Triggers: Swearing, your gonna get angry at characters...
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Tru's POV
New Year's Eve, December 31, 8:58 p.m.
"Tru! Hand me the streamers!" Soda yelled from the ladder, above me. We were decorating for the late New Years party. Guests all came at 9:30 p.m.
Apparently, after we told the gang we were gonna have a party, they were more thrilled than we anticipated, and started inviting even more people. Curly and Tim Shepard, and some more outfits.
I gave Soda some more streamers, and started setting up folding chairs in the living room. Darry was in the kitchen making appetizers for everyone, while Steve was also in there, stealing a cookie here and there until the twenty year old would catch him.
"Boy, Oh, Boy, this is goin' to be the best party of the year!" Two-Bit yelled, walking through the front door. Dallas and Johnny were walking in from behind him.
"I'll say!" Soda yelled back, puffing out his chest in pride.
"There ain't gonna be no party if y'all stop working and keep talking!" Darry shouted at us from the kitchen. A few moments later we heard a slap and an 'ow' from the kitchen, and Steve came out with disappointment on face, rubbing the back of his hand.
We all chuckled.
"Where's Pony?" Soda asked, still hanging up the streamers.
Two grinned. "We sent him to get snacks at the store. He should be back in a few minutes."
"Hey, Johnny?" I say after a while. He looked over at me. "Help me with the chairs will ya?" He smiled, walking over to me, and grabbed a folding chair.
The door bell rang.
"I'll get it." Dallas said, getting up from the couch. He was closest to the door anyway. When he opened it, I heard a very familiar voice I could spot anywhere.
"I-I-Is this Tru Tru's house?"
Dallas turned his head towards me, then back at the boy. "Sorry. No 'Make-A-Wish' kids allowed." He said bluntly, before closing the door and sitting back down on the couch. All of us just looked at him, eyes wide.
"Dallas!" I scolded, making my way towards the door. I opened it back up and found Jason Wells sitting on the door step, alone. He was just calmly watching cars go up and down the street. I furrowed my eyebrows with pity. "Sorry- Dallas didn't mean that." I say, trying to get him to come inside.
He looked up at me and smiled before getting up on his feet. "Hey- Hey!" He greets, giving me a hug. "It's fine! I'm I'm a little bit early anyway."
"Early is perfect." I told him, giving him a smile.
Just right then, he slapped the side of my arm. "Ow- what the fuck-?"
"S-Sorry!" Jason apologized, as I looked at him strangely. He started to explain. "My muscle m-movements have have acting up a lot lot, lately."
"Ohhh." I nodded, like I should have known. The fifteen year old boy gave me a weak smile.
"Here." I say, trying to raise the mood. "To make it up to ya, I'll introduce you to my friends."
When we walked back in the house, Jason examined around the living room, admiring the decorations for the New Years Party.
"Everyone," I start loudly, so the gang could hear. "This is my friend, Jason. He goes to our school."
Dallas looked over at Jason, trying to see if he approved of the boy or not. Soda jumped down off the ladder, and held out his hand for Jason to shake. "Hi!" Soda greeted. "Nice to meet ya! I'm Sodapop Curtis."
"Nice- Nice to m-meet you too!" Jason stuttered, with the same enthusiastic voice. He grabbed his hand and shook it.
It was now Two-Bit's turn to introduce himself. "Hi-ya, kid. I'm Two-Bit. Two-Bit Mathews!"
Jason nodded. "Hi!. I-I-I'm Jason- Jason Wells."
Two furrowed his eyebrows. "Jason Jason?"
"What's wrong with that kid?" Dallas added bluntly, not caring if the boy heard or not.
Jason tried to start again. "S-Sorry. My name is Jason- BEEP BEEP!"
I jumped back a little from the sudden noise, but that was nothing compared to the rest of the gang.
Darry grabbed a metal spoon from out of his apron like a weapon, Dallas got his switchblade out while Johnny grabbed my arm and yanked me back, behind him for my protection. Two-Bit and Steve automatically jumped behind Darry, and Soda found an old newspaper to roll up and carry like a sword to defend himself. All this happened in the span of three seconds or less.
"Gloria, guys!" I yell out, before any damage could be done. "Jason has Tourette's!" When I said this, I heard Johnny mumble to himself, 'Oh, yeah'.
"What the fuck is that?" Dallas asked, with a repulsed look on his face. "Some kind of eating disorder?!"
Darry immediately dropped his spoon, and smiled at Jason. "Oh, well I'm glad to see you're handling it well."
I wanted to slap my forehead. They obviously weren't handling it well. To my surprise, Jason wasn't offended at all. He just chuckled and nodded his head.
