R&R PLEASE!!! HOPE YOU LIKE!! Read next chapter too please! It's short, but that's okay. XD

Chapter Two- An old friend

"Are you alright?" he asked lifting my head after a couple minutes of crying. His eyes were all puffy and red.

Yeah," I sniffed. He gave me a weak smile. I smiled back.

We walked the rest of the way to the drive-in in deep conversation.

"No," I said shaking my head. "Pop bottles work better for fighting. Maybe you're just not aiming right or something or not using it right."

He shook his head at me. "No way!" Ponyboy said. "Switchblades are better! They work faster and cut better." This was normal conversation for the Greasers.

"But you can carry around pop bottles without anyone being suspicious, and pull those out faster," I argued back. "They really do cut well once you learn to use one."

Johnny taught me to use a switchblade and (don't tell) Dally taught me how to use a pop bottle.

We walked up to the guy who we were supposed to pay to get in. Ponyboy handed him a quarter and we were admitted inside. Hate to say it, but that was my first time ever paying to get into a drive-in movie. I always used to climb under the fence, like Johnny and Dally used to. It was fun. I realized that playing by the rules is absolutely no fun. Maybe that was why the gang always did everything the illegal way; everything they did always had to be fun.

Ponyboy pointed to the seats in the front row. "Let's sit over here," he told me, trying to whisper as to not disturb the other people who made it in time to watch the movie.

I sat down next to him and whispered, "What's the movie about?" He leaned closer to me. "Another one of those beach party movies. Isn't that the only thing that is ever out?" I slumped back in my seat and thought to myself, 'If I watch one more beach movie I think I'm going to kill myself.'

Most of the movie I sat there staring at Ponyboy. His hair reflected brunette and a little blond (secretly, I think he still died his hair slightly to not let the memory of Johnny die out) from the bright shining lights above. His face was gorgeous and I never really noticed how much he did look like Soda. I could tell he wasn't really watching the movie because his eyes kept darting elsewhere and barely focused on the screen. I noticed his eyes kept moving over to me, so I pretended I was watching the movie, deeply concerned about the blond bimbo who just lost her man to another woman. Ponyboy kept sliding his hand closer to mine so I moved it farther away. Even though we never held hands before, I thought it might be fun to play hard to get.

I could tell he was getting aggravated. He looked over at me and caught my eye. I giggled. He just shook his head and smiled.

"Want to go get some popcorn or something?" he asked me eyeing my hand. I put it in the pocket of my jeans jacket. "Sure," I said smiling sweetly. We got up from our seats and walked over to the concession stand.

When we got up there, one girl turned around. "Ponyboy!" It was a red head girl.

Pony looked startled. "Cherry!" he replied. "What have you been up to?" she asked him. I just stood there, not knowing if I wanted her to notice me or not. She was a Soc. She grabbed her popcorn and Ponyboy followed her back to her seat. Hey! Where's my popcorn! I followed rolling my eyes along the way.

"Life's been doing okay, actually," Ponyboy said. He looked back at me. I smiled, pretending I was having fun.

"Good," Cherry said. "Good, good." She then stroked her eyes on me. She smiled warmly, with a bit of fear or sadness in her eyes.

"Hi," she said holding out her hand. "I'm Cherry Valance." I grasped her hand.

"I'm Taylor Cade," I told her, strongly.

Her face fell. "Are you Johnny's little sister?" she asked me. I sighed.

"Yeah," I replied. "Is there a problem?" She looked taken aback.

"Oh no!" she said. She smiled like a mother would to their child.

"You look just like him, you know," she said to me.

I could feel Ponyboy's eyes on me, so I just nodded. "Yep," I said quietly. I couldn't think about Johnny at that time.

She turned back to Ponyboy, her voice getting all cheery again. "Well it's nice seeing you again, Ponyboy," she said before turning around and leaving.

"Sweet girl," I muttered darkly before heading back to my seat.

Ponyboy followed. "Oh no Taylor," Pony begged me. "It's nothing like that. She just helped us out when it came to us in court with the deal with that Soc and Johnny."

I looked at him and sat down. "I know," I said coolly. "I remember hearing about her. I couldn't make it to the court session, remember?"

Ponyboy nodded. "Yeah," he said, a smile playing at the corner of his mouth. "And remember how the gang kept trying to keep me cool because since you couldn't come, and I was afraid I wouldn't see you again."

I smiled and forgot all of my hate for Cherry. "Yeah," I said. "I remember that perfectly." I sat back in my seat, having a notion that something more was going to happen that night. And it wouldn't be good.

The movie finally ended and Ponyboy and I headed home. It was very dark by then, and we only had the dimming lights to show us the way.

"Come on," Ponyboy said. "Let's take a shortcut." I looked at where he was talking about. The park. "Uh," I said, noticing a strange pattern as to what we were doing.

Running into Cherry Valance at the drive-in movies, where her, my brother and Ponyboy first met.

Walking to the park. The same park that Johnny and Ponyboy got jumped the same night, and Johnny killed that Soc.

Well, okay, maybe that wasn't a lot of reasons, but it was enough. Okay, it was enough for my overactive imagination. We stepped up the hill that lead to the park and the quick way to get home.

As we approached the fountain, I got a little closer to Ponyboy and accidentally stepped on his shoe, making it fall off.

"Sorry," I told him. "Accident." I felt my face get hot.

"That's okay," he replied, bending down. As he was putting his shoe back on his foot, I snuck a peak over at the fountain. It no longer ran water after Johnny killed that Soc, since they couldn't clean all of the blood out of the water and the town didn't want red water to run through the fountain.

