This Greaser's Got My Heart

Mixed Emotions

Chapter Four

Ponyboy damn sure means quick, but glory I wish he hadn't of hurried. When he came out of his room I think I gasped a little as Ponyboy had barely finished buttoning his jeans when he came out in a record settin' time. He still appears fairly damp, too. I gasp and Johnny pats my back a little.  Ponyboy is a big distraction, though. He carries me to the kitchen and sits me down,the closeness of him helpin' maneuver myself nearly made me faint. I usually didn't let guys bother me, but Pony was gettin' to me. The feeling of pain was totally gone from my mind.

He leaves the room for a minute and Johnny remains. "The bleedin' looks like it's stopped. It looks like it's dryin'." 

He gives me a small smile that I return,"Yeah. I'll be fine, I know. I'm sorry to have interrupted you'n Ponyboy hangin' out. It's just..I couldn't really handle him,y'know? Not today." 

He nods as Ponyboy comes back into the room with a ragged towel. 

He goes over to his sink and wets it in a silence which I feel like should be broken. "Ain't you gonna ask?" I look at him wearily. 

He turns off the faucet and comes over to me."It ain't really my place, unless you wanna talk 'bout it Andy. I can guess." 

I shrugged my shoulders, "Later." I'd talk to him later, I just kind of didn't want to in front of Johnny, even though he had the same sorts of problems only twice as bad.

Ponyboy kind of stutters for a moment and awkwardly touches my gut lightly where it had been bleedin'. "I..uh." He cleared his throat, "Can you lift your shirt please?" 

I almost laugh, just because Pony is so sweet and shy about these things that I can see him start to blush. I hold it off though. "Ye..yeah." I'm a little surprised at my own stutter, I really didn't think that that would happen. I lift my shirt up the cut, which was about the same height as Darry had lifted it to tend to my bruise. 

"I won't look if that'd make it better ,Andy." It isJohnny who says this, I look over to see him coverin' his eyes. 

"You know,you two sure are awful considerate to be hoods."Johnny just sits there keepin' his eyes covered and I see Ponyboy smirk and my heart lurches a little bit.

"We're outcasts in our own group,huh?" He gives a sad little laugh as he dabs lightly at the blood, now mostly dried; it is mostly bruised with only a few cuts. "Well, Johnny is just too innocent to be mean to anybody. He ain't never did nothing to nobody. I can't really speak for myself...I can't figure out myself anymore than other people can." I look up at'em and meet his eyes. They look so sad. He looks back down at his hands, at all the blood he wiped off. I return to myself a little, for the first time, really, in front of Ponyboy.

"Y'know, I am perfectly able to do this on my own." He pauses and the red crept back up onto his face, I noticed now-since he lacked a shirt- that his blush covered his neck to a little bit.

"Uhh.." He offers me the towel and I take it and smile at the ground. "It's kind of all done now. That's all that can be done anyways, I'm gonna have a hell of a bruise tomorrow." I put my shirt back down, "You can move your hand now Johnny."

 I smirk at him. I move over to the couch, once I realised that these guys where gonna be my friends, I became comfortable in no time. "If you guys don't mind, I'll hang out here for the rest of the day. I ain't going back home." 

Johnny joins me on the couch. "Cool,it's usually just me and Pony, it might be nice to have company. How about we play cards?" He reaches over and grabs a pack off the table, along with some cigarettes.

He tosses one to Ponyboy and lights one for himself ,then offering me one. "Nah,I actually don't smoke doll." 

He smiles at me. "Doll?"

 "Sure,you're just as sweet as could be." I pick up the cards and shuffle'em. "What're we-" 

"I'm sorry, Andy. You shouldn't have to deal with that." I looked at him, he looked like he had gotten himself all worked up.

"It's nothin'. I'm used to it. Come on,let's play. Oh, and Pony,you can finish gettin' dressed now." There was that blush again,and this time, I blush too. He nods and takes off to recover.

"Did you just turn red?" Johnny asked me as he took the cards to start dealin' them.

"What's it matter?" I couldn't help but to get a little defensive, it's what I was use to. 

He shrugs."Guess it don't."

Ponyboy's Point of View

I walk back to me and Sodas room real quick,I feel a little embarrassed that I had done that. Not only had I went out there like that,'cause I wanted to make sure Andy was alright,but I forgot, too. I glanced in the mirror as I ran one of my hands threw my tuff hair. What if she didn't think I looked right? What if she didn't think I looked good without my hair bein' greased up like usual. I laugh to myself and pull my shirt on. I'm bein' silly. I am, why was I even thinkin' like this? I take some grease that's on the table beside my bed and fix my hair real quick, to put myself more at ease.

By now, I realize it is about two o'clock and Soda and Steve should be gettin' home sometime in the next hour. "Hahaha." I hear a laugh comin' from the living room and see Two-bit come join our party. I go back out to join everybody and Two-Bit is playing around with Andy. It looks like they've got along quick enough.

"Say Uncle!" She was laughing and crying,"No,never!" I feel an odd twinge of jealousy. I try to brush it off, I've just met Andy anyways. I've never really been with a girl anyways.

I march myself over to the couch and plop down, maybe a little to hard. I rest my head on my hand and the next thing I know Dally's comin' through the door. He almost tripd over Two-Bit and Andy as he sits next to me. 

He smirks,"What's going on down there?" 

Andy shrieked, "Nothin'. Two-bit damn it." She manages to push him off and she takes cover from him saying 'You didn't say uncle!' by jumping on to the couch and, somehow, right on my lap. My hands go to her waist instinctively, so she doesn't fall. 

Her hand ends up in the middle couch seat and she's layin' on me breathing hard. "S-sorry Ponyboy." She wipes her face, maybe one too many times and I notice her face is red, but she is exhausted. She can't be blushing can she? Nah,it was just 'cause she was screwin' around with Two-Bit on the floor.

"I'll leave ya' alone for now. Hey Ponyboy, Soda made any cake lately?" I shrug, still kinda feelin' mad towards him for some reason.

"I think there's some he made yesterday. There's no tellin' what it tastes like." Dally gets up to flip on our Tv and Mickey's on.

"Two-bit,there's Mickey!" Andy says. How did she know he liked it? When did they talk? I don't know. It's none of my business anyways. 

He rushes into our living room, "Hey What do ya' know?" He sits down in the floor with the whole thing of cake Soda had made that nobody'd touched.

"Dall, whatchou doing here?" I said,trying to distract myself. He shrugged, "Got in a fight with Tim. Don't matter." 

"Oh." 

"Hey Ponyboy, wanna go to the movies?" Dallas Winston, makin' it through a movie?

"Dally, you can't sit through a movie without makin' a mess of things." He shrugged."Come on, Pony,what have you got to lose? You're just so busy sittin' at home all day, but I guess you do got a broad in your lap."

I look down to see her eyes glued to the Tv set, my cheeks hot. "Oh all right, just hush." I stand up to go check the grease in my hair and Andy almost falls. 

"Hey!" I mumble a sorry and walk to mine and Sodas room.