Anywhere But Here || The Outsiders {COMPLETED}

Now You're Gone

He picked me up and carried me to Dallas' car. I looked over to see Ponyboy, I didn't know who was in worse condition. Me or him.

Dallas sped down the streets of Tulsa, overtaking all the cars in sight, I didn't know about Ponyboy, but I sure felt sick. I didn't know if it was from Dallas' bad driving or from the amount of hits I'd had to the head.

We arrived at the hospital in no time at all with Dallas' driving, Darry got out of the front seat and pulled Ponyboy out of his seat and hauled him towards the door, Dallas came around to my side and did the same with me. I was more stable on my feet than Ponyboy was, which was understandable, he'd been hit all over, I just got punched in the face.

An old nurse took us to a room and washed out cuts before wrapping up our open wounds. She bought us each a glass of water and told us we were free to go whenever we felt okay.

I felt better after having something to drink, however I don't think Ponyboy felt the same, he still looked pretty bad, but he wanted to leave too.

Darry paced nervously around the room in front of us acting like one of us had just been shot. "Are you sure you two are okay to leave?"

"Positive." I gave him a reassuring smile.

"Okay well I better head back to make sure nobody's bleeding to death back at the house." He laughed and quickly slipped out of the room.

Dallas bought up the idea that we should tell Johnny about their victory in the rumble, he thought Johnny would be pretty impressed by it.

Ponyboy and I agreed, we all walked down the hall to Johnny's room, at the door we were stopped by a middle aged doctor who told us we couldn't go in to see Johnny.

Dallas pulled a switchblade out of his back pocket and pressed it agains the doctors chest. "Let us in."

The doctor immediately moved aside to reveal Johnny who was now lying face up on the bed, which was different to how he was the last few times we came to visit. This gave me hope that maybe, just maybe he was going to be okay.

Dallas sat beside him and delicately put his hand near Johnny's. I'd never seen Dallas be so gentle with anyone, he acted so tough around everyone apart from Johnny, we all knew that Johnny meant the world to him, we also all knew that this was breaking him to know Johnny was in pain.

"Johnny man, we beat the socs in the rumble!"

He didn't move apart from this chest that would rise and fall as he breathed.

"Dal, fighting them socs ain't doing us any good." His breath quickened and his voice became croaky as he spoke.

I looked over at Ponyboy who looked like he was about to cry, I felt the same, we knew he had to stay strong while we were in there with Johnny, we couldn't let him know we were worrying too much, he'd just tell us to stop. Dallas seemed pretty hopeful though, I didn't know how long that would last though.

The room fell silent for a few seconds before Johnny spoke. "Ponyboy..."

Ponyboy let out a shaky breath and his voice sounded like he was going to burst into tears any second. "Yeah Johnny, what is it?"

Ponyboy crouched down beside the bed so his head was level with Johnny's.

Johnny managed to choke out one more sentence. "Stay gold, Ponyboy, stay gold."

Johnny died there and then, no goodbyes no nothing, he didn't even say goodbye to Dallas, he just told Ponyboy to stay gold, but what is that supposed to mean?

Dallas tried to shake him awake but it was no use, he was already gone. The only sounds in the room were little sobs coming from Ponyboy and I. Dallas wasn't crying like we were, but there were evident pools of water forming in his deep brown eyes.

Dallas rose from his seat without saying a word to either of us and he just left, we tried to chase after him but he'd already rushed away in his car, letting it become consumed by the darkness before we knew it.

Ponyboy and I were left with no choice but to walk back to his, on any other night this would be terrifying but we knew that nobody would be out after a rumble, people would be too busy patching themselves up at home to worry about jumping some kids walking alone.

We didn't speak the whole way home, I don't think either of us had the right words to say, we were in complete shock about the events that had happened.

Ponyboy pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his back pocket and held the pack out to me. I didn't usually smoke but I figured it would help with my nerves so I took one and placed it between my lips. Ponyboy handed me a lighter and we both lit up our cigarettes.

The only source of light on the way home were the few street lights that were working and the ends of our cigarettes.

This was the first time I'd had some quiet time for a long time. I finally had time to process how crazy the last few weeks of my life had been. Two of the most important people in my life died, I lost so many friends and I gained people who I class as my family.

I couldn't stop thinking of Johnny and how we would be the only ones who would actually care that he's gone, it wouldn't make the slightest different to his parents.

That made me think of Randy and how hard his parents must be taking his death, I didn't even give that any thought. I couldn't imagine how heartbroken his family would be when they got the call telling them their son got killed in the park. In that moment I realised how hard it must have been for Bob, having the memory of his best friend being stabbed in front of him burned into his brain, he has to live with the fact that he couldn't do anything to save him.

Losing Johnny made me realise how difficult losing someone so close to you is.

Parents aren't supposed to bury their children and kids our age shouldn't know loss.

When we got to Ponyboy's house, we were both hesitant to open the door, I don't think either of us wanted to break the news about Johnny to the rest of the gang.

Ponyboy slowly opened the door and we both walked in to see Darry sat on his chair wrapping up his knuckles, Sodapop was sat on the sofa with Steves head in his lap while holding a cloth to his lip and Twobit was sat on the floor holding an ice pack to his cheek.

Darry looked up at us as he heard the door slam, I could tell he knew something was wrong. It was pretty damn obvious, Ponyboy's eyes were bloodshot and puffy while his face was stained with tears, I'm sure my look was close to that too.

Darry rose from his seat and bolted over towards us. "What's wrong?"

I couldn't talk, my throat was dry and I knew that if I spoke if break down again so I let Ponyboy do the talking.

"Johnny's dead, he said something about staying gold, then he just died."