「my boy」 | Johnnyboy

Secrets.

( Ponyboy's POV )

I'd been all cool and confident until the very last second. Now, sitting on the couch waiting for Johnny to show up, I was a wreck. My whole body felt shaky. I was panicking from the inside out and I wasn't even sure why.

The knock at the door took me by surprise, so much that I jumped a little. Slowly, I stood up, walking over to the door. His shy grin greeted me first, his big brown eyes searching until they found me. "You look beautiful." He whispered, taking in my appearance. My cheeks and ears immediately reddened, my eyes shifting nervously.

"So do you..." I finally muttered out. Was that the right thing to say? He really did look beautiful, but beautiful didn't feel like the right word for him. He reached his hand out, helping me down the steps and to his car. I was the one who'd asked him to go on this thing, I was the one who had all of this planned out, but all I had was a learner's permit and no vehicle, so we had to go in his.

"Don't kill us, okay?" He teased, fishing the keys out of his pocket before gently laying them in my hand. I scrunched my nose up playfully, my tongue darting out from my mouth in a childish gesture. Swiftly, he leaned forward, licking the tip of it. I gasped, gently pushing him back with a laugh.

"Gross!"

"What? That's my tongue." He grinned toothily, opening up the passenger side door and climbing in to wait for me. A dumb smile crossed my lips, abnormally giddy all of a sudden. I hopped in, putting my seatbelt on before starting the car. He didn't bother putting his on until I pointed at it, giving him a firm look. Sighing loudly to let me know just how unhappy he was about it, he buckled up. Only then did I drive off, being careful to stay in the right lane and not cross over either of the lines. He watched me with the widest smile, and I couldn't tell if he was silently making fun of me or if he was actually proud at how decent I was doing. He'd never seen me drive such a long distance before, because the movie theater was about 40 minutes from my house. It used to be only 5 minutes on foot, but since the building burned down two years ago, they rebuilt another one in a much larger area.

"Don't laugh, but I have a request..." I started slowly after about ten minutes of driving, trying to look as serious as possible so he believed me.

"What is it?"

"Reach in my pocket and grab my phone." He did so without a word. I could feel his eyes watching me, waiting for my next request. "Now, hook it up to your radio with bluetooth."

"Wait, why?"

"I'm having so much trouble driving because I don't have my usual music..." Thinking that seemed reasonable, he did as I'd asked.

"Okay, what song—"

"Carl Poppa."

"W—what?"

"That's the song, it's the first one in my gallery."

"You can't be serious."

"Oh, I'm dead serious." I deadpanned, using every muscle in my body not to crack a grin. "I might crash if you don't get it playing soon." I heard him scowl, so to prove my point I started swerving a little. "W—whoa! Whoa! Johnny, I knew this would happen!"

"Alright, alright!" He exclaimed, quickly putting it on. I started driving regular again, finally letting my smile break through. He looked miserable the whole way because the song played on a loop the entire way, and I sang along each and every time. When we finally parked, he quickly turned it off. I took my foot off the break, and slowly the car started rolling back. We both let out panicked cries, and he started telling me to hit the break again, so I started shouting at him that I was trying to find it.

Before we crashed into something, I finally found it, this time making sure it was in park fully instead of half-way. Sharing a glance, we busted out laughing. "You were so scared!"

"No I wasn't, you were!" He replied, laughing louder. We let out sighs of relief. Quickly, I got out, running around to open his car door for him. I helped him out, lacing our fingers together with a smile as I lead us to the front.

—

The movie was better than I'd anticipated, but Johnny didn't seem to be too fond of it. It was a mystery thriller, and he informed me after we walked out that he didn't really like the genre. I helped him into the car, leaning down to kiss his lips softly before coming around to get into the other side of the vehicle. I'd left my phone on the dash, and it was blowing up. "Everything okay?" He asked, motioning toward the device.

"I don't know... It's probably just Caroline." I shook my head in confusion, picking it up to see what the fuss was about. After a few seconds, my stomach dropped, my heartbeat picking up dramatically. "Holy shit." I murmured, immediately dropping my phone. My hands were shaking so much, I could barely even pick it up.

"What? What's wrong?"

"My mom..." Tears flooded my vision, my breathing suddenly turning ragged. "Soda found her in the bathroom, s-she—" Without even finishing, I broke into tears, leaning over to fall into his chest as an ugly sob left me.

"Let me drive you, okay? I've got you, just tell me where we need to go." His arms wrapped around me, one hand resting in my hair as he kissed my head. I couldn't even think straight, and at this point I was hyperventilating.

( Johnny's POV. )

Once we switched places, I drove pretty fast. From what I'd gathered, which wasn't a lot, his brother had found his mom unconscious in the bathroom. It was apparent that she'd overdosed, but not a lot of facts were known yet. She was at the local hospital, and that was all I really knew. I was trying to be strong for him, but seeing him like this made me want to break down and cry. He was so terrified and broken about this whole situation, and it was killing me that I couldn't help him.

As soon as we got there, I hopped out. He was curled up in a ball in the passenger seat, and he didn't move until I opened up the door and started helping him out. Shakily, he clung to me, trying to keep his crying to a bare minimum. Before we approached his brothers, he somehow gathered himself. Swiping at his cheeks, he stopped in his tracks, looking at me with a sniffle. "H—how do I look?"

Like shit, I almost answered, but instead, I nodded. "You look fine." I touched his cheek, caressing it for a second before motioning toward the waiting room. "Come on..."

I let him have time with his brothers. They talked privately, and I stayed sitting a few feet away, trying not to crowd him or get into their personal business. My eyes stayed on him every step of the way, making sure he was okay. I didn't know what condition she was in, but if she didn't survive this, I had no idea how I was going to get Pony through it.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Over 1K reads? Holy shit, guys. I never thought I'd get that far with anything. Hope you all liked this addition!