(Johnny's POV)
Not much later, Soda, Steve, and Darry all left for work. Dally left for Buck's and Two-Bit, disappointed by the lack of beer in the house, went to go get some. That left Ponyboy and I with Cary at the house.
Cary was cleaning the kitchen after they left. I tried to help her, but she insisted that I stay on the couch and get warm. I was going to object, but she gave me one of those smiles that could give anyone butterflies and I sat down.
"Ponyboy, why don't you give him one of your sweatshirts?" She asked from the kitchen. He got up and went to his room and he came back with a huge one.
"It's Soda's," he tossed it to me, "might be a bit big."
"No kidding," I said as I put it on.
Cary came back from the kitchen with a cup of hot tea for me and her. Ponyboy didn't want any, so she just brought him water.
Then she looked at me with those bright eyes of hers. "Don't sleep out there ever again. I won't always be out at 7 in the morning to come find you," she laughed.
I waved her off, "Yeah, yeah, you told me already."
Even though I acted like it somewhat annoyed me, I liked that she took care of me the way she did. She was like a mother, a sister, and a best friend all in one person. I knew I could always talk to her about any and everything, things that I would feel uncomfortable talking to the guys about, even Ponyboy. She was different.
"Thanks, though," I told her, holding up my tea.
She smiled at me and nodded. There go those butterflies again. I didn't even know why I was getting them, it had only been recently they had become an issue, even though I had known her for years.
The three of us stayed together for the whole day, and around noon Cary said she was going to bring Steve and Soda some lunch.
"I thought you said you didn't want to go anywhere," I laughed.
"Yeah, well, I'm bored. We can hang with them for a while,"
"What are you making?" Pony asked as she goes into the kitchen.
"Sandwiches," she said and I heard her rummaging through cabinets, "you think they'll have drinks there?"
"You want us to help?"
She laughed. "No, you'll probably mess them up."
"Hey," Pony scoffed, "I can make amazing sandwiches!"
"If you insist," she said. Pony and I got up to help her.
We put together five sandwiches, one for each of us. They were all roast beef with cheese.
I started packing them up when Cary stopped me.
"We're not done yet," she said, pulling out a pan.
"What are you doing?"
"Toasting them, like you're supposed to do." She saw the look on my face and said, "You don't toast your roast beef sandwiches?"
I chuckled. "No, I've never done that. They're just as good plain."
"Well then, you've never had my roast beef sandwiches." She laughed again.
I swear, just that girl existing was making me blush. What was happening to me?
~
(Soda's POV)
"Hey Soda, pass me the one-eighth," Steve said from under the car that we were working on. It was an old, beat-up Mustang that this guy said he wanted for drag races and was paying us hefty money to fix.
I picked my head up from under the hood and took the wrench from the workbench. "Why don't you just take the whole toolbox? I can't be handing you tools all day, I got work to do, too." I laughed.
"I forget," he said, sticking his hand out from under the car, "just hand it over will you?"
I rolled my eyes and slapped it in his hand, and he went back under.
I heard the bell ring at the front, signaling that someone was there. I wiped the oil off my hands and walked through the garage door to see someone I had hoped to never see again.
Jonathan.
I scowl, remembering what happened last night, but hoped that if I didn't bring up Cary he would leave her and the rest of us alone.
"Hey, Sodapop!" he said cheerily, perhaps too cheerily, like he was greeting an old friend. I had to question if he was tipsy.
"Need something?" I said bitterly.
"Just some gas," he smirked.
I nodded, ignoring his obviously sarcastic gesture, and he followed me outside. There was an air of awkward, tense silence between us, like we both wanted to discuss the past but knew it better not to. I chewed on my cheek as I filled his car.
But when he followed me back inside to pay, he asked me a question that I had hoped he wouldn't: "So, uh...where's Cary?"
All I could think about was how scared she was when she came home last night and I grew angry. He had no right to know where she was.
"None of your business," I snap.
"It is if I want to talk to her," he said, leaning up against the wall causally.
My face was hot with anger. "Don't you ever talk to her again or else I'll kill you myself, ya hear?"
He just looked at me and shrugged, scoffing. "She's my girlfriend, I can talk to her whenever I want."
I clenched my jaw and my hands balled into fists. Something came over me, something I had never felt before, something violent. I grabbed the collar of his shirt from across the counter and glared at him, "I'm gonna say this one more time, bub. She's your ex-girlfriend. You so much as look at her and I'll string you up by your neck and leave you hangin' on a tree, do I make myself clear?" I said through gritted teeth, drawing out the last statement.
"Chill, man. I was just asking a question."
I let him go, anger boiling inside of me. He felt so entitled to her, so entitled to her love, so entitled to her time, when the only thing he deserved was a pauper grave in an unknown cemetery.
I about lunged at him before I felt someone drag me away and looked back to see Steve pulling me towards the garage.
"I'll take care of this," he said. I thought it weird how calm he was until I realized he didn't know Jonathan. He knew about him, just not what he looked like. He didn't know about last night either.
I rip out of his grip and storm into the garage. I hear Steve talking with Jonathan in the other room.
"Can I help you?" Steve asked blankly.
"Just wanted to pay for my gas, man, then the kid got his panties in a wad," I could just hear the smirk in his voice, dripping with confidence. My grip on the screwdriver in my hand tightened and it took every ounce of my being to prevent myself from going out there and putting it through his heart.
I heard the bell and knew he was finally gone. Steve came back in and looked at me with concern and slight fear in his eyes. "What was that man? You went any farther and you would've gotten fired. You better be thankful the boss wasn't around."
I was too angry to speak for a few moments, so I took a deep breath. Steve was right, but I didn't care. Jonathan deserved more than a good talking to, and I had already decided that I wasn't done with him, that the next time I saw him, we would settle things the right way. I took another breath. "That was Cary's ex. He's the scumbag who gave her that nice little scar on her hand, and all those times she came home with bruises? That was him." I was almost yelling. "He had the audacity to call her his girlfriend like she didn't break up with him almost two months ago," I scoffed.
He went quiet for a moment, and then his face filled with anger. "I knew he looked like trouble," he said as he knelt down to get under the car again.
"She came home real worked up last night. Said that he came to the diner, followed her home and almost hit her. He scared her to death, man..." I slammed the screwdriver on the workbench. "I swear, I would've killed him."
"Man, if I knew that was him I would've let you." He was under the car by now, and even though I couldn't see his face I knew he was furious too.
The rest of the gang had never seen Jonathan before, just me, Darry, and Ponyboy when she brought him over to visit one time. Maybe Dally knew him, though. Dally knew everybody.
You could tell the guy was never classy even before Cary met him. I have no idea why she even gave him a chance. She was way too good for him.
I went back under the hood after I calmed down a bit and resumed fixing the engine.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Do y'all like the different POV's? I think it adds a lot more to the story, but please lmk!
Love y'all. Stay gold.