Just friends, best friends -Johnnyboy

part twenty eight.

-January

Ponyboy was being unusually sweet to me, I mean, everyone was somewhat, but his sudden kindness seemed to make up for Johnny's. Johnny seemed.. angry at me, and I know it wasn't about what happened at the party, so what the hell did I do? 

Pony had gone out to find him, maybe to see what's going on. Whatever he was doing was taking a while, I didn't mind I guess, I would just be planted here anyways. It was strange... just earlier Johnny was so glad to see me, and now, he won't even look me in the face.

 If I'm being honest, I hated being left alone, it forced me to think about the crash, about Veronica. It hurt to think, and I'm not talking about mentally, it physically hurt my head to have thoughts. My whole body was in agonizing pain, mostly soreness, but when you add up hundreds of bruises together, they become painful. I attempted to just close my eyes and sleep the pain away.

-Ponyboy

I hadn't lost Johnny. If it meant never losing him, I would never touch January again, god, I was so stupid. What was I thinking? 

Johnny led me out of the washroom and we saw Soda waiting directly outside.

"Darry sent me.." He scratched the back of his neck. 

"I figured." I said as Johnny and I both laughed.

"So.." Soda began as we all walked back.

"It's all good." Johnny said beaming.

"Good. And Pone, if you ever pull something like that again.." Soda said messing up my hair and pointing at me.

"Never." I got sort of serious.

When we were back in the dreaded waiting room, Darry stood up quickly, dropping his newspaper.

"They're good, Dar." Soda stopped him from getting any closer to me. 

"I'm gonna check on Jan." Darry headed towards the room. The three of us sat down, boredom growing once again.

*An hour passes*

Darry came back out looking like he had to say something.

"Soda, take them home." Darry threw him the keys.

"Are you sure?" Johnny put his jacket on.

"Yeah. I'll stay here." Darry placed his hands on his hips, waiting for us to pack up.

"Don't do anything stupid." He looked at me.

I just nodded, I held Johnny's hand to help him up. Soda waved to Darry from the exit.

Johnny was very sleepy, more than any of us. He slept on my lap the whole way home. He finally looked peaceful, which was a sight for sore eyes after all the chaos recently. I sat completely still playing with his hair and stroking his face then and there. Soda and I were silent. Maybe because we didn't know what to say, or didn't want to wake Johnny, but I didn't mind silence sometimes. 

When we dismounted at the house, it had began to rain. It seemed to rain a lot recently. It was probably three or four in the morning and I had no intention of sleeping. I carried Johnny up to mine and Soda's room, Soda had offered to sleep on the couch, we wouldn't tell Darry of course. Nobody else was here so you can only imagine the well deserved silence, much needed too. 

I slipped off Johnny's shoes and jacket, leaving them to rest on the floor. I noticed the rain hit the window harder, thunder and lightning soon to come most likely. I pulled back the blankets and gently placed them overtop of him. I mildly kissed the side of his forehead and started towards the bathroom.

After I had cleaned up, I returned to the bedroom, Johnny was still fast asleep. He was so cute when he was asleep, even though I keep saying that to myself, it's also very true. My heavy eyes spotted my journal on the desk, I hadn't written in forever. I went over and sat in my chair. I looked up, still pouring rain. I liked to write when it was raining, it's almost like background music. I opened to an empty page and picked up my pencil. Last time I had written in here, it was when Darry found out about Johnny and I. I shared a laugh with myself and began joining lines together.

So many things have happened, I don't think I can recollect them all off the top of my head. First, the crash, January was the only survivor out of six people. I keep telling myself how insane that is, but I know how strong she is so it really doesn't come as much shock to me. Veronica didn't make it, she died in the place of saving Jan. It's a beautiful story, I'm just waiting until January is ready to tell the rest of it. If she doesn't, that's okay too, I'll just come up with scenarios in my head. No matter what though, she is so strong, I hope Johnny can one day forgive her as I did and we can all go back to being close. I'm sure Darry and Soda don't plan on reading my journal again, but if they do, I wanted to put how I'm grateful they came around and accepted me. I'm grateful they took Johnny's side at the hospital and stood up for him, I didn't see that coming for a thousand miles, but I'm glad it did. 

-Ponyboy Curtis. 

I was running out of ideas, and it was getting later, so I closed the book and placed it strategically under the rest of my school books. I sat up, but then I paused for a moment to appreciate the rain. It made me think of Johnny and I's first kiss. We had just confessed our feelings to eachother. I kissed him first, I'm so contented that I did, it grew into something I feel is going to last forever. I looked back at the bed, I grew more appreciative of him everyday. I smiled a genuine smile. He really is my soulmate. I climbed in the bed and wrapped my arms around him, a grin appeared when he felt my warmth.