CHAPTER 11

Johnny and Soda entered the room right after I finished my statement.

"Hey guys," I said, "can I head outside for a smoke?"

Johnny gave me a look of disapproval. He tilted his head, "I don't think that's a good idea, Dani."

"It's okay, Johnny. I'll go out there with her." Pony suggested, putting his arm around me.

Johnny let out a sigh. He shrugged, "Fine. You've got 5 minutes to get back in here before we make dinner. And you're helping." He reassured me.

"Why do I have to help?" I asked as I got up from the couch.

"Because," Soda squinted his eyes, "we're making your favorite. Parmesan crusted tilapia!"

I felt a wide smile spread across my face. "Thanks, guys." I walked out the door, Pony following me.

Pony and I sat on the porch swing they had put in after Darry left. A lot was changing since Darry left…

It was silent for a minute. I didn't like it. It reminded me of how I used to like Ponyboy, which I was pretty sure I was over him. I lit my cigarette and started to smoke it.

Pony chuckled, "Can I take a drag?"

I shrugged as I took it out of my mouth, "I thought you can't smoke since you're on the track team and everything…"

He pouted, "I know it's odd for me to do, but I'll tell Johnny about the 'nasty' things that you and Dally do together."

"Yeah, you do that." I told him, inspecting the cigarette closely. "There ain't nothin' to tell. I mean, it's not like Soda and Darry don't get mad when you and Gw—" I paused as the sight from earlier popped into my head.

Pony grabbed my arm, "Are you okay? You look a little sick…"

I knocked his hand way, "No, I'm not okay!" I jumped up and began pacing the porch, "I saw something that I… Shit!" I screamed.

Pony sat up straight and stared at me as I continued to pace, still smoking the cigarette. "What the hell did you see that's making you so jumpy? I'm not tolerant of this… You're kinda scaring me."

I stopped pacing around and sat next to Pony. I stared him dead in the eyes, "Don't be scared. I don't mean to scare you and I don't want you to be scared."

Before I could say anything else, he pulled me into a hug. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the warm embrace he had around me. I wrapped my arms around him as well. I suddenly felt a warm, unexpected tear race down my cheek. I hoped that it wouldn't reach Pony's shoulder, or else he'd know that something was really wrong.

He was about to pull away and I panicked. I tried to think of something—anything to avoid him seeing my tears. The only thing I could think to do was…

I then pulled him into a kiss. Both of our eyes were open wide. He looked just as dazed as I did. I quickly broke away and stood up. "Oh. Oh God. I…" I could feel myself trembling with every word said. I rushed inside without another word.

"Johnny," I said, "we need to go."

He looked concerned as he and Soda were sitting at the dinner table talking. He broke from their conversation, "What's wrong, kiddo?"

"I—I'm sick. I feel like I might," I paused, waving my hand around in a circle, "you know?"

He turned back to Soda, "I-I guess we'll have to go. I'll see you later, Soda." He got up and followed me to the door.

As we reached the door, it swung open and Ponyboy walked in with an expression of confusion planted upon his face. "Dani, I…" I tried to pass him before he grabbed my arm, rendering me helpless.

I struggled to get away, "L-let go." I made a few more attempts as Johnny watched me squirm.

Finally, he interfered. "That's enough, Pony. Let her go." He demanded him softly.

Pony didn't hesitate to let me go, either. He abided by my brothers wishes and let go of me. I rushed out of the house and darted to Johnny's car as soon as I was Johnny got into the car, he started it up like he usually does, but then he paused for a minute.

"What are you doing? Let's go." I ordered him.

He let out a sigh, "Why are you in such a hurry to get out of here?" He leaned back in his seat, expecting me to answer.

"Who cares? Let's just go already."

"No," he stated, "you are going to tell me why you acting so weird right now. What is it? You can tell me. You've always been able to tell me things."

I shook my head, "What makes you think there's something wrong? My stomach's hurting, that's it."

He shook his head surely, "There's something wrong. Just tell me."

I propped my head on my fist as I leaned up against the window. "Can we just go?! I'm really," I sat back up, changing my attitude completely, "not in the mood for you to delay right now."

