"Today felt like an eternity. I'm so hungry." I say as we're walking back home.

"Here." Johnny says pulling the apple out of his pocket.

I smile and take the apple. "Thank you Johnnycake."

"So, Pony, what'd you say to Cherry?" I ask taking a bite of the apple.

"I said... yes. I know you don't like her and all, but she's a pretty cool gal, and I really hope you can be happy f-" I cut Pony off.

"I'm happy for you. I had no doubt in your pretty face." I say smiling and taking another bite.

Johnny could tell I was faking it, he took my hand as we continued to walk.

I had lost my appetite and threw the apple on the ground. "Now why'd you have to go on throw the apple? You only took two bites." Johnny said.

"Lost my appetite." I said.

"I'm telling Darry you haven't eaten all day." Johnny says.

"You haven't eaten all day?!" Ponyboy asks.

"It's not big deal. I'll eat later." I say.

"You're coming to my house right now and eating." Ponyboy demands.

"It's fine, I'll eat when I get home. I've been at your house too much." I say.

"Nonsense, come on." Ponyboy says dragging me into the house.

"Ponyboy no!" I exclaim.

"What's all this noise about?" Darry asks.

"Grace hasn't eaten all day, so I'm trying to get her to eat." Ponyboy says.

Silence feels the room as ponyboy sits me down. The silence goes away to the noise of a chair scrapping next to me. Steve had sat down beside me. "Why aren't you eating kid?" he asks.

"I'm kid now? Wasn't like that when you screwing me." I say.

Everyone looks at me. "What's going on with you?" Sodapop asks.

"Nothing! I don't feel good, I'm going home." I say grabbing my bag.

"You're not going alone." Steve says.

"I don't need your protection! I don't need any of you! I'm fine on me own, I proved that this morning." I yell slamming the door.

Steve runs after me. He walks by me quietly. My walking starts to get slower. "You okay?" he asks.

"I'm just hungry, stop worrying." I say.

He puts me on his back and carries me. "If I get too heavy out me down." I say.

"Yup." he replies.

"Thank you." I say quietly.

"You ain't gotta thank me. But you should know, I'm not... just screwing you. I like you, Grace." Steve says.

"We'll, I am just screwing you." I say.

He puts me down. "What?" he says turning around.

"Look, you're nice and all, but I like Ponyboy. I thought this was just us fooling around and messing with the gang. I didn't mean for you to catch feelings or anything." I say looking down.

I stays silent for a bit. All you could hear were cars and the sound of gravel scraping each other as I kicked it. Steve finally said something. "No, no, it's fine. I understand. Come back up here, y-you look exhausted." he says.

"No, it's fine walking." I say

***
"She hasn't eaten all day, Dally. I gotta go." Steve says after dropping me off then quickly leaving.

"Steve!" I say running out the door.

But he was sprinting down the road, it was clear I hurt him. I didn't mean to, it's just Ponyboy is so... Ponyboy.

"You haven't eaten?!" Dally's deep voice crept behind me.

"I'm eating now, don't get your panties in a bunch." I say walking to the fridge.

"Darry called me, you were yelling at everyone and shit. What's going on?" he asks.

I take a bite of left over pizza and shrug my shoulders. I get a beer and sit down on the couch. "You want this pizza? I'm not in the middle for it." I say holding out the pizza.

I switch the TV on and open the beer. "What's wrong?" he asks again.

I sit up and laugh. "You know, everyone tells me to be tough, be heartless, it's the only way you're gonna get through life, but now everyone's going soft on me. It's pathetic." I say rolling my eyes and walking out.

***
"Hey Johnny and Ponyboy. Whatcha two doing here?" I ask sitting down on the old couch at the lot.

"Hanging, you good?" Johnny asks.

"God, I wish everyone would worry about theirselves." I say taking a sip of the beer.

"Let me get some." Johnny says.

I pass him the bottle and take out a cancer stick and light it. I stare at the fire the two boys had started before I got here. "For real, what's going on with you man?" Ponyboy asks.

"Nothing, just having a off day. I'll be good tomorrow. I just need some rest, that's all." I say.

Johnny and Ponyboy look at each other. "You know the drill." they both say.

Johnny lays my head in his lap and Ponyboy lays my feet on him. "Thank you boys." I say before slowly falling asleep.

***
I guess we all fell asleep. "Wake up! Wake up!" Ponyboy says.

"You know what time it is?!"

Johnny and I sit up. "No, not really." I said rubbing my eyes.

"I gotta get home, Darry's gonna kill me. See you two later. If y'all get cold come on over to my house." he says before running up.

We both fall back asleep.

***
~Ponyboy~
I ran straight home, I had no idea what time it was but I knew it was late. Darry was gonna grill me when I got home.

I ran through the front door, and there sat Darry and Soda. I hesitated to walk fully into the house. Darry and Sodapop stood up as I walked in.

"You have any idea what time it is boy?! It's 2 in the morning! Where were you!?" he yelled.

"I-I was at the lot w-with Grace and J-Johnny." I stuttered.

