Johnny's Secret (The Outsiders)

Ch. 4 page 2

     Today Johnny finally decided to head home. Though Darry objected to him leaving Johnny figured he was being bothersome with causing so much trouble and decided to go to a place where no one would notice him in the first place.
     He finally made it back to his house where he could already hear the faint screaming of his parents. He could also see their silhouettes running around the house from all the light. He sighed and turned the other way into town. Reality was he wasn't ready to face that again. He headed into a small coffee shop.
      "How can I help you son?" The man at the counter asked. Johnny took his seat at the counter.
     "I don't have any money."
     "Well either you buy something or leave!" The man snarled.
     "Can you just leave me alone?" Johnny snapped back. The man didn't say anything more and continued to count change at the register. Resting his face on his palm Johnny closed his eyes and tried to forget everything in the world. His parents, greasers, soc's. It's all so useless, why'd he have to put himself in the middle of all this trouble. Even worse that he can't even tell his friends about it yet. He felt alone.
     Johnny opened his eyes and turned to see a blue Mustang driving into the parking lot of the shop. It's engine reving and several young soc's all crammed into the back seat. He let out an exasperated sigh and prepared for the worst. The kids entered the building, noticing Johnny immediately.
     "Well, well," one of them started, "isn't this the little runt that was messing with one of our girls?"
     "I wasn't messing with her, she asked me out okay." This was followed by a bunch of "oooohs" from the group.
      "You really think we'd believe that bullshit runt? Why would Jen ever hang out with scum like you?" the soc laughed. Johnny hoped and prayed that Jen would show up to put some sense into them but she didn't, he was finally stuck alone with several giant soc's glaring daggers into his eyes.
       "Leave me alone you- you white trash!" Johnny jumped from his stool and sprinted out the door. The soc's followed after him and chased him down the street with the car. Johnny tried his hardest to be fast but being the smallest the car caught up much more.
      "Johnny?" A voice yelled from the distance. He didn't bother to see who was yelling his name though as all he was trying to do was survive at this point. He heard footsteps coming his way and he saw Dally running beside him. "Hey what's goin' on man?" He asked.
      "Soc's!" He yelled back.
      "Well I can see that! Go to the park!" They both turned left and sprinted towards the empty space of land with nothing but the small fountain. They finally stopped running when reaching the pool of water and the Mustang stopped nearby. The group of soc's were already strutting their way towards them. "What's going on?" Dally asked standing in front of Johnny.
      "Your little runt has been messing with our girl. Jen."
       "Johnny? A soc girl?" Dally turned to face the small boy, "right on man! She hot?" He laughed. It was the wrong thing to say though as he was aggressively shoved into the side of the fountain.
      "You better shut your mouth jailbird or I can get the cops here faster than you can blink!" The soc was fuming now, you could pretty much see angry smoke coming from his eyes as if he were a bull.
      "Oh you really think I'm scared of those pigs? I've been to jail buddy and trust me they don't just throw you in the slammer over petty shit like this. Now buzz off before I give them a real reason to arrest me!" He reached his hand to his back pocket, his fingers brushing against a switchblade.
     "I'm not scared of you, you really think they're gonna believe a criminal over me? Bring it on," the soc's smirked and got more tense as they got ready to rumble.
    "C'mon man," Johnny whispered to Dally, "don't do this! It's too many against one!"
    "I can take 'em," Dally said. Then he charged at the leading soc and started punching him in the face. Johnny watched, scared. He wanted to help Dally but he didn't want to get in more trouble than he was in. He wanted to be a good friend though, and seem tough, so took a deep breath. He charged at one of the distracted boys and started ripping at his hair and clothes. He knew to keep a hand on his switchblade just in case. He could hear screams from one of the other soc boys as Dally pretty much beat them to a pulp. His heart was pounding and adrenaline was at its high. He finally decided that it was all too much for him and with a final sucker punch he found his way out from under the boy. As the boy ran back after him he brought out his switchblade and held the point to the boys throat.
     "Don't make me do it!" He said, trying to sound aggressive instead of scared. The boy stood back and went back into the car where the other boys had went. Johnny turned his attention back to Dally, where he had grabbed the soc by the collar and was pounding the back of his head into the dirt. "Dall!" He yelled. He finally stopped the beating, and stood up above the groaning soc.
     "I better not find you messing with Johnny again you little shit," he said. He kicked the soc's rib and went back over to Johnny. "Let's go back to the shop kid I'm hungry."
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A/N
Feel like this chapter isn't as good but it's been a while since I updated this book :)