SAVE ME (𝘫𝘰𝘩𝘯𝘯𝘺𝘣𝘰𝘺)

Part 7

Status: Rewritten and updated to be less cringe.

Johnny wincea as I rub some alcohol onto one of the scrapes on his cheek. "Is this really necessary?" He asks.

"They could get infected, Johnny Cade, and I ain't gonna let that happen."

He rolls his eyes and removes the rag that is stopping the blood flow from his nose. "Is it done bleeding?" He tilts his head back.

I nod. "Yeah, it's done."

"Great, do you think I can finish eating?"

"Yeah," I falter, shocked and sad that even after this, eating is still the biggest thing on his mind. "Your food is probably a little cold though, you want me to go warm it up?" I ask, following him to my room. But he picks it up and begins eating with no complaint.

I offer a sad smile and ruffle his hair. He swats my hand away playfully and gives me a smug look. 

I let my eyes travel over all of his injuries. They don't look as bad now, but he still doesn't look great. I notice, though, that he looks somewhat happier after sustaining them. Weird. 

"Johnny?"

He hums in response.

"Who did this to you?" I ask, frowning, though I can already guess.

He looks down and sighs. "I...fell--I mean I got jumped by--" he looks up and meets my disbelieving eyes and groans. "You're not gonna believe me are you?"

I cross my arms and shrug. "I can tell when people lie."

He bites his lip and looks away. "Look, it was my dad, okay?" He spits. "And I never thought I'd hear myself say this, but you can't tell anybody."

"Johnny, if he's hurting you--" I start, but he interrupts me. 

"A few weeks ago I would have been glad for someone to turn him in...just...not now. Not now that I've met you."

I can feel my cheeks heat up. "Why?"

"Because they would take me away, and I don't want to leave the only person who has ever even tried to be nice to me." His tone is stern. I hate that the main emotion I feel is flattery. 

"Okay," I say quietly. "I won't tell. Do you," I hesitate. "Do you think you could just, I don't know, maybe you could try to stay here most of the time."

He shakes his head. "I can't promise you that. Sometimes, like tonight, I'm supposed to be home. I just forgot and got in a lot of trouble." He sighs. "And I don't want to inconvenience you and you friends."

"We never lock our door just so people can sleep on our couch if they need to. You won't bother Darry." I assure him.

"What about everyone else?"

"Who cares? It's not their house."

He's quiet for a minute. "Okay, whenever it's too cold to sleep outside I'll come over, deal?"

I nod, quickly, accepting whatever I can. "Deal."

He looks back down at his food and grimaces. "I ain't so hungry anymore."

"That's okay," I grab the plate from his lap. "I'll go throw it away." Once I get downstairs, everyone's eyes are on me. I shift around uncomfortably. "What?"

Dally is the first to speak up. "What the hell happened to your friend?"

"Yeah," Two-bit chimes in. "Darry answered the door, and he was just standing there dripping blood."

"Nothing. Don't worry about it." I murmur and quickly throw the food in the trash. When I get back to my room, Johnny is looking in the mirror, prodding his now bruising eye. "Does it hurt still?" I ask. 

He flinches at my voice and looks over at me. "No, not really. I was just looking at it."

"Oh." I sigh and awkwardly rub the back of my neck. "So...what do you wanna do?"

He shrugs. "I dunno. I just figured we were about to just go to sleep."

"Come on, man!" I smile. "This is a sleepover. No one actually sleeps!" I say in a high pitched voice, eliciting a smile from him.

Johnny purses his lips. "Well what would you like to do?"

"Well...we could play cards, or watch movies, or--"

"Or have a pillow fight?" He mimics my voice and grabs a pillow off my bed.

I frown. "I dunno Johnny, you just got...you know...hit, and I don't wanna hurt--" he cuts me off by slapping me in the face with the pillow.

"Don't be such a baby!"

I scowl and grabbed a pillow, hitting him back. "Dude, you are so hot and cold, it's crazy."

He hits me back harder, causing me to stumble. "Why are you always so nice?" Before I can regain my balance, he hits me again, looking genuinely mad.

I glare and stand up, smacking him in the face with his pillow. "What's wrong with being nice?"

He hits me in the head. "No one's ever nice to me. Why are you an exception?"

I throw my pillow on the ground. "Because I can tell you need a lot of love, and I just want to help!"

His eyes get glassy and he throws his pillow down too. "So you're just pitying me because my daddy don't love me? 'Cause I got 'daddy issues?'" 

I don't understand how things always seem to go from really good to really bad so fast. "Johnny, what? What's your problem?"

He swallows hard. "Why don't he love me, Pony?" It looks like he's on the brink of tears, which scares me. He wasn't even this upset the day I found him on the bridge. He sits down on the floor, burying his face in his knees.

I bend down and crawl over. "Johnny..."

"What did I ever do to him?" His voice is muffled..

I pull him into a hug, and am shocked to find that he hugs me back. I don't know what I can say to make him feel better, so I just hug him tighter.

"All they ever do is scream and hit me, man. I don't even know what I did...I'd apologize for being born if they'd even listen to a word that came out of my mouth."

I suddenly realize what could drive such a nice boy to suicide. It was the sad truth, and I can see that now.

"I'm sorry Johnny...I'm so sorry..."

He rubs his eyes and pulls away from our embrace. "I'll be fine. I always am."

"No," I say slowly, and grab his wrists, turning them over. "These marks? They don't mean you're fine. They mean you're breaking and you need help. Your parents have obviously put you through some terrible things, so terrible you tried to kill yourself." I take a breath. "How many times have you tried?"

He bites his lip. "When you found me, that was the first. But I was really gonna do it. You, you kind of saved me." He leans his head against my chest, and I wrap my arms around him again.

"You need someone Johnny. Let me be that person. Let me in. I don't want to see you make any more marks."

He takes a deep breath. "I won't. I won't try again. I'll let you in." 

I hold him a little tighter. 

This chapter goes out to -TheFandomLife- for just being an awesome person! Love you fam

3/2024 update - so sorry for keeping the pillow fight lmao i honestly didn't know how to write around that. tried to make it as un cringe as possible.