I am so bad at updating! So sorry guys, here's the next chapter! Oh and I'm sorry if Pony and Johnny seem a little OOC, but that's the way the cookie crumbles in this story, (hehe love that saying). Thanks for the reviews!

Disclaimer- I don't own the Outsiders- S.E. Hinton does!

One Week Later (Pony's POV):

I felt like I would fall over at any minute. The pain of losing my best and last friend, besides Soda, was tearing me apart. Johnny hadn't even so much as glanced at me since his secret went public. He didn't even sit with me at meal time anymore. Eddie took turns sitting with us at those times; he was my only friend in that place. When Eddie wasn't with me I sat by myself outside, as did Johnny when Eddie was with me.

I sat in my room thinking about the events from that heart crushing day. Why were people so cruel? First this kid who we never met before decides to trip Johnny, almost breaking his tailbone. Then he takes things further, and ruins mine and Johnny's relationship. A few days after the reveal, I went up to this kid, whose name is Rizzo, and confronted him about it…

Alright, so he hangs out in the pool room after dinner I'll talk to him then. I found this little piece of information out when I asked Eddie.

I rounded the corner to the pool room and sure enough, there he was, playing pool by himself. He didn't notice that I entered. I waited until he got the last ball in the hole to make myself noticed.

"Rizzo, I…I wanna talk to you," I could've kicked myself for stuttering, I wanted to sound tuff.

"I have nothing to say that would interest you," he stated.

"Yea you do, I want to know why you have something against me and my…the other kid Johnny," I really wasn't sure if I could call Johnny my friend right at that moment.

"Ha, that's what you want to know? You wanna know why, alright, but then I want to know something from you."

Seriously?! He wanted to make a deal in order to answer a question. Jeez, who does he think he is? A mobster?

"Okay, but my question first. Why don't you like us and how did you find out about Johnny?"

He starred at me for a few seconds, and then a smile stretched across his face, "First of all, you guys aren't the most intimidating kids in here. Secondly, that kid, what is it, Johnny? Well I knew there was something about that kid that screamed different. How did I found out you ask? It's simple kid, and it's called heating vents...they run through the rooms. So, if anyone was up and had nothin' to do, they do what we call, Hawks Ear. The kid's room is right next to mine, and I couldn't sleep," he walked over to the couch in the room and sat down in it after his explanation. He had that calm, cool and collected attitude about him.

I shut my mouth after I realized I was gawking at him. This was ridiculous; he hears some juicy gossip and spreads it around.

"But…why? Why did you tell?"

"Why not, everyone knew you were the guys involved in the murders, so why not tell everything? Let me guess, the kids not talkin' to ya because he thinks you told, jeez what a bunch of sap," he started chuckling at what he said. To him this was a joke; to me it was my whole life, "Answer this for me; what was it like to witness your best, excuse me, ex, best friend kill his own father? Better yet to witness them all die?" His lips curled in a sneer, no way was I staying there for another second.

I turned and left the room, listening to his wild laugh all the way down the hall.

After that I made it a top priority to stay away from him. I tried talking to Johnny to tell him the truth, but he wouldn't listen. He would walk the other way whenever he saw me.

I hoped with all my heart that Johnny would listen to me, just once and we would be friends again. That wasn't happening anytime soon.

The next day- Another group meeting:

When I entered the room Johnny and Eddie were already sitting together so I sat on the other side of Eddie, not even glancing at Johnny.

"Hey, Eddie, how's it goin'?"

"Pretty good, you know I think I'm ready to talk about why I'm here, what do you think?"

"Oh…um…" I couldn't answer because Ms. Maple was ready to start.

"Hello, hello everyone, so how are we today? Good, I hope, so let's get started. Now, because of last meetings events, we are going to refrain from calling out, everyone understands, good. So, Pony we left off with you, would you like to continue?"

The rest of the meeting went smoothly, I decided not to talk. Eddie on the other hand shared why he was here.

Apparently, his parents just decided they didn't want him anymore, so they kicked him out of the house. He went from foster home to foster home, then one day he cracked. He was being pestered by one of the other kids staying at the house, and he about had enough of his blabbing mouth, so he beat him up. The kid was put in the hospital and Eddie was put here, he never told us what he did to the kid that put him in the hospital.

Johnny passed too, and the other kids just talked about their interest, and whenever Ms. Maple asked them what they did to be here, they passed it on.

I was beginning to like the meetings, you could tell people about who you are. After three more meetings, I became friends with this one kid named Tommy. We shared the same interest in movies. We hung out together all the time, talking about movies and the actors in them; we were also on the same football team. One football game was turned into a World War III, the enemies: me against Johnny.

We were thirty minutes into the game. I had just made an excellent play, assisted by Tommy. We were pounding them to the ground, and hard. The best part was it started lightly raining. It brought me back to the lot when the whole gang would face plant each other into the ground. With Steve and Soda acting like clowns, Dally letting go of his tough side and showing how much he was grateful for the gang. Two-bit, being Two-bit, cracking jokes at us if we fumbled the ball or tripped over our own two feet. Then, Darry being the big brother and showing off his muscles by picking Soda off the ground and putting him off course. Finally, Johnny and I sticking side by side and staying best friends to the end.

"Ready Pony, we got this, man we're like magicians out here. They don't know what's coming next," Tommy smirked at me and starting jumping up and down, getting ready to strike.

We were playing against Johnny's team and so far, I've been able to keep my distance from him, but this play wasn't looking too promising with that.