"I'm just worried," he whined, "that maybe you're hiding something from me. I don't want you to hide things from me."

I bit my lip as I do sometimes when I don't have anything to break when I'm angry and need to let off steam. "I'm not hiding anything from you, Johnny. Can we just please go…" My voice trailed off as Pony suddenly stepped out onto the porch. "Go, Johnny. Go!" I screamed at him.

"Alright, geez!" He shouted back as he shifted gears and pulled off.

I watched Pony stare at me as we drove down the road. There was something horribly wrong with what I did with him earlier…

-THE NEXT DAY AT BAND PRACTICE-

"Oh my God, I can't believe we have to use up 3 hours of our Saturday just to practice for this stupid concert." Carla told me, noticeably bothered.

I bit my lip, "Yeah, but it's better than being at home with the assholes. I still have to wait another month for Johnny to turn 18 before I can move out of there."

"Okay," she tilted her head, "what's bugging you, doll?"

I opened the case to my flute and laughed, "What makes you think there's something bugging me?"

"Let's see," she brought her index finger to her chin thoughtfully, "you never get worked up after Valentine's Day and you look like you haven't slept for days. What's up?"

I gasped silently, "Yesterday was—? Oh. Yeah, I guess I forgot."

She laughed, "How could you when A, you weren't at school and B, that asshole you somehow love left you heartbroken and alone for yet another year."

"About that," I grinned, "he came back."

"What?!" Her eyes consisted with rage, "He came back?! He had the nerve?!"

I put my hands up defensively, "Woah! Calm down, will ya? He came back for me…"

She rolled her eyes, "Let me guess, he promised you he was never gonna leave you again, so then you let him take your virginity. Then Johnny dragged you away from him and Pony ranted about the whole thing?"

I glanced around behind us before grabbing her arm and pulling her closer in. "Keep your voice down, yeah?!" I whisper yelled. "Nobody needs to know about Dally and I other than you. Just between us, okay?"

Her mouth dropped open in shock, "You mean to tell me that I was right? You and Dally fucked?!" She whisper yelled back at me.

I squeezed her arm tightly, feeling under pressure. "Shut. Up!" I said louder. "You need to keep this under wraps, alright?!"

"And I suppose what I said about Johnny was true, too?" She asked me. I didn't answer, I just stared at her with a blank expression. "Oh my God!" She exclaimed in over exaggeration.

I threw my palm to my forehead, "Look, Johnny doesn't know and doesn't need to know that Dally took my virginity." I gave her a look of disappointment, "And I know that you and Johnny are in cahoots since you started dating last year, but please… Just don't tell him about this one little thing."

Carla rolled her eyes, "Fine. And if he finds out, I didn't know a thing, got it?"

I nodded in agreement. I thought maybe the pressure was off by then. I guess I was wrong…

-AFTER PRACTICE/NOON-

Johnny let me barrow his car for the rest of the day so when I got done with practice I could go to the Dingo if I wanted. Or I could just stop by the library to pick up some books or something.

As I walked to Johnny's car, parked across the street from the school, I noticed a couple socs driving by it. They look up to no good, I remember thinking. So I hurried across the street and searched for the key in my pocket. I stood there for a solid 20 seconds before hearing a couple car doors slam. I looked up to see the socs filing out of the car with dangerous smirks on their faces. Shit, I thought, how the hell am I gonna get out of this?

"Well, well, well, boys. Looks like we've hit the jackpot." A soc rambled on about how he thought I was pretty and how I could be in show business or on the cover of Playboy magazine.

"Shut your trap and leave me alone." I charged a comment back.

Suddenly I felt a hand on my ass. No, please, I thought, no!

I turned around and slapped whoever it was. Then I realized who I had hit. It was James Merrill. Could it get any worse. I placed my hands over my mouth, to which he grinned. "I still haven't forgotten about our little interaction a few years ago, little Dani."

