her way ✰ (dallas winston x reader)

epilogue

Time had moved on. It was hard, but the boys learned how to keep going on with their lives.

They knew it's what their three friends would've wanted.

Time went on, the seasons changed. The boys slowly grew older.

Darry missed the three members of the gang. It was hard for him to cope with the loss. He had always felt responsible for the safety of his friends, so the deaths he dealt with had torn him up. Although he was hurting, he still kept going on with his life. He still worried about the gang as always. He cared for them and he protected them, because he wanted to hold on to the people he still had.

Steve saw how Dallas and Y/n stuck together even though they were struggling from problems. It inspired him, and he eventually got back together with Evie.

Two-bit had graduated highschool. He did it for Y/n. Y/n had made him believe in himself. She made him believe that he really had potential. He continued to smile and laugh, because it's what Y/n would've wanted.

Thomas and Cherry stopped worrying about their labels. They stopped worrying about popularity and had instead dedicated their time to helping others. They befriended the kids who were going through a lot at home or didn't have anyone to turn to. They had seen the effects of what happens when people lose others and run out of people to turn to first hand. They saw the toll it had on Y/n when she was dealing with loss. For a while she had no idea who to turn to and it hurt her horribly. They didn't want anyone else to have to suffer that fate, so they helped everyone they could.

Robert was shocked to hear about what happened to the girl he had spent years with and her friends. He had surprisingly strong feelings about it. He had started a movement and fought to make it so greasers weren't treated so horribly by cops. Cops had always been extra harsh with people who were poor, and he wanted to put an end to it. People got killed over it and Robert didn't want to stand for that anymore.

Randy cut off all of his mean soc friends and isolated himself from all of the socs except for Thomas and Cherry. He began talking to the same kids as Cherry and Thomas, the ones who were in need of genuine friends. They created a solid friend group and believe it or not, they all eventually dropped their labels of soc or greaser and became hippies. (Randy becomes a hippie in that was then, this is now so I thought it was a nice detail to add)

Eventually, greasers and socs didn't even exist anymore. People were just plain, ordinary people. Johnny, Dallas, and Y/n had shown what labels could do to people. How destructive they could be.

And Ponyboy? He kept his friends's stories alive. He wrote about it, he told people about it. He had spent most of his teenage years writing and rewriting the story of his friends, trying to include every single detail he could. When he grew up, he published it.

The book had become popular all over the world, and Ponyboy's question that had gnawed at him for years was finally answered.

 Ponyboy had pictured hundreds and hundreds of boys living on the wrong sides of cities, boys with black eyes who jumped at their own shadows. Hundreds of boys who maybe watched sunsets and looked at stars and ached for something better. He could see boys going under street lights because they were mean and tough and hated the world, and it was too late to tell them that there was still good in it, and they wouldn't believe you if you did. He saw people who lost it all, who went from having everything to nothing, who in the end just wanted people who truly loved them.

He had always wondered if there was more people like Johnny, Dally, and Y/n out there. He wondered if there was people out there who were exactly like him even. Who all ached for the same thing, whether it be safety, no labels, hiding their emotions from the world, or validation. He wondered if there was people out there who longed for the things him and his friends wanted.