Chapter Text
Johnny remembers when ponyboy and he were best friends. How could he not? They were best friend their whole lives. Johnny and ponyboy did everything together. Play games, watch TV, listen to music, everything.
One time when Johnny was seven and ponyboy five, they played family. Ponyboy was the mom, Johnny was the dad, and two of Johnny's dolls were the babies. They went all out, taking the game very seriously feeding the babies, singing to them, etc.
They put the babies to sleep "Good night Johnny, Good night Mary." Then ponyboy turned to Johnny with a super serious expression on his face. "We have to kiss now."
Johnny scrunched his face up. Ponyboy added "I'm serious, one time I snuck out of my room after my bed time and my mommy and daddy were kissing so that means parents are supposed to kiss after putting their kids to bed." Johnny didn't respond. He just leaned in and pecked ponyboy's lips trying to get it over with as fast as possible. After that, they just went back to playing with the dolls as if nothing happened and they never mentioned the kiss ever again.
They never had much in common but despite this they always got along. When ponyboy and Johnny were in preschool because Johnny started school late they liked playing pretend, playing with dolls, coloring pictures, and running around outside. Johnny was surprisingly a fast runner despite his asthma, he could run without it acting up. His mom never let him run so he could only do it when he was at ponyboy's house.
When they were in elementary school they made two more friends named Dally and Two-bit. Dally and Two-bit started hanging out with the two of them all the time. They became a friend group. No more just Johnny and ponyboy, how ever Johnny and ponyboy were still always the closest. Together, the four of them liked to ride around on their bikes, play in the barrens, they especially liked to find giant sticks and pretended to be medieval knights and sword fight with said tree branches.
When they got to middle school they made three more friends: Cherry, Steve, and Randy. Randy was homeschooled so they only got to see him outside of school. And of course, Ponyboy and Johnny were always the closest friends. Inseparable, even If their time was now split up between a bunch of other kids. Johnny and ponyboy always knew little things about each other that the other kids didn't. Oh yeah, they called themselves the greasers even though Cherry and Randy should have been socs they were outcast to the other socs. But still What kind of kids would willingly hang out with greasers or become one?
When they hit high school everything changed. Ponyboy suddenly became popular and decided he was no longer a "loser" he quit hanging out with his six best friends for the much more enticing Soc kids" Bob and Paul. Suddenly Johnny and all the other greasers were garbage to ponyboy. Ponyboy and his new pals found pleasure in bullying them. It took a while but Dally, Two-bit, Steve, Cherry, and Randy accepted that ponyboy was now a jerk, but Johnny just couldn't accept it. There's no way ponyboy could have changed that much. This wasn't ponyboy.