Chapter Text
The night before Johnny died in that dang hospital bed, Dally came to visit Ponyboy. Visiting hours were well over back at the hospital but he still had so much to say. So, why not just say it to Ponyboy?
The air was damp, even for a late summer night. The wind was the only thing keeping Dally and Ponyboy from melting straight into a puddle.
All Dally did was knock on Pony’s window and mutter something about talking. Sure, Winston was confident and cocky but after Johnny was being kept in that hospital something had definitely shifted.
So, after what seemed like hours of silence sitting on wet grass, the guy finally spoke.
“Ponyboy, he is like the little brother I never had,” Dally crunched his fingers and well…Pony didn’t know how to react. He’d never seen this side of Dally before anyways.
“If he were to-“ before he could finish his sentence, it was cut off by a small hiccup. He definitely needed to throw up. “If something were to happen to him…I don’t know what I’d do—shit” Winston was trembling now, even his stupid sunglasses couldn’t hide his swollen eyes anymore.
And that’s when Ponyboy finally spoke up. “Dally, you don’t need to be talking about this right now. He’s gonna be fine.” That wasn’t exactly true but he needed to tell a white lie to get Dally to cool off. God, he wished that snarky Dally would snap back to life already.
“Don’t spend all of your tears on a small injury.” Dally’s eyes widened and he stifled a chuckle. They both knew those third degree burns and darn broken back weren’t a small injury.
“Pony, what the hell are you talking about—“ He put a hand on Ponyboy’s shoulder. “Those aren’t small injuries…” There were tears running down his eyes now.
“Cmon, Dal—Don’t think too much about it.” Ponyboy managed to stutter out.
“Shoot Ponyboy…you don’t understand how much he means to me.” His eyebrows returned to their usual sterned stance and he got up and just left.
Now, Ponyboy couldn’t sleep like that night. Not after Dally just left.