Gay Love
Chapter 8 : They Shout
"Hello?" Darry asked gruffly as he picked up the phone.
It was in the middle of the night. He had work tomorrow. Who would be calling this late?
"Mr. Curtis?" A lady's voice answered back.
"Yes."
"Mr. Curtis, this is the hospital. I am one of your brother's nurses –"
That woke him up fully.
"What's wrong? Is he ok?"
Darry yelled into the phone, panicked.
There was a pause.
"I – I went to go give him his medication to help him sleep, but when I went in his room … he was gone."
'He's gone.' Those words seemed to stop his heart. They echoed in his head, teasing him, haunting him.
He dropped the phone.
Gone? How could he be gone? Where did he go? Why was he gone?
What if someone sneaked into his hospital room and took him?! Darry saw a bunch of things like that on the news and in the newspaper.
Oh my God, someone kidnapped his baby brother! How could the hospital let that happen?
They were supposed to watch him and take care of him, not let some crazy whack job come in and take him.
"Darry,"
At the sound of his other kid brother's voice, the world around him seemed to unfreeze and his heart started again, but it went so fast, he was sure it was going to bust out of his chest. He could hear his heart beat, beating in his ears. It was so loud; he thought he was going to go deaf.
That's when he remembered, the phone.
He ignored his brother as he hurriedly picked the phone up off the floor.
"Hello? You still there,"
"Yes."
"What do you mean he's gone? You guys were supposed to keep your eyes on him, take care of him, how could you let this happen?!"
The lady sighed.
"Mr. Curtis, I think you need to come down here now. Bring your other brother and your group of friends and meet me in your brother's room."
Before, he could reply, she hung up.
He hung up the phone in a daze.
"Darry," The voice of his middle brother said again.
Darry turned to him slowly.
"What's goin' on? Who is gone? It isn't Pony … Please tell me it ain't Pony." Soda begged desperately.
Deep down Soda already knew it was Pony, because why else would they call here? Who else is important enough?
Sure, he loves the gang, but if he had to choose between the gang and his baby brother, he wouldn't hesitate to choose Pony. Pony was everything to him. He could not lose Pony, he couldn't. He'd die if he did. Pony was a huge part of him, a part he couldn't live without. A part he needed.
He needed Ponyboy.
"I'm sorry, Soda, but he is. Our baby brother is gone." Darry said calmly, but he was feeling the opposite of calm right now.
Soda froze, his expression unreadable.
"We need to round up the gang and go to the hospital." Darry said carefully.
Soda suddenly ran out of the house.
"Soda," Darry yelled out after him.
He knew Soda was going to take this hard. Sure, the gang and himself loved Pony, but nobody was as close to Pony as Soda was. They were like one person.
So, of course Soda was going to take it the hardest.
He ran after Soda to find him in the passenger seat of their truck. He went into the driver's seat and drove off.
The gang rushed into the front doors of the hospital and into Pony's hospital room, where there was a nurse with brunette hair put up in a neat little bun and sea green eyes waiting there.
When she saw all them, she gave them all a look that confused them. It was a look with mixed up emotions in it, disgust, coldness, anger, and a little bit of sympathy.
"I didn't tell anybody else Ponyboy was gone."
"What? Why? They can't find him, if they don't know he's gone!" Soda snapped.
She glared at him.
"Because, he doesn't want to be found! He was hurt badly, not only physically, but emotionally. You guys are supposed to be his family, his friends, but you guys have been selfish! You hurt him for your own selfish needs! He wasn't what you expected, so you just forced him to be what you wanted him to be even if it killed him inside! Who cares if being gay is unforbidden in the world, you guys ain't the world, and you're supposed to be on Pony's side! You made him feel like you guys didn't love him anymore and wouldn't love him unless he liked girls! You chased him away! You only left him one option and that was to runaway with Johnny!" She spat out coldly.
The gang stared at her with wide eyes.
So, that's why Ponyboy was gone. He wasn't kidnapped or anything … he ran away with Johnny …?
Dally was the first one to recover.
"What the fuck are ya talkin' about, lady? How would ya know all that?" He asked coolly.
That was a good question, how did she know all that? Well, she was assigned his nurse since the first day he came in. She took care of him and stayed longer than she had to.
Sometimes she would just come in, sit down on a chair beside his bed and stare at him. She would tear up. She felt a connection with that boy. She felt a deep urge to protect him and she didn't know why. She didn't know him and she never got close to her patients, but Pony was different. She felt sympathy toward him … what that group of guys did to him, made her stomach churn. He was just a boy, that shouldn't have happened to him. She wanted to go find those boys and give them a peace of her mind, make them hurt like how they made Pony hurt.
When Pony woke up, he was afraid of her at first, but after a while of talking to him, and caressing his cheek as she sang to him at night, he started to warm up to her.
They had a mother son like relationship. Even though she was twenty seven too young to have a fourteen year old kid, but he still felt like a son to her.
They talked all the time. He would tell her stories about his childhood and talk about his brothers and their gang of friends.
She didn't find out about Johnny, until one day he let it slip. He covered his mouth, eyes widening, tears threatening to fall, face pale.
He was afraid she would be disgusted and hate him. She wrapped him in a hug and assured him that she could never hate him and that being in love wasn't disgusting or wrong, that love is love no matter what. He wasn't sure she meant it, that she was faking it like Soda had at first, but when he looked in her eyes and saw she was being sincere and wasn't the least bit uncomfortable with it, he believed her.
