Reunited | Dally's Little Sister

forty five

Ch 45

Sage P.O.V.

Have you ever heard the saying "to assume something is to make an ass out of you and me"? That little saying seemed to fit perfectly for what all happened this past week.

Darry lost his cool with Pony which resulted in him hitting him. One person said pushed, another said slapped. All I know is that Darry put his hands on Pony. In his defense though, Pony did fall asleep in the lot and was late coming home and he couldn't call the police in fears of them all being split up. Pony then decided to be his whinny self and escalated the situation even further, pushing Darry, who didn't even ask to be a father figure at this young of an age, to his breaking point. He snapped and Pony ran.

It was in that moment that I realized just how sheltered Ponyboy is. Yeah, he gets roughed around a bit at school, but he has never once had to fear for his life. Besides the whole Mark thing of course. Darry worked his ass off to provide for those boys and Pony never seemed to appreciate it. So, him running off the way he did rubbed me the wrong way.

The night they walked through Bucks changed things for a lot of people. I managed to work the rest of my shift without bugging Dal to tell me what happened. They weren't there very long anyway, so I had assumed they were just looking for a bit of advice. But the more I thought about that, the more I realized they did something stupid. No one goes to Dallas Winston for advice unless it's to get out of some serious shit.

2am came around and I made my way up the stairs to my brother's room. The two of us have been sharing the small space when we aren't at the Curtis house. Dal was passed out on the bed and a nudge of my foot on his leg woke him up. "You and I still need to have a talk about working behind a bar." His voice was muffled by the pillow he was laying on, but I still got the message loud and clear.

"I made fifty bucks from tips tonight." He was silent for a minute, and I honestly thought he went back to sleep. I nearly jumped when he said, "Whatever."

Smirking with triumph, I started to get ready for bed. "What was Pony and Jonny doing in here? They didn't look too hot." I remembered watching Dallas squirm a bit at that question and dread started to sit in.

"Got in trouble at the park with some Soc. Got it figured out though." I shook my head, "Trouble as is jumped? Or trouble as in what Angela and I got into last year?" The hesitation was all I needed.

"What the fuck did they do, Dallas? What did you tell them? Where the hell did they go?" My brother threw the pillow he was laying on at me. "Shut up, will you? They skipped town and are laying low. All I know is that the Soc asked for it." And that was as much as I got from my brother.

Fast forward a few days and I finally got the whole story. I was at the DX when Soda had a bit of free time and told me everything that went down that night. From Pony coming in late to him running back out.

The two boys were jumped at the park and Johnny killed Bob, the drunk Soc, because he was trying to drown Pony in the fountain. Turns out the kid missed anything important when he stabbed him, and it was the fall that knocked Bob out. Pony and Johnny ran, only seeing an unconscious and bloody body in the fountain and went to ask my brother for some really stupid advice.

His friend Randy pulled him out and took him to the hospital. The damn kid is going to be fine, but Pony and Johnny are still hiding out in who knows where thinking they are running from the law. Darry had talked to Randy about the whole thing, and they aren't pressing charges. Something about trying to drown a tiny kid while you're drunk doesn't look well. I didn't know if I was supposed to laugh at the situation or get angry at the two boys.

Johnny didn't really do anything but try and protect his friend. It was like an Angela situation all over again. How much was Johnny willing to sacrifice for Ponyboy? The kid who has had to work for nothing in life and gets pissed off when the wind blows a tad too hard.

A tap on my leg brought me out of my thoughts. "You're thinking pretty hard over there. Anything I can help with?"

I looked up to Soda's lazy smile and said, "You look a lot better than you did a few days ago."

He chuckled and looked over to see what Steve was working on across the garage. "Yeah, well I know now that things are going to be okay. But I know that's not what you were thinking about."

I shook my head, "I don't think you want to know. I feel like you and I are in a good place right now and I don't want to ruin that."

He turned his gaze back on me and studied my face. "I want you to be honest with me. I don't care how much it will hurt me. I just want to know you are telling me everything." I let out a long breath. That was way more of a loaded response than what I was expecting. Maybe if I had been open with him from the beginning everything would have worked out. Or he would've steered clear of me. Either way might have been better than the shit I put us all through.

"Sage. Get out of that pretty head of yours."

"Your younger brother is really starting to piss me off."

I heard a laugh from Steve, "Join the damn party." Soda threw a dirty rag at him and asked me to explain what I mean.

"Look, Angela and I went through a lot of shit this last year and majority of it could've been prevent. I had her back through it all and look where it got us. Your brother isn't using his head and is dragging Johnny through the mud with him. Johnny isn't going to say no or leave him to fight his own battles because he is too loyal of a friend to Pony. He has enough to deal with on his own without Pony throwing his temper tantrum because Darry got a little rough with him. He's lucky Darry loves him enough to not send him off to a boy's home. He gave up so much for that kid and this is the thanks he gets. Fuck that."

It was silent in the garage as Soda processed what I said, and Steve had poked his head out of the car he was working on to listen. After another minute of silence, I huffed out, "You said to be honest."

Steve snorted but waited to hear what Soda had to say. We all tried to keep conversations light around him because he hated confrontation. He hated being in the middle of things because he dealt with that every day at home. The kid tries to bring so much joy into everyone's day that the least we can do is try to give him some back. Calling out his youngest brother doesn't exactly do that.

"I know Pony can be a bit naïve, especially since Darry and I have tried to give him a somewhat normal life. But I think it's time for him to grow up some. Watching how everything went down with you and Angela seemed to put some stuff in perspective for all of us. Darry and I talked about it last night actually. Yeah, he needs to be a bit lighter with the poor kid, but Pony needs to start seeing to world for what it is. Poor decisions lead to lifelong regrets and he doesn't understand that. I'm hoping once they get back from wherever your brother sent them off to, we can sit him down and lay everything out for him. Darry mentioned you being there to kind of help explain some things. Maybe him hearing this stuff from another person who isn't his older brothers will help it sink in."

I grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze. "I'll help in any way I can. Even if it means telling him every single mistake Angela and I made." He gave me a small smile and squeezed my hand back.

Before any of us could say something else, Two-bit ran in red faced and out of breath. "You both need to get to the house. There was a fire and Pony, Johnny, and Dally were sent to the hospital."

A/N: sorry, everyone for the slow update. I couldn't figure out how I wanted things to play out. I've decided to deviate from the book a bit and I hope you all aren't too mad at me as these next few chapters come out. Comments are always appreciated!! Stay gold.

-C