Here is another chappie, hope you like it and please let me know what you think.

They got into Two-Bit's car. Johnny felt awkward during the ride. He was glad that he was asked to hang out with these guys, but so far he only liked Soda and was intimidated by Steve and Two-Bit, and besides he wasn't used to being the center of attention.

Two-Bit was telling some story about him and Kathy, who Johnny figured, was his girlfriend. Nobody seemed particularly interested in the story though.

Soon enough they pulled up by a small house. Johnny took notice that the house wasn't in such a good condition – there was chipped paint everywhere, but it wasn't as bad as his house. He still felt apprehensive of meeting more new people.

They got out of the car, and Two-Bit went right into the house without knocking, and slamming the door.

"C'mon," Soda motioned for Johnny to come in. Johnny did, and stopped awkwardly by the door. He saw a really tall and muscular guy walk out of the kitchen and stop by the door surprised to see him. The tall guy looked at Soda, question in his eyes.

"Hey Dare," Soda said, "This is Johnny. Socs were bothering him so me and Steve took care of it. We thought us greasers need to stick together so we told him he can be part of the gang." Johnny was just standing quietly by the door.

"Does he speak?" Darry chuckled, while Johnny's face turned slightly red.

"I'm only kidding," Darry said seeing Johnny's reaction. "I am Darryl, but you can call me Darry." He held out his hand and Johnny shook it.

At this moment another boy walked into the room. Johnny remembered seeing him in the hallways at school sometimes.

"What's going on?" the boy asked. This boy was much closer to Johnny's size.

"Hi Pony," Soda said, "We got us a new gang member. This is Johnny. Socs were onto him , but me, Steve and Two-Bit, we took care of it. This is my brother Ponyboy. I told you about him." Soda added.

"Hi," Johnny said quietly.

"Hi," Pony replied, "I've seen you around school, nice meeting you."

Johnny was about to say something, when the door opened, and Dallas walked in. That made Johnny scared. He knew who Dallas Winston was. Everybody knew who Dallas Winston was. Was he a part of this gang, Johnny thought. This was serious then if even Dallas Winston was a part of it. Johnny felt plain scared of him.

"Who's this?" Dallas asked right away, pointing at Johnny.

"This is Johnny. Socs were bullying him," Soda repeated his story for the third time, "but me, Steve and Two-Bit beat the crap outta them. Johnny is gonna be part of the gang." Dallas looked at Johnny for a few moments, sizing him up. "Man you're scrawny," he said, "doesn't your mother feed you?" He didn't know how close to the truth that statement was. Johnny looked down, and his face turned red again.

"Dontya worry kid," Dallas added, "you hang out with us no soc will come within five miles of you."

"Do you pay football?" Soda asked, trying to make Johnny more comfortable and trying to put him at ease.

"A little," Johnny replied.

"Let's go then." They went out, and spent the next two hours playing football. Johnny was on Dally's team and he tried his very best to play decently. At the end their team won. "You play ok for a little scrawny kid." Dallas said to Johnny on the way back. Johnny felt himself relax a little and even felt proud – it's not every day that someone like Dallas Winston tells you that you are a good football player.

Over the next few days Johnny started getting used to hanging out with the gang. He liked Two-Bit and Steve ok now. At school he met up with them and Pony and they would talk and smoke outside of the building. Sometimes those three socs would pass them by, and Johnny saw in the corner of his eye that they were looking at him, but didn't dare to say or do anything nasty.

Johnny really liked hanging out with his new friends and they seemed to like him too. He felt especially drawn to Ponyboy. It seemed like they had a lot in common. It was funny though how sometimes they would get to Curtis after school, and everyone would just blast the music loud and watch TV, but Pony would disappear to his room with a book, and when he was reading he was lost to the world.

So Johnny developed good friendships with the gang, but one of his main fears was that they'd find out about his home life. He thought that if they found out about the beatings he got at home they'd stop being friends with him for sure. When he got a beating he tried to make sure he didn't get hit in the face or on the head, which was hard to do since his father often aimed for those areas, but Johnny managed to turn quickly and make sure that the blow would hit him in the hand or stomach instead. He covered his bruises with the long sleeves of his jean jacket, and tried to make sure that his shirt didn't get lifted up when they played football revealing all the marks from the belt on his back.

One night Johnny's dad got especially nasty and hit Johnny hard in the face. He had a swollen black eye that he couldn't even open after this and a nasty black and blue bruise on his temple. To avoid being beaten even more Johnny took off to the lot. It was around eight o'clock, and Johnny was smoking and trying to calm down.

In the meantime it was one night when nobody made dinner at the Curtis, and they sent Darry to pick up some food from the Dairy Queen. So Darry got the food and was driving by the lot when he noticed Johnny's lonely figure in the dark. He drove up closer, and was going to ask Johnny what he was doing there all by himself at this hour, when the light from his headlights illuminated Johnny's face. What the hell, Darry thought. He stuck his head out. "Hey Johnny," he yelled. Johnny looked up and he looked like a trapped animal just staring at Darry who looked dead serious.

"What a hell happened?" Darry asked, without beating around the bush," who did this to you?" Johnny couldn't think of what to say so he just said "oh, don't worry about it, I'm fine."

