A/N: Since no one (Minus LikeWhoaa or whatever she's going by these days) will entertain me and update, I'll entertain myself. And I'm trying to stop saying Johnny so much, bear with me. It's a hard habit to break.
"Johnny?" Mrs. Curtis asked later that night when she went into the living room to see the boys.
"Yes?" he asked, looking up from where Soda and Steve were teaching him how to play their version of poker. He'd seen his father play poker plenty of times, but he didn't play like them.
"When does your father want you home? It's getting dark, you wouldn't want him to worry…"
Johnny, who had been dreading going home, looked out the window, and surely enough the sun was setting, meaning it would be dark soon. "He didn't give me a time…" he answered.
"Would you like to call him?"
"No…" said Johnny, who didn't even know his own phone number. They were a bunch of numbers and he couldn't ever remember them. "I guess I could go home now," he said, hoping that his mother would be home.
"Let me grab my coat and I'll walk you... It's still raining and you haven't even got a coat on," Mrs. Curtis said and walked out, only to come back a moment later with an umbrella and a jacket on. "Ready?"
"Yeah… Bye guys," Johnny said, standing up.
"Aww, mom, does he have to go yet?" Soda asked
"Sorry Soda," Mrs. Curtis said with a smile. "You've already got one friend sleeping over…" With that, she gave Steve what looked like a sympathetic glance, but Johnny wasn't sure he had read the look right.
"Bye," Steve said. Johnny didn't know what to think of Steve, he was nice, but he wasn't as friendly as Soda.
"Bye Johnny!" said Soda, waving at Johnny who was at the door.
When they stepped out into the cold night, Johnny was wishing he had brought a coat... If nothing else, it could have stopped the cold rain from lashing at his arms. The umbrella stopped it from hitting their heads, but their faces were left raw.
"You live down the street, Johnny?" Mrs. Curtis asked.
"Yeah…" Johnny said, looking down at where he could see his porch.
"I've seen you around before, with your mother."
"Yeah…" Johnny said again, not sure what to say in reply and they continued walking in silence.
After a few minutes, Johnny stopped.
"Is this your house?" Mrs. Curtis asked.
"Yup…" Johnny answered, looking up at the house and gulping. His mothers car was not back yet, but the living room light was on, meaning Johnny's father was home but his mother was not… And his father had said not to come home until she was back.
"Everything alright, Johnny?" She'd seen him gulp.
"Yup," Johnny said, and walked towards his house, turned and waved, then entered his house.
"Dorrie?" his father called out when Johnny shut the door.
Johnny didn't really want to deal with his father, so he started walking to his bedroom, hoping to avoid him.
"Johnny?" his father called out again, but Johnny tried to walk more quietly towards his room. "Come here, Johnny." When he didn't come to the door, he called out again "I know you're there."
Grudgingly and not looking forward to what would come, Johnny turned around and walked to the entrance to the living room. "Hi," he said, not meeting his father's eyes.
"You're back."
"Yeah, it was getting dark…" Johnny said, looking at the floor.
"Where'd you go?" he asked in a determinedly calm voice.
"To a friend's house…"
"What did I tell you, boy?" his father yelled, and Johnny looked anywhere but at his father. He knew what he'd been told, but he didn't know how to answer without getting himself in worse trouble than he was already in. "You hear me?"
"Yes…" Johnny said, finally meeting his father's eyes and regretting it the second their gaze met; his father was angry, angrier than Johnny had ever seen him. It was scary.
"Then you know I told you that those 'friends' are no good! You can't be hanging out with people around here, you'll end up like them, robbing banks and jumping people at buss stops!"
"They aren't like that…"
"You don't know that! You think you know them, but you went playing football with them today, that's it! You hear me?" his father yelled, getting angrier with each word. "You know that I told you not to come back until your mother's home! I don't want to deal with you! You're turning out to be trash!" Johnny's father shouted in his face.
Johnny screwed up his face. His father's breath smelt bad, he'd smelt it before on nights when his father had been out all night… It was putrid and strong and always put his father in a foul mood.
"You're always around here making trouble… You're going to amount to nothing, you know that? You're already hanging around with riff-raff, don't bring home any decent friends from school… Teacher says your shy. Don't know how I ended up with a shy kid, but it's no good, you know that? You're turning out no good… Don't know what I'm going to do with you…" Johnny's father started saying, but Johnny was trying not to listen but it wasn't working. This was coming from his father; the man he'd always looked up to. What had he done so wrong to make him hate him so much?
"And I mean it this time boy; I swear to God that if I see your face again before your mothers home it'll never look the same again, so get the hell out!" As if to prove his point, he raised his hand and hit Johnny so hard he'd have a black eye for weeks, then shoved him to the door. "Get."
Johnny ran to the door and fumbled on the knob for a second before getting it open and running through, with tears blinding his vision. Before he slammed it behind him, he heard his fathers words, "And stay out!"
