For once Two-bit Matthews was speechless.

During the silence Pony realized something.

"Two-bit … what happened to your eye?"

He had a black eye. Pony blinked in confusion.

Why hadn't he noticed that before?

Two-bit smirked bitterly.

"Dally decided to pay me a visit for messin' around with ya."

Two-bit was able to avoid all members of the gang for about a week, until a couple days ago, when Dally had cornered him in Buck's.

He had dragged him outside to a dark alleyway and slammed him hard up against a wall, fisting his collar in a tight grip. Two-bit's eyes were wide, his face pale. Dally's icy blue eyes glinting dangerously.

"What were ya thinkin', stupid clown? He's just a kid! Tell me, Keith, what the fuck were ya thinkin'?" Dally seethed.

Two-bit choked out an uneasy laugh, grabbing Dally's hands trying to make him let go of him to no avail.

"Geez Louise, Dal, calm down. I didn't mean to, I was drunk."

Dally's eyes narrowed to silts as he growled dangerously low in his throat and Two-bit then knew he had said the wrong thing.

Dally let one of his hands fall from Two-bit's collar and brought it back so he could slug Two-bit in the face.

Two-bit yelped.

Dally then threw him to the ground.

"You're always drunk, ya idiot, but ya never did anythin' this bad, this WRONG before!" Dally spat out harshly. "If ya know what's good for ya, stay away from the kid, stay away from Ponyboy." He warned in a low dangerous voice. "'Cause if ya don't, I'll tell Darry and Soda, and I'm sure they'd love to help me beat the shit outta ya. The only reason I haven't said anything yet was 'cause Pony doesn't want anyone to know he got drunk enough to sleep with an idiot like ya."

"Oh god, I'm sorry, Two-bit. I can't believe Dally did this." Pony mumbled in concern as he was inspecting it closely. He was standing right in front of the older boy, touching his black eye gently in concern.

Two-bit couldn't help but smile softly.

Pony was so caring, so considerate of others. He was like a mother hen.

Two-bit couldn't help it, he was so close … and before he could think twice, his lips crashed onto the smaller boy's. Pony let out a gasp of surprise and Two-bit took advantage of this by plunging his tongue into Pony's moist cavern.

Pony squeaked into Two-bit's mouth, putting his hands to his chest and tried to push him off of him to no avail. After a while, he found himself kissing him back. It was only when Two-bit was undoing Pony's belt buckle that Pony had realized what they were doing.

He shoved Two-bit harshly off of him.

"What the fuck, Two-bit?! What was that?! I'm not one of your fucking blondes! I was drunk out of my mind the last time! It was a mistake, the biggest mistake of my life! It's never going to happen again!"

It shocked Pony when hurt flashed through those grey eyes that were normally sparkling with mischief and happiness, but just as quickly as it came it was gone.

"Sorry, kid." He mumbled, looking at his feet.

Pony looked at Two-bit with questioning eyes.

"Two-bit … do-do you got something you want to tell me?"

Two-bit was quiet for a minute and it scared Pony, because Two-bit was acting so uncharacteristic to his usual self.

Two-bit was never quiet.

Two-bit sighed and shook his head as he finally met his eyes.

"No."

He turned and opened up the door.

"I think you should leave."

That hurt Pony. Why should he leave? What did he do wrong? Two-bit's the one who tried to get in his pants, so shouldn't he be the one who's mad?

Pony's hurt turned into anger.

"Well, I guess that's it, huh, Keith! You're going to let one stupid meaningless night ruin our friendship! Fuck you, Keith Matthews!"

He paused a second, tears filling his eyes as he tried to come up with his final words that would really hurt him.

"I hate you!"

That done it, Pony wanted to hurt Two-bit, and he exceeded. He looked like he had just been told his mother and sister had died in a horrible accident.

Pony's never seen his friend this hurt before, and because of that he regretted those three words that he had said, he wanted to go back in time a few seconds to stop those words from escaping his lips. He didn't mean them; he just wanted to hurt him like he had hurt Pony.

He wanted to take it back, but it was too late, the damage was done.

So, without another word, Pony spun on his heels and ran out of the room.