~Cicada~ Johnny Cade x male reader

Bitchy Boyfriends

A/N: Please excuse any dialogue inaccuracies, I let my friend borrow my "The Outsiders" book and they haven't given it back yet 😅

          Johnny clears his throat and says, "Let's just watch the movie, guys." I laugh and turn my attention to the screen. I figure Johnny's just as confused as Ponyboy looks right now, so I say it's best to just leave it alone for now. Eventually, the movie ends and Two-Bit has one of his bright ideas: we should walk the socy girls home. Don't get me wrong, Bob-cut and Ginger are nice 'n all, but I don't think that their boyfriends are gonna be happy when they find out a group of "delinquent hoods" had "picked up" their girls. Not in the slightest. But, it's Two-Bit, and when Two-Bit is drunk you can't reason with him.

         So, we begin walking with these girls away from the drive in. I'm walking beside Bob-cut, who walks beside Two-Bit, and listen to their conversation. I laugh at a couple jokes and learn that the girl is actually named Marcia, and she seems sweet. A perfect match for Two-Bit. But unfortunately, this is Tulsa Oklahoma, and there is no chance for a perfect match here. I look over at Johnny, whose eyes are glued to the ground and whose hands are in the rough pockets of his denim jacket. Sighing, I look back at Marcia, who looks paler than she was before.

         Now that I think about it, so does Ginger. The aforementioned girl pipes up, "Don't look now, here they come..." I have a sneaking suspicion I know who they're talking about. A tuff blue mustang pulls past us, and for a moment, I think they didn't see us. To my dismay, the mustang comes rearing back in reverse, then parks next to us. Out of the car jumps two socs. Presumably the pretty girls' boyfriends. Shit. The admittedly more handsome one with brown hair yaps, "Cherry! What do you think you're doing!?" They proceed to have a little argument, the girls hating that they're always drunk and the boys trying to justify their actions.

          "Yeah, but that doesn't mean you should go walking around the streets with these bums," the curly black-haired one spits. This sets a drunken Two-Bit off. "Who you callin' bums, pal!?" Everything is escalating very quickly and suddenly, Two-Bit does this impressive spin while he grabs a pop bottle and breaks it on the wire fence, throwing it to Pony. He pulls out his switch, so I take that as a sign to pull out mine. I glance at Johnny, who's standing off out of the way. He's probably scared something awful right now. Ginger, who I learned is actually named Cherry, jumps in between us. "Just stop! You know I hate fights! We'll go with you, just stop!"

        Two-Bit huffs and Pony pulls her aside to talk to her. After they exchange goodbyes, Ponyboy looks heartbroken and the girls go with their boyfriends. We all go on our way walking again, Johnny hanging behind the rest of us while Two-Bit cracks jokes. Hitching my thumbs in my pants pockets, I sling back next to him. Just to check in. "Hey, Johnnycake," I begin, grabbing his attention, "You good?" The boy looks around for a moment and hesitates before mumbling, "That guy with the rings... that's the one who jumped me a couple months back." Johnny unconsciously rubs the scar on his cheek. I grab that hand and pull it down. "You should'a told me, man," I say sincerely and somewhat angrily, "I would'a beat his ass then and there."

         Johnny chuckles, then looks down gravely. "No offense to you at all, (Y/N), but they'd definitely whip ya. You haven't seen them, felt them fight firsthand." I look down as well. "But...but at least I'd get fucked up in your defense." He looked up at me, but I didn't dare look at him. I know for a fact that those guys would've beat my ass and then some, but damn it, if there's one thing I've learned in my sixteen years, it's that you have to protect whatever family you've got. Right now, the gang is my family, and if I can't do that much, I may as well be useless.

         I think Johnny could sense my frustration, as he set a hand on my shoulder. Sighing, I look at him and smile. "I think I need a cigarette is all, don't sweat," I tell him. He nods. "Me too, man, me too." Two-Bit eventually parts ways with us, which leaves Pony, Johnny, and I. Ponyboy also dips after asking Johnny if he was going to his house, which he denied. Decided to keep with Johnny just in case those creeps show up again, I follow him to the lot, where he crawls under a couple newspapers and falls asleep. I sit next to him and pull out a cigarette, setting it in my mouth and lighting it with a holographic purple lighter that I got from Steve.

