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Dally hadn’t said anything, the day he gave his necklace and ring to Johnny and Ponyboy. He just came up to them while they were smoking in the lot, and dropped the jewelry in their hands. His St.Christopher necklace for Johnny, and his skull ring on a thick chain for Pony. Around his own neck was another necklace that he’d never worn before, with a saint on one side and a skull on the other. To this day, Pony and Johnny think he got it personally made, although he’s never fessed up about it.
Johnny didn’t say anything about it. Never even mentioned it to anyone but Ponyboy. If someone asked (and many people did) then yeah, he’d say it was Dally’s necklace around his neck, but he never said anything more. Not even to Dally himself. He didn’t ask why Dally’d given the necklace to them, or what it meant, considering the only other person he’d given his ring to was Sylvia. Didn’t wonder about the implications out-loud, or flinch when someone would call him and Pony queers and sneer at them. He was scared, of course. Scared someone would decide that the jewelry is enough proof and jump him and Pony, but Dally stuck around for three months after giving them the jewelry. Rain or shine, he’d follow them around and ensure they were never alone, and he’d jump anyone who even hinted at hurting Pony and Johnny. Once some hood from the Brumly Boys disappeared after planning to jump Pony and Johnny, no one said a word about them, and Dally was able to let them walk about without worrying of them getting killed.
Ponyboy didn’t say a word about it. When Darry and Soda asked about the ring, he shrugged. Even now, no one knows if Pony truly understands what the ring means. Not even Johnny really knows, that’s how vague Pony’s been about it. When kids would spit at him and write ‘queer’ and ‘faggot’ on his desks in every class, he’d just shrug. No one’s ever seen him be that cool about being harassed before, usually he’s all up in arms about it, but not when it came to this. Not when it came to Dally and Johnny. When Dally made that kid disappear (because the fuzz didn’t even notice, and it never got reported, but everyone knew), he grinned at the news and asked Johnny if he wanted to go to the drive-in. People became a little wary of him after that.
Queer, not queer, Johnny, Pony, and Dally wouldn’t elaborate, and they didn’t act any different than they always have, but everyone knew that Dally had a claim on the younger two. And five months after Dally first made his claim, things had settled.
And then Pony started walking around in Johnny’s jean jacket, and Johnny could be seen bouncing that rubber ball Pony always has, and everyone lost their minds again.
This time, people weren’t so forgiving. A couple Socs got their hands on Pony and Johnny, and the boys have never been quite the same after that. But the rumble came and went, the Socs boys that jumped them had to be hospitalized, and Pony and Johnny never gave each other their things back. Still, they flinch at loud noises and sudden touch, and Pony’s nightmares woke the entire neighborhood for a year straight, and sometimes still do on bad nights. Johnny never slept in the lot again, and Dally never leaves his and Pony’s sides unless he knows they’re safe.
That was how it was for 5 years. And then Pony turned twenty, and the three of them moved into a little apartment together. Johnny and Dally got a job at Bucks, and Pony decided to work on publishing a book about his experiences instead of going to college or getting a job. Sometimes, they still get dirty looks, and spit at, and called names, but Pony can always be found wearing Johnny’s jackets and Dally’s ring, and Johnny always has Dally’s necklace and Pony’s rubber ball, and Dally always has one of them by his side.