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Johnny always enjoyed it when he could go over to Pony’s house, even if Pony wasn’t always there.
Like today, it had been him and Darry for a while. Pony had a track meet that took up most of the afternoon, which left them alone for a few hours.
“You hungry, kid?” “We have some stuff to make PB&J if you want.”
“Sure.” He wanted to say ‘Yes, of course, I haven’t eaten all day,’ but that would sound too greedy, wouldn’t it? In his mind, at least, it did.
He never knew why he was so scared to say ‘yes’ to any question. Come to think of it, he rarely showed any excitement about anything if he could help it either.
After a few seconds, he realized why. It probably had something to do with why he was there anyway.
His awful parents. That certainly made sense, didn’t it?
Johnny shook the thoughts from his head and finally got up.
When he got to the kitchen, he saw that Darry already made his stuff, and left all the ingredients on the counter for him. Which was great, because that meant none of the jars were closed fully.
Johnny never prided himself on being able to open jars, and there was a good reason for that.
One, that’s a weird thing to brag about, and he wasn’t going to anyway. Two, he just wasn’t that good at it. And living in a house like Johnny’s, if you couldn't’ do something fast, you might as well forget about doing it.
That rule was engrained in his head mostly for food. If he couldn’t sneak to the kitchen and fix something up quick, he’d be right in the line of fire when his folks woke up. And he’d learned all too well how it felt to get whacked in the head with a plate or get a knife thrown his direction.
Not fun.
The Curtis household was different though. Here, people might’ve been screaming their heads off, but it never resulted in someone going to the ER or breaking anything… not anything major anyway.
Other than that one time Two-Bit broke a china glass from Mrs. Curtis (he felt terrible about it,) it was relatively peaceful in the kitchen. And most if not all of the gang knew about Johnny’s feeling towards food and making his own, so they usually left him be if he was there.
Which was probably why Darry already made his stuff and was sitting out in the living room.
Johnny started making his food. It wasn’t anything spectacular, but who was gonna judge him for how it looked? It was a sandwich, it just had to taste good.
He started with the jelly first, seeing as it was almost empty. There wasn’t much in there, but he’d certainly make the most of it.
The scraping sound must’ve got unbearable after a while, cause Darry looked over to him with the slightest hint of annoyance on his face. He stood up, and Johnny almost thought he was gonna get fussed at.
But instead of walking directly to him, Darry walked to the cabinets.
“There’s another one somewhere,” he said. After a few seconds he turned back around, holding a new jar. “Here.”
“Thanks.” Johnny took the jar and looked it over. He knew there was nothing wrong with it, obviously.
But it was an unopened glass jar.
Internally, Johnny was freaking out. He could never get them on the first try, let alone at all.
He sighed. Maybe today would be the day. He situated his hands on the jar and twisted.
It didn’t budge.
He tried again, still nothing.
After the fourth mini battle with the top, he sighed and put it back on the counter.
“I could open it for you if you needed,” Darry said.
Johnny’s shoulders slumped. He handed it to the older boy and looked away. “Yeah, sorry.”
“You’re fine,” he said, and after a few seconds, he started to struggle with it too. “This is kinda hard to open actually.”
Johnny smiled a little at that. Half the time, it would be Darry opening stuff for him, and even though he was grateful for that, it did make him feel a bit bad. But at least this time is was a mutual struggle. At least he wasn't just weak for not being able to open it—
“Oh, there’s plastic on the lid.”
Johnny blinked once, then twice, trying to regusted what was said. “Huh?”
He looked back up at Darry, and he was pulling something off the lid. Sure enough, a thin layer of plastic came up from it.
“There was plastic on it.” He had a certain smile on his face like he, too, felt betrayed by the jar.
Johnny felt the same way, albeit even more belittled than before. “Oh.”
Darry handed it back to him to give him another shot. He tried it again, and it took about five seconds for him to give up again.
“Nope, still can’t do it.” He felt a bit stupid. An embarrassed smile was plastered on his face as Darry took the jar back and opened it in seconds.
“It’s okay, I didn’t realize it either.” Darry wasn’t upset. He wasn’t even making fun of Johnny in any way. The smile he was wearing certainly wasn’t condescending either. He went on, “I felt it moving under my hands and I got so confused. Like it was moving but it wasn’t.”
Johnny laughed. It was a real, genuine laugh. He was almost entirely sure that was Darry’s plan, but that was okay.
After all that, Johnny made his sandwich, put the evil jars away and went to eat at the table with Darry. And for the first time, he didn’t feel like he had to rush. He didn’t feel pressured or judged or anything.
Though he did still have that burning hatred for glass jars, he was sure that feeling was mutual now anyway.