The Other Story

Ashton

"Wait so how do you hold it?" I ask again and Dawn laughs as she puts the baby in my arms.

"Cradle his head." She instructs and I try to but it feels like I'm holding him wrong.

"He's so little." I say and she nods.

"I know. I realized when I was pushing him out of my body." She jokes and everyone laughs.

"That's it I'm never having a kid." I declare and Dally pretends to be relieved and I laugh. Johnny stares up at us like we're crazy and everyone is silent. His eyes are, somehow, big and brown. Like a lost puppy. He looks like a carbon copy of Johnny cake with his dark brown hair and brown eyes, hell the kid even has his scared look.

Dally gets up and walks out of the room and I know I should follow him. I carefully put Johnny in Darry's arm and quickly walk out into the hallway. I see Dally walking toward Johnny's room and I run towards him but he notices me running and starts running too.

When I finally catch up to him he's sitting next to Johnny's bed, just staring at him. I take in a sharp breath because I don't like to see dead people. They're just a body with no movements and no soul and they were just hours before they died. In this case Johnny might have died before his time. I mean with his abusive parents and his anxiety we all had to watch him to make sure he didn't try anything. I close the door to make sure that nobody can see him if he cries.

"He loved you. You were his hero." I tell him as I walk over to him and rub his back.

"But I couldn't save him." He says.

"You were his role model. He blessed the ground you walked on, Dally." I think back to the nights we would walk home from the Dingo or the Nightly Double and how Dally would always mess around with Johnny but even I could tell it made him feel special.

"I'm not role model. Just a rat from New York. But Johnny wasn't. He was innocent and quiet and shy and he didn't deserve to die because he was defending Ponyboy." He rambles and I nod.

"He saved those kids. People are gonna write editorials for a long time about how he saved them." I remind him.

"Yeah but none of them are going to be true. None of them. They're gonna say that he was an angel and that he saved the kids but they're never gonna know about the rest of Johnny's life. About how strong he was, about how he had the courage to kill a Soc to save his friend." He gets up and starts walking toward me and I start to back up, he looks mad.

"Dally.." I say quietly.

"Nobody is gonna see the truth! And that is what's going to make everyone quiet and never want to say anything about Johnny but that's not what he would have wanted!" He yells and I try to move back more but my back hits the wall of the small room.

"He never wanted this!" He screams and I just stare at him. He meets my stare and his face softens.

"I'm a monster." His voice cracks and I hug him tight. He buries his head in my shoulder and starts to cry.

That was the first and only time that I ever saw Dallas Winston cry. That was also the first time and probably not the last time that he would see me cry.