Disclaimer: The Outsiders is owned by S.E. Hinton I own nothing.
…
(General POV)
Ponyboy allowed himself a small smile as he sat his desk, in his hand a letter from someone very special.
Dear Ponyboy
How have you been doing? My parents and I have settled
into our new house just fine. Though I have to admit, fitting in
at my new school is pretty tough, new students are NOT welcomed
warmly, but I'm getting through. What's new with you? I hope you haven't
moved onto someone new to quickly. Hope to hear from you soon!
Sincerely, Johnny
"Oh, Johnny," Ponyboy sighed shaking his head in amusement.
Ponyboy gently placed the letter on his desk, eyeing it silently.
It felt so good to hear from him in such a long while. It had already been a pretty long while since Johnny moved and this was the first letter Ponyboy got from him. The young greaser was starting to get a little worried that maybe he had been forgotten.
Ponyboy chastised himself for ever thinking that about his friend. Johnny was, and had always been, a loyal friend.
I hope you haven't moved onto someone new to quickly. That part of the letter stood out the most to him.
What made Johnny think that Ponyboy could get over him so fast? Ponyboy hasn't even been thinking about getting another boyfriend yet.
Maybe I should give it some thought though, Ponyboy questioned to himself.
As much as it pains him to admit to himself, he and Johnny are over and they will probably never get back together again. The young greaser was wondering if he should test the waters for a bit, just to see what's there.
"It's too early in the morning to be thinking about these things," Ponyboy groaned to himself yawning for emphasis.
"Ponyboy!" He heard his oldest brother called out to him, "hurry up or you're going to be late for school!"
Hurriedly, Ponyboy folded up his letter and tucked it under the book Johnny gave him while it was on its book stand.
Grabbing his book bag, Ponyboy left his room and moved to kitchen to get his lunches. Hearing the front door close, Ponyboy assumed that was Darry on his way to work.
On the way to the kitchen Ponyboy noticed Sodapop with his head on the table looking extremely depressed. This was somewhat disturbing seeing as Sodapop and depressed are rarely used in the same sentence.
"What wrong with you?" Ponyboy asked snatching the two lunches he prepared off of the kitchen counter.
"DX is closed for the entire day," Sodapop replied tiredly not raising his head up, "and I already don't know what to do."
"It's still pretty early, why don't you go back to bed," Ponyboy suggested lightly.
Sodapop moaned lowly.
"I don't feel like being in bed anymore," Sodapop grumbled, "I am so bored!"
Oh boy, Ponyboy sighed to himself gloomily.
A bored Sodapop Curtis is never a good thing to be around.
"I'm sure you'll find something to do," Ponyboy moved and patted his brothers shoulder comfortably, "you always do."
Sodapop just waved him off grumbling into the table.
Rolling his eyes, Ponyboy walked over to the phone and dialed Steve's house.
"Hey Steve…its Ponyboy, don't hang up."
"…."
"Sodapop wants you to come over real quick."
"…."
"No he's not bored."
"…!"
"I swear is he isn't…okay…okay bye."
Ponyboy looked over at his brother smiling at him easily.
"Don't worry Soda, you'll have Steve to mess with," Ponyboy chuckled to his brother who didn't seem to paying attention to anything at the moment.
Feeling satisfied, Ponyboy walked out of his house feeling happy that he was able to not only keep his brother occupied but mess with Steve at the same time.
Like killing two birds with one stone, Ponyboy said to himself mischievously.
…
"Why must school be five days a week?" Justin complained loudly in annoyance, "it's like there trying to torture us."
Ponyboy just looked at him in amusement as they both walked up to their schools.
Looking over at his friend, Justin noticed Ponyboy was carry two lunch bags in his hands.
"Why do you have two lunches," Justin asked curiously, "are you going to eat both of them?"
"Yes, Justin," Ponyboy rolled his eyes at him good naturedly, "I'm going to eat both of these lunches by myself."
