de facto 〖 ponyboy curtis 〗

eighteen

The two made a silent agreement to start meeting in the library for lunch. Jo never ate school lunch and Ponyboy didn't mind skipping it either. It was their third time and they'd already gotten used to a little routine of reading their books and casually throwing in conversations here and there.

"Y'know, I had a good time Saturday. I really wanna go out again," Ponyboy says. Jo grinned and glanced at him from behind the book their English teacher assigned them, To Kill A Mockingbird. He noticed that when she smiles you can see it in her eyes, the small gesture makes his stomach flutter but he didn't let that show.

"Me too," she simply said.

"What are you up to this weekend?"

Jo bit her lip, she didn't often tell people about her birthday but she trusted Ponyboy enough. There was nothing wrong about it just something she didn't feel like people should know if they weren't close with her. "Well, my friends, I think, are plannin' somethin' for me. It's my birthday this week and they know I don't make a fuss about it so they always do for me."

"Oh really? What day?" Jo could already see it, Ponyboy was probably thinking over everything he'd learned about her in their month of getting to know each other, already wondering what to get her. She wasn't the biggest on gifts but would always appreciate whatever came her way. A lot of the time her friends just gave her money, which sure couldn't deny she liked the most.

"Wednesday. Day before Halloween."

"That's a pretty cool birthday. You ever had a halloween birthday party?"

She giggled and nodded. "Halloween is my jam so yeah. Every year until I was thirteen I either had a little Halloween birthday party or my friends and I would crash one."

"What was your favorite costume?"

Jo loved how he'd ask her the most random questions sometimes. He always got her thinking. She hummed to herself and tapped her book lightly against her cheek. "Well... my friend Willy was real into comic books and geek stuff like that. It's kinda cool when you get into it, I mean some of 'em are a little out there but yeah. Well, he got me and a couple of my other friends pretty into it and we all dressed up as Batman characters and I was Catwoman. My girlfriend and I went through everybody's closets and made our whole costumes by hand. I still have it."

"Man, you made them by hand?" Ponyboy asked, amazed. He never would've expected her to be into comic books, they weren't something he read much of but he'd heard of plenty of them. It was interesting, he loved learning about her and she enjoyed having someone to share with who really got her.

"Yeah. We ain't have much but we always made it work," she said with a cheeky giggle.

"That's pretty cool, Jo." She now chuckled at him, more specifically, the way he talked. It was so different from the guys around her but she kinda liked it the more she listened to him and noticed. It could be a little hard not to tease him from time to time.

"Thanks."

"What's so funny?"

"Nothin', just thinkin'. Y'know nobody asks me questions like you do. I like that you wanna know about me. You gotta tell me more about you, now."

He didn't know where to begin, there was plenty to know but not a lot that he considered interesting. "Whaddya wanna know?"

Just then the bell rang. Lunch was over and they wouldn't see each other until the end of the day if Ponyboy decided to stop at her locker again like he had been over the last week. Despite her nerves, she teased him and hoped he'd go along with it. "Maybe you can tell me on our next date."