Stay Wild: A Curly Shepard Love Story

- Chapter 10 -

Birthday Party

Ella Rae's Point of View

"Hey, you know how Curly's birthday's tomorrow?" Tim asks through the raspy phone. I nod and hum a response. "We having a party for him and he don't know. I know he said you don't like parties, but it's his birthday, man. You gotta be here. Tomorrow at 7." 

Curly really talks about me to Tim? Even more shocking is that Tim listened and actually remembered. I mean, I would talk about him to my parents if they were around. I'm not memorable enough to talk about. 

"Uh, yeah, I'll be there. You need me
to bring anything or-"

"You gotta distract him, keep him out the house after school," Tim interrupts. So that's why--he's using me. Makes sense, Curly does come over here every day, I just gotta make sure he doesn't leave too early. 

"Yeah, I can do that." 
--------------------
"You wanna go to dairy Queen?" I ask, grabbing Curly's hand and laying my head on his shoulder. "It is your birthdayyyyy," I stretch. Curly laughs and squeezes my hand back, leaning his head on my own. 

Earlier he was talking about how nobody cared about his birthday but me. Tim didn't say anything this morning and neither did Angela. Ponyboy did, obviously, but nobody but me and him, and it still hurt, even though I knew about the party. 

"And nobody cares, princess. I wanna go home," he mumbles. "I'm tired, I
didn't sleep last night." 

"Why?" I pout, lifting my head and looking at him. He opens his eyes from when he just have closed them and shrugs, "I was excited I guess. 17's not a big number, but still. I was kinda happy." 

"I think 17 is plenty a reason to celebrate, so come on. We're getting ice cream." I stand up and grab his hand, trying to pull him up. Instead, Curly tugs me down on top of him and grabs my hips. 

"I think we could celebrate like this," he whispers. I smirk and kiss him quickly. 

"I think we can do that later because I don't believe Dairy Queen is 24 hours." Curly laughs. 

"Worth a shot, princess." 
-----
It's a good thing Curly isn't that observant because if he was, he would have noticed that I'm carrying a bag. I never do, I want to have a change of clothes for the party because I guarantee other people ain't wearing the same shot they wear to school, at least girls won't. 

The real problem that I didn't consider is having to get him back to his house. I might have to take him back to mine and let him leave to get home. I can always follow him or show up a little bit later. Curly's always aware when walking alone on the street, so following would be really hard. 

"I'm tired," I yawn. Knowing Curly, he's gonna be real disappointed that I want to end the night here, by that sets him up perfectly to get surprised. I can't let him go in early, Tim trusted me with this. I know he likes me a decent amount after helping Angela, but I can't ruin that now. 

"Really?" I nod and sigh, slipping my left hand into his right. 

"You wanna go home?" I shrug and nod. 

"You can just stop at your house, I can walk alone. I don't gotta make you go outta the way." Curly shakes his head. 

"I ain't letting my girl walk home alone. It ain't out the way, I ain't missing shit at home anyway." Oh trust me, Curly, you would be. I nod and lean onto his side. 

"I love you," I whisper. 

"Love you too, princess." He kisses my temple, but I can tell he's upset. 
-----
I step in the back door of the racing party, squeezing through all the guys in the house with my skimpy little dress on that I knew Curly would enjoy. After hearing many wolf whistles, I find Curly by the couch with a beer in his hand. The house already reeks of beer and smoke, I don't need Curly to either. 

I come up behind him and wrap my arms around his neck, kissing his cheekbone and whispering, "Happy birthday, Curls." Curly turns fast and hugs me, picking me off the ground. 

"I shoulda known you were up to something, princess." He kisses right in front of my ear and I bury my face in his neck, kissing it gently a couple of times. 

"It was so hard, tryna hide it from you, Tim called me last night," I say, lowering myself to the floor. He looks me up and down with a smirk. 

"You look beautiful," he murmurs.  I wink and smirk back. 

"I'm all yours tonight, Curly." 

"Perfect."