"You can't be out late like this, all these Soc's around town, drunk." he yells again.

"Lay off of it Darry! He gets it!" Soda yells.

"Don't tell me what to do!" Darry yells back.

"H-hey! Don't yell at him!" I yell at Darry.

Darry turns around shocked that's I had the nerve to step up and say something. The look on his face was burned into my brain. Before he quickly pushed me to the ground. I gasped, I couldn't believe he put his hands on me. No matter how mad he got he never touched me. I quickly got up, tears filling my eyes as I backed away from him. "I-I didn't mean to Ponyboy!" Darry yelled.

"He didn't mean to Pony." Soda said quietly.

I ran out of the house, I couldn't believe it. My mouth was still wide open from shock. Darry hit me. Darry put his hands me. I kept thinking back to myself.

***
~Grace~
I was woken up again by the shaking off Ponyboy. "What's wrong with you boy?" I ask sitting up.

"C'mon! We're running away!" He yells.

"What?" I say wrapping my jacket around me tightly.

"Darry hit me! He hit me! I can't take it anymore!" He says breaking down.

"Come on, Pony. Let's go take a walk and get rid of this running away nonsense." Johnny says.

We all got up and started walking. Ponyboy explained everything. I felt so bad. It was so cold, I just wanted to go home, but I knew I couldn't leave Pony. We walked so long it was very noticeable I was shivering.

"I-I'm sorry to get you out in the cold like this." Ponyboy said whipping his jacket around me.

I look at him and smile. We walk to the park and we sit on the swings. "You cooled off yet?" Johnny asks Pony.

Pony shook his head. "What about you?" Johnny asks looking at me.

"Me? I was never heated." I say looking down at my feet rubbing against the dirt.

We all made our way to the monkey bars. I was still cold, and Ponyboy could tell. He wrapped his arm around me, trying to warm me up. We looked at each other, we were so close our noses are practically touching. It was so perfect, it honestly felt like Johnnycake was third wheelin' right now. The moment was ruined by bright lights.

"Who's our this late?" I ask covering my eyes form the bright light.

"Soc's." Ponyboy replied noticing the blue mustang.

Bob stumble out of the car, making his way to us. I hated this guy about as much as I hated Cherry. I looked over at Pony and Johnny, they looked scared. I hoped off the monkey bars and so did they. "You dirty greasers." Bob says.

"Really? That's the best you got? You Soc's say the same thing anytime you see us." I scoff.

"Smart mouth this pretty one got. You know what they say about greasers, huh Ponyboy?" Bob says.

"They're white trash wirh greasy hair." he says.

His clique all started laughing like he said the most hilarious trying ever heard.

"You're on our side of town, watch yourself." I say.

They all begin laughing. "Your side? Your side? The lower class doesn't have anything that belongs to them!" he says laughing.

"Why don't you just go back to your Kacky wearing, man purse having, snobby, rich side and leave us lower class alone." I say.

"You know what they say about Soc's? They're white trash with mustangs and daddy's money (i forgot what he said in the movie)" he says spitting in them.

"Get em!" Bob says as they all run at us.

I didn't get far until one of them grabbed me. I kicked their hand off me and quickly got up. I punched them in their face. But they didn't stop. I kicked him in his balls and uppercut him with my knee, he finally gave in.

I look over to see Bob drowning Ponyboy. "Ponyboy!" I scream running over to him.

But Johnny ran first. Stabbing Bob in his back. I stopped and my mouth dropped. Johnny k-killed him. The other Soc's ran off. The sight of Bob's dead body made me sick. I went over to Ponyboy trying to avoid the blood and pulled him out of the fountain. He looked at the scene of Bob's dead body. "I think I'm going to be sick." Ponyboy says.

"G-go ahead man, I ain't gonna look at you." Johnny says as Pony runs to the bushes and starts vomiting.

I go over to Johnny and sit next to him. "J-Johnnycake, look at m-me." I say.

He looks over at me and I slowly grab the blade from him. Tears fall down his face. "I-It's okay. We gotta go, the fuzz will be here any second." I say digging into the ground and stashing the blade.

"Where we gonna go?" Johnny asks.

"Dally." Pony says walking over to us.

"What?" I ask standing up.

"If anyone can get us out of this it's Dally." he says.

I shook my hand in agreement. I help Johnny up. The blood on his hand rubbed onto mine. I stare at my hand for a while. "I-I'm sorry." Johnny says noticing I'm staring at the blood on my hand.

"I-It's fine. Dally will be at Buck's." I say wiping my hand on my pants.

***
We bang on the door at Buck's. "Ugh!" I heard a groan on the other end of the door.

"What you kids want?" the man asks.

"W-we're here for Dally." Ponyboy says.

"He's busy." the man says slamming the door.

I stop it with my hand. "Tell hun it's Grace... Grace Winston." I say.

"Winston?" he says opening the door.

"Well why didn't it start off with that?" he asks leading us inside.

***
"Dally! Wake up! It's urgent!" I say.

He groans and sits up. He looks at the blood on Johnny, Ponyboy soaking wet, and me with bruises.