My one and Only (Johnny Cade x Reader)

Chapter 9

Ponyboy's POV

"Blast it, Y/n," Dally growled as we flew along the red road, "why didn't you think of turning yourself in five days ago? It would have saved a lot of trouble." 

"I was scared," She said with conviction. "I still am." Johnny ran his finger down one of his short black sideburns. "I guess we ruined our hair for nothing, Ponyboy." 

"I guess so." I was glad we were going back. I was sick of that church. I didn't care if I was bald. Dally was scowling, and from long and painful experience I knew better than to talk to him when his eyes were blazing like that. I'd likely as not get clobbered over the head. That had happened before, just as it had happened to all the gang at one time or another. We rarely fought among ourselves Darry was the unofficial leader since he kept his head best, Soda and Steve had been best friends since grade school and never fought, and Two-Bit was just too lazy to argue with anyone. Johnny kept his mouth shut too much to get into arguments, and nobody ever fought with Johnny. I kept my mouth shut; too. But Dally was a different matter. If something beefed him, he didn't keep quiet about it, and if you rubbed him the wrong way look out. Not even Darry wanted to tangle with him. He was dangerous. 

Y/n just sat there and stared at her feet. She hated for any one of us to be mad at her. She looked awful sad. Dally glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. I looked out the window. 

"Y/n," Dally said in a pleading, high voice, using a tone I had never heard him use before only with Johnny, "Y/n, I ain't mad at you. I just don't want you to get hurt. You don't know what a few months in jail can do to you. Oh, blast it, Y/n" he pushed his brown hair back out of his eyes "you get hardened in jail. I don't want that to happen to you. Like it happened to me..." 

I kept staring out the window at the rapidly passing scenery, but I felt my eyes getting around. Dally never talked like that. Never. Dally didn't give a Yankee dime about anyone but himself, and he was cold and hard and mean. He never talked about his past or being in jail that way if he talked about it at all, it was to brag. And I suddenly thought of Dally... in jail at the age of ten... Dally growing up in the streets... "Would you rather have me living in hide-outs for the rest of my life, always on the run?" Y/n asked seriously.

If Dally had said yes, She would have gone back to the church without hesitation, and so would Johnny. She figured Dally knew more than she did, and Dally's word was law. But she never heard Dally's answer, for we had reached the top of Jay Mountain and Dally suddenly slammed on the brakes and stared. "Oh, glory!" he whispered. The church was on fire!

"Let's go see what the deal is," I said, hopping out. The other two follow. 

"What for?" Dally sounded irritated. "Get back in here before I beat your head in." We didn't listen. I knew Dally would have to park the car and catch me before he could carry out his threat, and Johnny and Y/n were already out and following me, so I figured I was safe. We could hear him cussing us out, but he wasn't mad enough to come after us. There was a crowd at the front of the church, mostly little kids, and I wondered how they'd gotten there so quickly. I tapped the nearest grownup. "What's going on?"

"Well, we don't know for sure," the man said with a good-natured grin. "We were having a school picnic and the first thing we knew, the place is burning up. Thank goodness this is a wet season and the old thing is worthless anyway." Then, to the kids, he shouted, "Stand back, children. The firemen will be coming soon." A woman then comes rushing out.

"The kids, I told them not to play in the church!" She screams. The kids were trapped in the church. Y/n was already running for the church and Johnny was yelling at her to stop, so I followed them as well. We threw a rock at the window to jump in.