♡ ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ꜱᴀʏ ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ♡

0 8

This chapter is a bit deep and emotional, but important nonetheless. enjoy!

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After dinner, Soda and Pony cleaned the kitchen while I set up a bed for Johnny on the couch. He had just taken a shower and Ponyboy let him borrow a shirt and some sweatpants to sleep in.

I was shocked at his appearance—I had never seen him in anything other than jeans and his jacket.

His hair, instead of being greased back, now looked soft and silky and was falling around his now clean face, framing his dark chocolate-colored eyes to make them look softer and his gaze gentler.

The white T-shirt, which, any smaller, would have been way too small, accentuated his dark skin and muscles I didn't really know he had.

The gray sweatpants made his slim figure look a bit taller and I would be lying if I said my heart didn't flutter a bit when I saw him.

"Thanks, Cary," he said as he snuggled underneath the blanket, "this is a lot better than newspapers."

I chuckled. "Who woulda thought?" I walked into my room and before closing the door said, "Good night, Johnny."

"Night, Cary," he said.

I pulled on my nightgown and then sat at my vanity to put my hair into a simple side braid—I hated sleeping with my hair down.

I listened to Soda and Pony wrestle and joke around for a little bit before Darry ordered them to go to bed and they clambered up the stairs.

After a little bit, the house was quiet and my mind was once again filled with the hum of my own thoughts. Even though I was exhausted, I couldn't sleep. I had an ever-growing pit in my stomach that wouldn't go away no matter how hard I tried.

Jonathan was consuming my mind. Every second I wasn't distracted by something else, his snarky face and sickening voice were plastered on the walls of my brain that I saw at every turn through the halls of my memories. Ever since he talked to me yesterday, I couldn't get away from him no matter how hard I tried.

I thought about the first time I met him.

It was the middle of September last year. I was 15. I was walking home from school alone—Ponyboy was still in junior high at the time, and Johnny was probably skipping—and I was in my own world, daydreaming about God knows what, and almost walked into a guy. I found him pretty charming with kind brown eyes encased inside a fair-skinned face framed by long, black, greased-back hair, and looked to be about a year older than me. 'Kind'. Hah, if only I knew.

I apologized and he smiled at me as I made a short nod and walked home.

The next day at school, I realized he was in my Algebra class. He sat by me spontaneously that day and claimed that his seat was taken. He winked at me and I blushed.

He kept on asking me for help during the whole class period on just about every problem, but I didn't mind. I enjoyed teaching him and it was quite flattering that he would ask me of all people, just a sophomore in a junior math class.

Mom and Dad were still alive then, so when I got home that day I told them all about him.

This went on for about a week before he finally asked me out. I was over the moon and accepted ecstatically.

We went to the bowling alley, and on the way home, he kissed me for the first time.

Mom and Dad wanted to meet him and I always told them, "Soon, I promise."