Justin blinked up at him innocently.
"Ponyboy," Justin said slowly, "are you depressed?"
"Huh?" Ponyboy looked at him in confusion.
"I read somewhere that people usually eat to fight off depression," Justin looked genuinely concerned at this point.
Justin moved over and hugged Ponyboy by his middle.
"You have postpartum depression don't you," Justin gazed up at him with big vulnerable eyes, "I think that's what it's called."
For the longest time Ponyboy did nothing but stare down at Justin blankly, he just couldn't figure out what to say at the moment.
Finally, Ponyboy dissolved into a fit of giggles (he probably would have been rolling on the floor if Justin wasn't holding him).
"What," Justin asked obliviously titling his head at the young greaser.
"Nothing, nothing," Ponyboy waved him off still giggling and handed Justin one of his lunches, "this is for you."
"Oh," Justin's eyes widened before he blushed in embarrassment. Releasing Ponyboy from his grip, Justin took the lunch from his friend.
"I knew that," Justin grumbled trying to save face as he started walking to school again.
"Sure," Ponyboy nodded smiling down at the younger boy.
For a while neither of them said anything, as Ponyboy was still laughing in his head and Justin was still recovering from his embarrassment.
"So, um," Justin started to say slowly, "was I close when I talked about what postpartum depression was?"
"No," Ponyboy proclaimed starting to giggle again, "trust me Justin postpartum depression has nothing to do with me in the slightest."
At the return of Ponyboy's giggles, Justin felt himself chuckling along with Ponyboy. Even though Ponyboy was laughing at him, it didn't make him feel like it was in a mean spirited way like so many times in the past. It made Justin feel like he had a friend.
It made Justin feel as good as his normally wide smile made him seem, and that felt nice for a change.
"Oh and I'm taking you home again after class," Ponyboy informed Justin after a while.
"Why?" Justin asked more out of curiosity than anything.
"Didn't you hear? There's this crazy hood going around slicing up people," Ponyboy told Justin concerned that he didn't know about this, "he's completely nuts."
"Oh," Justin gasped in shock, "that's horrible!"
Ponyboy nodded feeling the same way.
Ponyboy made it to his first class relatively early for once. As he entered the class, Ponyboy noticed a considerable amount of people freeze. They stared at him at what looked to be fear and caution.
They must still be scared after that whole thing with Curly and Thomas, Ponyboy theorized to himself as he walked to sit down at the back of the class.
Even though Curly was suspended, luckily since this was his first offense in a long while that was all he got, and Thomas is recovering at home they must be afraid to mess with the young greaser as well since he was friends with Curly.
It always ends up like that, Ponyboy thought to himself in amusement.
Mrs. Turntree chose at that moment to walk into class looking just as annoyed as she did yesterday.
"Good morning class," Mrs. Turntree greeted.
All she got was mumbles in response.
Angrily, she slammed her books down the sound echoing throughout the class.
"I said good morning dammit!" Mrs. Turntree shouted.
"Good morning Mrs. Turntree," The class said in unison fearful of her wrath.
"Didn't anyone teach you little brats any manners," Mrs. Turntree demanded glaring at the entire class.
Reaching into her bag, Mrs. Turntree pulled out a stack of papers.
"I have your practice tests Mrs. Adiba graded," Mrs. Turntree an almost sinister smile on her face, "and I have good news and bad news."
The class waited in anticipation looking both scared and anxious at the same time.
"The bad news is you're all stupid and failed the test miserably," Mrs. Turntree told them in a gleeful voice, "the good news I'm counting this test as twenty percent of your final grade."
The entire class looked at her in total and complete shock.
"But why is that good news," A girl in the front of the class asked in utter confusion.
"Because it will motivate you to try harder and actually earn your grade instead of it just being handed to you," Mrs. Turntree answered with a grin.