"The hell you are." Darry replied. He got out f the truck and walked up to Johnny. "What happened? What are you doing here all by yourself at this hour anyway?" "It's nothing," Johnny tensed up, "I fell down the stairs." Darry gave Johnny one stern look that said he wasn't buying it. "I want to know now who the hell did this to you." He repeated. Johnny gave him a long, pained look.

Darry was going to say something, but stopped in a sudden realization. "Did someone… at your house do that?" Johnny was silent.

"Johnny?" Darry prompted.

"My old man…" Johnny said, trailing off.

"What?" Darry asked since he couldn't hear what Johnny said.

"My old man did this." Johnny repeated bitterly.

"Oh, Johnny," Darry said, "why are you hanging around here, why didn't you come to our house?" Silence again. Then Johnny looked down and almost whispered "I thought that if you found out you wouldn't hang out with me no more." Johnny's voice went into a sudden higher note just a hint that he was starting to cry. He thought he looked pathetic so he turned away from Darry's gaze.

"Why would you think that?" Darry said. "You are one of us now, we don't care about stuff like that. Where else are you hurt?"

"My back." Johnny croaked.

"C'mon, get in the truck, we need to clean those wound s 'fore they get infected." Darry wanted to comfort Johnny somehow, but he wasn't good at the feelings stuff so he just kept quiet waiting for Johnny to hesitantly climb into the truck.

"Are you hungry? I got food." Darry asked. Johnny hadn't eaten the whole day, but he was ashamed to say that he was hungry. Darry tossed him one of the bags with food anyway – "Cheeseburger and fries." he said. Johnny didn't want to seem too eager so he made sure to take his time taking the food out of the bag, but then he couldn't control himself and downed that cheeseburger in seconds, which didn't go unnoticed by Darry.

Finally they reached the house, and Darry walked in first. "Hey Pony," he called out, "get the first aid kit." Pony emerged from his room – "what's wrong?" he asked. Then his gaze stopped on Johnny's face. "Hey, what happened?" he asked, clearly concerned, "who did this to you?"

"I'll explain later," Darry said, saving Johnny an embarrassing explanation, "get the first aid kit."

"What's going on?" Soda walked into the room.

"Johnny got hurt, I'm going to clean his wounds." Darry replied.

"What happened?" Soda asked.

"I'll explain later." Darry replied.

"It's ok," Johnny said realizing that there was no point trying to hide it anymore since Darry would tell them anyway, "It's my old man. He's always hitting me and beating me with the belt." He hung his head after he said that.

"Why didn't you say something?" Pony, who was now back in the room, asked.

"I thought…" Johnny hesitated for a moment, "that if you found out you wouldn't want to hang out with me no more," he said simply.

"I found him at the lot," Darry said. "You know Johnny," he added, "You don't have to hide out at the lot. You can come straight to our house. Anyway, let's get this over with."

Darry settled Johnny on the kitchen counter and got some rubbing alcohol on the cotton swab and carefully pressed it around Johnny's eye, making sure none got in the eye. Johnny moaned a little as the cotton swab made contact with the skin.

"Now your back," Darry said, taking another cotton swab. "I'm just going to lift up your shirt is that ok?"He asked. Johnny nodded slightly. Darry lifted up Johnny's shirt and looked away. It was a bloody mess. The sight of that made him sick. Pony, who caught a glimpse of it, was looking away too. This wasn't going to be done with a cotton swab. Darry got a slightly wet towel and started cleaning the blood. Johnny bit his lower lip and slouched, his whole body shaking. After he cleaned the blood Darry got the cotton swab with rubbing alcohol again. Johnny flinched as the alcohol made contact directly with the wound. "Sorry," he said trying to sit up straight.

"Almost done, Johnny." Darry assured him.

"Then I got this," – Johnny lifted his shirt in the front, revealing a nasty gash on his stomach. It was all red with the dried up blood marks on the outside.

"Oh Johnny, how did that happen?"

"Beer bottle," Johnny replied in a scratchy voice.

"It's gonna need stitches," Darry said, "but I'll clean it up first." He cleaned it up with rubbing alcohol like he did the other wounds, and then started to stitch it up. Johnny leaned on the wall and was paler than a sheet. He made a fist, and his fingernails were poking deeply into his skin.

After they were finally done, food forgotten, Darry got a pillow and a blanket for Johnny. "You can't go back there, you are staying the night," he said. Johnny plopped on the couch next to the pillow, and was just sitting there staring into space, a pained expression on his face. He only noticed that Ponyboy was sitting next to him when Pony threw an arm around his shoulder. "I'm sorry man," he said. "I'm sorry that this is happening to you. But you should know we always got your back. We aren't gonna stop hanging out with you just 'cause of this. Promise you'll always go to us when you think your dad's mad or when. ..," he paused, "when it happens." Johnny was silent and was still staring into space. "Promise," Pony repeated.

"Ok, I promise," Johnny finally said in a really quiet voice and then added, "thanks." At this moment Darry walked into the room.

"Why are you two not asleep yet? Go to sleep," he said.

"Ok, ok," Pony replied, getting up from the couch. "If you need anything, Johnny just wake me up," he said before going into his room.