What If?... (A Johnnyboy Story)

Chapter 3 - Acceptance

Soda sat down next to me. "So, about last night." I looked at him. "What do you mean?" Soda looked at me. "No need to play dumb. You know what I'm talking about." He smiled at me. I felt my face heat up. "Yeah, okay..." I looked away from him. "What about it?"

"Were you lying about it or no?" I shook my head no. Soda nodded slowly. "Okay, are you going to do anything? Like tell him or something?" I looked at him, shocked. "What?! No way!" I started shaking my head. "No way can I tell him!" I started rambling. "What if he thinks differently of me?! What if he doesn't want to be friends after?!"

Soda stopped me. "Pony, there's no way any of that would happen. Johnny's the nicest kid I know." He smiled at me. "Besides, I think he may fancy you too." My face got red. "Really? How do you know?" Soda chuckled. "Have you not seen the way he looks at you? His eyes basically sparkle while looking at you or, hell, even talking about you! I don't know for sure, but there's definitely something there." He was still smiling.

"I don't know, Soda. It all seems so... sudden." I sighed. "I just, don't want to mess things up. Besides, I don't even know if I like him like that." Soda nodded. "Yeah, I understand. If you need to talk I'm here." I nodded. "Yeah, and I'm here if you need to talk." We smiled at each other.

Maybe I should talk to Johnny... I looked at the TV, I wasn't paying attention though. Yeah, I should talk to him. Maybe I could clear some things up. I smiled and stood up. "If Darry asks, tell him I went to the lot, okay?" Soda nodded. I slipped on my shoes and soon walked out the door, heading for the lot to find Johnny.

I walked down the sidewalk with my hands in my pockets until I noticed Johnny sitting on the curb. I grinned and jogged over to him. "Hey, Johnny!" I sat down beside him. "Hey, Ponyboy." He smiled softly at me. My face started to get red.

"What are you doing out here?" Johnny looked at me. "Oh, I was looking for you actually. I wanted to talk and hang out." I smiled at him. "Oh, yeah, okay. What did you wanna talk about?" I shrugged. "I don't know, I just wanted to talk to you." He looked at me with a surprised look. "Oh."

"Yeah." We just looked at each other for a moment before turning away. "So, what are you doin' out here?" He shrugged. "I don't know. Better than most places, I guess." I nodded. "But, what if the Socs came by?" He looked at me.

"Why would they? This is our territory." I rolled my eyes slightly. "That don't mean nothin' to them." I heard Johnny sigh. "If they really wanted a fight, or to jump someone, they'd come over here to." Johnny nodded. "Yeah, I guess that's true." He pulled out a cigarette from his pocket.

"Hey, got one for me too, Johnny?" I did my best to make puppy dog eyes, jokingly. He rolled his eyes. "No sir, none for you. You gotta quit smoking a lot or your not gonna make track." I groaned. I pretended to pout out him, sticking my bottom lip out slightly and frowning. "Please, Johnny?"

Johnny exhaled deeply. "Okay, fine." He handed me one and I grinned. "Thanks, Johnny cakes.~" I extended the word 'cakes' to tease him. I laughed. "Oh c'mon Pony, knock it off." He sounded annoyed but was smiling. He playfully rolled his eyes and shoved me slightly.

I grinned and shoved him back. We started to play fight. Before we knew it we were basically wrestling on the sidewalk. Luckily, no one was around, otherwise they'd probably think we were insane. We were both laughing. My face started to get a pink tint to it, especially over my nose and ears.

We eventually stopped and sat back in the curb again, laughing. Yeah, I do like him. More than I probably should. I grinned and looked at Johnny, who stopped laughing but was still smiling. I admitted it. Maybe I could to Johnny. It couldn't be that hard. Could it? Johnny nudged me gently.

"Huh?" I looked at Johnny with a confused look. He shook his head slightly. "I asked if you wanted to go for a walk." I couldn't help but smile. I nodded my head quickly. "Yeah, sure!" I stood up and reached my hand out to help Johnny up. He took it and I helped pull him to his feet.

We started walking around. We didn't really have anywhere we were going but we both knew our way around town, so we'd be fine. As we were walking I kept glancing over at him. He looks so damn peaceful. Hell, he always looks peaceful. I smiled at the thought.

He saw me smiling at him and looked confused but I barely noticed his face start to get a pink colour dusted across it. "What?" I chuckled. "Nothin' Johnny, I was just thinkin'." He nodded. "Oh, alright." I looked away from him.

We continued to walk for a while, eventually we made it back to the lot. We sat down on a couch thing that was there. We both were looking at the stars. I decided to put ny head on his shoulder after a while."Hey, Johnny?" He attemptedto look at me. "Yeah?"

"So, y'know Sodapop and Steve?" Johnny rolled his eyes. "Yeah, no, I don't. Of course I do, man." I nodded. "Right, yeah. But, uhm. Have you noticed how they act around each other?" He had a confused look on his face. "What do ya mean?"

I sighed. "Well, I mean, today Soda had me wake Steve up since he was in the kitchen and whatever, and I couldn't get him up so pulled him off the couch." Johnny laughed. "Man, wish I was there to see that." I nodded. "No, yeah, it was pretty funny. But, he like, said something along the lines of 'why didn't you have Soda wake me up' and then he winked at Soda?"

"Did Soda do anything?" Johnny seemed very confused. "Yeah, he just rolled his eyes but in a playful way." "Oh." I nodded. "Yeah. Do you think their?" I put my hands together, interlocking my fingers. Johnny shrugged. "Maybe, but I mean, it's their business so." I nodded again.

"No, yeah, it is. I'm just, curious. Maybe I should ask Soda. I'm sure he'd tell me." Johnny nodded. "Yeah, probably." We sat in silence for a while. I didn't mind though. Johnny had rested his head on mine. We both were looking at the stars. The only thing that was able to be heard was the chirping of crickets.

I heard Johnny yawn. I could only assume he ended up falling asleep as I heard a faint snoring sound. I smiled and just sat there. I couldn't wake him, he sounded so relaxed. Eventually I yawned and my eyes slowly closed. I dozed off and ended up falling asleep.

I woke up to someone laughing. I lazily opened my eyes to see Dally standing there. "Morning Kid. What's up with you and Johnny?" I rubbed my eyes. It's too bright outside... wait, outside? I looked at him and looked around a bit. I was still in the lot with my head on Johnny's shoulder. "What? What do you mean, Dal?" I barely heard him snicker.

"Why are you and Johnny like, cuddling?" I moved my head off his shoulder and carefully layed his head back against the couch thing. "I don't know." Dally just looked at me. "Yeah right. Y'know, your lucky Darry isn't out here trying to find you. Soda managed to calm him down." Oh crap... "Shit... How did I forget about Darry?!" I stood up rather quickly. It must've moved Johnny in some way since he started to wake up.

"Pony?" His voice was raspy. Oh my... I knew my face started to turn red. "Yeah, Johnny?" He nodded slowly. Dally snapped in front of my face. "Hey, kid. Darry's still worried like crazy, man." I nodded. "Right, yeah. I'll get going home." Johnny moved and closed his eyes again. He looks kinda cute... wait, what?! Did I just think that he looks cute?! I shook my head trying to shake the thought.

"When he wakes up, tell him where I am, yeah?" I started to walk away. Dally nodded. "Yeah, sure." I started to jog and slowly started to run back home.

- Hey! Would it be considered a cliffhanger? Anyway, sorry it took me so long to get it out. I kept procrastinating, plus I had gotten a new book so I kept reading that. For those curious, word count, not including this, is 2,238.