Golden

Five; Windrixville and Dally Knows

Five; Windrixville, and Dally Knows

•••Linden's POV•••

I woke up as I tumbled into tall, wet grass, landing dizzily on my back with Pony and Johnny rolling to a stop next to me.

"Golly," I breathed, pushing my mussed hair out of my face.

"You alright, Linny?" Johnny asked, rubbing his legs.

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little disoriented."

"At least Ponyboy didn't cut off the circulation to your legs," he grumbled jokingly, making me chuckle half-heartedly.

"Sorry, Johnnycakes," Pony said, sitting a couple feet away from me.

Johnny continued to rub his legs as he looked over at the youngest Curtis. "Make like a farm boy takin a walk or somethin, and ask someone where Jay Mountain is," he told him.

Pony grumbled to himself as he took his comb out of his back pocket, and ran it through his soft hair. He loped off down the road, leaving me alone with Johnny.

"What did Dally want the other night? When he pulled you back?" He asked me. I blushed, sheepishly running my hand through my slightly messy hair. "Well?"

"H-he just told me to be careful," I told him, avoiding eye contact.

"Is that all? Took a while for him-"

"It's just up that hill a ways," Pony said, walking back up to us.

I jumped up, pulling him and Johnny along. "Great! Let's get going!"

We arrived at the top of Jay Mountain, and stood in front of the church, staring blankly at it.

"It looks so creepy," I whispered, rubbing the goose pimples that appeared on my arms.

"It does," Pony said. "Kind of foreboding."

"Don't use that word!" I said, eyes widening. "Makes me feel like something's gonna pop out and scare us."

Pony just shook his head at me, and followed Johnny into the church through a back door.

I slowly lowered myself to the hard stone floor, only seeing that Pony winced as he just plopped himself down. Id rather not sustain any injury while hiding from the police.

I rolled over onto my back and just looked at the tall ceiling, thinking.

Surely someone of the gang has told Dally about my parents. I kind of wish someone would. I don't want to have to tell him myself. When Dally gets really mad, he explodes. And sometimes, it's a real doozy.

•••
Dally's POV
•••

The next day, I made my way on over to the Curtis', where they were all sitting in the family room, solemn looks on their faces. Soda's eyes were red from crying, and the others didn't look all too different, either. Darrel was just sitting there blank-faced, staring a random point on the wall across from it.

They all looked up as the door slammed behind me, the hopeful looks on their faces disappearing as they saw that it was only me. They were probably expecting the missing three members of our gang to come walking through the door.

"What's got everyone so down?" I asked, playing the innocent act as if I didn't know that I had hidden the three missing members of our gang in an old church a couple miles north of here.

"Soda, Pony, and Linden are gone," Soda stated, sniffing his nose and wiping his eyes, before dropping his face into the palms of his hands.

"What?" I gave them a convincing shocked look, my eyes widening and mouth dropping open.

I honestly felt bad about keeping the fact I know where they are a secret, but I can't risk anything. Not with those Socs out for blood, itching to get their hands on whoever killed their Socy leader. Especially since I can't risk putting Linden at any more risk than she already is. I can't believe I finally kissed her...

"I'm surprised Linden didn't run away sooner," Steve mumbled, taking a swig from a Coke bottle.

My head swiveled towards him. "What do you mean?"

He looked a little shocked. "She didn't tell you?"

"No one told me shit about anything. Why would Linden have wanted to run away sooner?" I demanded of him, completely confused.

Steve looked a bit hesitant to tell me as he reached up to scratch the back of his neck nervously. "Linden's parents... weren't exactly the best parents..." he mumbled, looking down at his lap as he fiddled with the metal cap to the bottle in his hands.

I walked over to him and lifted him from the chair by his collar. "You're going to tell me, or so help me god..."

"Her parents beat her worse than Johnny's did him!" He finally got out, looking up at me with frightened eyes.

My fist tightened around the fabric of his collar, and I felt my nostrils flare.

They beat her... those good-for-nothing jackasses beat my Linden.

I flung him back down in his chair and tore at my hair angrily, pacing around the room, ready to explode in unadulterated fury.

"Why the hell wouldn't she tell us?" I roared. "I'm going to kill those jackasses! I'm going to fucking murder them!"

I rushed for the door, and was rigged back by the back of my collar, and flung onto the sofa, where Two-Bit and Soda pinned me down. "Dallas! Calm down!" Darry yelled, standing over me. "Hurting her parents aren't going to do anything! We need to stay level-headed if we want to find all three of them."

I reluctantly relaxed, knowing that he was right. I need to stay calm if I want to get my little Linden through this. Little Linden? I asked myself.

Well... she is only five feet tall.