Chapter 11 "The silence"
The next day, I went out with Pony after school to go to the Paul Newman movie we talked about last night. We walked together, and he paid for the tickets. We walked in the movie house, and we to the stands.
"Want popcorn?" Pony asked me.
"Um…not really, do you?" I ask, looking up at him, cause I was still shorter than him.
Well, duh he's taller than Johnny by like 5 or 6 inches, and I'm shorter than Johnny by 2 inches. So I was at his shoulder.
"No, not really."
"Then let's not get it, but I am thirsty," I grab his hand and hold it, "can we get drinks?"
"Sure," he orders a Pepsi and coke.
I got the coke and he got the Pepsi. We enter the movie and take our seats in the middle. The movie starts and the first thing I notice is one of the guys in the movie looks like Steve.
"Look Steve's famous," I whispered to Pony and pointed at the screen.
He looked at the guy, and we both start laughing, getting 'shhh…' and 'be quiet', and 'shut up's. We got accorded out when we didn't shut up. Which made us laugh even harder when we got outside.
We ran half way to the DX and stopped, breathing heavily and still laughing.
"That was a great movie," I said sarcastically.
"Yeah it really was," Pony joined in.
"What now?" I ask.
"I don't know, what do you want to do?"
"Anything fun," I said, smiling.
"Want to see Soda?"
"Sure!"
"Want to race?" Pony asks me, grinning.
"Sure, but I bet-….Hey that's not fair."
Pony starts before me and was now to the stop sign across the street, he looks back at me as I caught up to him. Then we both ran. Staying by each other's side most of the time.
But then Pony tripped and I was in lead. I stayed in lead until we got inside the DX.
"I won!" I yell at him, ignoring the customers looks.
"That's just because I tripped," Pony pointed out.
"Uh-huh sure, whatever makes you feel better, but I won!"
"Yeah right!" Pony yells at me sarcastically.
I jump up on the counter where Soda was checking someone out.
"That will be $1.50," Soda tells the teenage guy.
"Here," the guy gave him the money, taking his stuff and leaving.
"Next," Soda calls.
"Hey Soda Pop!" it was a girl with red hair, pale skin, and brown eyes.
"Hey Cherry," Soda greets.
"Hey Cherry, Marcia," Pony greets the red head and the girl with short black hair that just walked up.
I slipped off the counter by Soda, and hugged him.
"Guess what Soda?!" I tell him excitedly.
"What?" he asks, and looks down at me.
"I beat Pony! We raced here from the stop sign by the movie house, and I won!" I release him from my hug and lean on the counter.
"That's just because I tripped," Pony pointed out again, and jumped up on the counter.
"Who's this?" Cherry asks sweetly, looking at me.
"This is our kid sister," Soda says.
"Really?! I didn't know you guys had a kid sister," Marcia said.
"Well that might be because they just adopted me last year! I'm their new kid sister! My name is Rayna," I said.
"How old are you?" Marcia asks.
"14."
There's a 'honk' outside and Cherry said they had to go. After they left I turned to Soda, "want to come eat with us?"
"Can't sorry Ray, have to work. Plus I already had my lunch break," Soda tells me.
"Okay, well I'm going to the hospital, want to come Pony?" I ask.
"Nah, I'm going with Two-bit this evening," Pony says.
I turn to Soda, "Work Ray, I have work. Anyways me and Steve are seeing Johnnycake tomorrow."
"Fine. I'm going to say bye to Steve. Bye guys," I tell them and go in back.
Steve was working on a car, when I interrupted him.
"What do you need?" he asks.
"Just wanted to say bye, I'm going to go see Johnny."
"Oh, well bye. Tell Johnny I said hi," Steve tells me, and resumes on working on the car.
"Okay, I will."
I walk to the nearest bus stop and take the bus to the hospital. I walk in Johnny's room 5 minutes later after I got off the bus. I knock and then walk in. He looks up at me from his bed, "Hey Ray."
"Hey Johnnycake," I sit down.
"Sorry," he says.
"For what?" I ask.
"For yelling at you."
"Oh," I smile, "it's alright."
"Are we….still….you know…..dating?" Johnny asks nervously.
"Well Duh!" I laugh at his nervousness.
He laughs, "Good, cause I still like you."
"Well I like, like you," I told him, which makes him look me in the eyes.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, I love you Johnny Cade," I smile at him.
He smiles back at me and says, "I love you too, Ray!"
"Good, I thought you would leave me hanging there."
He starts to laugh and I shut him up by kissing him. After the kiss I look at him and say, "We must have a thing with kissing in hospitals."
"Yeah, we must," he agrees.
"Well about we go out to the drive-in or movie house as soon as you get out of here, and we can change 'our thing'," I told him.
"Okay, about the drive-in, we won't have to pay."
"Sounds great!"
We continue to talk for the next hour and a half. Until I have to go, then we hug and I kiss him on the cheek. It feels weird but great to have a boyfriend. I walk home and eat and take a shower.
The next day after school, I was in the living room with Scar and Ciara and we were watching TV and catching up with each other. It was a normal day, nothing special so far.
"So where have you guys been lately?" I asked.
"Helping my siblings pay for the house, I haven't been able to go to school again. I got a new job at The bowling alley as a waiter, it doesn't pay much but it's something, right?" Scar said.
"Yeah, at least it's something," I told her, "about you Ciara?"
"I been with Tyler and Emmanuel, we went up to see Jon at college for a few days then when we came back I spent the time with Dally at Buck's, and I also got a job but it's at Buck's and I'm a bartender. It's harder than it seems," Ciara explained.
"Cool, I guess," I said shrugging.
"We should have a girl's night," Scar suggested.
"Okay about us three plus, Kathy, Katie, Angela, Evie, and Sylvia." I said.
"Uh…no Sylvia, she's Dally's ex-girlfriend," Ciara said.
"Okay, but about we hang out tonight?" I ask.
"Sure, I'm free," Ciara says leaning back.
"Sure," Scar says.
So that night I went out with the girls to the drive-in, DQ, the bowling alley, and the dingo, then we went to Katie and Two-bit's to hang out. I got home at 12 at night, and the whole gang were in the living room, with the TV off, and Dally pacing.
"What's going on?" I ask.
Darry looks up at me, and Soda gets up and gives me a hug.
"What's going on?" I demanded.
"Sit down," Darry says.
"What's going on?" I begin to panic.
"Sit down and I'll tell you," Darry said.
I sat down next to Pony and Soda, then looked up at everybody. They all seemed nervous.
"We have good news and bad news," Darry tells me, "the good news is Johnny's coming home, and Ocean called saying she wants you and Johnny to know she's doing fine and getting better each day."
"The bad?"
"The bad news is your dad's back in the cooler…"
"How is that bad?" I asked.
"It's bad because of what he did," Dally told me.
"What did he do this time?" I asked sounding annoyed.
"He killed Johnny's dad."