SAVE ME (𝘫𝘰𝘩𝘯𝘯𝘺𝘣𝘰𝘺)

Part 6

Status: rewritten and updated to be less cringe.

I watch him as he goes to my room and sigh. It seems like  this would happen every time we were together. Just as he's starting to warm up to me, something would happen and he ends end up getting extremely mad.

I huff and walk back into the kitchen, grabbing his unfinished plate of food. I turn to take it back to my room for him but Darry stops me. "Pony, wait." I turn around and see him fixing a plate of chocolate cake. He hands it to me. "Soda can sleep on the couch tonight if Johnny's staying over."

"Don't I get a say in that?" Soda frowns, and Darry looks back at him with a fire in his eyes.

"No, you don't. You were being an asshole. You all were."

I smiled and hug Darry. "Thanks..." I whisper quietly before turning to walk to my room.

Johnny was laying on my bed staring at the ceiling when I get there. "Hey," I say, quietly. "I brought the rest of your food..."

He slowly sits up and looks down. After a couple seconds, he gets up and hugs me. I stumbled back and quickly set the plates down on a nearby table before hugging him back.

"I'm sorry." Johnny mumbles into my shoulder. "You're just trying to help me and I keep acting like an ass."

I rubbed his back. "You're fine Johnny, I know you're not a jerk."

He pulls away. "I guess your friends don't like new people coming in, do they?"

I sigh. "I don't know. They usually don't act like that around my other friends. Maybe it's because we just met?"

"Maybe. But you said they'll warm up to me, so I can deal with it. The only thing I couldn't handle was them calling me John...can you...would you mind--"

"I'll talk to them about it." I assure and he nods in relief. "Can I ask how come you hate it so much?"

He bites his lip. "Well, my mom..." he gasped suddenly and runs to his bag, beginning to pull on some shoes.

"Where are you going?" I ask, frantic.

"I gotta go home. Oh God, I'm dead. I'm gonna be in so much trouble." He laces up his shoes and jogs downstairs to the front door.

"Wait! Where are you going? Why are you dead?" I start to panic.

"I'll be back Ponyboy...I hope...if I'm not back within an hour then come get me. I'll be at my house." He takes a deep breath and then runs outside the house.

I watch him go, wondering what is going on. He seems so scared. So worried. I debate on whether or not I should follow him, but decide against it. He said he'd be back, and if he wasn't then I had to go looking for him.

The gang is in the living room and had seen him rush out the door. "Where'd he go?" Two-bit asks.

"I...I think he went home. He's coming back though."

Steve rolls his eyes. "What's his deal? He's--"

"Finish that sentence Steve. I dare you." I glare at him, and he glares right back.

"He's too jumpy, quiet, annoying--" He sneers. I lose it and begin yelling.

"Stop! Y'all don't know what the hell your talking about. You don't know anything..." I say, frustrated beyond belief. I lean against the wall.

"You're right Pony..." Soda says, surprising me. "Why don't you tell us about him. How did you guys meet?"

Everyone looks at me, ready to listen.

I sigh and look down. It wouldn't be right to tell Johnny's personal problems without his consent. Especially to the gang, who had all except Darry been nothing but mean to him.

"We just met at a coffee shop, okay?" I look out the window, silently begging for him to be back.

The way he told me to go look for him after an hour made it sound like I was going to find him dead in a ditch. I glance at the clock. He still has fifty minutes, I shouldn't worry yet.

But I can't help it. Something tells me that something bad was gonna happen.

"Maybe you should move away from the window..." Darry comes over and rubs my back.

"Yeah. Okay." I slowly stand up and walk back to my room.

He's gonna be fine. He said he'd be back. But...what if? I sigh and decide to read a book to take my mind off things. It doesn't really work, but it provides at least a little bit of a distraction.

I've only been reading for about fifteen minutes when my door slowly creaks open. Johnny is back. I stand up quickly and walk over to him. His eye is swelling up and his nose is slowly trickling blood.

I immediately begin to panic. "Johnny, what happened?" I nearly yell, but I have a sick feeling that I already know what it was.

"Nothing Pony, I'm fine. I told you I'd be back didn't I?" He smiles lightly, but I don't return it.

"Come on Johnny. I'll clean your cuts and you're gonna tell me what happened."