Times Change [UNDERGOING EDITS]

Chapter Six

"I'm home!" I called as I walked through the front door.

"Kitchen!" I heard Sodapop call back. Soda was giving Darry a back massage, the moron always thought he could carry two bundles of roofing up the ladder at the same time, he always ended up pulling a muscle. I felt bad that he had to work so hard to support all of us. I tried my best to help out, but there was only so much I could contribute working part time, and Darry wouldn't take my money most of the time anyway. 

"Where's Ponyboy?" Darry asked, interrupting my thought process.

"Out in the lot with Johnny, he should be home soon though," I answered lazily, opening the fridge to see if there was anything good to eat.

"So, anything interesting happen?" Soda asked absent-mindedly. I closed the fridge and sat down across the table from them.

"Well, now that you mention it..." then I explained everything that had just gone down.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Darry was pacing back and forth across the living room. It was now two in the morning, and we had been waiting up for Pony for a little over three hours.

"Darry, you're going to wear a path on the carpet," I yawned, "I'm sure he will be back soon."

"If he's not back soon i'm calling the police!" he grumbled, completely ignoring me.

"C'mon Darry, you know you can't do that," Sodapop said calmly, "We can't get the fuzz involved, we would put us in homes."

"Exactly," I stated, pointing at my twin to emphasize his point. I hated that point, but it was a valid one. Being away from my brothers made me nervous in general, but the threat of being separated from them completely terrified me. And we would be separated for sure, since they would send Soda and Pony to a boys' home and me to a girls' home. 

I got up and went to my room.

A few minutes later I heard yelling from the living room. "WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN? DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT TIME IT IS?" 

I ran out of my room, Ponyboy was standing there, looking half asleep.

He glanced drowsily at me, "Sissy, what time is it?"

"It's two in the damn morning Ponyboy Curtis, a little while longer and I would have called the police," Darry's voice was slowly rising, "Where on God's green earth have you been all this time Ponyboy?"

Pony looked a bit scared at this point, "I...I fell asleep in the lot with Johnny..." he managed to get out.

"You WHAT?!" Darry shouted. Sodapop, who had apparently fallen asleep again and miraculously slept through all the yelling until now, sat up from his spot on the couch and rubbed at his eyes.

"Hey, Ponyboy, where'd ya go?"

"I didn't mean to, I swear," Ponyboy said pleadingly, "Me and Johnny were just talking and we both dropped off..."

"And where is Johnny?" I interrupted, "Did you just leave him there? Why didn't you bring him home?"

"Did it even occur to you that you had three siblings going crazy because we had no clue where in the world you were? We can't even get the police involved because you could get carted off to a home! And you just fell asleep in the lot? Simple as that? You don't even got a jacket, its freezing! Honestly, what is the matter with you?" Darry ranted on.

"Darry calm down..." I said.

"Darry..." Soda began.

"No! I'm sick of you two standing up for him all the time! He knows he messes up and I don't need you two making him think it's all dandy to go off doing stuff like this." 

I took a step back in shock. Darry never yelled at us.

PONYBOY POV

"YOU LEAVE THEM ALONE!" I exploded, "Don't you yell at them! They ain't done nothing wrong!" Darry never yelled at Winnie and Sodapop like that before. Sure, he and Winnie argued a good bit but he had never hollered quite like this before.

Darry spun around smacked me so hard I stumbled backward into the wall. Everybody was quiet for a moment before Winnie started losing her damn mind. "DARREL! " She shrieked. Soda just stood there wide eyed.

Darry stared at his hand, where his palm had turned red from making contact with my face. "Ponyboy..."

Before anyone could say anything else I turned around and bolted out the door and sprinted down the street. Darry was calling for me to came back but Winnie's hollerin' mostly drowned him out. Damn she was scary when she was angry, and she hadn't been this raging mad in a long time. 

I kept running until I made it to the lot. "Johnny?" I called, looking for him in the darkness. I finally found him when I tripped over him, still asleep in the grass.

"Wha's going on? Why is Sissy yelling?" he mumbled groggily. He was half asleep and all he processed was Winnie's voice? Really?

"We're running away from here Johnny, we're getting far away."

Winnie POV

"DARREL CURTIS WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?" I screamed at him as Ponyboy sprinted off down the street. Darry ran out to the front porch and started calling for him to come back. "Well that sure as hell isn't going to work now is it?! What in God's good name gotten into you? You can't hit him like that!!! No matter how mad you are at him! LITERALLY what the hell has gotten into you?!" I hollered at him as Ponyboy disappeared into the darkness. "He sure as hell won't be coming home anytime soon! Good job Darrel, really good job!" I shouted.

Soda grabbed my arm, "Winnie you need to calm down," he said calmly. I jerked my arm away from him.

"I will not!"

"I said I was sorry, Winnie! What else am I supposed to do?" Darry said.

"Well I would say go get him, but he's probably across town by now," I snapped before storming back inside. I headed to the kitchen and put a kettle on the stove. While the water was warming up I went to my room and grabbed a sweatshirt.

I got my tea and went to sit on the front porch to wait for Pony to come home.

It was about and hour and three mugs of tea later and Ponyboy still wasn't back. I pulled my sweatshirt tighter around my body and looked up at the stars, hoping that my baby brother had found somewhere safe to stay the night if he wasn't coming home anytime soon.

All of a sudden I heard footsteps on the pavement. I stood up when I saw someone approaching in the darkness.

"Dally?" I called when he got close enough for me to recognize who it was. He skidded to stop at the foot of the stairs, out of breath.

"Win...where's Darry?" he asked urgently. The small amount of panic in his voice was enough to scare me senseless. Nothing scared Dally.....ever.

"Inside...Dally, what..." He rushed past me into the house. "Dallas, what's going on?" I asked, starting to panic as I followed him inside. Darry gave us a confused look from this place on the couch and Soda strolled out of the kitchen with a similar look on his face.

Dally started talking before anyone could ask him anything else, "It's Johnny, he killed a Soc."