ITS ABOUT TIME ➤ Ponyboy Curtis

7

𝙶𝚎𝚘𝚛𝚐𝚒𝚊 𝙳𝚊𝚠𝚗 𝙼𝚊𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚠𝚜
♫ -

    "Hello?" I called out into the Curtis house. "It's Georgia!"
    I stepped into the house as Sodapop emerged from his room. "Hey Georgie!" He cheered.
    "Hi Soda. How's your morning?"
    He was buttoning up his DX shirt. "It's alright, thanks. Stevie's 'sposed to pick me up for work right about now."
    "You guys work together right?" I was only trying to make small talk. I knew they worked together because Two-Bit would bring me along sometimes when he would visit them at work. I would wait in the car while he talked to them. Two-Bit's very good at talking, so I would look out the car window and admires the cars in the garage. Working in a car garage sounded like the best job ever.
    Sodapop stuffed his feet into some shoes, begrudgingly. "Yeah, it's real fun. We're a little short on staff so we've been doing a lot lately." A car honked its horn from outside. "That's Steve! I'll see ya later Georgie!" Sodapop opened the door just as Dallas was reaching for the handle.
    Dally stepped aside, saying, "Sorry Sodapop, ladies first." He then greeted me lazily. "Hey, Georgia."
Dally was wearing baggy jeans which all of these guys seemed to wear. Was it that hard to find a pair that fit? He was also wearing a tight black shirt and a leather jacket. I never understood how the greaser guys wore black and leather all year round without dying of heat exhaustion.
Dallas plopped back on the couch next to my brother, who I hadn't noticed was there. I walked over to him and kicked his shoe. "Is he dead or something?"
"Nah," Dally chuckled, "he passed out at midnight after smoking a pack."
"He better not have been smoking in the house." Darrel's voice boomed from the kitchen.
Dallas just scoffed, "You know he was!"
That made me frustrated. I worried about Two-Bit and his habits. He would drink and drink and drink until he couldn't anymore and then smoke some cigarettes and pass out. That's exactly what he said our father did. I couldn't, could not, have him end up like our father.
Darrel sighed and stepped under the kitchen entrance. "Ready to get baking?"
I nodded my head and joined Darrel in the kitchen. He put on one of those housewife aprons and I tried to hold in my laughter.
"You've never seen a grown man in an apron before?"
I collected myself and put on a straight face. Darry and I started baking while listening to some music on the radio. Dallas would occasionally take a break from watching T.V and try and stick his finger in the frosting. I had to physically shove him away.
"C'mon, man. I just want a little."
"You can have a little when it's on the cake." I said, pushing him out through the doorway and back into the living room. "And based on how heavy you are, I would suggest you didn't."
As soon as those words left my mouth started to regret them. Dallas Winston was not known for his patience. He was known for his short temper and beating the tar about if people. I expected him to cuss me out and storm off, but instead he just laughed. He laughed and he meant it.
"This girls got spunk!" Dally chuckled, trapping me in a headlock. He told Darry to keep a close eye on me, who then told Dally to knock it off and sit down. I rolled my eyes at him but I wasn't annoyed. That's how and Two-Bit acted with each other. I thought it was sweet that Dallas was treating me this way. Surprising but sweet. He warmed up to me real fast.
"Welcome to the family, kid." Darry laughed once Dally settled in the living room. While the first layer of the cake was in the oven, we joined in conversation.
"D'ya like baking?" He asked me, leaning against the counter with his arms crossed. If he didn't have that apron on then I would have been intimidated.
"When I choose too, yeah. I like eating what I make, mostly cookies."
Darry asked, "Like what, chocolate?"
and he sounded like he was interrogating me, though he wasn't. That was just his voice. He had a harsh and doubtful under stone in his deep voice, along with a decently prominent southern accent. He wasn't being rude, he just sounded like it.
"Gingerbread cookies." I said. "They're my favorite. Ironic right?"
Darrel gave out a short chuckle and looked down at his shoes. "Our mom used to make gingerbread cookies every winter." He sighed. "I tried making them once, but I added too much nutmeg."
"They're pretty hard to make." I said, choosing not to respond to the first part of his statement. He had no intention of getting sappy and talking about our feelings, so I didn't make it sappy. "l aways make two batches, 'cause the first one is always rock hard."
"All my cookies turn out rock hard." Darry chuckled. Turning around, he grabbed three bowls out of a cabinet. "I'm thinkin' we make the cake look like a flag. I start fixin' up some frosting and we can color red, white, and blue."
