

"What? What was the point of this?" Darry started to smile.

"I don't know. Everybody is being so quiet. I couldn't think of anything to say, so…yeah." He said 'yeah' real fast and looked out the window. Soda is so weird. We finally got there, and went to go find his room. I don't know why Jamie wanted to go see him. We found his room, and she almost ran in there, and kneeled at his bed. Why would she want to see him?

"Shane" she said. I could tell she was going to cry, but I don't know why. Girls sure were weird. Good thing there was a nurse in the room, I'm not sure if Shane would have done anything to her.

"Oh, hey, Jamie. What's up?" by the way he was talking, he sounded like he could be her brother, or just a normal guy who hadn't done anything wrong.

"Nothing. How're you doing?" why would she care? She said she wasn't into him anymore.

"Oh, I don't know. They said my legs were broken, and my arm was pinched pretty bad in the tree." He looked so innocent, and it almost killed me to see him lying there. Then another nurse came in. She whispered something to the other nurse, and then looked at us.

"I'm afraid you need to leave now." the nurse said. We walked out into the hallway, and the nurse followed us out.

"He okay?" Jamie asked. Again, I don't know why. Why does she care? This was driving me up the wall. Would she come to visit me if I were in the hospital? Does she care for me like I do her? I decided I was going to ask her out tonight no matter what happened. I had to ask her before anyone asked her, or she asked anyone else. This was the first girl I had ever even had a crush on. My old neighbor in the first grade doesn't count, either. The nurse looked at her and said,

"Yes, he's fine at the moment. But it looks like he's so young and has had too much alcohol in his system. He might have liver poisoning, and a really bad case at that. He's just so young that his body can't take it." Jamie's face seemed to get a sadden look in her face, which made me more jealous. I put my arm around her like Soda does when he wants to comfort me.

"It's okay, Jamie." I knew there was nothing we could do about it, and we had nothing to do with causing it. Yes, it was sad, but Shane was a mean guy. He did mean things to innocent people. She looked at me with a deathly look.

"Pony, this is all my fault." What?? Was she going crazy? How could this be her fault at all? But I just tried to comfort her.

"Oh, Jamie. No it's not."

"Yes it is. I was such a bad girlfriend. I should of talked to him about his dad, but instead, he just took up drinking, and now he's…well…look at him, and it's all because of me." She had tears streaming down her cheeks now. I didn't know what to say, and thankfully, Darry put a hand on my shoulder and said,

"she's just been in a situation that a girl her age shouldn't be in. It's going to be okay, Jamie, don't worry about it." Darry actually had something comforting to say for once. But sadly he was right. No one should ever have to go through this, period. I wonder why nobody feels that bad for Johnny. Maybe because she is a girl. Or maybe, because her parents don't know about it. that reminded me.

"Hey, Jamie, you know you've got to tell your parents?" she had to.

"Oh, I don't know. Well, they wouldn't care anyways."

"So what. You're going to tell them. Even if they don't care, I do." I wish I didn't say that, because I didn't want her to know how I really felt about her. My ears were flaming red and I thought that they would fall off if they got any hotter.

"Thanks, Pony. You're a great friend." Darry dropped me and Jamie off at her house and told me to not be home after midnight. I guess since it was a Saturday night he didn't mind as much. We just sat on the couch and waited for her parents to get home.

"So, uh, what time do they usually get home?" I was hoping not too late, because if I came home too late, Darry would kill me.

"Oh, I don't know. Sometimes 10. Sometimes 11, Sometimes 11:30, sometimes midnight. Sometimes they don't even come home at all."

"Well, Darry said I have to be home at least by midnight. And I knew he was being nice, since he usually makes me go to bed around 11." She looked at the clock at the wall, and it read 9:48 I was hoping they would come home soon. I wanted to stay, but I didn't want to get in trouble. I hated getting in trouble by Darry. And Soda hated it when we fought, so I tried to avoid it period.

"Yeah, so Darry takes care of you? He's your brother?" I really still don't like to talk about my parents. I don't know why, its been almost a year. They were just so important to me, and I didn't want to let go of them. They left so soon and I didn't even get to say goodbye. Then I realized that I hadn't answered her question yet.

"Oh yeah. My parents, uh…they um, died." I said quietly. I hated saying that, because it made it true. If I didn't say anything, then I would always pretend that they would come home everyday, and I would go to sleep knowing they wouldn't, but hoping they would. I am not fully over the fact that they left so suddenly. I was so young. I was only 13 years old. They wouldn't even see me graduate. Or get married. Or get my first car, or even drive at all. They would never see me get my own house, have kids, and start a family of my own. I wish that they could have been here for a few things. They got to see Darry graduate. And at least they got to see Soda go to high school. I wish they hadn't died. I really miss them a lot. I tried to stop thinking about it, because I didn't want tears to form in my eyes. Jamie almost made me jump by saying,

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't even think about it. I didn't know."

"It's fine" I said looking away. Then, after what seemed like a lifetime, Jamie's mother walked in the door. She looked at Jamie, then at me, and took off her shoes.

"Hey mom, how was work?" Jamie just sat there and looked at her.

"Ok, I guess." She started to walk into the kitchen.

"Hey, mom. I need to tell you something." She started to fidget with her hands now.

"Do you have to tell me now?" she put a burrito in the microwave, and was getting something to drink out.

"Yeah, it's kind of important."

"Ok, I guess so." She didn't really look interested.

"Well, you know Shane, my boyfriend, right?" she got the burrito out of the microwave and started shoveling it in her face.

"Yeah" she said with a mouthful of burrito.

"Well, he's in the hospital right now." her mom just kept eating. "Yeah, and he might have liver poisoning. And, well. Mom, Shane has been abusing me. All those bruises were from him, and he always hit me." This hardly even phased her. She set down her burrito and still kept a straight face.

"Well, good. He's in the hospital, he's got what's coming to him." she picked up the burrito and kept eating.

"Ok, whatever, mom. I'm staying the night at Ponyboy's house." Jamie was starting to get upset, and pulled me out the door by my arm.

"See ya." Her mom said, putting her plate in the sink. How could you be so careless about your child? How could a parent like this live and be perfectly fine, when normal good parents who actually tried to take care of their kids and loved them die? Why do things work this way? It didn't make sense to me at all. Jamie was starting to get upset, and I could see tears in her eyes.

"Pony, how come she doesn't care about me?" she kept asking questions that I didn't know the answers to.

"I'm not sure, but it's alright." I couldn't think of anything to say.

"Sometimes I wonder if anyone cares about me. Or why I'm needed in the world" this girl was breaking my heart. She looked so sad, and I hated that.

"I care about you, Jamie. You can always count on me to be there for you. Okay?" I was hoping that it would make her feel a little better, and it did. She stopped in the middle of the road and gave me a hug.

"I keep saying this Pony, but its true. You're such a good friend." She started cheering up, so I said,

"Race you to my house, go!" I started, but I let her catch up, and I let her beat me all the way to my house.

Okay, I did this real fast, I've been busy lately. I hope you like this and I hope you review!