Chapter 7 Darry Snaps

After oversleeping in the lot and leaving Johnny for the night, Ponyboy and Opal ran through the neighborhood to get back to their house before it was too late. The two could tell it was at least past 1:00 am, and Darry was gonna be absolutely furious if he found out they overslept in the lot with Johnny.

The two siblings raced through the dark streets as fast as they could and tried to get back home as soon as possible before Darry would notice.

As the two approached a gate that led to their house, Ponyboy opened it up as he and Opal went through it, and Opal was starting to become nervous when she noticed the lights in their house were still on.

That could mean Darry was still up and was waiting for the two to walk through the front door.

The two siblings then approached the front of the house, and Ponyboy tapped Opal on the shoulder when he looked through the front window. Opal and Ponyboy then saw Darry on the phone calling somebody, and while the two weren't for sure, they believed he was calling the police about their long disappearance.

"Yeah, this is Darry. Yeah, bye." Darry said while putting the phone down and ending the call. He then picked up his newspaper again and started reading as he desperately waited for Ponyboy and Opal to come home.

The two siblings knew he was calling the cops on them for not returning home sooner, and he was gonna be absolutely furious when they stepped through the front door past 2:00 am.

"Well, he's gonna kill us." Opal commented as Ponyboy opened the front door.

When he opened the door, he and Opal saw Darry sitting down in a chair reading a newspaper while Soda was sitting on the sofa. While Soda was dozing off, he woke up after Darry angrily threw his newspaper on the floor and stood up to face his two younger siblings.

"Where the hell have you two been?!" He snapped at them both.

Ponyboy and Opal both shrugged, and looked ashamed that their brother was yelling at them for something they didn't mean to do. "Do you know what time it is?!"

Opal shrugged. "I dunno, one o'clock?"

Ponyboy was about to guess as well, but Darry interrupted him. "Well, it's two o'clock in the morning, kiddos. And Opal, if you like to be so good at guessing, then how come you and Ponyboy didn't come home sooner?" Darry asked his sister, who didn't know what to say as she stood next to Ponyboy in shame.

Soda then finally woke up, and noticed his two younger siblings had finally come home. "Hey, Pony, hey Opal. Where you two been?" He asked them calmly, not at all angry with them.

"Stay outta this, Soda," Opal told her brother, not wanting Soda to be brought into the fight she, Ponyboy, and Darry were about to get into.

Ponyboy then knew it was time to admit to his brother where he and his sister had been all night. "We fell asleep in the lot."

"You what?!" Darry asked them with anger as both Ponyboy and Opal walked past him.

"We was talking to Johnny, and we fell asleep in the lot. We didn't mean to," Ponyboy said as Darry followed him and Opal.

"Yeah, you gotta a problem with that?" Opal asked her older brother.

"You damn right I got a problem with that, missy! And don't you ever try to talk to me like that again!" Darry snapped at Opal with furry, causing her to back away behind Ponyboy a little.

"Damn, Darry! Sorry! I didn't know you took things so personal!"

"Yeah," Ponyboy agreed. "We said we didn't mean to." Ponyboy tried to walk back to his room as Opal followed him and did the same.

"Yeah?" Darry then stopped the both of them from walking away. "Hey, I can't even call the cops, because you two would be thrown in a boy's home and a woman's care home so fast, it would make your heads spin!"

Soda then walked from behind Darry and tried leading his two siblings away from him so the fight wouldn't continue. "Come on, Pony and Opal. Let's go to bed now." Soda tried to lead them away to bed, but they both looked so upset at Darry that they couldn't take him yelling at them anymore.

"Look, we said we didn't mean to!" Ponyboy shot back at Darry.

"Yeah! Me and Pony are tired of you yelling at us for things we didn't mean to do!" Opal snapped back as well, just making Darry even more angry.

"'I didn't mean to!' 'I forgot!' That's all I ever hear from you two!" Darry snapped at them, now causing Opal to clench her fists with anger.

