(A.N. Sorry for the EXTREMLEY long update delay, as i said before, my parents are getting divorced and im going to be moving on the 4th, but you guys will be glad to know this story is finally finished and I'm working on the sequal!Please review if you want the sequal! )
DISCLAMER: I do not own the Outsiders or any characters but Danielle, Switch, Patrick, Drew, and Robyn!
Chapter 11 – Missing
Ponyboy's POV
I had been sleeping in the bed peacefully until I felt someone roughly shaking me awake, I didn't at first understand why I needed to be shaken awake, it wasn't like I had school or anything,
"Pony! Pony, get up!" I opened my eyes and saw a wide eyed, worried faced Soda leaning over me on the bed. I was still confused, what was up with him, he should be at work, not at home waking me up, I caught a quick glance at the clock, he was clearly late.
"Wait... what?" Soda was starting to sweat and looked really nervous,
"Danielle's gone! I went to go get her this morning and she was gone! There was broken glass everywhere..." I just stared at him, dumfounded. "Did you hear me Pony? She's gone!" I still sat there in silence, she knows that we keep the door unlocked, I drove her away. I knew she wanted to leave already, I just gave her the little push she needed to leave. She's turning out like Dally, hardened and beyond caring, and it's all my fault, if only I had said something last night instead of playing it off like nothing had happened.
"Did you guys look for her yet?" I was starting to grow worried,
"Me and Darry took the truck into town and asked around, but it's really hard to do anything in this weather," I looked at soda with a confused look on my face,
"What do you mean weather?" Other than a light dusting of snow last night, the weather was fine and it was okay to walk around outside. I should know, I went out there in just a pair of jeans and socks and I didn't freeze my ass off!
"A blizzard hit around four this morning, work was shut down for both me and Darry today," I nodded my head okay and quickly got up, got dressed and set out to find Danielle, hopefully before the weather did...
Danielle's POV
I woke up slowly the next morning with a start, the first thing I noticed was the fact I was in a room asleep with an unnamed boy at my feet.
I resisted my urge to scream and allowed my memory to began to flooding back to me. I quickly remembered the name of the fragile, brown haired, green eyed boy sleeping on the floor. I quickly reached down to shake him up with my good arm,
"Robyn, hey, Robyn, wake up would ya?" As soon as Robyn's eyes opened he jumped five feet in the air.
"Goddammit, you scared me," He said as he touched himself to make sure I didn't hurt him. I quickly felt remorse for startling the poor boy awake,
"Oops, sorry, where's Patrick?" Robyn simply pointed to one of the doors. I guessed that was where he was since Robyn never actually told me. I pushed the blanket off of me and back onto the couch. I quickly tried to move my wrist and was amazed at how much better it felt, it didn't even feel like it needed to be checked out, the bruises were still there though. I walked over to the door and banged it open, putting on my tough act so that Patrick knew he wasn't going to be pushing me around.
The only thing in the house that you could hear was Patrick roll off of his bed and slump down onto the ground, I did my best to keep my giggles to myself,
"Well that was one wake up call," I rolled my eyes when he looked at me flirtatiously with his bright blue eyes,
"Yeah, well, I don't think my wrist needs to be checked out so I'm just gonna' borrow your couch for a bit," Patrick was looking me up and down like a freak and the thoughts started filling my head again, then I remembered what all of the girls said about Patrick other than the fact that he was cute. He tended to try to get every girl in bed with him, no matter who it was and he usually succeeded.
"Are you sure, babe, you aren't looking too good?" My face quickly filled with a look of disgust. Nobody but Ponyboy and the gang ever called me babe,
"Who do you think your calling babe?" He laughed right in my face, he started to seem worse than the Switch guy from the night before,
"Your tough, I like that in a girl," I was disgusted, what all of those girls had said seemed to be true!
"You only helped me cause' you wanted to get in my pants! You do that to every girl you ever meet!"
"Why does it make you jealous?" He laughed at me again and I stormed out of the bedroom slamming the door behind me. Robyn looked up and me, his pale skin turned even whiter when he saw how angry I was,
"Robyn, have you seen my jacket?" The boy didn't even answer me, "Robyn!" I turned to see him on the couch, he was shaking a little but still accomplished giving me and attitude.
"Why would you need it? It's snowing bucket loads outside, were all snowed in,"
I started going into a mild panic attack, I felt like a caged bird with a cat inside the cage with me, the cat being Patrick. I ran over to the end table and looked underneath, quickly finding where I tossed my jean jacket the night before along with my gloves. Robyn watched me open up the door and just start running out. I didn't know where I was running to, I just didn't belong anywhere. As I ran down the snow filled street the ice was biting at my lungs and my hair was whipping me in the face with little icicles at the ends, threatening me to stop, but I kept running. The whole time I felt like someone was following me but I didn't care, I needed to get out, get out of life for a little while and let my thoughts melt away into the cold of the snow.
I slowed to a walk when I found myself in a place that was all too familiar. I wrapped my arms around myself and pushed my head forward to avoid the biting snow. I walked up the gravel drive, hoping to hear the comforting sights and sounds of the barn, even with Jack gone there was still a reason to come back here. I threw the falling apart barn door open and closed it behind me as fast as I could. It took me a minute to adjust my eyes to the lighting in the barn but as soon as I did I ran to Snowstorm's stall. The poor mare stood there shivering, she didn't have a blanket on and snow was blowing through the cracks in the walls. I quickly ran to the tack room and looked around seeing all of the other horses with at least two blankets on top of them.
Why couldn't they help her? That poor horse would've been dead if I wasn't here,
I unbolted the stall door and entered inside, holding a heavy cotton blanket with a waterproof sheeting on top. Snowstorm tossed her head causing her long mane to fall all over her face. I buckled the blankets onto her and sat in the corner of her stall,
"Oh Snowy, what am I gonna' do?" I tapped her ankle and she quickly lied down beside me, I had taught her to all by myself. I leaned over her neck burying my fingers in her thick mane.
"I know what we can do girl," She took a deep breath and let out a long sigh, placing her heavy head on my lap and I smiled. No matter what that horse was there to listen to me, she never back talked or disagreed, just listened.
"We can run away girl, nobody will hurt you anymore and I won't have to ever talk to anybody but you again," I stood up and brushed the straw from my pants, contemplating the decision. Snowstorm's owner hadn't been to the barn in a month, her board was already up and Snowstorm would be confiscated soon, nobody ever said there was a problem with speeding up the process. I cared more about her than anybody else anyways.
Snowstorm quickly stood up, seeing as I had left her there on the floor. She nibbled at my hair as I reached over the door and grabbed her faded, worn out old halter and lead rope, quickly strapping it onto her face. I turned to her and stroked her in the middle of her forehead while she blew soft warm breaths at me. She nipped at my hair impatiently.
"C'mon babe, were gonna go," I led her slowly out of the stall, all the while making sure her blanket was secure on her back so she would stay warm.
"I'm gonna grab you another blanket girl." As I walked into the tack room one thought kept on reentering my mind,
This is wrong,
This is wrong,
THIS IS WRONG!
I did my best to shove it to the back of my mind, I was helping somebody, after all. I grabbed one of the older blankets at the bottom of the pile that was never used and strapped it onto Snowstorm. I then pulled open the barn doors and vaulted onto snowstorm's saddle-less back, riding out into the blizzard without a single thought in my mind but the one that kept on telling me the truth about what I was doing...
(A.N. Sooooo? What do you guys think? Reiview PLEASE!)