Friends:

PONYBOY: Darry let me have it when I came home that night. He was pretty pissed off about having to take me to the hospital, saying we didn't need to spend any more money on me breaking my body like a tooth-pick. He told me he thought I was done picking fights, and when I tried to tell him that the other guys had been the ones to start it, he only got madder. Turned out that that son-of-a-bitch broke two of my ribs, but it felt like he'd snapped all of them off. I'd have to keep my sides bandaged up for two weeks, and if another soc decided to start something with me, I'd be shit out of luck. Darry said he'd never seen a fourteen-year-old kid get the crap kicked out of him as much as I did. Said he should have taught me how to fight better. I guess he's right; I'd figured I'd just get better over time, getting practice. Obviously it wasn't working too well.

I was trying to finish the algebra homework Mr. Barry had given us over the weekend when Two-Bit came in my room with Steve, who proceeded to howl and slug me in the arm.

"Hey, Ponyboy," Two-Bit said, sitting on top of my desk, "You've got a visitor."

I threw my pencil down and sighed. "You mean Steve? I know."

Two-Bit shook his head, taking a sip from his beer. "No. It's Cherry. Don't know what she's doin' round here but she told me to let you know she wants to talk to ya." He grinned teasingly at me. "Just make sure you don't knock her up, kid."

"Shut up, man," I grumbled, shoving him off the edge of the desk and standing up to go outside. I grabbed my jacket and glanced at myself in the bathroom mirror. I still had a black eye and a few cuts around my mouth, but most of my bruises had healed up a bit since last week. I still looked like shit, though. Sighing, I pulled my arms slowly through the sleeves of my jacket, careful not to brush my sides too much, and walked out the front door. Cherry's car was parked on the curb beside my house, and she was standing up against the hood, her hair blowing around her face. She pushed it away from her eyes and smiled slightly at me, but I didn't smile back. I walked up to her silently, my eyes focused on the ground. What did she want? Maybe she was coming to warn us about another fight or something. But Two-Bit had said that she'd only wanted to talk to me. What would she ever have to talk to me about? Once I reached her, I raised my gaze and gave her a half-hearted smile.

"Hey," I said, shuffling my feet and poking the dirt with the point of my shoe. "What'd you want to talk to me about?"

Cherry crossed her arms and cleared her throat, the wind blowing her hair back in front of her face. "I wanted to talk to you about us." She looked at me through the red strands in her eyes, and I felt a shiver flow down my spine. "I want to be your friend, Ponyboy, but…but I don't want anyone to get hurt because of us." She pursed her lips and stepped closer to me, her fingers coming around to tame her flowing hair. "What I'm saying is…we have to be careful. We can't let anyone find out about us. Not anyone who'd do anything about it, that is."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I blinked and stammered, "Uh…okay. Umm…w-where you want to meet?"

She smiled at me and laughed. "Well, we can meet here, if that's okay? At least for now. We'll take my car today, but afterwards we have to go on foot. The guys from my side of town'd recognize it too well." When I didn't say anything, she looked away for a moment and brought her gaze back to me, and I was startled to see tears welling up in her eyes. "Ponyboy…you don't hate me, do you?"

I frowned, my head shaking violently. "No. No, Cherry, I could never hate you. You bug the hell out of me sometimes, but I don't hate you." I closed the distance between us and, without thinking, gathered her up in my arms. Cherry stood still for a moment before accepting my embrace and wrapping her arms around my shoulders, sobbing into my chest.

"I don't know why it bothers me so much," she said, her voice muffled by my shirt. "I can't change the way things are…but sometimes I wish I could. Maybe if I could, Bob might not have had to die. You and Johnny wouldn't have had to run away and…" She trailed off as she broke down into more sobs, and I only held her tighter. I stroked her hair and closed my eyes, breathing in the scent of her and wishing I didn't ever have to let go of her.

"Come on," I murmured, peeling her away from me gently and taking her by the hand. "Let's get out of here." I smiled encouragingly at her before sliding into the passenger side of the car. She nodded and wiped the tears away from her face, starting the car and pulling the roof up over the top.

"I hate having to sneak around," she said, putting the car in gear and pulling out into the road. "But it's the only choice we've got."

I glanced outside the window back at my house. "No. It's the only safe choice we have. We could still just not give a damn and take our chances." I looked back at her and grinned, but I could see the guilt in her eyes. What was worth getting yourself killed over? I sighed and looked back at out the window, just happy to be able to be with her for once.

CHERRY: I don't know what it was exactly that made me seek Ponyboy out, but I was glad I'd decided to see him. It wasn't fair to either of us to ignore each other, and my gut told me Ponyboy was a good friend to have around. I peeked at him from the corner of my eye as I drove down the road, wondering what he was thinking about. Probably how crazy this was and why I'd decided to befriend him all of the sudden. I was still wondering that myself. It'd taken me a week after that day I'd saved him to realize I didn't want to lose him. I knew the consequences if we were ever caught, but I honestly didn't care anymore. The thing about Bob and Johnny and Dally's deaths was that they had made me realize that life doesn't give you forever. They had all been young, way too young to die the way they that they did. I wasn't going to let fear keep me from living my life.

Ponyboy pulled out a cigarette and motioned to me if I wanted one. "No thanks," I said, waving him off. "You go ahead, but I don't care for them too much. Makes me smell."

Ponyboy let out a little chuckle, the cigarette dangling from his mouth. "Wouldn't want to make you smelly, now would we?" He rolled down the window and blew a plume of smoke out the window, flicking off the ash at the end of the cigarette. "So where are we going anyway?"

