~My Cade~ // Johnny Cade x Reader ("the outsiders" plot base)

The Dairy Queens

Warnings: None

Word Count: 1335

Dally drove like a maniac. Johnny and Pony and I turned green. Maybe because wehadn't eaten in a while, or from all the cigarettes, or maybe just because we hadn't been in a car for a while. We stopped at the Dairy Queen and ended up eating like it was our last meal. I had never eaten so much and I don't remember anything ever tasting this good.

"Glory, you don't need to make it like every mouthful is your last. I got plenty of money, take it easy. I don't want you getting sick on me, and I thought I was hungry!" Johnny and I merely shoved more food into our mouths, eating faster. I didn't slow until I had gone through two Cokes and three barbwque sandwiches.

"I didn't tell y'all something. The Socs and us are having all-out warfare all over the city. That kid you killed had plenty of friends and all over town it's Soc against Grease. We can't walk alone at all. I started carrying around a heater-"

"Dally! You kill people with heaters!" Ponyboy said, scared.

"Ya kill 'em with switchblades too, don't ya kid," Dally said, looking at me. I got real pale and green. Maybe so many drinks and sandwiches weren't a good idea mixed with this feeling. I gulped, and Johnny put his hand on my shoulder to calm me down. "Don't worry, it ain't loaded. I ain't aimin' to get picked up for murder. But it sure does help a bluff. Tim Shepard's gang and our outfit are havin' it out with the Socs tomorrow night at the vacant lot. We got hold of the president of one of their social clubs and had a war council, yeah. It's just like the good old days. If they win, things go on as usual. If we do, they stay outa our territory but good. Two-Bit got jumped a few days ago. Darry and me came along in time, but he wasn't havin' too much trouble. Two-Bit's a good fighter. Hey, I didn't tell you we got us a spy."

"A spy? Who?" Johnny asked, looking up from a banana split.

"That good-lookin' broad I tried to pick up that night you killed that Soc. That redhead, Cherry whatsername."

I coughed loudly, Johnny gagged, and Pony almost dropped his sundae. "Cherry? The Soc?" we all said at the same time.

"Yeah, she came over to the vacant lot the night Two-Bit was jumped. Shepard and some of his outfit and us were hanging around there when she drives up in her little ol' StingRay. That took a lot of nerve. Some of us were for jumping her right there, bein' the dead kid's girl and all, but Two-Bit stopped us. Man, next time I want a broad, I'll pick up my own kind."

"Yeah," Johnny said, remembering.

"She said she felt that the whole mess was..." I didn't listen to the next part of the conversation. I shoved more of the sandwich in my mouth and images and voices of that night flashed in my head.

"Next time you want a broad, pick up your own kind, dirt."

"You know what a greaser is? White trash with long hair."

"You know what a Soc is? White trash with mustangs and madras."

"Whoo, the little greaser's angry I'm making a move on his broad. Maybe he wants a matching scar."

"Oh fuck! You killed him!"

I buried my head in my knees and slowly said, "We're goin' back and turn ourselves in." Dally choked on his sandwich and spat the rest out. Johnny gagged again and Pony didn't look surprised. "I got a good chance of bein' let off easy. I ain't got no record with the fuzz and it was self-defense. Pony and Johnny and Cherry can testify to that. And I don't aim to stay in that church all my life, and Pony and Johnny should get back."

I know I was turning pale. Dally stared at me with his mouth hanging open. "We won't tell that you helped us, Dally, and we'll give you back the gun and what's left of the money and say we hitchhiked back so you won't get in any trouble. Okay?"

"No way, no how, Y/N, you can't!" Johnny cried, gripping my shoulders and shaking me.

Dally chewed on his fake ID and said, "You sure you want to go back? Us greasers get it worse than anyone else."

"NO," Johnny insisted. I ignored him.

"I'm sure. It ain't fair to Johnny and Pony to have to stay up in that church with Darry and Soda and the gang worrying about them. I don't guess... I don't guess my dad's worried about me or anything?"

"The boys and your brother are worried." Dally said. "B/N came by to our house with a heater demanding to know where you were. It took a while to get him to lay off and he was about to run off to Texas to look for you."

"My father, did he ask about me?" I asked again.

"No," Dally said. "Your dad's a Soc and we ain't got nothing to do with him. Blast it, Y/N, what do it matter? Shoot, my old man don't give a hang whether I'm in jail or dead in a car wreck or drunk in the gutter. That don't bother me none." 

I clenched the locket around my neck. My mom gave it to me. I wished that she was here. She would know what to do. 

"Mom, am I doing the right thing?"  I asked myself. She didn't respond. I was so confused and hurt-. 

"Blast it, Y/N, why didn't you think of turning yourself in five days ago? It would have saved a lot of trouble," Dally grumbled.

"I was scared! I still am!" I pressed. "I guess we ruined our hair for nothing." 

"I guess so," Pony replied. 

Dally scowled dangerously and I seriously thought he might kill me before the cops ever got me. I stared down at me feet guiltily as Dally glowered. He seemed to notice that I was upset, and he instantly said, "Y/N, I ain't mad at you. I just don't want you to get hurt. You don't know what a few months in jail can do to you. Oh blast it, Y/N, you'll get hardened in jail. You're so perfect- I don't want that to happen to you. Like it happened to me." 

"Would you rather have me living in hide-outs for the rest of my life, always on the run?" It was a serious question, and I was ready to listen to Dallas. He'd had a life like this since ten, according to Ponyboy. He knew better. 

"Oh glory!" Dally whisper-yelled, slamming on the brakes. The church was on fire.