I woke up with Ponyboy crashing into us he said something I couldn't quite hear and before I knew what was happening we were running. We ran several blocks until we couldn't breathe, we stopped to catch our breath. Ponyboy sat on the curb and cried into his arms, Johnny sat down beside and put his hand on his shoulder. "Easy, Ponyboy, we'll be okay." He says
I had no clue what was going on I was just trying to wake up. I sat down on the other side of Ponyboy.
He wiped his eyes "Got a cigarette?" Johnny pulled one out of his pocket and lit it and handed it to Ponyboy. "Johnny I'm scared."
"Well don't be, you're scarin' me. What happened? I've never seen you bawl like that." Johnny says
"I don't very often. It was Darry. He hit me. I don't know what happened, but I couldn't take him hollering at me and hitting me too. I don't know... sometimes we get along okay, then all of a sudden he blows up on me or else is naggin' at me all the time. He didn't used to be like that... we used to get along okay... before mom and dad died. Now he just can't stand me." Pony says through sobs. I had no idea he felt that way..
"I think I like it better when the old man's hittin' me. At least then I know he knows who I am. I walk in that house, and nobody says anything. I walk out, and nobody says anything. I stay away all night, and no one notices. At least you got Soda. I ain't got nobody." Johnny sighs.
I lean forward so Johnny can see me "Hey! You got me! I literally love you more than other person on this Earth."
"Shoot, you got the whole gang." Ponyboy adds
"It ain't the same as having your own folks care about you," he says flatly "It just ain't the same."
Ponyboy blew out smoke "Let's walk to the park and back. Then maybe I'll be cooled off enough to go home."
"Okay." Johnny and I said at the same time.
The park wasn't too far away. If it wasn't so cold and if the circumstances weren't so bad it would've been real nice. And it wasn't just cold, it was freezing. I noticed ice forming around the edges of the water in the fountain as we passed it. Luckily my jacket was double lined so I wasn't too cold.
There was sudden blast of a car horn and we all turned to see that blue mustang circling the park. Shit. "What do they want? This is our territory. What are Socs doing this far east?" Ponyboy questions Well one of them lives here....
Johnny shook his head "I don't know. But I bet they're looking for us. We picked up their girls."
"And threatened them." I add
"Oh, Glory." Pony says "this is all I need to top off the perfect night." Same Ponyboy, same. I stuffed my hands into my pockets and tightly held my pocket knife. "Want to run for it?"
"Too late now." Johnny says "Here they come." I looked back over and the Mustang was parked in the grass and six Socs were heading for us. Including August. And based on the way they were all staggering they were hammered. August wasn't though, he frankly looked very uncomfortable.
Johnny looked terrified and so did Ponyboy. I wasn't scared, I was filled with nothing but pure rage. My eyes were glued to August, who was looking at anything but me. If I don't kill him now I will when we get home, I'll put bars over his windows, I make him shave his head, I'll force him to wear nothing but a pair of jeans and a plain shirt for forever.
They backed us up against the fountain. "You pricks..." I mumble to myself
"Hey whatta ya know? Here's the little greasers who picked up our girls. Hey, greasers." Bob said.
"You're outa your territory." Johnny said in a real low tone "You'd better watch it."
"Nope, pal. Yer the ones who'd better watch it. Next time you want a broad, pick up yer own kind... dirt." Bob slurs
"Maybe you should treat 'em better, then they won't have to." I briefly move my gaze from August to Bob.
"..You little bitch." Bob hissed. I saw Johnny tense up out of the corner of my eye.
"You know what a greaser is?" Bob started "White trash with long hair."
"You know what a Soc is?" Pony's voice shook slightly "White trash with mustangs and madras." Pony spit at them.
"You could use a bath greaser," he points to Ponyboy, then to me "and your mouth could use a good wash. And you both could use a good working over. And we've got all night to do it. Give him a bath, David. Clean her mouth, Mason." Bob says in a flat tone.
