Doin' It For Johnny.

Chapter 1,

                                                                  One: Getting jumped and secrets.

Johnny bent over me, narrowing his dark eyes into slits. I could tell he was nervous, apprehensive, even. Or maybe was that a look of fear settling over his facial expression? I wondered if I was making him uncomfortable. I didn't see how that could even be possible, really. I was the one lying on my back in a pool of my own blood, dirt clinging to every part of my body. I coughed, spitting out the syrupy crimson liquid. Some of it spilled onto my shirt and for that, I silently cursed myself. I blinked, fighting back the tears that prickled my eyes and threatened to fall. I wasn't going to allow myself to cry in front of someone like Johnny.

Johnny fell to his knees beside me and lifted my head carefully, cradling it in his lap. His lips parted slightly like he was searching for something to say that would assure me everything would be okay but when the words wouldn't flow as easily as he would have liked, he settled on, "You're gonna be okay." And ran his fingers through my dirt and blood encrusted hair. 

The entire time I was looking up at him, I wondered what he was thinking, how he was feeling, and what he wanted to do in that moment but to ask him seemed so trivial. I knew that Johnny was the type of guy would never leave a girl like me alone to die in the grass by my lonesome. I could see the panic he was trying to conceal for my sake and maybe his own, too.

"Do you think that you can hold yourself together while I go get Darry?" He asked, trying to remain calm. I knew he was trying his best to refrain from crying out of fear that I might cry, too. He never could deal with a sobbing female. It made him uncomfortable.

"I think so..." I whispered weakly, giving him a reassuring nod.

He shook his head and huffed, looking around in the darkness to find out if there was any alternative way he could do this. Then, one arm was wrapped around my shoulders and the other was tucked under my legs. He hoisted me off the ground and we started in the direction of the house we both knew served as a safety zone for all greasers and even some hoods.

Every now and then his worried filled eyes would veer to meet mine, making sure I held onto consciousness. I was having a hard time doing that because each bouncy step he took sent a shock wave of pain throw my body. My eyes fluttered shut and I let my head fall back. The stars in the sky above me danced and swirled into my own private show and then I can't recall much but the darkness enclosing on me and strong arms being wrapped around me.

                                                                                         * * * *

When I awoke from what seemed to me as an eternity, I was in a strange bed, but it wasn't that strange to me. I recognized the room I was in, but I knew enough to know it wasn't my room. 

In the distance I could hear a radio being played and an even louder television. Laughter echoed from the rooms around me. I knew the voices too. All males. I sighed, sitting up right and taking a closer look at the room around me. The shutters had been pulled shut to block the daylight from filtering in. I could make out the silhouette of a desk at the far end of the room and a dresser on the opposite wall. Another bed was directly across from me, only separated by a single night stand.

Yes, now I knew where I was. I was at the Curtis home, no doubt asleep in Pony or Soda's bed. Lifting one arm, I stared at the bandages that wrapped around it, crimson liquid seeping through. What had happened? The last thing I remembered, I was laying in the park with Johnny bent over me fretting over how beat up I looked.

Blinking to adjust my eyes to the darkness, I leaned against the head bored and shifted to get a better look around. Yes, I was in Soda's bed. It was the more unused one. The mattress was lumpier than Pony's. I had spent many-a-night's curled up in Pony's head while he draped an arm around my shoulders and we held a conversation or we took turns reading out loud to one another.