Young Blood ⏤ Ponyboy Curtis | ✓

08 | aid

They step over Scott's bloody and bruised body and walk away, staring at Billie, making her intimidated but she tries her best to not let it show. Once the boys have left, Billie drops the stick and rushes over to Scott's side, who is groaning in pain. 

"Are you okay?" she asks, leaning on her knees as she checks Scott over. There is a cut on his cheek that is bleeding slightly, and his lips are busted and bruised. She lifts his shirt to see a large black-blue bruise on the left side of his stomach, just below his ribs. Billie hopes he hasn't broken his ribs. 

"I'm fine," Scott manages to get out, but groans soon after. He winces in pain as he clutches his side. 

"Scott, you could have broken your ribs," Billie says, the image of the bruise on Scott's stomach imprinted in her mind. 

"Just bruised," Scott manages to get out again. 

Billie doesn't want to push him because one; she isn't one for confrontation and two; she and Scott are not really close and it isn't her place to push. So she instead stops talking and helps Scott up, avoiding his bruise on the left side of his stomach.  

Scott mumbles a pained thank you to Billie once he is standing up. Billie has grabbed his backpack which was thrown behind a trashcan and slings it on her right shoulder, her own backpack on her left. 

"You don't have to do that," Scott says, pointing to his backpack. 

"You're injured," Billie points out and silently curses herself for pointing out the obvious. 

Scott's lips pull into a small smile. "Didn't realise we were stating facts now," he jokes meekly, but his joke falls flat as he hisses again in pain. Billie knows that they have to get home to patch Scott up. 

"I'll patch you up. That cut has to be cleaned up," Billie tells Scott as they slowly make their way out of school. 

"Could we go to your place? I don't want Hazel to see me like this," Scott says to Billie, looking down at his shoes. 

"Yeah, of course," Billie says to Scott. Scott gives Billie a grateful smile which Billie returns. 

Billie keeps a close eye on Scott as they walk home. He seems to be walking better, but every now and then he hisses, causing Billie to panic at the sound. She watches helplessly as Scott's face winces at the sharp pain that sears through him before he collects himself moments later, carrying on as though nothing happened. 

Billie sees how Scott's facade crumbles every time he hisses and how he builds it up again every time he recovers. Scott looks vulnerable due to the actions of the three Socs who decided that just because they were Socs they could jump defenceless Greasers who were younger than them. Billie knows that Scott doesn't carry a blade unlike Dean, Lloyd and Curly, and knows that if he did, the situation would have unfolded very differently.

Billie remembers the first time she saw Curly with a blade. The two of them were on a grocery run, Tim forcing Curly to go along with Billie so she wasn't alone. They were heading back, hands full with grocery bags when a drunk approached them, asking for money. Billie couldn't speak, frozen with fright, and Curly took charge. He told the drunk to leave, saying that they had no money. The drunk asked how they had all these bags, and Curly retorted, saying that they were Greasers and Greasers had no money. The drunk got angry with Curly, eyes flashing with drunken anger, reminding Billie of their mother when she got into her drunken fits of rage late at night. In a flash, Curly took out his blade from the back pockets of his jeans, pointing it at the drunk. The blade gleamed in the setting sun, causing Billie's throat to tighten. She swore she saw Curly's hand trembling slightly, but the drunk backed off, slinking back to the alley he came out of. Curly then put the blade back into his pocket and continued walking, as though that had never happened.