Unexpected

Chapter 2

Ponyboy's POV

     After a day well spent with Curly, I headed home. I could smell food, and it smelled a lot more like Darry's cooking, so he'd either gotten home early, or had gotten a day off. I wasn't around long enough this morning to know which. As I opened the door, I heard a lot of yelling. Most of it was Darry, some of it was the gang. When I'd fully opened it, I could see everything that was happening.
     Soda and Steve were playing poker, Steve yelling at Soda for cheating again. Darry was trying to cook and stop Two-Bit from putting random things in his beer bottle, and Johnny and Dally were sitting on the couch together, somehow ignoring the chaos. I always questioned how they did it, but never directly to them.
     After a while, I finally stepped in the house. Everyone looked to me and smiled, except for Dally and Steve. Dally and Steve never smiled. It was like they'd sworn an oath to never smile unless their lives depended on it, and I doubt they would even then. Or at least Dally wouldn't. He'd make some stupid remark. Dal would rather get shot then smile. On the rare occasions that he did smile, it was because of Johnny. Dally always smiled because of Johnny. As for Steve, the only time I'd ever seen him smile was all those times Soda would make me go places with them. Now, he wasn't smiling because of me, but he was smiling because of Soda. Everytime Soda had done something stupid, or even flirt with a girl to make Sandy angry, (I always had to sleep on the couch on those days), Steve managed to crack a smile and laugh.
     Two-Bit looked away from me after a bit, staring at his beer bottle and zoning out. He then looked at the clock.
     "Sorry Dar. I can't stay for dinner. I uh... I've gotta go help my mom with something," he said hurriedly. Darry didn't question, just let him leave. I watch as he left. Even through the jacket he was wearing, I could tell he had his shirt tail tucked in. That wasn't something us greasers normally did. I'm not saying that we never did it, it's just that it wasn't really a thing with most. The last time anyone in the gang had done that, it was Soda. He was going on his first date with Sandy. I figured nothing of it, and just went and sat at the table.
     Darry's smile turned into a frown. And not just any frown. An angry frown. He looked real pissed off, like he wanted to snap my neck or something. I knew he'd never do that, but the thought of it scared me half to death.
     "Dallas told me something rather interesting today Ponyboy," he said, his shadow towering over me.
     I shrunk down in my chair. I wasn't looking at him, but I knew that Dal had an evil smirk plastered across his face at the moment. He almost always had that smirk, but this time it was as though the devil had possessed him. Or at least that's what I realized when I actually took a small glance at him. When my gaze snapped back to Darry, he continued lecturing me.
     "He told me he saw you with Curly..." he took my plate away from me, then proceeded to ground me. I was told that I had to spend the rest of the summer locked in my room unless told otherwise. I'd only talked to Curly once, and somehow, he had gotten me in trouble.
    I got up and went to the room Soda and I shared, the door slamming shut behind me. I could hear Darry yelling at me to not slam doors, but instead, I opened it and slammed it shut again.
    After not too long of me sulking, the door opened. I didn't bother to see who it was. The bed sink down a bit, so whoever it was, they were next to me. Still, I didn't look up. It was probably Darry, coming to yell at me some more. Then I got wrapped into a hug and knew it wasn't.
    "Hey, I know that you like hangin' around Curly... but he's dangerous Pone," Soda told me. I looked up at him. His eyes were soft and filled with sympathy.
    "I know that Soda, but Dally is too, and Darry doesn't seem to care when I'm around him."
     I knew that Darry only didn't care about me and Dal being around eachother because he was one of the gang, but he was just as much of a hood as Curly.
     "Look Pone. I think Dar would be a little bit more alright with it if someone else went with ya. Maybe take Johnny or somebody next time. Alright?"
     "I will Soda. Thanks for the tip."
     Soda nodded and left, assuming I'd wanna be alone. I took that as an opportunity to open up the window and left some air in. I grabbed Gone With the Wind, then started to read.

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A/N: I'm sorry about the shortness of these. I'm not really used to writing things like this, so I wanted to give it a go to get better at it. Again, sorry about shortness 😓