Chapter 9
I took off before Dally even could turn around. He followed me, and we both made it back to the lot in a remarkable amount of time. What we found made me furious.
Two-bit was laughing like a manic, and Johnny was watching him with fear in his eyes.
"And that is how you shoot a gun, Johnny," Two-bit choked out between laughs.
Dally pulled Two-bit up by the collar of his shirt and said, "You piece of shit gave us a heart attack. Why are you teaching Johnny how to shoot a gun?"
"I gave you a heart attack," Two-bit broke out into a fit of laughing again.
"Shut up will ya," Dally threw him to the ground.
"You okay Johnny?" I asked.
"Yeah," he answered quietly.
Dally and Two-bit were wrestling, so I grabbed Johnny's hand and pulled him up.
"Let's take a walk," I told him, leaving the lot.
We walked down the side walk, the opposite direction of my house and Steve's house, but towards Two-bit's, Buck's, and Johnny's.
We passed Two-bit and Johnny's, and we were getting closer to Buck's. But I knew I wasn't allowed anywhere near Buck's, Johnny knew that too. Darry said it was too dangerous, too many hoods, too many drunk hoods.
So I stopped and sat down on the side walk, Johnny following my lead.
"They'll realize were gone soon and come after us, you know that right?" Johnny asked me.
"I know, but if Two-bit makes Dally any more mad their going to take a while," I said.
Johnny shrugs, "Probably."
"So anyways, how's it at home for ya?" I asked, remembering the burn mark from that lamp on his arm.
"Same," he said.
"You should stay at my house more often," I said.
"I don't want to be a burden."
I shook my head, "you are not burden, trust me! The gang and I love you," I paused, "especially me."
Johnny looks over at me and smiles, "I know…..I love you too."
"Good, because this would become really awkward, really fast," I laughed.
He laughed too.
"I wonder what time it is," I said.
"Probably around 12 or later. You should get home, Darry's probably worrying about you," Johnny said.
"You mean we should go home," a frown spread across Johnny's face and he looked down, then I added, "My home's your home, Johnny."
Johnny looked up at me and gave me a weak smile. I got up and Johnny followed me back from where we came from. We saw Dally and Two-bit in the distance talking to 2 other guys.
When we got close enough I realized who they were talking to. Soda and Steve. I yelled at them, and they turned around. Me and Johnny ran to them, and I ran into Soda hugging him in the process.
"Where have you been?" Soda asked me.
"At the lot with Johnny, and we fell asleep," I said.
"Well you guys must have slept for a long time, it's 3 o' clock in the morning," Steve said.
"It is?" I asked surprised.
"Yeah it is, me and Steve have to go to work in 3 hours," Soda said.
"Is Darry home?" I asked.
"Yep," Soda said.
"Well this should be fun," I said sarcastically.
"Come on kiddo, were going home, you need some sleep," Soda put an arm around me leading me towards the house with Dally, Steve, and Two-bit following.
Johnny shrunk back, and was starting to walk back to the lot until Dally said, "Where do you think you're going? Come on your coming with us."
Johnny's shoulders tensed up and that's when I realized I still had his jacket on, as soon as we would enter the house the lights will come on and everyone would see that big red burnt mark on his arm.
Then there will be trouble. Dally will go on a rampage hitting walls and threatening to kill Johnny's parents, and then Steve and Two-bit would agree with Dally and tell Johnny that they were going to help.
Johnny hated when the gang were like that, cause Johnny loved his parents no matter what they did to him. I stopped at let Johnny catch up to me, I took off his jacket and shoved it in his arms.
"Put it on," I whispered to him.
Johnny nodded and hurriedly put it on. We made it home and I sneaked off to bed. I didn't see Johnny until Monday, and he had run into some trouble.
I was in the hallway and kids were piling out the doors because the last bell just rang. I was standing in the hallway talking to Two-bit, Steve, Pony, Soda and Dally. Soda dropped by with Dally cause he got off work early.
We were standing by the lockers, with other groups of socs and greasers scattered around the hallways talking too. All of a sudden Johnny ran past us followed by 8 or 9 different socs and the Shepard outfit.
"Johnny got himself into a load of trouble, he'll be lucky to make it out alive," Curly told us laughing and then caught back up with the rest of his gang.
Dally looked at us then took off down the hallway, we took off after him getting ready for a fight. We ran down the stairs and hallways as fast as we could.
Out the front doors and onto the streets, we could see Johnny, the socs, and the Shepard gang in the distance going across the parking lot. We caught up with the Shepard outfit and Dally had made it up front with Tim and Curly.
I caught up with the 3 of them really quick. I was the fastest girl on my track team, like Pony was the fast boy on his track team, but the thing is I could run faster than Pony.
I ran as fast as I could and made it with Dally and Tim up in front with the socs.
"What do you think you're doing?" a soc yelled at me.
"Helping my friend," I yelled back.
Dally took down the soc I was just talking to and Pony took down the smallest soc that was in front too. Two-bit, Steve, Curly, and Tim took down the last three. I stopped as I watched them fight.
Dally giving the biggest soc a few good punches. The socs fled and I we took off again after Johnny. The Shepard gang pretty much gave up and they went after the socs.
We followed Johnny down the street, he ran past the park, my house, the lot, and into his stumbling over the steps and almost ran into the door. We all stopped.
"That kid is so stupid sometimes. Escapes socs, so he decides to go to his house. He's crazy," Dally said, shaking his head.
"Let's get him out of there," Two-bit says, and runs to the door.
