The Outsider Experience

The Outsider Expereince

Mack's POV. Chapter 14

The next few weeks went by, and I was totally crushing on Ponyboy. He was everything I had been looking for that wasn't in Dally: sweet, sincere, smart, and most importantly not dirty. I had realized how much I had missed our friendship and I had wanted to get close to him again. One day we were sitting around in his house alone. We were sitting there, talking nonstop about simple stuff: how things had changed since I had been gone, high school, and our siblings. Ponyboy started to talk more deeply about his siblings though. He had a faraway look as he was talking about Darry. "Sometimes I just think Darry would rather just have Soda. He's always repremanding me and telling me I don't use my head. I feel like he would rather put me in a boys home than have me here. Soda would never let him though. He's always trying to take up for me because he kind of understands me better." "Oh Pony," I started. "You shouldn't think that! You know Darry loves you and would never give you away. I mean, you have to be understanding of him too. He misses your parents too, you know. He just wants to raise you right like your father would." Ponyboy nodded and smiled at me. "Thanks Mack," he said graciously. "You really know how to make a person feel better, just like Soda." I smiled widely and looked into his eyes. My cheeks got hot and I all of a sudden felt embarassed in how my hair looked and the sloppy clothes I had on for some reason. I quickly looked away and started talking about Kat. "Me and Kat are pretty close," I said. "We're kind of like you and Soda. We love each other and I can always make Kat laugh. She always finds a way to make me feel better if I'm down. We're like... well, we're like Batman and Robin. Kat will come in and save the day, always doing the right thing, and I'll always be there to have her back." Ponyboy smirked and nodded. "I've always loved your weird comparisons." I giggled and nodded back. I've always made the oddest comparisons about different things. Finally after about thirty more minutes of talking, I had to go home. I stumbled towards the door in laughter after all the funny things we had talked about. As I stood there outside saying my goodbyes, I looked over at the sunset behind me. "Is it weird that I always stop what I do to look at a sunset?" I asked. Ponyboy shook his head and laughed. "Nah, I do it all the time." I waved and turned to walk away when he stopped me. "Oh and Mack," I turned back around and gave him my full focus. "In the comics, sidekicks like Robin are always better than the superheroes." I beamed as I finally started walking down the road to home, thinking about how awesome it was to be building a relationship with Pony, that was more than just a friendship.