Toxic 🖤 (Dallas Winston love story)

Air

Trigger Warning: This chapter covers domestic violence

I hold my breath and round the corner to see a blonde-haired boy about to cut Johnny's hair.

"Johnny!" I yell out and hear a squeak come from Claire as Johnny and the blonde-haired boy turn around and reveals themselves to be Ponyboy.

Claire runs up to Ponyboy and runs a hand through his now blonde hair. She pulls him away from us and starts to have a conversation. I walk up to Johnny and offer him the extra sandwich I packed; he hesitantly accepts it. "Thanks." He mumbles so softly.

I can't help but stare as Johnny practically inhales the sandwich. "Dally hasn't brought you, boys, anything?" Johnny wipes his mouth with his arm.

"Nah man Dally ain't been here yet but we ain't leaving till he does." I sigh and sit down on a rusted chair next to Johnny. "You must be starving. Do you want another sandwich?"

I start to reach into my bag for my sandwich. "That's alright I got some sandwich stuff for us in the church. We just haven't eaten yet so I was really hungry. We'll be okay."

"Johnny I'm here and I want to help you, boys." I place my hand on Johnnys' shoulder and he shoots up. "Look we don't need your charity man."

"Charity?"

"You shouldn't even be here or around dally of all people. Why are you here?" He calms down and looks at me in thought.

"I'm not gonna lie Johnny I wouldn't be here if it was not for Dally. He told me to come to visit you guys if he couldn't make it soon enough. Now that I'm here I'm glad I came and I want to come back because I want to help you."

Johnny sits back down. "Wait Dally sent you?"

"Um yes."

"Dally hasn't even told Darry where we are but he told you." I try to understand what he's saying. "Yeah, and what does that mean?" Claire walks back over with Ponyboy. "Never mind I'm sure it's nothing." I don't say anything else about it and turn to Ponyboy.

"Look at you stud." Ponyboy rolls his eyes and quickly grabs a knife sitting by Johnny. I get up and grab Claire away from him. "I was just kidding don't hurt us."

Ponyboy looks at me with a blank face. "You thought I was gonna stab you?" I bite the inside of my cheek and keep my grip on Claire's arm.

"I have to cut Johnny's hair and we don't have scissors." I groan in embarrassment and release my grip on Claire. "I'm sorry I guess I'm on edge because of everything that happened."

Johnny perks up. "I didn't kill that socs for the fun of it ya know." My face falls as I realize I have no idea how they must be feeling. "You don't have to explain yourself to me. If you want to talk we can but only if you want to." I think I saw Johnny smile but it fades as fast as it came.

Claire and I watch as Ponyboy cuts Johnny's hair. The day starts to come to an end as we make small talk with the boys. The sun starts to set making the sky a beautiful orange peach.

"Oh Claire we have got to go or we're going to miss the train." I stand up and shake any dirt on my clothes from sitting in the chair. "Can I get a minute?" She nods her head toward Ponyboy.

"No Claire we have got to go now." She walks up to me away from Ponyboy's side. "It'll only be a minute." I look at my wrist for some reason even though I've never had a watch. "One minute."

She takes off with Ponyboy and I start to walk toward the tracks. "You can come back tomorrow. Ya know if you wanna." I turn to see Johnny rubbing his arms.

"I might just hold you to that." This time I can see a clear white tooth grinned formed on his face and it makes me smile.

Claire comes back and we wave goodbye to the boys before running to the tracks. When we finally arrived home it was pitch black outside. Claire and I both groaned before turning the door to find my dad furious facing us on the couch.

"Oh thank god the girls are here now. I'm gonna have to call you back." My mom hangs up the phone to come over and hold me.

"I'm so sorry we got in so late it's all my fault. Claire had nothing to do with this." My mother studies my face and then walks over to embrace Claire. I take off my jacket and hang it on the coat rack beside the door.

"Where were you?" My father stands with a face a lot less caring for than my mother. "Daddy I'm sorry I just lost track of time and it'll never happen again." I reach my arms for him to embrace me but he just rubs his forehead.

"I'm not gonna ask you again. Where were you?" I feel like I'm gonna be nauseous and that a million butterflies are in my stomach.

"We went to school and afterwords I took Claire to the Dairy Queen." My father cackles right in my face before it falls into a serious glare.

"I went up to the school and they said you and Claire did not attend any of your classes today." My mother steps back from Claire and stands beside my father.

"So after I checked the school; I checked the Dairy Queen, Library, Drive-In, and those Curtis boy's house."

I feel the warmth rushing to my cheeks as I realize we've been caught. "The other places I understand but why would you bother the Curtis boy's?" My dad starts to walk forward to me. "You are skipping school and you wanna question me." I start to walk backward.

"Get your jacket on now." I look at my jacket on the coat hanger then back at him. "You too Claire jackets on right now!" My mom finally speaks and looks at my dad in horror. "No Frank you can't it's not right."

"I'm gonna do what's best for the girls and this stunt today let me know that this is the right thing to do." My mother springs in front of my father. "They're my kids too Frank you just can't take them from me."

"Watch me." His voice was so intense and cruel I had never heard him talk to like this unless it was something serious and he was pissed off at someone.

He opens the door and starts yanking me and Claire out of the house by our arms. I look over to see my mother starting to wail and following right behind us.

She starts screaming for him to stop and jerking on the neckband of his shirt. My dad unlocks the door to the truck and Claire gets in but I hesitate to. I turn to see how my mother was now desperately slamming his back and then tried to lunge on him to reach over and grab me.

My world starts to spin as I heard a sinking thud matched with the image of my father's fist colliding with my mother's stomach. A loud cracking sound caused a tear to fall from my eye. I heard the air leave my mother's body as she fell gasping on the dry grass.

I'm instantly pushed into the truck and I can't form any words; I feel like I'm stuck looking at my mother groan in pain. The truck starts and just before we speed off my mother gets up and tries to grab the door handle but Frank punches the gas.

After a few seconds, I have the urge to turn back and see momma holding the side of her abdomen while speed walking but as we turned a corner I knew I wouldn't be seeing her again tonight.