"But that's not fair," A boy in the middle of the class protested, "that test was just to see what we knew about the subject, there was only so good we could have done."
Mrs. Turntree just looked at the boy blankly before finally giving him a careless shrug.
"No I agree it's completely unfair," Mrs. Turntree admitted before turning to the board, "so on to today's lesson."
"But you can't do that," a girl stood up and protested loudly.
"Uh, yes I can," Mrs. Turntree snorted not even turning around to face her.
"You gave you that right," the girl demanded.
"I did," Mrs. Turntree stated turning around to look at the girl like she was an idiot, "I'm the teacher bitch!"
No one knew what else to say to that.
Despite all of the craziness, Ponyboy couldn't help but find the humor in this.
Class went by relatively quickly for Ponyboy, mostly because all the classes after Mrs. Turntree's were a breeze, and he found himself walking out of class and out of school before he knew it.
Ponyboy stopped as he heard a familiar barking in his ear. Looking over at the sidewalk, Ponyboy saw his favorite little Dalmatian running toward him.
"Tosh," Ponyboy's eyes lit up as his little puppy ran through the mass of people and into his arms.
"What are you doing here?" Ponyboy asked as he rubbed Tosh's fur.
As if know what he was asking, Tosh turned and gave Ponyboy the note in his mouth.
"He wanted to see you so have fun with him," Ponyboy read knowing from the hand writing that it was Curly.
Ponyboy smiled down at his puppy.
"Come on, let's go get Justin so we can go play," Ponyboy urged his puppy.
Tosh barked in response.
…
"Oh my god," Sodapop groaned loudly banging his head on table.
Steve rolled his eyes and tried to ignore him by focusing on his television show.
I am going to kill that little brat, Steve thought to himself menacingly.
Right now it was around three o'clock, the students at school have already been released from classes and were relaxing at home. The day seemed pretty average as nothing exciting seemed to be going on at the moment.
As proven by one particular greaser.
"I am so bored," Sodapop proclaimed loudly.
Slowly, Sodapop turned his gaze to his best friend.
"Steve, aren't you bored," Sodapop drew out slowly.
Closing his eyes, Steve tried to do everything possible to control his sheer amount annoyance at his best friend. Although he does care for him like a brother, Sodapop can be next to impossible to be around when he's bored because he's such an active and bright person every other day of the week.
"Hey Steve, hey Steve, hey Steve, hey Steve, hey Steve, hey Steve, hey Steve…"
"What?" Steve snapped turning to glare at his friend fiercely.
"…I'm bored."
"I am so sick of this," Steve groaned in annoyance.
"No you're not," Sodapop refuted, "if you're so sick of this then why don't you just leave?"
"You won't let me leave," Steve snapped, "you even stopped me from going to school!"
Sodapop pouted and looked at his friend pleadingly.
"Because I have nothing to do," Sodapop whined, "being home alone sucks."
"Whatever," Steve rolled his eyes at him and went to his television show.
Just then the door slammed open to the house.
"Hello greasers," Two-Bit greeted loudly as he always does.
"Why me?" Steve rubbed his forehead tiredly.
"What's going on people?" Two-Bit asked not lowering his voice in the slightest as he slouched down on the couch.
"Boredom."
"Hell."
Two-Bit stopped and looked around the house.
"Where are littlest Curtis and biggest Curtis?" Two-Bit asked not finding any trace of them.
"I don't know where Ponyboy is," Sodapop answered.
"Probably avoiding this house," Steve mumbled to himself.
"And Darry is still at work," Sodapop narrowed his eyes bitterly, "but he'll probably stop and visit his boyfriend later."
"Boyfriend?" Two-Bit raised an eyebrow at him.
Steve couldn't help but looked at his friend curiously as well seeing as he didn't hear about this from him.
"Darry's dating some guy he knew from high school," Sodapop told them, "Ponyboy guessed it but I didn't believe him until he told me that Darry asked him for advice on Danny."