A few minutes later, Ponyboy arrived with the chips and snacks from the store. "Nice to see ya, man." He greeted.
"You- you too, Pony!" Jason beamed, and they did a little fist bump.
At 9:30, all the greasers started coming in, and finally when Grace came, the party started.
She was wearing a red flannel to match her hair, and tight jeans to show her curves. She wasn't wearing any make-up either (not like she needed it anyway), but wore small, silver hoop earrings. I barely recognized her.
"Johnny! How ya been?" She greeted Johnny coming in the front door, giving him a tight hug. "How ya been?"
Johnny returned the hug and smiled, sheepishly. "Good. Glad to see you."
"I can say the same." I welcomed, butting in the conversation. The minute she saw me, her smile grew wider.
"Hey, Tru!" she called. "I haven't seen you in what seems like forever."
Right then, Soda came walking up. He started straightening his flannel so it wasn't wrinkled before he entered the group.
"Tru? Johnny? Who is this fine-lookin' lady?" Soda asked in a silly voice, all while giving his movie-star smile. Grace and him both locked eyes, and didn't break their gaze.
"She's-" I start, but got interrupted by Grace, herself.
"I'm Grace Shirley Harper." She added in the same dorky voice as Soda. "But you can call me Grace."
"Well, I'll be!" Soda beamed, still ignoring Johnny and I like we weren't even there. "I'm Sodapop Patrick Curtis! I guess I gotta call you 'Shirley Temple' now, to match!"
I swear Johnny almost cringed with the middle names, and somehow, I kept myself from laughing/crying at the same time.
"I bet the name comes from that bubbly personality." Grace talked, smoothly.
"Well," Soda continued. "Besides that bubbly personality, I wanna know more about ya."
That's when the fifteen and sixteen year old totally ditched us, walking over to the folding chairs to talk. I was left there dumbstruck, while Johnny was trying to contemplate what just happened.
"Hey, Cade!" Some greaser called out from the crowd. It was Curly Shepard. "I heard that your the 'king' at poker, huh?" Johnny shrugged in modesty. Curly went on. "Wanna play me?"
Johnny looked at me, and smirked. I swear to Gloria, he looked just like Dallas Winston right then and there. He looked back. "Sure, I'll go up against ya." And the two boys ran off.
Well. Alone again. I don't know why I'm so socially awkward. I looked around to find the gang. Johnny was playing poker while Pony rooted him on, Darry was talking to some girl his age in the kitchen, Steve and Two-Bit were with some other greasers at the food table, and Soda was talking to Grace, while Dallas tried to sweet talk a blonde.
Just then, Two-Bit ran across the room, almost knocking me off my feet. He was holding his mouth, his face was white, and had this panicked look in his eyes.
"Two?!" I hollered. By then he was already in the bathroom, slamming the door closed. I walked over, and now that I think about it, I wish I hadn't opened that door back up.
The eighteen year old had his head in the toilet, throwing up, making these gagging noises which caused me to gag a little.
"Two-Bit... What in hell?" I ask, slowly walking towards him.
He took his head out of the toilet. "Oh. Hey, Tru."
"What happened to you?" I questioned, crouching down on the floor to his level.
"It was nothin', really. Just a dare from Tim Shepard." Two explained. "He would pay me a dollar to chug a mixture of ketchup, mustard, beer, egg yolk, mayonnaise, and... what was the last one... pickle juice-"
I stopped him right there, before I started throwing up. "Never mind." I said, raising a hand in the air for him. "I didn't want to know."
I plugged my nose, and started to rub Two-Bit's back as he continued to throw up. I made sure not to look into the toilet.
"You know..." Two commented once he finished puking. "The drink wasn't even that bad."
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11:44 p.m. (16 minutes before countdown)
No one's here. I said to myself. Now's my chance.
I tried to sneak off to the beer table as casually as I could without being caught. I grabbed a bottle and popped the cap off.
Just as I raised the bottle to my lips, a hand grabs the bottle away, yanking it from my grasp.
"Hey!" I shout, before I saw Dallas looking down at me, shaking his head in disapproval. My eyes got wide. "Uh- Heyyy, Dal'."
"Wow, man. You got an entire beer bottle for me?" He joked. "You shouldn't have." He then proceeds to chug the beer. I rolled my eyes and huffed.
"You know," He continued smirking, as he swirled the last drops of beer inside the bottle. "I told you not to drink. You can't get mad at me for taking it away. Plus, I know you probably wanna stay sober for the countdown."
"Why?" I asked, still kind of annoyed.
"You're gonna want to remember your first kiss with Johnnycakes."
I blushed, even though I knew he was joking. He had to be. Relationships- and I mean real relationships aren't healthy for a gang. Everyone knows that. He said it himself.
