Johnny didn't shrug out of my grasp, he just let me hold onto his arm and demand to know what was wrong. This was a new kind of wrong for Johnny, though. His wrongs before had all been about being hurt, either physically or emotionally or both. Maybe he was hurt, maybe Emily had broke up with him or something. But it was kind of like, that stuff was sort of supposed to happen. Not like the whole thing with his parents letting him down in some way over and over. Girls were supposed to end up hurting you somehow. You'd end up broken up with everyone you didn't end up marrying.

"She's pregnant," Johnny said, his voice that funny deep thick way it got when he was really upset. I didn't think I'd heard right. Pregnant? By Johnny? My jaw dropped open and I just stared at him.

"What? Is it, is it yours?" I said.

"Yeah," he said, real quiet, and now he did pull out of my grasp. My mouth was still open. I couldn't believe it. Pregnant? Johnny was going to be a father? How could that possibly be? He, he was like a baby, he could barely take care of himself, or at least that's how Johnny always seemed to me, to us, to all of us. He was everyone's kid brother, not someone who could be someone's father.

"What are you gonna do?" I said. I was in this daze of disbelief. Her parents would kill him. They would kill him.

"I don't know," he said bleakly, and I thought how stupid could he be, getting someone pregnant?

We walked along, neither of us saying much. I was too surprised to speak. Pregnant? This was unbelievable.

"Do her parents know?" I said. He shook his head no. I thought that was a good thing for now. And he better not tell his parents. His old man would beat him for sure, and I thought this time he might deserve it.

We stopped and sat on a curb and smoked, and he was worrying, just smoking and worrying, I could see it on his face. I felt bad for him.

"How could you do this? How could you let this happen?" I said, tossing my cigarette butt into the air. He shrugged and wasn't going to answer. I didn't feel like letting him not answer.

"Johnny, answer me, you gotta think about this. What are you gonna do?"

"I don't know, Ponyboy," he said, his voice miserable, "what can I do? Her folks will either send her away or make her get rid of it or both. It's not like I have much say in this at all,"

I nodded. He was right. Sometimes he was smarter than I gave him credit for. And I knew because of his lousy upbringing that he kind of would want this kid, he'd want someone that he could treat better than he was treated. And it seemed like Johnny would be good to a kid, not that he could provide for it at all, he didn't have a job and he was flunking out of school pretty much, but if he could help her raise this baby I thought he might be okay at it. Too bad he wouldn't get the chance.

"Want to come to my house tonight?" I said, figuring it would be better for him to be around us instead of moping at his house. It didn't take much for his folks to start in on him, even a scowl on his face was sometimes enough.

"Yeah, alright," he said, lighting up another cigarette. I lit one up, too, and we headed to my house.

I didn't know if he wanted to tell everyone about this, but I certainly wasn't going to tell anyone. It was too unbelievable. No one would even believe me if I did tell them. I'd had to drag it out of him, anyway. No, he wouldn't tell anyone else, probably.