TW: Gore, Mentions of Getting Jumped

🌷Kimmy🌷

"JOHNNY...he's been hurt bad sometime, hasn't he?" Henry said to Kimmy as they waited in line for popcorn with Cherry and Ponyboy. "Hurt and scared." "It was some Socs." Ponyboy said nervously, since there were Socs present at the moment.

Kimmy hated to talk about Johnny getting beat up, the last person she told about that subject was Amy, and she was shaking and looking at her shoes by the time Kimmy was done.

Ponyboy started to tell Cherry and Henry about what happened that day. Kimmy noticed that her brother was talking a little faster than he usually did, he didn't like to talk about it as much as his little sister did.

It was almost four months ago, before Kimmy met Amy. She and Ponyboy had walked down to the DX to get a bottle of Pepsi and to see Soda and Steve, because they always let them work on the cars and buy them more bottles. Kimmy and Pony hated to go to the DX, since there were all kinds of girls flirting with Soda-even Socy girls.

It was a warm spring day with the sun shining, and it made Kimmy's hair lighter. But it was getting chilly and dark by the time they started for home, they had left Steve's car at the station. At the corner of the block there was a wide, open space where the gang played football and hung out, and it's often a site for fights and rumbles.

They were passing by the field, kicking some rocks and drinking the last of their Pepsi, when Steve noticed something lying on the ground. He picked it up and it was Johnny's jean jacket- the only jacket he had. "Looks like Johnny forgot his jacket." Steve said, slinging it over his shoulder to take it over to Johnny's house. All of a sudden, he stopped and examined the jacket more carefully.

There was a stain the color of rust across the collar. He looked at the ground and there were more stains on the grass. He looked up and across the field with a stricken expression on his face. They all heard the low moan and saw the dark motionless hump on the other side of the lot.

Soda reached him first.

Johnny was lying face down on the ground. Soda turned him over and Kimmy nearly lost her lunch. Someone had beaten up Johnny badly. The gang was used to seeing Johnny banged up- his father clobbered him around a lot, and although it them madder than heck, the gang couldn't do anything about it. But the beatings Johnny got from home were scratches compared to what he looked liked that day.

His face was cut up and bruised and swollen, and there was a wide gash from his temple to his cheekbone. Johnny would carry that scar all his life. His white shirt was splattered with blood. Kimmy started to sway and if it wasn't for Dally catching her after, she would've hit her head.

Somehow, everyone had sensed what had happened. Two-Bit was beside Ponyboy, comical grin gone and his grey eyes were stormy. Darry had seen them from the porch and ran towards them, before skidding to a halt. While supporting the younger girl, Dally looked away from the scene, swearing under his breath, a sick expression on his face. Dally had seen folks getting killed on the streets of New York's West Side.

Why did he look sick?

"Johnny?" Soda had lifted him up and held him against his shoulder. He gave the limp body a slight shake. "Hey Johnnycake." The reason why gang nicknamed Johnny Johnnycake, is because when they first met him, he said "Johnny Cade." a bit too quiet, so they heard Johnnycake, and the nickname stuck.

"Soda?" Johnny said, his eyes still closed. "Yeah, it's me." Soda replied. "Don't talk. You're gonna be okay." "There was a whole bunch of them." Johnny went on, ignoring Soda's command. "A blue Mustang full...I got so scared..." He tried to swear, but started to cry, fighting to control the tears, before sobbing because he couldn't stop fighting.

Kimmy had seen Johnny take a whipping with a two by four from his old man and never let out a whimper. Soda just held him and pushed Johnny's dark hair out of his eyes. "It's okay, Johnnycake, they're gone now. It's okay." Between sobs, Johnny managed to gasp out what happened.

He had been hunting the football the greasers used to practice a few kicks when a blue Mustang pulled up beside the lot with four Socs in it. One of them had a lot of rings on his hand—what had cut up Johnny so badly. It wasn't that those Socs had beaten him up half to death—Johnny could take it. They scared him and threatened him with everything under the sun.

Johnny was high-strung anyway, a nervous wreck from getting belted every time he turned around and from listening to his parents fight all the time. Living in those conditions would have made a person rebellious and bitter, and it was killing him. Johnny had never been a coward. He was a good man in a rumble and he usually stayed with Kimmy in the car so that she wouldn't be alone while the others were fighting. He stuck up for his gang mates and kept his mouth shut around cops.

After that night, poor Johnny was jumpier than ever. He never walked by himself after that. The most law-abiding greaser (other than Kimmy), now carried in his back pocket a six inch switchblade. He'd use it, too, if he ever got jumped again. Those Socs scared Johnny that much. He would kill the next person who jumped him. No one was ever going to beat him up like that again.

Not over his dead body...

Author Speaks:
I always hated this part😭😭😭 And it was that moment I decided that Johnathan Andrew Cade (Full Legal Name over here) was my new adopted son and I will protect him with every bone in my body.