Sorry for the very long wait and very short chapter. It was summer, and I was getting busy and bored a little with the story line. I have a new direction for the story and I hope you like it. Please review and pm me if you want to see anything happen.

Sorry for any typos, I was writing quickly because I want to get this chapter out there.

Lissa and I walked back to Steve's/our house. "When I ran out of the house looking for you, I heard steve and his step-mother fighting," Lissa stated.

I looked down and pitied myself for not helping Steve out. We kept walking in silence until the next time I looked up. There in the driveway, was a beat up truck. "Must be our dad's truck," I told Lissa.

Lissa just kept walking straight into the house, I followed her. "Steve. . . Steve. . . Where are you?" I looked up just in time to see a passed out man on the couch, Jezebel sitting next to him. "Where's Steve?" Lissa asked with a hint of I'm-going-to-kill-you in her voice.

"Let's just say he learned his lesson and now he's in a time-out," Jezebel said cooly before she stood up and quick as lightning grabbed Lissa by the wrists and threw her across the room. Lissa hit her head on the corner of the wall connecting the kitchen to the living room. I ran as fast as I could out of the kitchen, through the front door and down the road I skidded to a halt. I didn't bother to check on Lissa, and now regret was starting to form. I was alone, in the middle of nowhere in a neighborhood I've never been in. Crap, where do I go now.

I heard Jezebel screaming as Lissa came barreling out the door, knocked out cold on the ground. Jezebel left her there and went back into the house. I walked up to Lissa and fell to the ground crying until I could feel someone's presence. I looked up and saw Ponyboy, I blushed when I realized Pony had been watching me cry like a little girl. What am I thinking, I just met him and now I'm all googly eyes over him.

That's when I noticed someone else was with Pony. This other kid looked sad and beat up. He looked at me with these lost puppy dog eyes. He looked like someone who had so many problems, but couldn't do anything about it.

We all had come to a silent agreement, carry Lissa to Pony/Darry's home.

Pony's pov

Johnny and I showed up to Steve's house, only to see Mia hunched over Lissa crying. We got to my house around nine in the morning. As we walked into the house Darry got up from his favorite recliner and took Lissa from us. He set her on the couch, and then questioned us. Mia filled him up on what had happened since they left this morning, including the parts that I missed of her already being here.

The rest of the day we spent relaxing wondering what we were going to do now, and if Lissa would ever wake up. We didn't want to take her to the doctor since Mia made it clear that she hates hospitals. We determined it was not a very bad hit to the head and she will wake up soon.

Mia keeps pacing back and forth wondering if Steve was okay or not, and it was driving me up the wall. No wonder Darry hates when I do that. I told her Steve was tough enough to most likely get out, she calmed down a little but is still concerned.

Soda came home and was upset when we told him the story. He started worrying about Steve too, until Mia said that they should look for him. So that is how it began, Soda and Mia went out to search for Steve as Darry and I stayed home.

Around an hour after they left, Lissa woke up. "Where am I? Why does my head hurt?" She looked around and her eyes grew worried, "Mia. . . MIA?"

"She's okay Lissa," I told her. "She just went out searching for Steve with Soda." When I told her that she calmed down a little, she nodded her head and stared at me curiously.

"You're the boy Mia ran into earlier, Ponyboy right?"

"Yeah," I said.

"What happened to me? All I remember is being tugged on the wrists and. . . and. . . It's fuzzy from there," I told her what Mia had told me. Her eyes grew huge with worriedness. "Mia still hasn't returned from searching for Steve?"

"She will soon. Don't worry."

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