Johnny's Story

Becky

Ponyboy and I stepped into the park. He was looking mighty cold, but he didn’t mention it. I didn’t know why we were running away, just that we were running away. He was looking at the fountain, which was starting to freeze. The sight of it gave me a chill, like a warning, that something bad was about to happen.
Right then and there, I realized what it was. The blue mustang pulled up, and they honked the horn. I swore under my breath, but that wouldn’t help us. I wished that it would though. We couldn’t run for it, we would have no chance with our already tired legs. They would catch up no sweat with their tuff car. I tried to stay cool, but nothing came out except, “This is our territory, you better watch it.”
I have to admit, it wasn’t the most threatening thing to say. Then they really did it. Those Socs knew what was coming next could only cause trouble.
“You know what greasers are? White trash with long, greasy hair.”
Pony’s face went wild, and I could tell he couldn’t stand much more of them. I was too terrified of them to think of anything to say. Then I saw them. The rings on the one Soc’s hand. It was the same guy that beat me up. I took grasp of my blade, I was ready this time. Ponyboy stepped up to them to say something, and it was then that I got scared out of my wits. Nothing could be worse than being alone at the park, two against five or six. Then he said it.
“You know what a Soc is? White trash with mustangs and madras.” Then he spit at them. Pure instinct told me to run as hard and fast as I could, but that wasn’t anywhere near enough. They caught up to me and kicked me in the gut. The wind was knocked out of me, but I rolled over to see how Pony was doing. They were drowning him, they would kill him. I couldn’t sit there and watch a friend die. I gathered up all of my energy, which wasn’t much, and without a second thought, took out my blade. I stabbed him, the one with the rings.
I couldn’t believe it. I had killed a kid. The rest of the Socs had run away, but I think that I was the most scared person in the world. I didn’t know what to do. The only thing that did come was a vision blurred by tears. I sat down on the bench and cried. I cried I cried like a baby with no one to hold it. I could barely take breaths between sobs. It was too hard to hold the tears back, so I just let them roll one by one, hot and salty, down my cheeks.
Pony came to his senses, and I bet you my face was wetter than his. “I killed him. I killed that boy.”
“You really killed him, huh, Johnny?”
“Yeah. I had to. They were drowning you, Pony. They might have killed you.”
Ponyboy yelled at me, which I probably deserved, but just made me feel lousier. I never meant to kill him. I only meant to get them away from Pony. I couldn’t stand to watch them kill Ponyboy.
Even though Pony kept flipping out at me, I was glad he was there. They would’ve killed me if I was alone. We headed over to see Dally for some help, and I realized that I was glad that Pony was the one who was going to help me through this. He could understand me better than anyone else in the gang, even more than Dally. The only way that I wasn’t going to turn myself in was if Pony was next to me the whole way.