❝SHE'S STANDING ON A LINE BETWEEN GIVING UP AND SEEING HOW MUCH MORE SHE CAN TAKE.❞
in which Belinda Shepard and Ponyboy Curtis discover that home isn't just a place.
→ oc x ponyboy curtis
→ copyright @windrixvilles | 2018⏤2021
"Curly didn't have to rob that liquor store, but he chose to. That's on him, not you, not your siblings. And from what I know about your brother, you wouldn't have been able to stop him," Laura explains.
"He is stubborn as hell," Billie agrees, trying to ignore what Laura had said about not placing the blame on herself. She knows Laura has a point — she even said it herself about Curly vandalising Bob Sheldon's car, but it's difficult to face up to something you don't want to.
So Billie does what she's best at: she compartmentalises, tucking away that thought in a corner of her mind and hopes her mind doesn't wander back there, opening an unwanted box of thoughts she doesn't want to face.
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"What's with the long face?" Ponyboy asks, tapping Billie's cheek with the eraser end of his pencil. They're in Science class, seated at a lab bench trying to copy the diagram of DNA.
"It's nothing," Billie replies offhandedly, shrugging her shoulders. She looks hard at the chalkboard, trying her best to copy the diagram. Her diagram looks nothing like the one on the board. She's never had the knack for drawing, unlike Tim. When she and Curly were younger, Tim would always draw for them. They'd choose something for him to draw and he would and afterwards he'd help them colour the drawing in for it to placed in their rooms to look at; a present from their big brother.
Tim had stopped drawing once he turned sixteen and had officially become the leader of the Shepard gang.
"I don't believe you," Ponyboy says, lowering his head to force Billie to look up from her diagram and at him. "What's wrong? Is it Curly? Has something happened to him?"
Billie shakes her head. "No, no, that's not it."
"Then what is it?" Ponyboy asks, his eyes soft with concern. "You can tell me. I promise I won't blab."
Billie shakes her head. "You don't need to hear about my problems."
"Hey." Ponyboy's tone turns stern. "I care about you, of course I need to hear about your problems."
Billie's traitorous heart does somersaults in her chest. It's just her luck that the first boy she ever has a crush on only sees her as a friend.
Billie looks around self-consciously, worried about her classmates overhearing her. The class is alive with chatter, different voices mingling and creating a symphony of noise. Their teacher is at her desk, jotting down something as the students copying the diagram and accompanying notes off the chalkboard.
"Laura and I were talking today," Billie begins.
"Did you two have a fight?" Ponyboy interrupts, worried.
Billie shakes her head. "No, we didn't. We were talking about Curly and she said something that got me thinking."
