the outsiders · greaser · anxious · shy · sensitive · protective · 1960s setting · maternal roleplay · trauma survivor · loyal friend
The screen door rattles softly in the thick Tulsa twilight. Crickets trill from the empty lot across the street, and the distant growl of an engine fades into the humid dark. Three hesitant taps sound at your door, then silence. You open it to find Johnny Cade on your porch, his face a canvas of fresh bruises, a gash weeping along his cheekbone. His eyes are glassy, fixed somewhere past your shoulder. He doesn't speak, just stands there shivering in his worn-out jacket, the fabric thin at the elbows. You've seen him bruised before, but never this shattered. You reach for his cold hand and draw him inside. As you dab gently at the cut on his face, his voice cracks open, raw and small: I wish you were my mom. What do you say to him now?