Pony tried to run but was caught and his face was shoved into the water, I moved to try and help him but caught a punch to my already injured nose by someone I couldn't see and everything went black. I don't remember anything after.
My entire world was spinning and I couldn't feel anything but pain. I was cold, so cold. Nothing was making sense. My lungs hurt. My throat hurt. My nose hurt the worst. I heard words in the distance but at the time they were pure gibberish.
"Stacy! Shit! What the hell did I let happen to you?"
"C'mon love, wake up! Stacy please- please no no no no!"
"Oh my god.. oh my god.. she's dead.. she's dead! He killed her!"
"He didn't kill her! Shut up! He didn't kill my sister!"
"He didn't, she's breathing! C'mon baby, wake up, please."
"Johnny we've got to go. The police'll be here soon."
"I cant- I can't leave her.."
"We can't carry her. If the police find her they'll take her to the hospital and they wont think she did it. We have to go."
"Jesus.. I love you, Stacy. I'm so sorry."
At the time their words were nothing but noise. I'm still not 100% sure who said what. Slowly, very slowly, I started feeling things. Wet pavement, cold air, wet hair, the sound of sirens. I vaguely remember getting loaded up on a stretcher, and feeling something stab my arm and the feeling of something go down my throat and something around my mouth. I felt a burning sensation in my arm then everything went black again.
This time when I woke up I was very conscious. My eyes were assaulted by the brightness of a hospital. I took a few moments to look around, my forearm had two tubes sticking out of it, my nose was bandaged up, and my jacket was on a table a few feet away.
I'm not sure how long I stayed there just staring at nothing before the nurse came in. I wasn't in a room, I was in a bed that had two curtain 'walls' and another empty bed across from me. I knew I was in the ER but still wondered where I was.
"Oh good! You're awake!" The nurse chirped loudly, making me ears ring "How you feeling, honey?"
"I'm in a lot of pain." My voice was very hoarse for some reason.
She started checking over my chart and looking me over "I'm sorry, sugar. What's your name? Do you have someone we can call?"
I was getting more and more aware by the second. "Stacy Greene. Can you call Darrel Curtis?" I told her his number and she turned on her heel and left. Oh my god... I nearly died... where's Johnny? What did they say earlier? Why were we at the park? Darry hit Ponyboy. Shit.
She came back with two police officers. "They're here to question you about what happened." She said then left.
The first officer, who was wide and short with a badge reading 'Smith' stepped forward. "What's the last thing you remember?"
"Uh....." I had to think for a long time. "They started to drown Ponyboy so I went to help him and got punched. Then everything went black." The officers shared a look.
"What do you mean they started to drown him?" The other officer who was the exact opposite of the first, being tall and thin and looked not much older than me. His badge read 'Jefferson'
I went through the entire interaction, I could remember it now. I went from when we got to the park to when I blacked out. The officers turned around after and started talking to themselves 'quietly'.
"None of those boys mentioned anything about drowning..." what boys?
"You remember how we found her, you can't exactly fake that." Smith said
"What was she even doing with those boys in the first place?" Jefferson questioned
Smith shrugged "Maybe she wasn't? Wrong place, wrong time?" Jefferson also shrugged then they turned back around. "What were you doing out with those boys?"
"Johnny's my boyfriend and August is my baby brother and Ponyboy is my friend." I looked at the two tubes in my arm, why two?
He started writing down the names I said. "And your name is?"
"Stacy Greene. Why are y'all here?" Why's my throat hurt so bad? What happened after I blacked out?
"That's not for me to say. That's all the questions we needed to ask. Have a nice rest of your night." Jefferson said. Before I could ask more questions they were gone.
What happened?
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Bonus for today 😛 I'm like genuinely so sick rn it suckkkksss, I hate being allergic to the state I live in, and have lived in my whole life 😭
Thanks for reading!!
Word count : 1643