        As I smoke in silence, I glance over at Johnny. I notice that while he's asleep, there's no trace of the skittishness and paranoia on his face. Putting aside the scar on his face, he looks like an average teenage boy. One who probably helps his parents grocery store, and goes out with friends every weekend. Unburdened. Peaceful.

Bang!

        Johnny shoots up as Ponyboy stumbled over him, quickly hopping back up and taking the previously sleeping boy with him. I jump up too, and Johnny asks, "What's wrong, Ponyboy!?" The poor kid looks absolutely distraught. "C'mon guys, we're runnin' away!" No questions asked, we begin jogging swiftly behind him. Eventually, the kid needs to stop to catch his breath, and Johnny takes this break to ask him what's going on. "It's Darry," Pony sobs, "He hit me! I swear, we used to get along just fine 'til mom and dad died...now he can't stand me!" Johnny hands him a cigarette and looks down. "I think I like it better when the old man's hittin' me. At least he knows I'm there."

        I punch him in the shoulder lightly. "Don't talk like that, Cicada. Yer dad's a piece of shit, he doesn't deserve recognition for any of the abuse he puts you through, even if one is preferable." Johnny sighs and nods. Ponyboy also sighs, the cigarette cooling him off a bit. "Let's just walk to the park, then maybe I'll be cooled off enough to go home." Johnny and I simultaneously nod and I pat Pony on the back as he starts walking.

        After a while, we make it to the park and climb up onto the jungle gym. Johnny is displaying some of the half-decent cigarette butts he found when I noticed it. "Y'all," I say nervously, "I think our friends are back." I point to a blue mustang cruising slowly towards us. Johnny goes pale and I squeeze his hand, attempting to let him know that it'll be okay. "Should we make a run for it?" The dark eyed boy asks. Pony shakes his head. "Stay cool." We climb down off of the jungle gym and are met with multiple guys in front of us, the two in front are the ones from earlier. "Hey, uh, aren't these the guys who, uh, tried to pick up on our women?" The brunette one slurred.

        We all put on our tough facades. "You're outta your territory now, you better watch it!" Johnny attempts to threaten coolly. The curly black-haired one rolls his eyes and retorts, "no, you better watch it, pal." The brunette one stops for a moment and it's painfully quiet, but then he says, "You know what a greaser is? White trash with long, greasy hair." Pony gets a mean look on his face. "And you know what a soc is?"

Brunette inches closer to his face.

"...What?"

"White trash with mustangs and madras."

Then, he spat at the brunette.

        Stupid ass kid. Now we're all fucked. This made Brunette angry. "I think this kid needs a bath, and a good working over. Luckily, we've got all night to do it." In a flash, the majority of the  guys had grabbed Ponyboy and drug him over to the fountain where they tried to force his head under the water. Two states back to deal with me and Johnny. A blonde one grabs my arms from behind, disabling my ability to get away or help Johnny. As for Johnny, he tried to fight past 'em, but they just kick him down over and over again. "Stay down, pal," one of the guys tells him as they kick him once more. I fight the blonde behind me, able to kick him a couple times before I ram my head into his chin, effectively causing it to start bleeding. He loosens his grip and grits his teeth.

        "FUCK!" He shouts, and the one who was dealing with Johnny looks at me. As he does, his eyes fill with rage. The blonde pushes me towards him and grabs his bleeding chin. The other one tackles me down the second I make contact with him, and he snarls, "You've done it now, you little shit." I grin and swiftly lift my knee up to his stomach. He coughs, then shouts as he grabs me by the collar of the shirt and slams my head down onto the pavement.

"Shit..."

The light is fading fast.

"Fuck-no.... what about Pony and Johnny!?"

I try to move, try to fight...

"They're gonna kill 'em!"

But my consciousness is gone too quickly to do much of anything.

"Johnny... it's up to you to help him."