"Whatever." I say, rolling my eyes once more, trying not to smile. As I walked away, he quickly messed up my hair before drinking the last of the beer.
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Johnny's POV
11:50 p.m. (10 minutes before countdown)
"And there I was," Ponyboy told me near the kitchen doorway. "Just me and Cherry. She practically begged me to go out with her."
He said something else, but I was too focused on something to actually listen. I frantically looked around the house, trying to spot someone.
"Johnny? Are you even listening?"
I snapped my head back at Pony. "S-Sorry" I apologized, scratching my head.
Even though I tried to play it off cool, he saw right through me. Boy, that little fourteen year old is smart. "I'm sure that kiss will go better than you think." He sighed, assuring me.
I looked at him. "B-But what if I mess up? What if she doesn't like it?" I started talking fast. "What if she wants to kiss that Jason guy instead? What if she doesn't even want to kiss me? I don't wanna take her virginity without her consent!"
Pony just stared at me blankly. "What?"
"Well," I started up again. "I just want her to feel comfortable about losing her virginity when I kiss her."
"No..." Pony assured me. "I understood what you said the first time..."
"Well, then you feel my struggle!" I say in frustration, flopping myself down on a folding chair.
Pony wrinkled his nose. "I don't think you'll have to worry about that... just make sure to sit next to her at the countdown and you'll be fine. Also stop rambling. No one likes rambling."
"Okay..." I sighed. "But if this somehow goes South, then your telling her it was your idea."
"I'm just trying to give you a lil' push, that's all." He said, raising up his arms in defeat.
"5 more minutes 'til countdown!" A voice shouted out. I'm assuming it belonged to Darry. "Take your seats now!"
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Tru's POV
11:56 p.m. (4 minutes before countdown)
I sat down on the floor where everyone was forming a circle around the television in the living room. Jason sat to the left of me, and on the right was Steve.
Soon enough, everyone found a seat, either on the floor or couch. Ponyboy came over with Johnny dragging behind. The fourteen year old boy started whispering something to Steve.
"I ain't moving." Steve said, barely a whisper. Probably louder than he intended. Pony rolled his eyes and just started kicking Randle with his foot, giving the seventeen year old no choice but to move. After Steve huffed and left, Pony grabbed Johnny by the collar of his denim jacket, and shoved him down to Steve's previous spot. (#StopSteveAbuse)
Pony gave a satisfied sigh, and walked over to the couch to sit with his brothers. Since there was no room, Pony had to sit on Darry's leg.
When I looked back at Johnny, he was blushing a little, and playing with his fingers.
"What was that?" I asked him chuckling to myself, referring to the bit Ponyboy just preformed.
Johnny shrugged, but I knew something was up. "You sure?" I asked once more. Still nothing.
I sighed, and looked at the clock. 3 minutes left.
3 minutes and all of this year will be gone. No turning back. Every single second of this year - just wiped away, and nothing but memories in your head remain. It's funny to say that 'time passed by so quickly'. It really doesn't. You just don't remember half the stuff you do.
I looked at Johnny again, and our eyes locked. His big brown eyes were glowing. Whether it was the moonlight from the window, or the ceiling lights, that made them shine, I don't know. They just shined.
"2 minutes!" The people around us yelled. There voices seemed muffled in my head. Like the only thing that mattered was Johnny.
Johnny shifted from side to side, trying to find a comfortable position. He ended up a bit closer to me. "Y-You look beautiful..." He stammered. I could tell my face got hot.
"You don't look half bad, yourself." I teased, still smiling.
"1 minute!"
My heart started beating so fast, I felt like my heart was gonna pop out of my chest. Time seemed to speed up, but slow down at the same time.
"You ready for another year?" I asked Johnny.
The boy just grinned at me, one of those playful ones. "With you? Anywhere."
"6!"
"Tru?" He asked, as everyone started to countdown. This was it.
"5!"
"Yeah?" I answered back.
"4!"
"I wanted to let you know your loved..." He told me.
"3!"
Johnny continued. "And from the start, I've wanted to see you smile. To see ya laugh..."
"2!"
"And I've wanted to be that person who does it all for you..."
"1!"
"Tru, I love-"
"HAPPY FUCKING NEW YEARS!"
Then, Jason kissed me.
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A/N
Cliffhanger- oops
y'all probably real mad rn-
I actually finished chapter 19 already, I just have it on paper. I gotta type it and THEN proof read.
also- THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR 1.1K READS OMG THAT'S CRAZY! SERIOUSLY!
Y'all are amazing!!! (Okay, idk why I keep saying "y'all", I legit live in California)
Word Count - 2532 | Edited - 2657
-Pity the Back Seat ❤