The Outsiders x male reader

Chapter 4 (2/3)

P.O.V (M/n)

       We crouched in the weeds beside the railroad tracks, listening to the whistle grow louder. The train slowed to a screaming halt. "Now,"  whispered Johnny. We ran and pulled ourselves into an open boxcar. We pressed against the side, trying to hold our breath while we listened to the railroad workers walk up and down outside. One poked his head inside, and we froze. But he didn't see us, and the boxcar rattled at the train stated up.

P.O.V Ponyboy

       "The first stop'll be Windrixville," Johnny said, laying the gun down gingerly. He shook his head. "I don't see why he gave me this. I couldn't shoot anybody."

Then for the first time, really, I realized what we were in for. Johnny had killed some one. Quiet, soft-spoken little Johnny, who wouldn't hurt a living thing on purpose, had taken a human life. We were really running away, with the pole after us for murder and a loaded gun by our side. I wished we'd asked Dally for a pack of cigarettes. . . .

I stretched out and used one of Johnny's legs for a pillow, as (M/n) used the other, he looked like a cat when it's all curled up. I started to curl up, I was thankful for Dally's jacket. It was too big, but it was warm. Not even the rattling of the train could keep me awake, and I went to sleep in a hoodlum's jacket, with a gun lying next to my hand.

—————

I was hardly awake when Johnny, (M/n) and I leaped off the train into a meadow. Not until I landed in the dew and got wet shock did I realize what I was doing. Johnny must have woke (M/n) and I up and told us to jump, but I didn't remember it. We lay in the tall weeds and damp grass, breathing heavily. The dawn was coming. It was lightning the sky in the east and a ray of gold touched the hills. The clouds were pink and meadow larks were singing. This is the country, I thought half asleep. My dream's come true and I'm in the counter.

"Blast it, you two" — Johnny was rubbing his legs — "you must have put my legs to sleep. I can't even stand up. I barely got off the train."

"I'm sorry." (M/n) said as he was looking down at the ground, and sitting down next to Johnny.

"I'm sorry. Why didn't you wake us up?" I asked.

"That's okay. I didn't want to wake you both up until I had to."

"Now how do we find Jay Mountain?" I was still groggy with sleep and wanted to sleep forever right there in the dee and the dawn.

"Go ask someone. The story won't be in the paper yet. Make like a farm boy talking a walk or something."

"I don't look like a farm boy," I said. I suddenly thought of my long hair, combed back, and the slouching stride I used from habit. I looked at Johnny. He didn't look like a farm boy. Then I looked at (M/n). He didn't look like a farm boy 'ither. They still reminded me of two lost puppies who had been kicked too often, but for the first time I saw Johnny as a stranger might see him. He looked hard and tough, because of his black T-shirt and his blue jeans and jacket, and because his hair was heavily greased and so long. I saw how his hair curled behind his ears and I thought: We all need a haircut and some decent clothes. I looked down at my worn, faded blue jeans, my too-big shirt and Dally's worn-out jacket. They'll know we're hoods the minute they see us, I thought.

"I'll have to stay here," Johnny said, rubbing his legs. "You go down the road and ask the first person you see where Jay Mountain is." He winced at the pain in his legs. "Then come back. And for Pete's sake, run a comb through your hair and quit slouching down like a thug."

So Johnny had noticed it too. I heard a little snicker come from (M/n) as Johnny yelled at me about my hair and posture. I pulled a comb from my back pocket and combed my hair carefully. "I guess I look okay now, huh, Johnny?"

He was studying me, while (M/n) had a face that said he was laughing at me on the inside. "You know, you look an awful lot like Sodapop, the way you've got your hair and everything. I mean, except your eyes are green."

"They ain't green, they're gray." I said reddening.

"Sure, and you're also not short." (M/n) said butting in. He had a sarcastic look on his face.

"I'm taller than you."

"No your not."

"Yes I am."

"No, you're not!"

"Yes, I am!"

"(M/n) everyone we know is taller than you, and you go with pony," Johnny said. Cutting us off. "All I was saying was that Ponyboy you look like Sodapop."

I looked back a Johnny and said, "And I look about as much like soda as you and (M/n) do." I got to my feet. "He's good-looking."

"Shoot," Johnny said with a grin, "you are, too."

"I don't want to go." (M/n) whined.

"Well, to bad." Johnny told him.

(M/n) and I climbed over the barbed-wire fence without saying anything else. I could hear Johnny laughing at us, but I didn't care. We went strolling down the red dirt road, hoping my natural color would come back before I met anyone. I wonder what Darry and Sodapop are doing now, I thought, yawning. Soda had the whole bad to himself for once. I bet Darry's sorry he ever hit me. He'll really get worried when he finds out Johnny and (M/n) and I killed that Soc. Then, for a moment, I pictured Sodapop's face when he heard about it. I who's I was home, I thought absently, I wish I was home and still in bed. Maybe I'm just dreaming. . .

It was only last night that Dally and I had sat down behind those girls at the Nightly Double. Glory, I thought with a bewildering feeling of being rushed, things happening too quick. Too fast. I figured I couldn't get into any worse trouble than under. Johnny, (M/n), and I would be hiding for the rest of our lives. Nobody but Dally would know where we were, and he couldn't tell anyone because he'd get jailed again for giving us that gun. If Johnny got caught, they'd give him the electric chair, and I don't think (M/n) can through that. If they caught (M/n) and I we'd be sent to reformatory. I'd heard about reformatories from Curly Shepard and I didn't want to go to one at all. So we'd have to be hermits for the rest of our lives, and never see anyone but Dally. Maybe I'd never see Darry or Sodapop again. Or even Two-Bit or Steve. I was in the country, but I knew I wasn't going to like it as much as I'd thought I would. There are things worse than being a greaser.

We met a sunburned farmer driving a tractor down the road. I waved at him and he stopped.

"Could you tell me where Jay Mountain is?" I asked as politely as I could.

He pointed on down the road. "Follow this road to that big hill over there. That's it. Taking a walk?"

"Yessir." I managed to look sheepish. "We're playing army and we're supposed to report to headquarters there."

(M/n) just kinda stud there nervously, but it was okay. I know he has anxiety. It's mostly around people he doesn't know. I can lie so easily that it spooks me sometimes — Soda says it comes from reading so much. But then, Two-Bit lies all the time too, and he never opens a book.

"Boys will be boys," the farmer said with a grin, and I thought fully that he sounded as corn-piney as Hank Williams. He went on and (M/n) and I walked back to where Johnny was waiting.

——————————
1385 words

꧁☾𝔹𝕪𝕖 𝕙𝕒𝕧𝕖 𝕒 𝕘𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕥 𝕕𝕒𝕪/𝕟𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥.☽꧂