I honestly didn't know. I may have planned out how I was going to come to his house and plead my case, but I hadn't really thought about what we'd do afterwards. I tapped my fingers on the steering wheel and shook my head. "No idea. I guess I'm just driving around in circles." I turned on the radio and a Beatles song started to play. I turned down the volume as I glanced over at him. "I'm pretty hungry. You want to go over to the Dairy Queen? I can get us some sandwiches."

"Don't most of the socs hang out over there?" he asked, a frown forming over his face.

I sighed. "Yeah, but so do a lot of greasers, if I'm not mistaken." I gave him a sideways glance before shaking my head. "Okay, you win. Um…we could always go to the movie theater. I heard they have a good James Dean film playing. Wanna go see it?"

Ponyboy finished his cigarette and flicked it out the window, nodding. "Sure, that sounds fine. But I think I know a better place. Turn around over here and I'll tell ya how to get there."

I gave him a questioning look but said nothing as I pulled my car into a nearby parking lot and turned around in the opposite direction. I wasn't too sure about going somewhere I had no idea where we were, but since I didn't seem to have any better ideas, I was up for anything. We drove on for about ten more minutes before Ponyboy leaned over me and pointed out my window to the left.

"There," he said, leaning back into his own seat. "That lot over there."

I turned into the gravel and grass of the abandoned lot, wondering what he was up to. I had hoped he hadn't noticed the redness in my face when he had leaned over me. "Um, I guess we're here." I glanced over at him, but he had already hopped out of the car and was opening my side door.

"Come on," he said, taking my hand and guiding me out. "I wanna show you something." I was unsure but I followed his lead, glancing around us every now and then. The lot was everything I'd expect a lot to be: vacant and strewn with discarded items of all kinds. Ponyboy led me around to a tall oak tree, one of the biggest I'd seen, and brought me down onto what looked like the front seats of a car. I sat down on the cushions gingerly, pulling my skirt farther around my crossed knees.

"So? What'd you want to show me?" I asked, smiling up at him expectantly. He grinned and sat down next to me, stretching his arms out across the space of the lot.

"This!" he exclaimed, bringing his arms back into his sides and smiling at me. "What'd ya think? Pretty great, huh?"

Was this supposed to be some kind of joke? I furrowed my brow at him and made a face. "Pony, you can't be serious. THIS is what you wanted to show me? A run down, abandoned lot?" I shook my head and let out a laugh. "You've got to be joking."

Ponyboy's face grew dark, and his smile fell. "This is where me and Johnny used to come and talk. Whenever his folks would start to fight, we come out here and wait till they cooled off. Sometimes we'd just come out here for no reason at all." He shrugged his shoulders and glanced around the lot. "I guess I just thought we could come here where no one'd bother us." He looked at me over his shoulder. "Where no one'd know where we are. I'm sorry if you don't like it, though."

Looking at him then, I started to wonder why he'd let me into such a special place. This was his and Johnny's place, the place not too far from where Bob had been killed. I pursed my lips and frowned, trying to come up with the right words to say.

"Look, Ponyboy, I'm sorry…I…I didn't know." I sighed and pushed the hair out of my face. "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. This seems like a great hide out." I chewed on my lip, hoping he'd say something soon.

"It's alright," he said, smiling at me again and leaning back on the head rest of the seat. "I guess I shouldn't have expected a girl from the south side to like a beaten up old lot." He turned his head and winked at me, making me blush slightly.

"No, I guess not," I laughed, relaxing a bit. I reached into my purse and pulled out a pack of Double-Mint gum, taking a stick and offering him one. We chewed our gum in silence before Ponyboy stood up and motioned for me to do the same. "Where we going now?" I asked, brushing the dirt off of my skirt.

Ponyboy grinned at me. "Nowhere." And then he kissed me.

PONYBOY: I don't know what made me do it, but I couldn't seem to help myself. And once it happened, I half expected her to reel around and slap me across the face. So you can understand my surprise when she started to kiss me back. She had been stiff at first, but after awhile she began to ease into me, making me kiss her harder than before. I couldn't think of how many times I'd thought about doing this with a girl. But this wasn't just any girl. This was Cherry Valence, the girl I'd had a crush on for months and a senior no less. I tangled my fingers around her strands of red hair, pulling her closer and closer to me until there was no space left between us. I could feel her own hands in my hair, though I'm sure my greased, short hair-cut wasn't as nice as her long curls. She broke away from me after a while, a look of confusion and surprise across her face.

"P-Ponyboy, why'd you do that?" she asked, her eyes searching mine intently. "I thought—"

I didn't let her finish before my lips were back on hers again, and again, she didn't resist me. I slipped my tongue against hers, making her quiver.

"Pony, we need to stop," she whispered against my mouth, her hands pressed up against my chest. She looked up at me hard. "Before we do something we'll regret, that is."

I nodded, my hand cupped around her cheek. "Okay…maybe we should get goin'. Derry's probably worried about me."

Cherry closed her eyes and rested her head against my chest. Even though she was older than me by a good two years, I was at least four inches taller than she was. She curled her fingers into the fabric of my shirt and sighed. "I guess you're right."

We peeled away from each other slowly, taking small steps backwards while still trying to hold onto the other. We eventually broke free and began to walk back to Cherry's car in silence. I came up behind her and curled my pinkie finger around hers, making her smile and curl her own tighter around mine. There were some things I would never understand. Like why I'd been able to be with someone like Cherry Valence. It was all beyond me.