A/N: Why was this actually so fun to write lmao- next chapter for In Sickness And Health should be out in a few days! Sorry it's been taking longer than usual lol
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"This is stupid. I got shit to do, do I really gotta stay the night?" Dally complained, taking his feet off the coffee table and leaned forward on his knees, annoyed.
"If we gotta do it, you do too. Darry and Sodapop asked all of us to stay tonight. I'm not lookin' to get my ass kicked by Soda, who told me to make sure everyone stayed." Steve said, stuffing some popcorn into his mouth, his eyes not leaving the tv screen that played a movie
Soda had been sure to tell Steve to keep everyone in line, and to make sure everyone stayed over. His reasoning was because of Pony's nightmares, and everyone being there might make up for the fact that he or Darry wouldn't be. They had to drive out to Kansas to go help a family friend of their parents pack up their house since they were moving across the country to live with their children. Begrudgingly, Darry agreed, only taking Soda with him since Pony had an important test he needed to take on the Friday they'd be gone. They remembered Darry cursing them out practically the whole time he was packing up the car, going off about how 'they needed to go help them out but they couldn't send a dime when we needed it'. But the weather was supposed to be pretty bad over the day and night they'd be gone so his work had already been canceled, and they wouldn't suddenly go into bankruptcy if Soda took a day or two off, so it wouldn't hurt.
Not them, anyway.
"Fine. Then I'm going to sleep. Turn the TV down, would ya?" Daly asks, kicking off his shoes and makes lean back as he glanced at the clock which read five past twelve. He shoves Two-Bit, who's sitting beside him, already snoring away, to move him over. This jolts him awake and the empty beer bottle slips from his hand onto the carpet, making a dull thud.
"The hell?" He asks. The only time Two-Bit gets annoyed with his friends is if one, someone says something bad about another, or two, someone rudely awakens him from a beer-induced sleep.
"Sleep on the floor. There's not enough room all of us." Dally says, yanking the pillow from the other side of Two-Bit and waits expectantly for him to get up so he could lay down.
"Why don't you sleep on the floor," Two-Bit mumbles grumpily, but slides off the couch anyway and grabs another pillow off the couch, getting as comfortable as he could on the hard floor, despite its carpeting.
After a moment, soft footsteps padded down the hallway and Johnny came into the living room. He had been in Pony's room, and both of them were hanging out until Ponyboy had fallen asleep. Once Johnny figured this out, he switched off Pony's bedroom light and decided he would catch some sleep as well in the living room, where he assumed everyone else would be.
"Are you going to sleep, too?" Steve asked upon seeing Johnny enter the room, looking up from the TV screen.
"Yeah. Pony already did, too." He said, settling into the reclining chair and covering himself with the blanket that was draped over the back of it.
"Damn. I wanted to see how this movie would end." Steve said, slight dejection in his voice as he got up and switched the TV off before Johnny could say he could finish watching it, and turned the lights out as well. After nearly tripping over Two-Bit, he got as comfortable as he could on the couch, in which he needed to sit upright because Dallas was taking up most of the laying room.
"Goodnight, kid."
"Goodnight."
--
It was like no time had passed when all of them were jolting awake to the sound of someone screaming bloody murder.
The only people who have slept over when Pony had nightmares made him scream in his sleep were Johnny and Steve. They were both crashing in the living room when they woke up to it for the first time, scared out of their wits, thinking someone broke in and was attacking one of the brothers. That was, until they stumbled down the hall and saw Soda and Darry shaking the daylights out of Ponyboy.
As for Dallas and Two-Bit, though, they never heard or saw it first hand as most nights they had solid places to crash. They heard about it, of course, and as a matter of fact, Two-Bit was pretty interested in his night-terrors. Not that Pony could give him any more information than he could his brothers, though; he could never remember what they were about by the second he opened his eyes.
Loud curses resonated through the house as they all stumbled over each other in their haste to see what was happening in the room, each of them nearly tripping at least once as they pushed each other running down the hallway. They burst the door to his bedroom open, Johnny being the first to enter as he was closest to the hallway so he didn't need to shove his way through everyone just to take a step. Everyone else followed inside, running toPony's bedside who was still yelling at the top of his lungs and writhing as if he was struggling with something.
"Pony! Pony, wake up!" Dally screamed, shaking his shoulders like no tomorrow, trying to get Ponyboy to wake up, but his screams persisted.
Some part of Pony's brain didn't register the voice yelling to him and the hands on his shoulders as one that he knew, since the dream fogged his logical thinking. Most nights, he would be awoken to sweet whispers rather than shouting. Along with the fact that typically he would be awoken by gentle hands, not ones that seemed to be trying to shake his brains out.
So in response, he swung. But, instead of swinging with his right to hit Dally, he swung his left and got Steve right in the nose, who was leaning over on the other side of the bed.
"Aw, shit!" He yelled out, his hands flying to his nose and squeezing his eyes shut. He felt the blood leaking down almost immediately and he would've taken a second to laugh but the pain was so immediate. Two-Bit sure did, though. So while Steve was hunched over in pain, Two-Bit was hunched over in laughter. All the while, Dallas was trying to pin Pony's arms to the bed, who wasn't taking so kindly to that. His legs kicked out like a wild horse and Dally needed to angle himself so he wouldn't get a foot or knee to the you-know-what.
"Somebody get his legs!- and get that dumbass a towel!" He yelled referring to Steve, whose nose was still bleeding. He took that as an excuse and saw himself out, hightailing it to the bathroom down the hall.
Johnny got closer to the bedside apprehensively, raising his hands over Pony's shins and waited for the perfect moment to grab them, like a predator stalking its prey. After a second, he pounced, pinning his legs to the bed.
Ponyboy screamed even louder than before.
Loudly enough to knock Two-Bit out of his laughing fit, even startling him some. He stood up straight and took a few breaths as if the wind was knocked out of him, some chuckles still sneaking it's way through.
"Well don't just stand there, ya blockhead! Help us!" Dally yelled at Two-Bit, grunting with the effort of keeping him down. He was not looking to get his nose busted like Steve's but he wouldn't mind doing it to Two-Bit if he didn't get his lazy ass over there that second.
He put his hands up in mock surrender, still laughing slightly, walking over to them, before he caught a glimpse through the window. He just so happened to see a light flick on from a bedroom from a neighbor's house across the yard, and their blinds opened. His smile dropped and without thinking he got to the side of Pony's bed and took a handful of the comforter and stuffed it into his mouth, muffling his screams.
"What the hell are you doing, man?!" Dally screamed at him, both him and Johnny looking at him like he was crazy. "He'll suffocate!"
"His screams were waking up the neighbors! Ya want them to call the cops for a suspected murder?!" Two-Bit yelled back, the humor of the situation suddenly gone.
"Here I got some water, pour it on his face!-" Steve came running back in, one hand holding a glass of water and the other pressing a towel to his nose.
Suddenly, Ponyboy's screams hitched, and they turned into muffled coughs and splutters before his eyes shot open and he gasped awake. Two-Bit reached over quickly, pulling the blanket from out of his mouth. Pony laid there for a second, still pinned, everyone looking at him with wild eyes, shocked. He took a few needed breaths and it felt as if he just finished running a race for track. His eyes scanned over everyone looking at him, silent for a few seconds, breathing heavily, before finally speaking.
"What the hell?!"