Back to You

New Friends

Christmas break ended and school had started back about a week ago. Erin had been wearing Johnny's jacket almost ever since he gave it to her. She loved it! It smelled of cigarettes, nature, and Johnny's cologne. Not only has Erin been wearing her new jacket, but Johnny had been wearing his jacket a lot too. It made Erin happy.

The final bell rang and Johnny, Two-Bit, and Ponyboy were waiting by Johnny's locker for Erin. You could hear her laughter and another unrecognizable voice. Finally she came around the corner with some guy, her hair bouncing as she walked. She stopped and turned to him, saying something the guys couldn't make out before saying goodbye and walking away.

"Who was that Soc kid?" Two-Bit asked when she approached them.

"Someone Christiana introduced me to," Erin stated. The boys just nodded. They had no idea who Christiana was. Erin has talked about her but they have never met her. From what they know, she came up to her and just started talking. After a few days they became friends.

"When are we going to meet this Christiana chick?" Two-Bit questioned again.

"I don't know. Wherever she wants to come over." Erin started walking, not waiting for the boys. "Come on! I want to get home. I have stuff to do." The guys started walking until they finally caught up.

Johnny walked beside of her quietly. He doesn't know why, but he has a bad feeling about this guy. He's a Soc after all! Why would he even want to associate with a greaser? Sure, Erin looks like middle class sometimes, it's just the way she wants to dress, but she's a greaser at heart. Everyone knows that. They know who she hangs around with. So why would this guy even want to talk to her?

Maybe he's just jealous. But Johnny can't help but feel like it's something else.

...

"Erin," Johnny started. "Do you want to—"

The phone rang, interrupting him. Erin sighed. Ponyboy was in his room doing homework, and she knew Dally wouldn't get the phone. "Hold on, Johnnycake." She stood up from the couch and grabbed the phone.

"Hello?" She said. She smiled when she heard the voice on the other end. "Hi, Bryson!"

Johnny looked up at her and gave her a funny look. She just smiled at him, or it could have been directed to Bryson, he didn't know. She sat down on the couch and continued talking. Is this the guy she was talking to at school? He wondered.

"Yeah. I'd love to. Bye!" She hung up the phone and turned back over to Johnny.

"What did he want?" He asked, turning to face her. "Was that that boy from school?"

"Yeah. He asked if I wanted to go to the Dingo. He wanted to talk to me about Christiana."

"Ah," He nodded, a bit of relief washed over him. At least he wanted to talk about that Christiana girl and not about her. But still...it still worried him. "Shoot!" He glanced at the clock. He had to be at work in 20 minutes. "I'm going to be late. I have to go, Angel."

"Okay. Do you want me to walk with you? Actually, forget I asked. I'm not taking no for an answer." She gave him a big grin. And playfully punched his arm for the fun of it. "I still can't believe you had a job for weeks and didn't know."

"Eh, when you don't tell the tattle-tail-gang and make up a bunch of excuses it's pretty easy." He sighed. "I need to go change." He walked off into the bathroom.

Erin grinned as he came out of the room in his uniform. It was just a work shirt but he was still cute. "Are you still trying to save up money to buy me something?" She asked when he came back.

"That's for me to know and you to find out, missy." He pointed a finger at her. She reached up and grabbed his finger and their fingers slowly intertwined. He pulled her up off the couch and they both walked out the door hand in hand.

"I want to take that as a yes."

"Shh!" Johnny held a finger up to his lips. "I'm not going to spoil my surprises."

Erin just rolled her eyes. "Aww, you're no fun!"

Johnny just smiled at her and continued to walk. This was the first time Erin had seen Johnny's workplace. It wasn't a very big store but that didn't matter. Erin walked in with Johnny, looking around the place. She's never been in this store, and since she had nothing else to do she decided to look around.

She ventured around the store a little while. Finally she gave up the search when she couldn't find anything and went to Johnny. He was checking out some woman and her teenage daughter who kept eyeing him and smiling at him.

Relief fell over him when Erin came over to him. "Johnnycake," She said. "I'm going to go." She was going to say "Go meet Bryson." but decided against it. She kissed his cheek before walking away.

"Bye, Angel," He called. Sighing at the thought of her going to meet that boy.

...

Erin tapped her fingers against the table and gazed out the window, waiting for Bryson. She didn't notice when he sat down across from her until he cleared his throat. "Erin?"

"Oh!" Her face turned a small shade of pink and she laughed to herself. "Hey, Bryson. Sorry, I didn't see you."

"It's fine. Now, I'm only telling you this because I trust you." Erin nodded along to what he was saying, giving him the signal to continue. "Okay, I need your help with Christiana. I...I want to surprise her. Me and my friends are going to have a surprise for her set up behind the school. And I need your help getting her there. Thursday sound good?"

Erin grinned and nodded her head repeatedly. She thought this was a sweet idea and wanted to do whatever she could to help. It took every being in her not to go: "Aww!" and form a heart with her hands. Instead she just said: "That's so sweet! Of course I will help. And yes, Thursday is great."

Bryson smiled at her. "Great! Thank you so much, Erin. I'm so glad you agreed to this."

"Of course I did. I think you and Christiana would be adorable together."

Bryson smiled at her and rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, it would. Well...I'm going to go now. Thanks again."

"No problem. Anything for a friend." She smiled at him. They continued to talk about the plan and about anything else that popped into their heads. Erin enjoyed talking to Bryson. She figured it would be the start of a new friendship.