I smiled. "Sounds like a plan."
Soon enough the second layer of cake was done baking and Darry and I started frosting. I did the stripes because he kept messing up.
"Shit." He muttered under his breath after his wrist smudged two of the stripes together. Darry quickly looked up at me, "Sorry."
"That's alright." I laughed. "Do you want me to do the stripes and you can do the blue part?"
"Yeah that'd be great, thanks."
Halfway through the frosting process, Ponyboy walked into the kitchen. "Hey Darry, when's Georgia getting here?"
"A half an hour ago."
Ponyboy noticed my presence and waved before scurrying off into his room. I didn't notice it at the time but he was only wearing boxers. Darry and Dallas got a hoot out of that.
"I swear that kid is crazy sometimes." Darry chuckled.
"Nah man, I think he planned that."
Another thirty minutes past and Ponyboy came back out around the same time Johnny arrived.
"You exited for 4th of July, Johnny?" Ponyboy asked while sitting at the kitchen table, watching Darry finish frosting the cake.
Johnny shrugged. "I'm exited for the cake."
"Well good thing it's done!" I cheered and placed it on a plate, wrapping it in tinfoil. "I'll be back, I'm gonna keep this at my house so no one gets into it."
"Y'mean so Steve doesn't get into it?" Ponyboy joked.
I laughed, "Yeah but I did, but I didn't want to be mean."
Two-Bit wouldn't look in our fridge because most of the time it was close to being empty. Hiding the cake in there would prevent him and Steve from stealing it, so I placed the cake on the top shelf and closed the fridge door. After walking back to the Curtis house, I plopped down on the couch next to Dallas in the spot that Two-Bit once was. He must have left.
"I am all baked out." I sighed.
Ponyboy and Johnny joined Dally and I in the living room and we all had a conversation about who made the best cake. Everyone but Dally said that Darry made the better cake, but he has a sweet-tooth and said that Soda's cakes are the best. I couldn't help but wondering what was up with the Curtis boys and their fixation on chocolate.
Steve and Soda came home at 3:00 and Two-Bit walked in around 3:30. "Hey y'all. I was just drinking with Terry down the street." My whole body tensed up and my face hardened. He sat down next to me and I immediately stood up, walking away.
"Did I do something to upset you?" He scoffed.
I didn't answer and instead stepped outside and sat on the porch. I was sick of him thinking it's okay to be so immature. Sure he was a bit dumb, but that didn't give him an excuse to treat his liver like garbage and throw his whole life away just because he wants to drink a few beers. I understood that addiction ran in our family and that it would be hard for him to quit if he chose to, but he wouldn't. He wasn't going to choose to stop drinking no matter how many times I told him too.
I don't think he understood how it effected me. Two-Bit didn't see how hard it was for me to watch him behave like this. I had already lost one person from alcoholism and I couldn't bare to loose another person. He was the only person I had and it tore me apart to watch him act like the only person I hated. It destroyed me knowing that he was on the road to becoming like our father.
Thankfully Ponyboy came to the rescue. The front door creaked opened and I whipped my head to see who it was. At first I thought it was Two-Bit and I was ready to get up and run across the street, but I saw Pony's conserned face and I relaxed.
"Hi Ponyboy." I said blankly. I was so drained from worrying. Ponyboy sat next to me on the porch and observed my face, trying to see what I was thinking about as if it was written there.
"You want one?" He asked while pulling out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. I didn't smoke very often but every time I did it would help with my anxious thoughts. The smoke cleared out all of the tornadoes of worry that were spinning in my head.
"Sure." I said and took a cigarette from the pack. "If I knew you were coming out for a smoke break I would have left. Sorry for intruding."
"Actually," Ponyboy started as he scratched the back of his neck, "I came out to check on you." He reached over and lit up my cigarette. "Are you alright?"
I almost said yes, because it was an instinct. I never tell anyone how I feel. "No. I'm sick of Two drinking all the time. He doesn't see how he's turning into.." I paused and took a deep breath. "He's turning into our father." I was holding back about 7 buckets of tears. I didn't want to cry in front of Ponyboy again because I was scared he would judge me. But I knew he wouldn't because when I cried the day before he comforted me. Being comforted wasn't something I was used too, so I grew to learn how to suppress my feelings and not get used to people being there for you.
"I would say sorry, but I don't think that would help." Ponyboy admitted shyly.