I imagined Ponyboy being drowned in the pool, and the Socs holding him there and laughing. I also thought of Johnny being thrown to the ground then pulling his switchblade out, and then….

"Taylor?" I focused back into reality.

"Huh?" I said, rubbing my eyes. Ponyboy pointed to someone by the fountain. There was a person over there. I hadn't noticed him or her when I was first looking at it. The person was crying into the fountain from the opposite side of where we were standing. It looked like a girl. The sound of the rustling leaves on the trees almost drowned out her sobbing, but we could still hear it.

Ponyboy gave me a cautious look and I returned it. The girl might be a trick. "Let's go," he whispered. "You never know, she might be severely hurt."

I gave him a wild glare. "But why would she be crying into the fountain?!" I replied sharply. He just shrugged and began to slowly walk over to the girl. I sighed and followed. The boys were right. Ponyboy doesn't use his head.

As we neared he cleared his throat. "Heh em." The girl didn't look up. "Heh em!" Suddenly a throw of red hair was swished back to reveal a red face. It was Cherry…

"Cherry!" Ponyboy cried. She looked at us startled. "Oh Pony!" she cried.

"What are you doing here?" she asked us. I blinked.

"Furthermore," I added, "What are you doing here? This is Greaser's turf!" I couldn't believe this girl. Did she want to be killed…?? Any of the people around on the East Side would attack any Soc, crying or not.

Ponyboy looked at me. "Let me handle this," he whispered. He knew I was hard headed and in-your-face. I leaned back on a tree with my arms across my chest watching skeptically at the scene in front of me.

Ponyboy turned back to Cherry. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

She sniffed. "I come here whenever I miss Bob," she told us. "And after seeing you again at the drive-in, it reminded me so much of him that I needed to come back here."

Ponyboy gave her a weird look and bent down next to her. "Cherry," he said softly, putting his hand on her shoulder. "It's been two years."

"I know," she whispered. Then she busted out in tears again. Ponyboy looked over at me, but I just glanced away. I knew this Soc didn't like Johnny because she refused to visit him at the hospital, and was still crying over Bob's death, which she knew was Johnny's fault. I was about to cry myself.

The wind was making me cold and missing Johnny made me tired and sad, so I was happy when Cherry finally took Ponyboy's words into perspective and said, "Well maybe I should go home. Maybe then I can feel better."

She jumped up and ran off. We watched her go, but at the bottom of the hill was a red Chevy and a girl and a boy were hanging out of the window. Ponyboy and I froze. Were they coming after us…?

"Are you alright, Cherry?" the girl asked. I saw that she nodded. The boy, who was driving, looked up at where we were standing. I could hear Ponyboy's deep breathing stop. "Who were you talking to?" he asked her. "Oh, no one," she said, jumping in the back seat. They drove off into the night.

Ponyboy turned around to look at me, his face pure white from being so scared. I started to shake. "Let's go." His voice was quivering. "Before they come back for us." We knew it was possible that they would come back to look for us, though it was doubtful because they were afraid.

We ran all the way home, and I think that was the fastest I've ever seen Ponyboy run I his life. Not wanting him to leave me behind, I ran extra fast until I finally caught up. We both stopped running as we hit my front gate. Panting we looked up at my house. From the light of the window, we could see my parents arguing again. They were yelling and screaming, and I saw that my mother hit him. Suddenly, a figure came to the door.

"OUT!" it screamed. It was my mother. My father cussed her out and bolted out the door.

Ponyboy took me by the hand and led me over behind a bush to hide safely. You never know if my father was sober or not, and it looked like he wasn't, and that could be dangerous. My father just stood out by the walk for a moment until he walked away down the road, swaying as he went.

I didn't realize I was shaking and crying until Ponyboy put his arm around me and brought me up from the bushes. "Maybe you should come home with me for the night," he whispered. I just cried onto his shoulder and followed him home.

Darry was sitting on the couch reading the newspaper when we trudged in the house. Ponyboy was practically carrying me in. Darry jumped up.

"Are you two alright?" he questioned as he came over to examine us more closely. "You look like you've just seen a ghost!" I looked over at the mirror by the door and saw that my face was all white and was streaked with dirt, and Ponyboy was pale.

"Darry," Ponyboy asked, "Can Taylor stay the night with us?"

Darry looked at me with concern in his eyes. He didn't ask why because he already knew it was my parents again. "Sure," he said not taking his eyes off me.

I looked over at Ponyboy, still shaken up. "Where can I sleep?" He looked at Darry then back at me.

"With me," he replied. Darry cleared his throat. "How about you get the floor, Ponyboy," he told him, "So our guest can get the bed."

Ponyboy looked up at Darry. "But Soda sleeps with me too," he said. "I know," Darry said nodding his head. "That's why he gets the floor too."

Just then, Sodapop appeared at the door, in nothing but a pair of jeans. "I heard my name," he announced. He looked at me, already knowing. "I'll put me and Ponyboy's things on the ground," he replied, then walked out of the room.

Ponyboy took me into the kitchen and poured me some water, commanding me to drink. I did in one swallow and then we went upstairs. Soda already had his and Pony's place set up.

"Hey girl," he said giving me a hug. "Everything's ready," he said turning to Ponyboy. Ponyboy looked at me.

"Do you want to sleep in those?" he asked, pointing to my dirt stricken clothes.

I nodded. I didn't want to bother the boys anymore that night. They were being too kind all ready. Soda began to lie on the floor so I sat on the bed and leaned back.

Ponyboy looked over at me. "Are you going to be alright tonight?" he asked me.

"Yeah," I said, my voice still quivering. "Alright. 'Night." I just lied there a moment. "'Night guys," I replied back smiling, because I finally knew what a real family was like.