Vacant

Chapter Ten

*Bo's POV*

"Cordy!" Johnny gasped as she hit the floor.

I was off of Pony in an instant and by her side.

"Cord, hun, you all right?" I spoke softly.

"What the hell's wrong with you?!" Dally turned and growled at Sodapop.

"I didn't do it on purpose!" Soda put his hands in, trying to defend himself.

Dally grabbed him by the collar and yanked him off the floor. Cordy was groaning as she tried to sit up. Two-Bit didn't let her. My eyes flickered from her to Steve, to Pony's busted lip - courtesy of yours truly - then back to Dally and Soda.

"Stop!" I barked out.

Dally dropped Soda. I never talked that loud. I never yelled at any of the boys, much less Dallas Winston.

"I'm okay, don't worry." Cordy tried to swat our hovering hands as she finally sat up.

"What did you hit?" I asked, ready to check whatever body part for bruises.

"I think it was just my stomach. I'm fine, it was just unexpected." She whimpered.

"Okay. Dally, get her up and take her over to my house. Johnnycake, can you help me carry Steve?" I looked him over.

He had ruffled hair and a new bruise forming on his cheek, but no major damage. He nodded.

"Good. The rest of you can scurry on home and we'll finish this rumble later." I hissed at Darry.

He was going to say something, but Two-Bit grabbed his shoulder and shook his head. I shook Steve as Darry and Sodapop stalked off, slowly followed by my brother. Johnny helped me stand Steve on his feet, an arm slung around each of our shoulders. I noticed Ponyboy was still standing there, so I made sure to send him an extra cold stare. He sighed before walking off.

Johnny and I caught up to Dally and Cordy a street or two away from the house. He was still carrying her, although she insisted that she could walk just fine. Steve started whining about his split lip, but there wasn't much we could do. We promised to get him cleaned up before taking him over to get stitches.

Dally gently set Cordy down on the couch before pacing back and forth. He kept asking her if she was okay, to which her response was always "Yes, I'm sure I'm fine, Dallas."

Johnny held Steve up while I wiped the blood off his face. He kept saying that he was sure Sodapop didn't mean to hurt him too bad, which was understandable. My only guess as to why Pony hadn't beaten the shit out of me when he got the chance was because he was my best friend. We finished cleaning off Steve and let him rest for a little while. He hadn't really been hit too hard, and it turned out that his lip wasn't split. After making sure that Cordy was okay and didn't need anything - not that I would beat Dally to whatever she needed - I sat down on the porch.

"You okay?" A voice interrupted my thoughts.

I jumped up at the sight of Sodapop, but he only took a step back and put his hands up again.

"Look, I didn't come for any more trouble, okay?"

"Then what did you come for, because you know that Dally will kill you if he sees you." I scoffed.

"I just wanted to ask you if you could do something for me. It's really important." He pleaded.

"What?" My voice came as a low growl.

"Could you just tell Cordy that I'm really sorry? I didn't mean to shove Johnnycake that hard, and I definitely didn't mean to knock her over into that cinder block." His blue eyes begged for forgiveness.