"Well, all me and Pony hear from you is 'You two better concentrate on something else' and 'I'm the boss around here and a guy who likes to put his siblings down!'"

Ponyboy formed a small smile when Opal said these words. But Darry just became even more angry with her. "You better take that back, Opal, you little son of a bitch! You're sixteen years old, and now act your age!"

Opal just became even more furious with her brother's harsh words and Ponyboy was becoming just as mad with him as well.

But Soda wasn't as angry and, very calmly, tried to break up the fight between the three. "Come on, Darry…"

"Shut up! I'm sick and tired of you sticking up for them! You hear me?!" Darry snapped back at Soda.

This only made Opal and Ponyboy even more furious, and the two couldn't take it anymore with Darry.

"You shut up! I'm sick and tired of you putting me and Ponyboy down!" Opal snapped back.

"Don't you yell at him!" Ponyboy snapped as well.

However, Darry did something unimaginable to them.

He very angrily and violently pushed Ponyboy to the ground! Opal screamed as she watched her brother get thrown to the ground, and in the process of falling to the floor, Darry's shove also caused Opal to fall down as well! Opal landed inside a cabinet, and in the process, also caused a bunch of plates and glass to fall and hit her in the head.

Ponyboy falling also caused things to fall from the table he fell by, and when he turned around for a second, he saw Opal surrounded by broken plates and dishware, and also a long, red scratch on her left arm.

Darry saw what he did to his younger siblings and instantly regretted his actions. "Ponyboy, Opal, I…I didn't mean to…"

However, Ponyboy didn't even look at him as he got up and ran away from him as fast as possible.

Opal then got up, and tears and the look of betrayal filled her eyes as she ran away with her brother. "What the hell is the matter with you, Darry?! You coulda killed me!"

Ponyboy didn't even say anything to Darry as he immediately ran for the door and turned his hand to open it and ran out!

Opal followed him as fast as she could, and the two made it out of the house and to the gate, where they immediately opened it and ran through it.

The two were gone! Both Darry and Soda went through the front door and looked ahead to see that their two younger siblings had run away and left in the dark of the night.

Darry was really starting to regret his harshness now. He not only hurt his younger brother, but also his little sister, who he could have killed if he pushed her any further into the cabinet.

The two could just do nothing as they watched Ponyboy and Opal run away from a place they once knew as home.

As the two ran away from Darry as fast as they could, Opal's tears and crying of hurt and betrayal from her brother just flooded down her face along with the blood from the scar just received from him.

Darry's action would never be forgotten by Opa now, and while Ponyboy wasn't crying, he still looked absolutely terrified and had the look of hurt in his eyes and even his heart. He was just as upset of what Darry did to him and his sister, and he may have been even more hurt by Darry's actions than Opal was. The two siblings knew they could never return home now, and they had to go to the only other place and person they knew they could be with without getting hurt.

As Ponyboy and Opal ran through the streets as fast as possible while Opal looked behind to make sure nobody was following them, the two finally made it back to the vacant lot and saw Johnny still sleeping on the ground while using newspapers he found as a blanket.

Ponyboy then fell and rolled onto Johnny to wake him up, and Opal even fell on him with a yelp as a startled Johnny woke up to see it was them.

"Come on, Johnny! We're running away!" Ponyboy cried as he grabbed Johnny and shook him to wake him up.

"Yeah!" Opal agreed. "Darry hit me and Ponyboy! We can't go back home! We have to go with you!"

Without any hesitation, Johnny got up from his spot and back on his feet as the three friends ran away from the vacant lot, and out to somewhere else, somewhere where they could hide and get away from their violent home lives.

I told you bad things would start to happen in this chapter. Although, I never really found the movie version of this scene very intense, because Darry pushes Ponyboy to the floor instead of slapping him. But that's why I added the scene where Darry gives Opal a scar, representing the fact Opal would now have to live with the memories of this very night. But don't worry, because the next chapter is where things start to get really intense with the Greasers and Socs...