Chapter Text
“Johnny, you got a doctor’s appointment this morning. You ready to go?”
Darry’s voice carried through the screen door and out onto the porch where Ponyboy Cade stood, hesitating to walk in.
“Yeah, Dar, just gotta get my shoes on.”
Pony hated intruding, bumming around for leftovers and a place to spend the morning after a night shivering in the lot. But he hadn’t been able to go home in two days and he was starting to get light headed. He stopped being hungry the previous evening, but Pony knew that wasn’t a good thing, so he swallowed his pride and made his way to the Curtis residence to see if there was any breakfast left after Darry and the twins got to it.
“Oh hey, Pony.” He startled a bit from Johnny’s voice coming through the screen door. The older boy could be as quiet as a mouse if he wanted to. “Come on in, Soda’s still in the shower, so I’d grab a plate before he finishes everything off.”
That was the best thing about Johnny, he always knew what Pony needed without him having to ask. And the way he said it, all casual like, never made it feel like a burden.
“Thanks, Johnny.”
Ponyboy walked in, toeing off his shoes in the doorway to avoid tracking mud on the Curtis’s carpet, closing the door slowly behind him so it didn’t slam. He’d heard Darry holler at the rest of the boys enough to avoid doing it himself. When he could remember.
Darry looked up from the pan he was scrubbing in the sink as Pony walked into the kitchen.
“Hey, Ponyboy. Help yourself.”
“Thanks, Darry.”
Truth be told, Darry scared him more than anyone else in the gang. More than Dally, even. Yeah, if he got on Dally’s bad side, the other boy wouldn’t hesitate to clobber him good. But Pony was used to bruises. If he got on Darry’s bad side, then he couldn’t see Johnny anymore. Ponyboy knows what being alone is like and he ain’t used to that. Not that he thought Darry was gonna hurt him or anything, but he was very protective of the younger twin, especially after the Curtis parents passed.
See, when Johnny and Soda were born, Mrs. Curtis’s womb didn’t have enough room for both of them and as Soda grew bigger Johnny just didn’t. When Soda came out, the doctors were surprised at just how big he was considering his brother was sharing space with him, but when they delivered Johnny it made sense. Johnny was whisked off and spent the first two months of his life in the hospital. Apparently Soda cried something awful every day until his twin came home. He grabbed onto Johnny’s little hand and hadn’t let go for 16 years.
That wouldn’t be the last time Johnny would be in the hospital. The first few years it was nearly once a month he was in there for something or other, finally petering out by the time he turned four. A good regime of pills and a few doctor’s visits a year kept everything mostly under control. Pony himself had only seen Johnny rushed to the hospital twice. But Darry still worried about him. And the bills that racked up and the debt they still needed to pay.
Johnny would talk to him about it sometimes. The fact that he felt guilty that his parents, then his brothers, spent some much money on him and his medicine and his doctors. The fact Soda had to drop out of high school a few weeks after their parents died just to help Darry make ends meet. Johnny tried to drop out, too, but Soda and Darry wouldn’t hear of it. Nevertheless, between the accident, multiple bouts of sickness, and then getting jumped so bad even Dally looked vaguely green, Johnny racked up enough absences that he was going to have to repeat a grade.
Soda had told Johnny to not worry about it, no one could be as stupid as he was. Darry told Johnny it wasn’t his fault and he could work hard next year to prove it was just a fluke. Dally, Two-Bit, and Steve told Johnny it didn’t matter and school was a joke anyway.
Pony told him that it sucked and then asked if he wanted to see a movie. Johnny laughed and off to the movies they went.
Darry dried his hands on a dish towel and went over to hammer on the bathroom door.
“You better hurry up, Steve’ll be here any minute!”
Pony quickly filled his plate up with eggs and bacon and toast as the water from the shower turned off, digging in before Soda could try to steal something off his plate. Growing up in a gang of seven boys, you learn to protect your food and eat quickly or someone will come right up behind you and steal it off your fork. Johnny sat down in the chair next to him, dumping a handful of pills into his palm, swallowing them with a glass of water.
Soda’s hair was still dripping when he walked in, reaching to try and snatch a piece of toast off Pony's plate. Pony smacked the older boy's hand with the flat side of his fork, sticking his tongue out at Soda’s yelp.
“Alright, alright, Ponykid.” Soda held his hands up in surrender. “I’ll leave your breakfast alone.”
He ruffled Pony and Johnny’s hair before sitting down himself, smothering his eggs in jam before shoving them into his mouth.
The door ricocheted off the wall (Darry’s yell to not slam the door ignored once again) and the other three members of their little gang stalked in. Two-Bit immediately wandered over to the fridge and pulled out two beers. Pony shoved the last piece of his breakfast in his mouth before anyone could get any ideas.
Darry hurried out the door with Johnny trailing behind him, calling out for Soda to finish the dishes before he left for work. Soda stood and turned to the sink before Steve shoved his socks and shoes into his hands.
“We’re gonna be late, Pepsi, if we don’t leave right now.”
“Yeah, but Darry asked-”
“I can do it, Soda.”
Pony stood and started gathering up the dishes strewn across the table.
“Are you sure? You really don’t need to.”
“I don’t mind. Go to work before Steve drags you out by your ear.”
Steve made a grab towards Soda’s head, but Soda dove out of the way, shoving Steve into the counter.
He ruffled Pony’s hair.
“Thanks, Pony. I really appreciate it.”
Pony flushed from the praise.
Pony wished he had a brother like Sodapop. Soda was the nicest person Pony had ever met. The boy didn’t have a mean bone in his body, smiled easily, laughed often. Pony believed Soda was the heart of the gang. They’d all probably be a lot meaner and colder if it weren’t for him.
Ponyboy couldn’t help but shrink in on himself a little as he washed the dishes in the empty kitchen of the Curtis house. Dally and Two-Bit were in the living room sipping beer, watching Mickey, and resting their dirty boots on Darry's coffee table. He envied Johnny sometimes. Pony’s own folks couldn’t care less for him, alternating between ignoring his existence and running him out of the house with fists and brooms. Before they died, you couldn’t find a more loving set of parents on the East side than the Curtises. Darry worried about his kid brother something awful. Soda, caring, loving, kind Soda, was his literal twin. Hell, even Dally swept Johnny under his wing the second they met.
Even with the rest of the gang, Steve was best friends with Soda. And sure he didn’t get along so great with his dad, but he was tuff and there wasn’t a greaser better at fixing cars than him. Two-Bit had his mother and kid sister and him and Darry had always been close as the oldest of the gang.
Pony had Johnny.
Pony was small, shorter than Johnny even. And he was young, too, just turned 14. The gang only put up with him because of Johnny. If he didn’t have Johnny, Pony wouldn’t have anyone.
When he finished up the dishes, Pony plopped down onto the couch in the living room to wait for Johnny to get back. Maybe they’d bum around town with Two and Dally, maybe they’d head over to the DX to bother Soda and Steve. Or maybe they’d head to the lot and lay back on the old car bench that had been left there a few months previously and stare up at the clouds from in between the leaves of the trees.
Pony pulled a worn, folded book from his pocket that Two-Bit had swiped him for his birthday and picked up where he left off. The sounds of Mickey faded into the background.