High on Life | Johnny Cade | The Outsiders

Chapter 4 | Ava...Who?

Johnny's POV

"Well that was weird." Sodapop said as soon as Ava was out of earshot.

"Yeah...I've never seen her around before." Steve replied.

"She still looked kinda familiar." Ponyboy said.

"Maybe you've seen her in school." I said.

"No, Steve woulda seen her too." He said.

"Well then why does she look familiar to ya, man?" I asked.

"I...don't know."

Ava's POV

When it got dark and chilly, but not too cold, I walked, only because I had nothing else to do, nowhere to go. I need to find some park bench to sleep on or something.

I walked, not knowing my way around, feeling sick, dizzy, and out of it. I felt the urge to have the last of the pot on me, but instead, I just threw it in a trash can I found. That stuff got me here and it's not going to get me out.

I missed Eric. He was the closest I had to a brother. Dallas just left me, but at least Eric stayed. Well, he did until I blew it all up. I felt my eyes fill up with water.

I miss Eric, I miss him so much.

"Tough girls don't cry!"

Mike was getting back into my head. The funny thing is that I don't miss him. I don't know if he ever cared about me or not. I was just there for the ride, and my mind was too foggy to realize it.

Why is everything going wrong?

Johnny's POV

"For the last time, just stay here." Pony said.

"Leave it, it's cool, Pony."

"He's right Johnny, you can stay. Don't feel bad about it." Soda said.

"Fine, I'll stay, alright?" I still felt guilty about intruding on them.

Soda was starting to get ready for bed. He had work in the morning. Pony and I stayed up for a while to watch TV. 

Tomorrow was Saturday, so Pony didn't have school and Steve would be working at the DX all day. We would probably go down there with Dallas.

I fell asleep pretty quickly, I wasn't that tired, I guess I was just bored. I've never been into movies like Pony has. 

The next morning...

"Johnny."

"Huh?" I woke up and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. "What is it, Pone?"

"Look at this." He handed me the news paper and pointed to an article with a picture next to it. The picture was a girl, but there was something about her. It took me a second since my vision was still blurry seeing as I just woke up.

"Is that Ava?" I asked.

"Yeah...read the article."

If you have seen this girl, please contact authorities. She is wanted for arson and police have reason to believe she went to Tulsa. She is from New York. She is fifteen. Her full name is Ava Victoria Winston. 

I stopped reading.

Winston...AS IN DALLAS?!

"Dally has a sister?!" I thought out loud. That can't be. "Maybe she's a different Winston."

"A different Winston from New York coming to this dingy place? I don't think so." Pony said.

"We gotta go see Dally, before he sees this for himself." I said, he nodded. So we left to go to Bucks to see if Dally was there.

512 Words.

Published December 1st, 9:24 p.m. EST