Dreams

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Ponyboy's point of view

Johnny and I had just finished seeing a movie at the downtown cinema, it was closing in on midnight and since no one was around, me and him could hold hands. His hand was a little shaky when I'd first held onto it, but he got used to it as we walked.

We were getting close to the park and a chill ran down my spine, remembering that night. Johnny must have felt the same way. His hand started shaking again and when I looked at him he was pale and wide eyed.

"Hey." I said calmly, stopping to face him. He just looked down.

"Johnny it's okay, that was a long time ago right? You and I, we're okay now." his shoulders started to tense upwards, like he did whenever he was going to cry.

I put bad arm on his shoulder and used to other to tilt his head up, he was crying.

"Oh come on don't cry, we're okay. We're safe Johnny, don't cry." he just cried more.

"I-I'm so sorry. Everything's my fault man, I killed him, I'm the reason you always get nightmares about fire and losing people now. I'm the reason everything's messed up." He bottom lip quivered as he tried to, unsuccessfully, hold back the tears.

I didn't say anything, I just pulled him quickly towards me and held him. He cried into my sweatshirt and was squeezing me around the waist.

We stood there on the sidewalk for a while, Johnny eventually started calming down and I pulled away. He whipped his eyes and continued to walk.

I walked closely beside him, "Don't ever say that." I said quietly. "Don't you ever, for a minute, think that any of this is your fault okay? Do you know Why I'm scared of fire? Because I almost lost you in one. Do you know why I followed you to that church? Because you saved my life, I would've drown Johnny, and they were going to hurt you. You did what you had to and everything that happened after that was because of some drunk ass Socs. Not you. Okay?"

He was quiet for I minute. I looked over at him and he smiled. "Okay. I'm sorry." he grabbed my hand and I squeezed his reassuringly.

We started talking about nothing important after that, the we started on what we wanted to do after school, Johnny said he wasn't smart enough to become a doctor like he wants to, and I told him to shut up and that I help him become whatever he wants to be.

"I want to be able to help people. Like that doctor did for me remember? He didn't care about what I'd done he just focused on making me better. I want to do that for someone." he said as I was building a fire with some old sticks and my lighter.

"Then do it. If you want to there ain't nothing to stop ya."

"Well I'm pretty slow at learning, I'm not as smart as you are." I lay back beside him on the old car seat in the vacant lot.

"It's not that. You just learn differently, but if you put the effort in you could be a doctor. I'll help you if you need it." I smiled over at him.

"Thanks Ponyboy." he leaned over and kissed me on the lips. I kissed him back for a minute before he pulled away.

"Pony?" he sounded confused almost.

"What?"

"What do you want to be when you finish school? I'm sure with Darry around you'll be forced to go to college, but what would you want to take?"

I looked back up at the dark sky. If thought a lot about this before, gone back and forth between ideas and hobbies and I just blurted the first thing out, but I liked the sound of it.

"An author." I smiled, "I've written some things before, I like telling stories and reading and watching movies anyway, might as well get payed for it." I laugh lightly.

"You'd be an amazing author. What've you written before?" Johnny asked

"Not a lot, I wrote a theme for English earlier this year. it was only supposed to be around 500 words but it ended up being 10 000 or something." I laugh lightly, a bit embarrassed.

"Well what was it about man?" I was kinda worried he'd ask this.

"Well, I wrote it about what happened, with Bob and stuff." Johnny went quiet. "I think I ended up writing a little too much about you though." I looked over and smiled at him.

"What'd your teacher think?" he looked serious.

I sighed, "I'm not really supposed to say, but do you remember that anonymous sender who had bailed you out of jail three months earlier? Who made sure you sounded like a hero on the news? That was him. The gang had put a lot of money together already but Mr. Symes put it all together."

Johnny turned over to look at me, we never talked about the time he spent in jail, even though it ended up only being 2 months, it scared him half to death to be there.

"You were the one behind that?"

"Well kind of, I mean he put the money-" I was cut off by Johnny football tackling be to the ground and burying his face in my shoulder.

"Thank you. Thank you so much Ponyboy thank you!" I noticed then that he was crying.

"Oh I didn't do anything, I just wrote the story so that someone could realize that none of it was your fault." I stroked his hair trying to calm him down.

"Exactly why I'm thanking you. Ponyboy is still be there if it wasn't for you, you have no idea what it was like." he looked up at me.

"What, what was it like?" I was hesitant to ask but I'm so curious.

"You know how it felt being trapped in that church?" he asked me. I nodded.

"Well it was like that. except I didn't have you to keep me warm at night, and the food was worse than baloney. and I didn't see the sun for 61 days..." he trailed off, remembering what it was like. I tried to imagine anything worse than that damned church, I didn't want to think about what it must've been like for him. All alone and scared. I hugged him again.

"I'm so sorry you ever had to see that place. I'm so sorry." I breathed slowly to calm himself.

"It's alright, I'm out now. All thanks to you." he kissed my forehead and then my lips.

"I love you." I smiled.

"I love you too Ponyboy, and not just because you nailed me out of jail." I laughed and kissed him again.

We fell asleep like that, in each others arms underneath of the stars. Darry knew where I was. He'd said I could stay out as long as I wanted so I didn't need to worry about getting in trouble.

I was safe. Johnny was safe. My arm was broken sure, but I was the happiest is ever been with Johnny Cade beside me.

The End.

Hey guys! I know this story didn't really have a plot most of the time but I tried the best I could to keep it up. If for some reason you did enjoy my writing, I have a series of Johnnyboy one shots called Cigarettes and Sunsets. Thanks to all of you for reading!

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