We were both swinging our legs over the porch ledge and looking off into the street. "Thank you." People saying sorry, for anything really, always felt like they were trying to sweep my issues under the rug. Ponyboy was different. I told him that.
"What'd you mean 'different'"? He asked stiffly.
I looked at him quickly. "I didn't mean it as a bad thing. I'm just saying you're different from other people." My words were rushed and I hoped I hadn't offended him. He sat looking at me for a second. "I like it." I added.
Ponyboy reddened. "Thanks. You're different too."
We smiled at each other and I continued, "I feel like I can tell you anything, which is strange given that I didn't know you till two days ago. I've never been able to talk to somebody the way I talk to you. It just easy cause I know that you'll listen. Most people don't listen." I realized that I was rambling and I shut up in embarrassment.
When I looked at Ponyboy, he was smiling admirably. "I feel the same way. I can't understand why we're able to talk to each other like this." He said. "I'm not complaining, though. It's nice having somebody to talk with."
"Yeah, it's really nice." I smiled. I hadn't ever had a friend like Ponyboy. In less than 48 hours he had become my best friend. Now I'm not saying we were "best friends", cause we weren't. That's a big title for a teenage girl. I'm just saying that out of all the friends I'd ever had, he was the best at it. No one had ever treated me the way that Pony had and in such a short time, I discovered a whole new feeling. I felt cared about.
I guess it doesn't matter long you've known a person. What matters is the connection you make with them and even if you've only known them for a short amount of time (like Pony and I) it still somehow feels like they've been apart of your life forever.
Ponyboy shifted closer to me. "What's that?" he asked suddenly, pointing to my forearm.
"This?" I rubbed mg fingers over a small tattoo I had given myself a few years before. "It's a horseshoe."
"Is it real?"
"Does it look like a real horseshoe?"
"No, is it a real tattoo?" Pony laughed.
"Yeah. I did it myself a few years ago after I had been riding at bucks for a while."
"How'd ya do it?" He asked and traced the small lines with his fingertips. Ponyboy's touch gave me goosebumps.
I explained to him the process and showed him my other tattoos; a maple seed on my heel, and a dragonfly on my calf. "That one's my favorite." I said.
Ponyboy thoroughly examined each one. I could tell he was a little bit confused about how I did it. He asked me a bunch of questions which I answered gladly. I was used to people bugging me about it and calling me names, so it was refreshing to find somebody who didn't judge me and seemed to like them.
"People call me trashy cause of them, but I'm grease." I shrugged. "A greasers gonna be a greaser."
People automatically assume that I'm a bad person just because I have a few tattoos. They think that I'm just a trashy broad who sleeps around, when in reality, I only got the tattoos because I thought they looked nice.
Sometimes I regretted it because of how mean people were. Pony wasn't mean. He was sweet and made me feel proud of the tattoos.
"That's real cool, and they look like you got 'em done by a professional or something." Said Ponyboy. "Steve has a tattoo, have you seen it? I bet he'd like yours."
"I'll have to show him sometime."
"We can show him now. He isn't doing anything important, just eating."
"Oh I don't know.." I slowly said. "I don't really want to go inside right now." I felt like I was being a baby about the whole thing but I couldn't bring myself to confront Two-Bit. I didn't always confront my problems head first.
"Oh, alright." Ponyboy said softly. He stayed silent for a minute. "Is it alright if I keep you company?"
I smiled at him, being pleasantly surprised by his sweetness. "Sure, Pony. Thank you." I hadn't really been friends with him for long, but it seemed to me like I had a lot to thank him for. It seems like whenever you want to get close to somebody, it takes forever and when you have no intention on getting close with somebody, you don't even have to try. There's people out there that make it so you don't have to think. Things just happen. "It's all right if I call you that, right? Pony?"
"Yeah, that's what the gang calls me," A smirk appeared on his face, "Can I call you Georgie?" he added.
I laughed and elbowed him in the side. "I'm gonna let it slide, only cause you make me laugh." At this point I had forgotten all about getting angry with my brother. Sitting with Ponyboy cleared my thoughts and filled my mind with new ones. It happened the day before, too. I forgot about things when I was talking to Ponyboy. I just get so wrapped up in what he's saying.
Darry opened the screen door in the midst of Pony and I talking. "I'm gon start making dinner. Do you guys want anything specific?"
"No I'm good, Thank you Darry." I said.
Ponyboy turned to look at his brother. "Can't we just have Chocolate cake?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because you can't be eating junk food all day. Can't you ever just listen for once without asking questions?"
"Sorry."