"Danny? Are you serious?" Two-Bit asked in shock, "you mean to tell me that out of the three of you Curtis brothers
you're the one that's straight."
"Yeah that's…wait a minute," Sodapop protested as he realized what Two-Bit was implying, "what's that supposed to mean?"
"What do you think pretty boy?" Two-Bit retorted with a smirk.
As Steve saw Soda's face turn red with anger, he knew that this was going to be a long and drawn out argument.
Oh well, Steve said to himself, as least he isn't bothering me anymore.
…
"Okay Tosh, I'm gonna throw this one really far this time," Justin told the puppy in front of him excitedly.
Tosh barked and held his tongue out in anticipation.
Justin winded up his arm and threw the ball as hard as he could.
Immediately, Tosh went running for the ball where he saw it fall.
Ponyboy observed them both calmly. Since Tosh was so full of energy today both Ponyboy and Justin decided to take him to the park and play around with him bit.
Tosh seemed to have gotten over his wariness around Justin thankfully. That's just how it is with dogs that are shy, be around them enough and show them that you're not a threat and eventually they'll warm up to you.
Ponyboy furrowed his brow in confusion as he noticed Justin rubbing the arm he threw the ball with, his face construed in pain.
He has been doing that a lot lately, Ponyboy thought to himself. He noticed Justin doing the same thing yesterday after school as well.
"What's wrong with your arm?" Ponyboy asked.
Justin's eyes snapped up to the young greaser in shock, obviously not expecting Ponyboy to ask that question.
"I just hit it on something," Justin answered weakly.
The look on Ponyboy's face said that he didn't believe him in the slightest. Ponyboy was giving the same demanding look he gave Justin yesterday, it was intense and stern.
It made Justin gulp under the pressure of the gaze.
Thankfully for Justin, Tosh decided to run back to them with the ball in his mouth.
"Good boy Tosh," Justin praised taking the ball from the puppy's mouth and rubbing his fur.
Seeing as it was starting to get a little late Ponyboy decided it was time for everyone to go home, reminding himself to find out what Justin was hiding later.
"Time to go guys," Ponyboy ordered packing up his stuff.
"Aw," Justin whined along with Tosh's whimpering.
"It's getting late," Ponyboy reminded them, "it's time to take everyone home."
"Just a little while longer," Justin pleaded.
Wrapping his arms around Tosh, Justin moved so his head was just above the puppies. Both of them were giving Ponyboy there best puppy dog look.
Ponyboy just raised an eyebrow at them as he allowed himself to smirk at their futile pouting attempt.
Amateurs.
"Sorry boys, you still have to get better at it," Ponyboy snickered.
Justin rolled his eyes and started to pack up his things as well, Tosh fumbling around behind him.
Ponyboy was thinking about just dropping Justin off at his house, until a thought struck him.
Maybe we should go visit Curly at his house, Ponyboy asked himself. He did promise himself that he would do it pretty soon.
"Let's go visit Curly," Ponyboy suggested.
Justin gave the young greaser an upset look.
"Why?" Justin demanded as he still didn't like Curly all that much.
"Just to surprise him," Ponyboy shrugged easily, "it's has been a while since I've been over there."
Tosh started whimpering and lied down on the grass.
"I don't think Tosh likes that idea," Justin stated looking down at the saddened puppy.
Ponyboy rolled his eyes and picked Tosh up in his arms, ignoring the increase of his whimpering.
"Come on Tosh, it's just one house visit," Ponyboy said in exasperation, "how bad can it be?"
Justin had the distinct feeling that Ponyboy was going to regret those words soon.
…
When they got to the Shepard house it was pretty late in the day, the sun was already starting to set.
As Ponyboy went to knock on the door, Justin and Tosh stayed a little ways behind him looking a little hesitant.
"No answer," Ponyboy titled his head in confusion.
"Oh well," Justin chuckled nervously looking all to relived, "looks like we should just try and go home then."
