Not What It Seems ||An Outsiders Fanfiction||

e p i l o g u e

"Leesha Codwell? I would love to propose to you... right here, right now. I want to call you mine forever and ever, but for some stupid ass reason, I can't. I'm not legally allowed to, and honestly, I'm pissed. Completely outraged about it. So I want to ask you to wear a ring. A symbol of you and I, our love. I guess you can call it a promise ring. A promise that as soon as gay marriage is legalized... We'll get married?" I said. My heart beat quickly in my chest, and I wondered if I was having a heart attack. I had practiced it hundreds of times in front of the mirror, making sure it was perfect. Now I wasn't so sure, as I looked up at Leesha. She was in tears, making my eyes well up too.

"Ana, I..." she started. I felt like I was going to throw up.

"I would love to!" I shakily put the ring on her finger, and she jumped into my arms. We both threw our graduation caps off.

April 4th, 1968

Our eyes were glued to the TV for the second time as everything was happening around us, and nothing could be done. Martin Luther King Jr. had been shot.

"It's over," Leesha said, tears cascading down her cheeks faster than I could catch them. I held her.

"It's over," she whispered. Even if I told her that it wasn't, that we could keep going, with or without him, do this on our own, I knew she wouldn't believe me. I didn't know how to comfort her. And in all honesty, she didn't want to be comforted.

This man was an inspiration to not just her, and she knew it. He was taken away from all of us, and for what reason? At what cost? Was she right, was everything over? Everything we'd all been working for? I shook my head.

"It's not over, baby. This is just the beginning." God, was I right.

June 17th, 1969

"I watched the whole thing. I couldn't believe it," Leesha said, speaking to an entire crowd. "It was the worst thing I've ever experienced, really. But that's why I'm up here right now, I guess. A few years ago I told my girlfriend I wanted to be like him. I said I wanted to do my part. I want to fight for what's right and make sure it happens. This is how I'm gonna do it," she told the entire world. She was finally living her dream. I sat in the front row, hooting, hollering, clapping, wiping tears from my eyes. I was so proud of her.

Leesha stopped, breathing in the applause. She smiled, wider and brighter than I'd ever seen. She kept going on with her speech, telling everyone what she thought we should do, how the world could be helped, what we needed to do. People were eating her words, loving everything she had to say.

Leesha came off the stage a while later jumping up and down in excitement. It was the first speech she had read in front of real people, not just me or our bathroom mirror. She ran into my arms, and I engulfed her in a hug.

"Leesh, you were amazing!" I exclaimed. She smiled and I kissed her cheek.

"Ana, that was so much fun," she told me.

"I'm so proud of you, baby."

December 30th, 1969

"You know, Ana... Ponyboy's graduation from High School soon," Leesha said, smiling. I nodded.

"I know, I'm so proud of him." He's  to a senior this year, almost ready to go off to college.

"Baby, you know what that means, right?" I nodded, tears forming in my eyes.

"My baby brother's going off to college," I said, thanking God for student loans and Leesha's great job. God knew that with Darry in school now, we could never completely pay for Ponyboy too.