"Two-bit, you're crazy," I said.
"Crazy? For worrying about Johnnycake?" Two-bit laughs then knocks on the door.
"What do you want?"
"Well hello there Mrs. Cade, can we speak to Johnny?" Two-bit asks polity.
"Why?" she sneers.
Dally pushes Two-bit aside, "Let us speak to Johnny, now."
Mrs. Cade looks at him for several seconds then attempts to slam the door, but Dally stops it with his foot, "Where's Johnny?"
"Johnny!" Mrs. Cade screams, "Your hoodlum of a friend is here to see you."
There's no respond.
"Johnny, you little shit get down here!" Mr. Cade yelled from the living room.
Dally glares inside then shoves Mrs. Cade back and enters the house. Soda pulls me and Pony back.
"Let just Steve, Dally, and Two-bit go in, don't need a whole party in the Cade's house," Soda jokes.
"Fine," I say and step back sitting down on the sidewalk.
Dally, Steve, and Two-bit came back out with Dally and Steve pulling Johnny out of his house by the jacket. I got up and we walked back home. Johnny didn't make eye contact with any of us, not even me.
Dally pulled him by the jacket as we walked, "What happened kid?"
Johnny shrugs.
"How do you not know? To make that many socs ticked off, you would have to do something really bad," Steve said.
"I didn't do anything," Johnny said quietly.
"Then who did?" Two-bit asked.
"Tim."
"Why didn't Tim get chased out of there?" Dally asked.
"Cause he told the socs I did it," Johnny said.
"Did what?" Soda asked.
"I don't know he just said that I did it, he didn't say what I supposedly did."
"I'm going to kill him," Dally said angrily, letting go of Johnny's jacket, making Johnny stumble backwards.
Johnny stumbled into Two-bit, and Two-bit caught him by the arms, standing him back up, "Are you alright, kid?"
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"I'm going to kill the son of a bitch," Dally yelled, starting to walk towards the direction of the Shepard's house.
Soda and Steve caught up with him, standing in front of him, Soda put a hand on his shoulder.
"Calm down, Dal. Johnny's safe, that's all that matters," Soda said.
"If you kill Tim, you'll be in the cooler for life, then you'll never get to see Johnny. We know you wouldn't want that," Steve said.
Dally shook his head sighing.
I walked up to the 3 of them and put a hand on Dally's shoulder, "Their right, and you know it," I whispered in his ear.
Dally pushed me, Soda, and Steve aside and turned his direction towards our house. We all followed, and when we got there, there was a truck across the street.
But it wasn't any truck, it was my dad's truck.
I ran up aside Soda, and pulled on his flannel to get his attention, he looked down at me, "What is it?"
I pulled him down to my level by the flannel and whispered, "That's my dad's truck."
"Where?" Steve butted in.
"Across the street," I told them.
"Come on we'll tell Darry," Soda pulled me inside.
"Darry!" I yelled throughout the house.
"What?" he asked appearing from around the corner.
"My dad's outside," I said.
Darry looked at me, then went straight outside, but not before telling Soda, "Keep then inside don't let anyone out, not even Dally."
Darry walked outside, and the rest of us ran to the window to watch. Darry walked up to my dad's truck and knocked on his window.
My dad didn't roll it down, he opened the door, and stepped out. They started to talk, and then yell, and then started to fight. I ran to the door, but Soda stopped me.
They started to fight, and then we could see Darry picking up my dad by the collar, throwing him in the truck and slamming the door. Then he walked back in saying, "There everything's settled."
The next day there was no school and so we all went swimming well just everyone but Johnny. He said he had other things to do. Even Dally came! I hanged out with Scar and Ciara while we swam.
After swimming we went to DQ to eat, then went to the park and played football, and after that we kind of just wandered around the neighborhood stopping to talk to other gangs, including the Shepard gang.
Later on at home after we ate dinner I decided to take a walk. It was getting dark so I wasn't planning on going far. When I got close to Johnny's house I could see Johnny sitting on the sidewalk right in front of his house.
I sat down by him, "hey, you missed a lot of fun stuff today."
He shrugs.
Something's wrong I could tell, "What's wrong?"
"Nothin'."
I wince when I hear his voice. It was rough and raspy like usual but you could hear the pain.
"It doesn't sound like you're okay," I said.
He looks up at me, the street light barely streaming on us so I could hardly see his face. But I could see the several scratch marks across his cheek, his eyes were red probably from crying but a bruise was forming underneath his right eye.
"I did something terrible," he whispers, "something terrible."
I look at him confused, "what did you do?"
"I can't tell, I'm not supposed to. It's just bad."
"I won't tell anyone," I recurred him.
"I can't tell you, but I can show you," he says still so quiet I could barely even make out the words.
I follow him, as we go through the back door to his house, and he leads me down stairs. He stops at the end of the stair case and tells me to be quiet. He leads me in the back and it was like outside only one dim light to be able to see everything.
There's a mattress in the corner with ropes dangling from the ceiling, blankets all over the floor. Then I spot something move from underneath the blankets on the mattress. Johnny cautiously walks to the mattress and lifts up the blankets.
It's a girl. She's so beat up, bloody, and bruised that she couldn't even open up her eyes. There's burn marks all over her pale body. You could tell she was supposed to hair bleach blond hair but it's so dirty that's its light brown.
Johnny gives her water, helping her sallow it.
She opens her eyes up as wide as she could, and I could now see her bright baby blue eyes.
It was Ocean…..