We started, the ball was thrown and I was in the zone. Paying attention to who was around Tommy and ready to tackle anyone who tried to get in his way. He completed his "magic trick" and ran for the end zone. That's when I saw someone running his direction, and fast. I picked up the speed, pushed off my back foot and leaped into the air taking down the opponent.

I stood up and held my hand out to help the kid up. I froze when I saw Johnny's dark, brown eyes looking back at me. The first look he gave me since the meeting. He stood up on his own, so I dropped my hand and turned to give Tommy a high five.

Before I could even call out my teammate's name, I was pushed to the ground. I caught myself and spun around. Johnny was standing there fist clenched.

"What the hell was that for!" I stood up and waved my hand at the place where I fell.

Johnny just stood there; his breathing was heavy from running and being tackled. He glared at me with a look in his eyes that I've only ever seen in his father's eyes before.

"Don't touch me Ponyboy…never again," he said the words he repeated over and over again after he killed his father. What was happening to him?

"Well, sorry for doing my part in the team, but if you haven't noticed, this is football Johnny, you're supposed to tackle. Or, are too stupid to notice that?" Oops, I did it now; he'll never forgive me for that. The words slipped out of my mouth before I could control them.

Everyone was watching our argument; they were more interested in our fight than the game. By now the rain was starting to fall harder. Johnny's face turned red and next thing I knew he was running towards me, slamming me to the ground once again.

"Don't…ever…call…me…stupid…again!" between every word came a punch. Punches filled with anger, hate, and confusion. I held my hands out in front of me blocking most of the swings. I forgot for that one second he was supposed to be my friend and I shoved him back and punched him right on the side of his face.

"What the hell is your problem Johnny?!"

He stood up rubbing his jaw, there were tears rolling down his face, not from the punch, I knew he could take that, but from all the emotions he had stored up inside him.

"You Pony, you're the damn problem! You tell everyone my deepest secret then expect me to forgive you afterwards! That's not how it works Pony! You lied to me and you went against our friendship, how do you think that makes me feel, huh?!"

"Don't even start, your just as bad, you wouldn't even listen to me when I tried to tell you the truth! I didn't spread around the secret, Rizzo did, and you better believe me or…or…"

"Or what, what are you going to do Pony? You can't ask Darry to back you up, he's not here, and you can't ask the gang to side with you, because they're gone Pony, they're…ALL…GONE!" his voice grew louder and louder. That last statement hit me like a ton of bricks. I fumed, I didn't care anymore about hurting his feelings, he hurt mine, and what goes around comes around.

"Maybe, you were right Johnny, I should have agreed with you when we were talking that night," he was about to retaliate, but stopped when he didn't understand what I was saying.

"Maybe you should have stayed away from us, listened to your parents for once. It's not like you couldn't have handled a few extra beatings. Then maybe we wouldn't be in this position. Maybe, just maybe, all of our friends wouldn't have been murdered, Soda wouldn't have been put in the hospital, we wouldn't have been sent here, and we wouldn't be fighting! So, do me a favor and when we get out of here, don't ever talk to me or Soda again… ever again!" I took a deep breath in and held it when I realized what I just said.

"Johnny I'm…I didn't…"

He didn't even listen to my apology; he turned around and walked away. That was the last time I made contact with him.

Soda finally gave me the news that he was allowed to take us back, but when I told him what happened, it was just me going home with him in the end.

Johnny was put into foster care; he refused to come out of his room until his foster parents came to get him. When they did he went straight out to their car. I watched from my bedroom window as he greeted them with a fake smile. His foster parents would never be able to help him as the gang was once able to do. He would always be lost, a lost puppy that's been kicked too many time, and is lost in a crowd of strangers.

That night and the next two nights that followed I cried myself to sleep. I messed everything up, I shouldn't have said those things to Johnny, but I had to worry about myself right now. I had a future ahead of me, and I've been able to keep my grades up here, so it'll be easy to get back in the swing of things. Five days after the fight, Soda came to get me.

I ran to pack my stuff when one of the guards told me it was time to go. I said goodbye to Eddie and Tommy, and raced outside to meet my brother.

As soon as my feet hit the pavement I dropped my stuff and ran into Soda's arms, being careful not to hurt his back.

We stood there for what felt like eternity.

Soda was the first to break the silence, "Oh, Pone, I missed you so much, I promise to never let anything bad happen again, promise," he stroked my hair and held me at arm length to examine me, "but first we have to get you something to eat, what do ya say?"

"Sure Soda, I'm starving," he helped me put the stuff into the truck and ran around to get the car started.

I was about to get in when I heard someone calling my name. I turned around to see Rizzo standing in the doorway.

"Can you wait Soda; I gotta see what this kid wants."

I walked up to him and stopped far enough way so he couldn't touch me.

"Look kid, I…I'm sorry for, um, telling your friend's secret. I didn't realize how much that meant to you guys, and that fight you had, shit, I've never seen two friends turn on each other like that before," he stopped and when I was sure he was done I spoke up.

"Don't think that saying sorry is going to fix everything, but someday I'll accept your apology, but not now," I turned to leave, but before I left I pivoted to say one more thing, "take care Rizzo, don't let me hear your name being mentioned in the news for some crime."

"You know I take it back, you are intimidating, to a point," he gave a smirk and went back inside.

"Who was that," Soda asked.

"A kid…someone who learned an important lesson."

I left it at that and Soda and I set off towards home, not knowing what was going to happen next in our lives.

Don't worry it's not the end!!! So, what did you think? Read and Review please!