Savin' Me

"C'mon, Zoe!" Johnny exclaimed, laughing. It was the next day, Sunday, and he was trying with all his might to make me go back to the Curtis'.

"Eh," I whined, trying to shield my eyes from the light. "Is it always this bright in the morning?"

"It's not morning," he informed me matter-of-factly. "It's twelve thirty in the afternoon."

"Oh..." I chuckled. "My bad." Slowly, I got up from the ground and pulled on my Converse. Johnny tapped his foot, pretending to be impatient nearby.

"Let's go." He finally got sick of waiting for me and grabbed my arm, yanking me to my feet. "You gotta meet the rest of the gang."

"Do I have to?" I whined, remembering my encounter with Dally the day before. I wasn't exactly hoping that someone would ever do that to me again.

"Don't worry about Dally," he assured me. It was almost like he'd read my thoughts. "None of the gang is quite like him."

"Good," I mumbled. Johnny took my hand and started leading us toward the house. When we got inside, there was a guy who looked in his early twenties making lunch (grilled cheese, it smelled like). His muscles were visible, since he was just wearing a white undershirt and a pair of blue jeans.

When he turned around, I saw that he had dark brown hair and light blue eyes. He sure was good-looking. "Hello?" he questioned, looking from Johnny back to me.

"This is Zoe," Johnny introduced. The guy wiped his hands quickly before stepping forward with a hand outstretched.

"Darry," the guy filled in. "So you're Zoe, huh?"

I cocked an eyebrow at Johnny. "God, does everyone know who I am?"

Johnny smiled sheepishly, shrugging. I took that as a yes.

"Hi, Zoe," Ponyboy greeted as he stepped into the kitchen. He stopped and stretched widely, followed by a yawn.

"Hey." I sat down at the table, and Johnny took the seat next to me.

The four of us talked lightly for a while, though Darry didn't participate that much, since he had to pay attention to what he was cooking. After a while, another boy I didn't recognize stepped into the room.

He was just like a movie star, his hair wavy and dirty blonde, and his eyes were dark brown. He was a little shorter than Darry, but taller than Pony, and his facial features were cut and sharp, but he had a sort of softness about him too.

The guy saw me and smiled, walking over to the table. "Hi. I'm Sodapop. Soda, if you want.."

"Zoe," I chuckled.

He extended his hand, as Darry had, but it was more light-hearted and playful. "Nice to meet ya. Johnny talks about you all the time."

"Johnny!" I exclaimed, shoving his shoulder a little. "God."

"No, I don't!" he defended, his cheeks turning pink.

"I'm just kidding," Soda grinned. "He doesn't really. He's just mentioned you one or twice."

I nodded and laughed. "Alright, that's a little better."

"So what brings you here?" Soda questioned conversationally, joining us at the table. "You and Johnny a thing?"

"No," I cut in quickly. "I just...ran away. I was sick of my house."

Soda nodded. "Abuse, huh?"

My eyebrows pulled together for a second, wondering how he'd known that, but I finally just nodded. "Yeah."

Darry slapped down plates in front of all of us, muttering a message of, "Now shut up and eat your food."

We all obliged, scarfing down our grilled cheese sandwiches.

"Oh, wait!" Darry exclaimed suddenly. We all turned to see what he was about to say. His eyes sparkled with realization. "You're the girl that ate us outta house and home yesterday!"

My face turned to fire as I cleared my throat and muttered, "Uh, yeah...that could have been me..."

To my surprise, Darry laughed. "You have quite the appetite, kid." He ruffled up my hair before leaving the kitchen so the kids could talk freely.

"Some help here!" Dally's voice called from the living room before the door could even slam against the opposite door. Soda popped up from his seat while Pony, Johnny, and I followed close behind. We weren't planning on helping, but we did want to know what was going on.

"Found him over at Buck's," Dally explained, dropping the other guy on the couch. He landed in a really uncomfortable position, but Dally didn't seem to care. Nor did anyone else, for that matter. "He must have passed out drunk or something."

"Typical Two-Bit," Ponyboy mumbled. "Oh, that's Two-Bit." Pony turned to me and pointed to him.

"Oh, it's good we could get acquainted," I replied sarcastically before chuckling a little.

A couple of the guys joined in, but Dally just smirked at me. "I love a girl with a sense of humor."

"And I love a guy without a police record," I fired back, raising my eyes to show that I had clearly won that debate.

"Then you're not going to end up with anyone in this room..." Soda laughed.

I looked around at all the guys in the room and raised an eyebrow. "You kiddin' me?"

"Nope," Dally filled in. "See, my police record's over a mile long..." He winked at me.

"Not surprised," I laughed. "I'm more talking about everyone else. Well, not really Two-Bit, since I don't know him, and for all I know, he could be another Dally."

They all burst into hysterics, besides Dally. I guess he didn't have a sense of humor or anything. "No," Soda denied, shaking his head. "Two-Bit's a wisecracker. So we," he held up Two-Bit's hand, along with his own, "were the public disturbance people. Don't do cartwheels and handstands down the street. The fuzz don't like it."

Pony and Johnny exchanged glances. "There's no way you guys did anything," I expressed, looking between the two of them. They were so innocent looking, I couldn't believe that they had done something illegal.

"I killed a Soc," Johnny whispered.

My mouth dropped open in a gasp. "You've gotta be kiddin' me."

"Nope. I was there with him." Pony told the whole story, including the surprising end where Pony had a nightmare, as he often had, but this time it included Johnny and Dally dying in the hospital. Thankfully, they both recovered and were okay, their injuries not as bad as Ponyboy had dreamed.

"Wow," I let out in a whisper, sitting down.

"Gonna pass out?" Dally questioned condescendingly. "Maybe we shouldn't have told her the story. She looks like she can't handle it."

"Shut up," I snapped. "I'm fine."

For the rest of the afternoon, we talked, avoiding the subject of poor little Johnny killing the Soc. I realized that I liked the members of the gang way more than anyone I'd ever met in my life.

***

"You have to sleep here," Ponyboy demanded, staring me down.

"I'm not going to," I defied. "I'm not going to mooch off you anymore than I already have."

"Then sleep on the couch!" Pony and I had been at this argument for a while. He was trying to get me to stay at the house, since I had school the next day, but I was refusing, clearly. I just felt badly, since I was there all day, it didn't seem fair that I stayed there at night too.

"I can't, Pony. I'll just sleep outside. It won't be a big deal."

He glared at me. "Come on."

"No."

"Fine." He disappeared up the stairs, and I figured that he was going to leave me alone for once.

I started walking to the door and was already half-way to the gate outside when I heard Darry's voice from behind me yell, "Wait!"

Turning quickly, I gave him a confused look. He ran up to me and said, "You're staying here. If you don't say fine, then I'm going to lock you in Ponyboy's old bedroom and keep you captive until school tomorrow morning."

I laughed slightly. "Can't really argue with that logic, can I?"

"No, you can't."

Darry smiled with his victory before I followed him back into the house. Maybe this was the start of something good...