Chapter Text
He woke up with a groan, every muscle and bone seemed to ache and crack as he dragged himself up from the bed. Ponyboy blinked the sleep that lingered in his eyes for a moment to long. He trailed his gaze to the empty space next to him, Soda must have already left for work. Both of his brothers had been big on letting him rest after everything that had been going on. Pony sighed, throwing his legs over the edge of the bed. The ground was cold and rough compared to the warm of the bed.
It had been around two months since everything went down, he returned to school not too long after they had gotten the final verdict on both of their cases. Darry was allowed to keep custody of him and Soda, with Cherry and Randy both giving statements as witnesses. The case concerning Bobs death had been more painful, the final decision of that one was still up in the air.
While Pony had given his side of the story, being backed up by Randy, Johnny was still in the hospital and unable to bring himself forward to talk in front of a judge and jury. It had only been two months, doctors guessed it would take around six months for him to be released. They had deemed him to be mentally stable enough to begin physical therapy only recently. Ponyboy sighed, burying his head in his hands.
With the constant visits from officers trying to figure out when Johnny would be released and the persistent threats from his mother about how the medical bills were piling up it was incredibly difficult for them to get him calm enough to start. They had pleaded that it was self defense, even with two of the people closest to Bob backing up their side of the story, it was still unclear which way it would sway. On the surface it still just looked like some hood killed some ‘sweet young man’. He rolled his eyes at the thought of anyone considering him to be any sorts of sweet.
Dallas hadn’t been any better off than the rest of them either, he had aided them. If anything he got the worst of it, the only thing stopping him from spending up to three years in the pen was the fact that he was still a minor. The court deemed that he needed a mental evaluation, being on the cusp of turning 18 he could quickly be turned to be charged as an adult but in some strange phenomenon they decided to turn to counseling, detention in a juvenile facility, and then afterwards house arrest. None of us knew where he was supposed to spend house arrest yet, he couldn’t exactly be held up in a bar.
“Pony! Hurry up you’re gonna be late!” Darry’s voice ripped through his thoughts. He lifted his head up too look to the door, he pushed himself up, quickly pulling a pair of jeans up from the floor and swapping them with the pajama bottoms he was wearing. He wedged his foot between the door and kicked it open gently as he headed for the bathroom, a shirt halfway over his chest. He pulled down on the bottom of his shirt before picking up a tooth brush and grinding it against his teeth. Ponyboy threw opened the mirror cabinet, pulling out a can of grease and attempting to apply it with one hand. He grumbled, biting down on the tooth brush and finally fixing his hair with both hands.
“Pony cmon!” Darry yelled from the other of the hall. He rinsed his mouth quickly and popped back in his room to grab a pair of socks and his school bag. He raced down the hall, dropping his bag by the front door as he put both his socks and shoes on.
“What took you so long?” Darry picked up his book bag, placing his lunch into it and zipping it shut. His tone was stern but Ponyboy could tell he was trying to sound a bit nicer, they had both been trying to understand one another a lot more. The two of them had sworn to arguing a lot less too after Soda had confessed to them how he felt about it.
“Sorry, just tired,” he took his bag and threw it over his shoulder, he watched Darry raise a brow before glancing over at Ponyboy’s jacket hanging on the hook on the wall. He sighed, dropping his bag again to throw on the coat first before his bag.
“Alright..,” he seemed unconvinced but decided to drop the topic due to the time crunch, “Two said he’d drive you to school, you need me to pick you up afterwards?” He picked up his own coat from the hook next to Pony’s.
“Yeah, I gotta stay after to talk with my English teacher,” he heard Two-bit slam down on the horn from outside, “just asked him to read what I have so far, that’s all,” he answered Darry before he could even ask about it, almost as if it was sixth sense. A grin crept up his brothers face as Pony glanced back at him, he threw the door open and returned the smile.
“Cmon kid I don’t have all day!” Two-bit yelled from the car, Ponyboy rolled his eyes as he closed the front door behind him.
“Don’t act like you actually do anything in school,” he smiled a bit, climbing into the front seat. Two-bit put a hand over his heart before shifting the car into drive.
“I’m hurt Pone, you think so little of me,” he shook his head as he pressed down on the gas. Ponyboy laughed, a very quiet and tired laugh.
“No, I just know you, and school ain’t your thing,” he leaned his head on the window, watching the trees and houses pass by.
“That’s why I keep coming back, to see what makes it such a big deal for everyone else,” he grinned at his own joke as he turned into the school parking lot, he pulled partially into the grass and parked. Ponyboy looked down at how far off from inside the lines they were and smiled a bit.
“Better than the last time I guess,” he threw the door opened and hopped out, Two-bit quick to defend his park job while the two made their way to the front stairs. Just as they made their way to the top of the stairs the door was pushed open. Pony froze as Cherry came out, the two of them stared at one another wide eyed. Pony raised his hand and waved a bit, trying to break the awkward tension.
“Cherry!” a girl yelled from behind him, breaking her from her thoughts. She glanced back at Ponyboy once more before she took off to her friends standing near the end of the staircase. She shook her head to fluff out her curls, keeping her back him. He pressed his lips together as Two-bit sucked in through his teeth.
“Yikes—“ he started to speak but Ponyboy had already pushed through the front doors and made a b-line for a his first class. A wave of nausea overcame him, it was what he expected, the two hadn’t talk since the night before the rumble. She had mentioned before that he shouldn’t take offense to her ignoring him, but it was harder now than before. He got that she didn’t want to ruin her social status but now it was more of looming cloud of Bobs death, Johnnys hospitalization, and Dallas’s list of penalties and punishments.
He yanked his chair out and plopped down in the seat, dropping his bag next to him. He ran his hands across his face as the drowning and muffled sounds of students filing into class filled his ears. He took in a shuttering breath as the shrill noise of the bell split through his ears. He yanked out a notebook and a pencil to try and look proactive at least. It had been increasingly more difficult to do anything in school, it had been harder to anything actually. Eating made him feel ill, he couldn’t focus on anything without his mind beginning to wander off and worry about everything that could go wrong, anytime he tried to read he found himself thinking of Bob laying face down on the ground, or Johnny screaming out from inside the church.
He had started to have a particularly bad nightmare. He was standing in the center of the church, engulfed in flames, which a different person standing ahead of him. Most nights it was Johnny though, they two would stare at one another till the flames finally crept up his legs, melting and ripping apart the flesh and revealing his bones. He would just stare at him, eyes scared and trembling. He then would collapse to the floor screaming for it to stop, all Ponyboy could do was stand and watch before he eventually woke up.
He had scared Soda so bad one night, he was having the same dream only he was alone that time. He couldn’t find anyone and he couldn’t get out, just as before the flames finally crept up, only it was on him now. He felt his skin flake away and the fire dig deep into his flesh, sending thousands of piercing needles up his body. He had woke up screaming ‘help me’ over and over. Soda was on his knees next to Pony, gripping his shoulders like his life depended on it.
“-ony! Pony!” He shook his shoulders gently as Ponyboy shot up, taking in a large gasp of air. He scrambled to throw the covers off of him, the warm sensation reminding him too much of the fire. He tried to calm his breath, hugging his arms only to breath down into sobs, letting Soda pull him into his chest. He doesn’t recall much after that, Soda told him the next day that he had cried himself out, fully passing out in his arms after maybe 20 minutes.
His thoughts were interrupted by a screech of a symphony of chairs being pushed back. He blinked a few times as he looked around, people were throwing their bags on and heading out the door for the next class. He mentally cursed himself for zoning out for so long. Pony quickly shoved his stuff into his bag and slid out of the door.