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Two Bit was starting to get worried as to why Johnny was taking so long, they were supposed to meet a few hours go on the corner near the diner, they were supposed to grab a snack while they tried to figure out what new movie they wanted to try to sneak into that night at the drive in, but Johnny wasn’t there yet. Which was starting to worry him, Johnny was hardly ever late, if there was anything that boy’s anxiety was good for, was keeping him on time. Another five minutes goes by before Two Bit decides to screw it and starts walking over to the Curtis’ house, maybe Johnny just forgot or something came up, yeah that had to be it. He checked the lot too since it was on his way anyways, no Johnny.
He didn’t bother knocking, nobody in the gang did any more, all of them were over so often that they practically lived there. If Darry didn’t already know how poor they all were already, he would have probably started charging them for rent and food. But nah, Darry wasn’t like that, he’s told them repeatedly that they were always welcome as long as they kept themselves out of trouble with the law and didn’t go around messing with things they shouldn’t be, like drugs and heaters. Easy enough.
He was met with Soda and Steve on they’re way out, by the looks of it they were on their way to work over at the DX. “Hey, you guys seen Johnny around?” he asked them, he was starting to get a little anxious himself about this. “We were supposed to meet up hours ago, I haven’t seen him since yesterday and you know this ain’t like him to just not show up.”
“Nah, sorry, Two Bit, we haven’t seen him either and Pony’s been out with Darry, something ‘bout grades slipping so they’ve been down at the library all day,” Soda tells him, trying to think where the second youngest of their group could be. While it wasn’t unlike Johnny to sometimes not show up for a few days from time to time, that kid never went back on his word. “And who the hell knows where Dally is, haven’t seen him today either.”
Two Bit wasn’t liking this, “I’ve looked around town, even checked the lot, he’s not there,” he says, there wasn’t too many places Johnny would willingly hang around and he didn’t think he would go to the other side of town for any reason, they all knew how weary Johnny was of the socs. Those rich assholes would eat him alive. “I’m really starting to think something’s happened to him, not unless Dally snagged him this morning but Johnny would’ve made sure to be back before the time we said.”
“Hate to say it, but you try takin’ a peek over by his folks’ house?” Steve says, as much as they all hated that boy’s parents, Johnny still wanted them to love him and tried too hard for what little they gave him. “One of those jackasses’ might’ve talked him into staying home or somethin’..”
They all knew how bad that ‘or something’ could be if that’s what’s happened.
“Shit.” Two Bit muttered, running his hand through his hair in thought and worry. “That’s a good point, I’m gonna go check.” And just like that, he was headed out the door and racing over to the Cade’s residences. It was light out so he couldn’t tell if anyone was home from any turned on lights alone, and it was silent, not a common occurrence in that house with how much Mr. and Mrs. Cade drank. He started to leave to head off to the next place he thought his friend might be when the sound of a vase breaking and shouting starting up caught his attention, he turned back to see Mrs. Cade chasing Johnny out of the house with a broom, shouting and screaming at him about who the fuck knows what.
No, Two Bit wasn’t going to stand for that, he saw as Mrs. Cade swung the broom at Johnny and he went to dodge it but he tripped and fell, the drunk woman went to hit him. Luckily the older boy reached them before she could, Two Bit stood between the mother and son, keeping her from hitting him anymore.
“You let go of my broom, you hood scum!” she shouted, trying to wrangle it out of his grasp but Two Bit was a lot stronger than her, there was no question in it. “You let go right this damn instant!”
“Not gonna fuckin’ happen, you’re fucking drunk!” he says, he glanced back to see Johnny staring fearfully up at them, he was covered in bruises and small cuts, poor kid looked like his heart was being shattered by the way he looked at his mother, the woman who was supposed to love and care for him. Two Bit didn’t like that one bit. “Get back to whatever hell hole you crawled out of!” he managed to shove her back, not enough to knock her over but enough to give them time to get away. He pulled Johnny up off the ground. “C’mon! Let’s get out of here!” and they both took off running down the street, they didn’t stop for a good long while, not even to look to see if they were being chased.
They made it to about a block or two away from a nearby park before they stopped to catch their breath, Mrs. Cade was not in sight. As both of them sort of expected, the old hag couldn’t even have been bothered to chase after them, not when she had bottles of booze to keep her more entertained.
“What was she mad about this time?” Two bit asked the younger boy, knowing it could something as small and stupid as Mrs. Cade was mad that Johnny didn’t do something she was too drunk to remember to even tell him. That woman could get mad over the sky being blue every day or the ocean being salty.
“Hell if I know, I just swung by to grab something and the next thing I know, she’s yelling about how I’m never around and that she hates that I was there and to never come back, but when I was trying to leave, she goes off about me never leaving again and-.. Well, you saw the rest,” Johnny says, sitting down on the grass. He didn’t know what to think, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to process all of that just for it to become a memory he wouldn’t want to think about anyways. “I’m real sorry I never made it over to meetin’ you by the diner..”
“Hey, that wasn’t your fault, don’t go blaming yourself for something that wasn’t in your control,” the older boy tells him, lord knows what could happen when Johnny’s mother got something stuck in her head, and unfortunately Johnny was always wanting to try to prove himself to her. He looked over at Johnny, looking to see if he had any injuries that looked real bad but it wasn’t much. “She done got you good, Johnny cake,”
“Oh I’ll be fine, a broom is nothing to what dad uses sometimes,” he says, pushing Two Bit’s hand away, he didn’t like being fussed over. “Nothing to waste stuff over,”
“Right, Darry can be the judge of that,” Two Bit replies, he didn’t want something to go unseen and it get infected or something. “But Darry ain’t home right now and we still got time to go grab milkshakes if you wanna, we can sneak into movies for the late stuff,”
Johnny let a small grin onto his face, one that Two Bit couldn’t help but smile along with, “Yeah, could really go for a milkshake ‘bout now.”