I scrunched up my nose in anger, "You better leave me alone, Merrill, or I'll—"

"What will you do?" He grabbed my arms, causing me to drop my bag and my keys. I stared into his cold, death-dark eyes as he groped tighter on my wrists. "What are you gonna do? Call that shit-i-full boyfriend of yours?!" She roared in my face. I closed my eyes in fear of what he might do. I wanted him to stop and just leave me alone.

"Just let me go, Merrill!" I cried, "Let me go home!"

"To what? That little faggot brother of yours?" He asked to my irritation.

I began to shout at him in Spanish, being that I'd been in Spanish since middle school. "Él no es un maricón , que comemierda , coño - hecha una bola , sobre- privilegiado hijo de puta!"

I don't know if he understood what I said, but he must've known what I meant by it because he pushed my hands up against the window with his teeth gritted. "You think I can't tell that you're cursing me?! Well, you're dead wrong, princess."

I then kneed him in the groin. He backed off and I picked up my stuff. I unlocked the car, but before I could get in, someone grabbed my shirt from the back and pulled really hard on it, choking me. I struggled to breathe as I pulled on it in the opposite direction.

That's when I suddenly felt relief of my pain… I gasped loudly as I fell back. I remember looking up from the ground and seeing Two Bit and Soda kicking James and the other two boys' asses. Two thoughts were running through my head; Oh thank God and Shit, I have to explain to Soda why we left early yesterday. Either way, it was a loss for me. R.I.P. to my throat.

When James and the two soc boys ran off back to their car, Two Bit came over and kneeled down next to me. He gave me a funny look. "So," he grinned, "looks like you could use some help."

I couldn't help but laugh, "Yeah, I do."

He held out his hand, "I've never seen you get jumped so close to the school. Why ain't Kayley here to help you anyway?"

I let out a puff of air, "It's Carla. And she's already gone with her friend, Sabrina."

"Oh, my bad, Carla. And my bad again, Skullhead gave her a ride home." He said sarcastically, ending with a light chuckle.

"Stop," I began to laugh, "it's not funny." I tried to hold back my laughter. I mean, Skullhead?

Soda walked over to us and frowned, "Hey, Dani. So could you tell me what happened last night? Why you left so early?" Told you.

My eyes began to twitch as I answered. "I wasn't feeling good."

Soda raised his eyebrow at me and nodded, "Yeah?" I nodded slowly as he was nodding pretty fast. "Then tell me why Pony's been acting strange, too."

My eyes widened, "What do you mean by 'strange'?"

He placed his hands on his his hips and smiled. "Like really strange. He's been in bed all day, been lookin' at you guys' photo album from a few years back. All. Day."

I was speechless. Not because he was looking at pictures of us, but because I didn't know how to explain what on Earth he was doing. "Well, if it makes you feel better, I have no idea what he's doing."

"My question is, what happened yesterday when you two were alone?" Soda asked, clapping his hands together.

I jerked my head back as I watched him stand there, expecting me to respond. "What do you… think happened?" I stared at him wide-eyed.

"I think something crazy happened. Something that spooked the both of you." He crossed his arms and asked, "Am I right?"

Oh crap, so much pressure! "What? What makes you think th—" I ended up biting my own tongue. I froze for a second before sighing. I nodded, "Something did happen."

"What then?" He asked. Once he realized I wasn't going to answer, he repeated his question, "What happened?"

"Nothing!" I shouted back at him.

"You just said something happened, didn't you?" Two Bit added.

I could feel my jaw moving, but no words were coming out. I knew I was soooo full of shit. I swallowed, "Fine. Something happened. It's nothing. Really," I nodded, "it's nothing!"

Soda shook me, "It is something!" He stared me dead in the eyes.

I shifted my eyes toward the ground. "It was something…"

Soda and Two Bit both nodded and at the same time uttered. "Yeah."

Soda opened the car door and gently pushed me in. I started the car, expecting him to say "You'll need to talk to Pony sometime." but I was surprised when he told me, "Drive safe. Here's the number to the DX and the house phone." He handed me a piece of paper with two phone numbers on it.

I smiled, "Thanks, Soda. Really." I nodded before driving off.