He thanked her for understanding, for being the only one to understand. When she asked what he meant, he told her about his brothers and friends reactions, and about why that group of boys hurt him that way, he told her everything that happened.
That made her mad, what kind of friends and family did that? That was wrong, so wrong. They should be happy Pony was happy with Johnny no matter the reason.
The day before he left, he told her him and Johnny was leaving for the church on Jay Mountain in Winderixville. He told her to tell the gang and his brothers, but nobody else that he ran away. She said she would.
She told him that after she was done talking to them, she was going to go find a nursing job in Winderxville so that she can stay and take care of them. They need an adult to take care of them, they're just boys, they can't stay in that church by themselves.
Pony was hesitate at first, but then he agreed with a wide smile on his face.
"Let's just say, we got close during the time he was here." Is all she said.
They all stared at her blankly.
"Do ya mean, ya and him … had a relationship?" Two-bit asked, cocking an eye brow.
"Not a romantic relationship, because not only am I too old for him, but his heart belongs to Johnny, no matter how much you guys have tried to deny it or change it, but we do have a mother son like relationship and he told me everything. And, I just can't believe you guys would do that to one of your friends." She paused to look at Darry and Soda in disgust and coldness.
"To your little brother. Being gay is not wrong, what is wrong is that a total stranger accepted and supported Ponyboy, when his friends and family didn't."
The gang looked down at the floor with shame, guiltiness, and sadness.
She was right.
It isn't right that a nurse that Pony barley knew accepted his relationship with Johnny and they, the people he grew up with didn't.
They wouldn't see how much Pony and Johnny really did love each other. They didn't care if they hurt them or not, they just didn't want them together, they just wanted them to be normal.
They are the reason Pony is gone.
They chased him away.
She handed Darry a letter.
"Pony left it for you guys, before he and Johnny left." She said softly, when Darry gave her a questioning look.
At that, Darry scanned the letter as the rest of the gang read over his shoulders.
As he finished, he dropped the letter and just stood there, frozen, expression unreadable, then the unthinkable happened, for the first time ever, the big, tough guy who had been everyone's rock, broke.
He sank to his knees and bawled like a baby.
How could he let this happen? How could he hurt his baby brother like that? He was supposed to take care of him, he was the older brother, the guardian, he was supposed to protect him. He thought he was by keeping him from seeing Johnny, but all that did was hurt him. He was the worst older brother ever.
Because, of him his baby brother was gone and he might never come back.
He barely noticed Soda dropping next to him, clinging onto him with a broken look in his eyes as he cried.
He didn't even bother to look behind him to see Dally, Two-bit, or Steve's reactions, because for once in his life, he couldn't be their rock, he needed someone to be HIS rock.
Johnny couldn't sleep. He was too overwhelmed with everything that had happened.
Telling Pony how he felt, getting together with Pony just to be forced apart by the gang, making love with Pony for the first time, sneaking around to be with Pony, Pony dating that tramp to make his brothers and the gang happy, those sick, twisted Socs hurting his Pony in everyway possible, Soda hitting him and telling him to never go near Pony again, Pony in a coma for almost two months, and them running away.
It was just too much to take in all at once. It all just happened so fast.
But, Johnny was glad they were here, that they ran away, because now he could be with Ponyboy without fear.
They were free to be together and be truly happy for once in their life.
He looked over at his sleeping lover.
He looked so peaceful, so young in his sleep.
He sat up on his knees, gently moving Pony's head onto his lap and stroked his hair.
He still can't believe someone could harm his Pony. Yeah, sure, he was gay, but that doesn't change the fact that he was a sweet, innocent, naïve boy.
Pony didn't deserve that.
Johnny wished it was him instead, wished it had been anybody, but Pony.
"I'll protect ya, Ponyboy. No one's ever gonna hurt ya again. I won't let them. They'd have to go though me first." He promised in a soft whisper to the sleeping boy and to himself.
If Pony was hurt, Johnny was hurt. He would do anything for him, anything at all. He would protect him.
Now that they were free, he would protect him from all the troubles in the world.
Ponyboy gave up everything for him, his brothers, the gang, his future, his innocence, his perfection.
Johnny never really had anything, but the gang and he lost the gang when they found out about him and Pony.
He didn't care, because Pony was all he needed, all he had ever wanted.
No matter what had happened or what anyone had said or done, Ponyboy had never really left Johnny.
He chose Johnny over everyone, even his own brothers.
Pony was always there and for that, Johnny was grateful.
As Johnny leaned down to kiss Pony's smooth forehead, he thought of what Pony had always said to him,
"We'll be together forever, I promise."
I will forget my dreams
Nothing is what it seems
I will effect you
I will protect you
From all the crazy schemes
You traded in your wings
For everything freedom brings
You never left me
You never let me
See what this feeling means
Everything that you feel
Is everything that I feel
So when we dream
We shout...
We shout...
You say it's all complex
Passion can pass for less
We never bothered
Telling each other
What we were bound to guess
Will anybody care
We could go anywhere
Going through danger
Talking to strangers
Will there be someone there
ntEverything that you feel
Is everything that I feel
So when we dream
We shout...
We shout...
We shout...
We shout...
Sorry if the nurse part was stupid ... it was kind of a last minute thing. Anyways, this was the last chapter to Gay Love. I hope you all enjoyed this story!!!
Do you guys want a sequel? Because, I already have ideas for a sequel, but I won't write it, unless you guys want me to.