When the flames hit Tulsa (A Ponyboy Curtis love story.)

Never before

Ponyboy's POV

I waited outside of school for Grace. She's taking me over to her house instead of mine. Something different was about this Graceland girl. Sure she's a soc, but she is different from other Socs. In the time I've gotten to know her, I've had warm feelings inside of me. Feelings I never knew a person could feel. It's nice, warm and tingly inside. What's happening to me?!

I hear a person emerge beside me. Turning around, I see Grace, panting obviously out of breath. "What happened to you?" I ask her.

"Coach made us run double because we weren't doing anything right," she replies.

Grace was on the vollyball team, and from what I hear she's pretty good at it. She's a solid back row player. Real good at digging the ball and hustling on the court. I'm kinda surprised that she hasn't gone out for track. She would be an amazing runner.

A car horn emerges into the air. Grace points at a scarlett red mustang. "That's my mom right there," she tells me. She notions me to come with her and I do as I'm told. I get in the backseat, meanwhile Grace sits in the front.

Her mom tries to get a conversation going, but we both don't talk much. The car's inside was a little tore down inside. There was huge crack on one of the backseat windows and the seats were covered in... burn marks.

Before I could fully inspect everything, we arrived at the Patterson household. The house was huge. In the front alone it had a fountain and a huge door. I was dreaming. Grace's house was built like a temple. A grand, huge temple of a house.

Grace and Mrs. Patterson get out of the car like it was nothing. I on the other hand got out of the car, very slowly and acted like a complete idiot. Grace's mom opens the front door and walks in. Gracie is about to walk in but stops and faces into me. She nudges her head toward the inside of the house. I quickly walk up to her and we walk inside.

I can't even explain the inside. It was grand, and beautiful, and just... WOW! I look over to see a man about mid thirties sitting in an arm chair reading the newspaper. Grace does the same thing but quickly looks back. I instantly got curious. She grabs my wrist and drags me up a staircase into a room I assumed was hers.

She lets go of my wrist and closes the bedroom door. Grace scratches her hair very gently and makes her way back to me. "I'm sorry about my mom she can be embarrassing sometimes," she says.

"It's fine," I reply.

She smiles at me and begins to grab stuff out of her bag. God, I love her smile. Wait, what am I saying. "Anyway, I was thinking for our project we could write a report or maybe we could..." She continues rambling on about the project and metrology as I got lost looking at her. She was beautiful. In a dangerous yet pure and innocent way. A way that I can't get out of my head. "You got that Pone?" She asks me.

I snapped back into reality and simply replied," yeah." She rolls her eyes and smiles again. "Yeah right," she tells me.

We work on the project until Darry came to pick me up. Grace said I could over anytime to work on the project. As Darry and I left Grace's neighbourhood, I couldn't help but think. I didn't want to leave. I wanted to stay at the Patterson's and hang out with Gracie some more. Never before would I think I would admit. Never before did I think that a Soc would be a friend. And never before did I think...

That I might be in love with one.