Hello, My Name is Crazy.

First Time Out.

Ponyboy's POV

We need milk, and bread, and sugar, and god only knows what else Darry put on this stupid list. Hes so busy with fixing up the house and cleaning out the basement and going to job interviews that he has no time to get us groceries. So I'm walking, heading out to get them for us. Soda is down at an interview right now for a café/gas station. It's a nice place a little deeper into down and a little further out of this ghetto neighbourhood we now live in. I open the door and head outside to be met with the eyes of some hoodlums across the street. I ignore them and walk away, down the road and towards the closest super market. It's about a twenty five minute walk away if I speed walk. If I walk at a normal pace it would take around forty minutes. So I walk fast and I make it there in what seems like no time. It's not hard to walk fast in this area, because everyone makes me uncomfortable and uneasy. It makes me want to run actually. I head inside the store and pull out my list. It's a long one and I don't know where anything is in this store. I start looking anyways since I'm too stubborn to ask for any help. I don't want anyone talking to me. Im not in a friendly mood. I haven't been in a long time. I get to the bread isle and the brand we like is on the top shelf. I'm not tall enough to reach it. I push my cart as close as I can and I step on it to try and reach. My hand brushes the bag but I can't grab it until someone lifts me by my waist. I get cold chills from the unfamiliar hands on my hips and I grab the loaf of bread as fast as I can before I'm set down again. I spin around to be faced with none other than that guy. The one in the leather jacket. He has a fresh smoke hanging out of his mouth not yet lit and he staring down at me with cold emotionless eyes.

"Thought you could use a hand."

"Y..yeah. I guess I could. Thanks."

I push my cart away from him and start walking as quickly as I can down another isle, looking for our favourite cereals. He follows me, walking slowly with his messy brown hair and his worn out ripped jeans and his black combat boots that look in rough shape. He walks right behind me, watching my every move as I pretend I don't see him.

"So. You moved across the street from me."

"Yeah. It appears so."

"Where you from, kid."

"Toronto. And I'm not a kid."

"How old are ya?"

"15. How old are you?"

"19. You're a kid."

"Why are you following me."

"Just want to get something straight with you, since we're 'neighbors' now."

"And what's that?"

"We don't call cops in this part of town. You see something, look the other way. If anyone catches wind you ever call the pigs, you're in for mad trouble, man."

"Ive never called the police on anyone."

"Keep it that way."

"Whatever kind of weird shit you're involved in, Im not going to interfere. So you can leave me alone now."

"What about the other two?"

"Who? Oh. Soda would never bother anyone with cops. He'd deal with it himself. And Darry doesn't like cops."

"Soda? What kind of names that?"

"That's my brother. Sodapop Patrick Curtis. Says so on his birth certificate. And Darry is our big brother."

He stares at me and puts his smoke behind his ear and looks at my grocery list. I'm too uneasy to tell him to go away so I just keep shopping and letting him follow me. I don't understand what he wants and I have a bad feeling that he's into some pretty messed up stuff if he's coming to tell me not to be calling any cops.

"Catch ya around, kid."

"I'm not a kid. Bye, whatever you call yourself." 

"Dallas."

"Ponyboy."

"You sure have weird names in your family, man. Wow. See ya around Ponykid."

He laughs as he walks away, taking glances back at me as he leaves the store. He looks like trouble and he looks dangerous. But there's something about his smile that makes me want to hear his voice some more. I finish shopping and I pay for my things.

"Ponyboy, put the groceries away."

"I already went and bought them, why should I have to put them away too?"

"Don't argue with me!"

"Fuck."

I roll my eyes and start putting bags upon bags away of groceries into the cupboards and the fridge. Soda shows up half way through and starts helping me put things away. Hes quiet and he looks like he's thinking really hard.

"How'd your interview go?"

"It went good. An employee had to interview me though because the manager went home sick. He was kind of a jerk at first but we got along fine. We'd be working the same shift if I get the job."

"Thats great Soda. You're good at making friends.."

I smile and my brother looks down at me from on top of the counter with a chuckle. He sets the last of the cans on the top shelf and then sits down and let's out a sigh of relief. I sit down at the kitchen table and lean my face against my hand tiredly.

"Meet anyone interesting at the grocery store?"

"Kind of."

"Who?"

"The neighbour from across the street recognized me and followed me around a bit."

"Like...weird follow you or just casually? I'll go talk to him if he bothered you, Pony. We can't be having that."

"No, Soda it's fine. He wasn't bugging me, just a bit nosey I guess. It's a tight neighbourhood from the looks of it. They have a certain way of living that they don't want to be disrupted. He wasn't rude."

"Alright. But you let me know if he ever bothers you a little too much. I remember catching a glimpse of him- he looks dangerous. I wouldn't talk to him."

I smile and roll my eyes, which makes Soda smile and shrug. We sit and we stare at eachother smiling like idiots until Darry comes up from the basement and snaps us out of it.

"You two make me wanna knock your heads together."