"Yeah." Darrel snapped. "And put that cigarette out, you don't need to be smoking anymore either."
Ponyboy rolled his eyes as Darry closed the door rather harshly. "I told you he hated me. All I did was ask a simple question."
"Ponyboy, you know Darry loves you."
Pony smushed his cigarette against the wood porch. "Well he sure doesn't show it."
He was acting mad, but I could tell that he was just hurt. "The only reason why he yells at you is because he cares. If he didn't care about you then he wouldn't care wether you ate healthy or smoked cigarettes."
Pony huffed, and he knew I was right. "I just don't understand why he can't be nice sometimes. He was nice before our parents died."
"That's when you were just his brother, Pony. Now you're his responsibility."
"But he never hollers at Sodapop."
"That's because Sodapop wouldn't listen to him anyway."
Ponyboy laughed, "Yeah, I guess."
I looked at him, admiring him for a second. "You have a pretty laugh."
He suddenly stared at me. "Pretty?"
"What, did ya want me to call your laugh ugly or something?"
"No." He smiled, "I'm just surprised that you like my laugh."
"Why wouldn't I?" I questioned, cocking an eyebrow.
"Well, I mean.." Ponyboy kept quiet, seeming to think about what he said next. "I think my laugh is revolting compared to yours."
His ears got red and he turned away, hiding his face which I'm guessing was blushed.
"I think," I giggled, "that's the sweetest compliment I've ever gotten." Ponyboy shrugged his shoulders. "Is Ponyboy embarrassed for complementing a girl?" I teased while shoving his foot with mine.
"I'm not embarrassed." He laughed quietly, still looking down.
"Yeah? Then why are your ears red?" I reached up and felt Pony's ear. They were hot and bright pink. I pinched it lightly, as a joke of course, and he shrugged his shoulder and grabbed my wrist. My breath caught in my throat. "Don't." Pony laughed. As i've stated before, I like to get on peoples nerves, so I decided to be a bit bold and say, "Yeah? What'll happen if I do?" We both looked at eachother, him with a lazy, goofy smile and me smirking with my eyebrows raised. Pony opened his mouth to talk but thought better of it and stayed quiet, keeping his mouth agape.
I tilted my head. "Cat got your tongue?" Ponyboy nodded at me, still silent. He let go of my wrist and I let my hand fall to his shoulder. "C'mon, we should head in, it's getting dark." I say before standing up. I hold out my hand for him to grab and we walk back into the house. Everyone was in their normal spots: Soda, Steve and Johnny on the long couch, Dallas on the small couch, Two-Bit on the floor, and Darry in the kitchen.
For once, Two-Bit wasn't watching T.V. "Look who came to join us! What caused you to run off?" He drawled.
Pony took a seat in Darry's recliner and I sat down next to Dally on the couch. "Nothing, Keith." I purposefully used his real name to let him know that there was in fact a reason.
"Ooo she's mad." Steve whispered not-so-quietly.
Darry, who has been listening from the kitchen, joined in by sternly yelling at Two-Bit. "What did you do?"
"I did nuthin, it's cause of her hair. All redheads are fiery for no good reason."
Not only was it random, it was also quite stupid. "You're a redhead too y'know."
Two-Bit exasperatedly laughed. "Well I'm not orange!"
I also laughed sarcastically. "Yeah and you're not good looking either."
"Ain't that the truth." said Dallas, lazily pointing at Two while taking a sip of beer.
Two-Bit ignored him. "You're saying just cause you got hair thats redder than mine makes you prettier than me?"
"A lot of things make me prettier than you, Two-Bit."
My comment caused a round of laughter from the guys, including my brother. "You're right, Two. She is firey." Sodapop cheered.
Dallas ruffled my hair. "Crazy little redhead."
I pretended to be offended by the comment by rolling my eyes but I actually found it sweet. Everyone in town knew that Dallas was a tough guy. I thought he was cold and mean when I first met him. But now I was sitting next to Dallas Winston and he wasn't cold at all. He could care and show emotion just like the other guys. He didn't have to maintain his reputation or boast about how big his track record was. We was acting like himself instead of the guy that people make him out to be.
The guys took turns coming up with nicknames. Dallas started with "Crazy little redhead." which was followed by "Ginger-snap" by Soda. Two-Bit shared a childhood nickname of mine, "Georgia-bug" and Steve came up with "Firecracker", which he was very proud of. Johnny said "Match stick", Ponyboy said "strawberry" and when we asked Darry to join, he called me "Lil red". I was happy with all of them.