Twisting the doorknob, Ponyboy unsurprisingly found the door to be open.
"Why don't people lock their doors in this neighborhood?" Ponyboy mumbled to himself stepping inside the house.
"Ponyboy wait," Justin whimpered hanging onto the young greaser by the back of his shirt sleeve, Tosh right behind the both of them.
There wasn't a single light on in the house, if Ponyboy didn't know any better he would have sworn that this place was abandoned.
"Hello?" Ponyboy voiced slowly walking into the pitch black living room, "Curly are you here?"
They all heard someone grunt in reply.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a set of hands latched onto Ponyboy's shoulders causing both Justin and Tosh to jump back in shock.
"Well, well, look what we have here," a deep amused voice said in the dark.
Ponyboy froze at the familiarity of the voice, the nightmares it brings to mind.
Fearfully, Ponyboy raised his head up to confirm his guess.
It was Wild Dog.
His pitch black eyes almost seemed to blend in with the darkness of the house, but Ponyboy could still see the fierce gaze that was on him at the moment.
"Long time no see little bitch," Wild Dog grinned in interest, "it's been a while hasn't it?"
"My name is Ponyboy," the young greaser replied bravely.
Wild Dog smirked down at him moving his arms down Ponyboy's body.
"Still have that fire huh?" Wild Dog chuckled darkly, "just what I like to see."
Ponyboy looked over to Justin to see him overcome with shock, freezing in sheer vicinity of this man.
"What are you doing here?" Ponyboy asked lowly hoping to keep this conversation as short as possible.
Wild Dog shrugged nonchalantly.
"Hanging out, fucking around with my gun," Wild Dog gestured to the rifle in his pocket causing Justin to gasp in fear, "waiting for Tim to come back."
"Oh okay," Ponyboy nodded slowly moving away from Wild Dog, "then I'll just leave you to it then."
Ponyboy let out a squeal as the hands on his hips tightened even more. Wild Dog looked down at him with something akin to lust and frustration.
"What's your hurry?" Wild Dog asked lowly, "don't you want to spend some time with me and catch up? I saw you eyeing me when we first met."
"No I wasn't," Ponyboy replied doing his best to try and stay polite, "now please let me go."
"Hey come on," Wild Dog urged pulling Ponyboy close to his body, "stay and have some fun with me."
"Stop," Ponyboy insisted struggling in his grip even more.
Justin, who seemed to have recovered from his shock, moved over to help Ponyboy.
"Get off him," Justin glared trying to pry Wild Dog's hands off of the young greaser.
Barely even looking at him, Wild Dog delivered a swift punch to Justin's stomach instantly causing him to go rolling on the floor in pain.
Ponyboy gasped his eyes widen in concern. He turned too glared at Wild Dog furiously. As hard as Ponyboy tried to get out of Wild Dog's grip, the young greaser just found himself overpowered by the man that was just as big as the eldest brother.
Tosh started barking frantically, moving closer to the main staircase.
"Shut up," Wild Dog growled angrily at the little Dalmatian.
Thoroughly silenced, Tosh quickly ran up the stairs.
"Hey," Ponyboy snapped pushing Wild Dog back, "knock it off you jerk."
Snarling in annoyance, Wild Dog pushed Ponyboy against the closet next to the staircase. One of Wild Dog's arms was on the young greaser's neck while the other was just above his pants zipper.
"You really light my fire bitch," Wild Dog whispered in Ponyboy's ear, "I can't wait to have you put it out."
Ponyboy started whimpering in fear as he felt Wild Dog's hand move to the back of his pants. The hand slid past his underwear to his bare ass. He slowly starting moving his handed near Ponyboy's entrance.
"Please no," Ponyboy pleaded.
"Get the fuck off him."
Wild Dog turned around to see both Curly and Tosh behind him.
Curly, who has was red with rage, faced the hood looking determined…
…and ready to fire
