Young Blood ⏤ Ponyboy Curtis | ✓

10 | an act of kindness

Curly taps Billie on the shoulder before tugging her, pulling her to his side. He doesn't say anything for several minutes as they walk to the drive-in, the air nipping at their exposed necks. Billie wraps her arms around her thin body, cursing herself for not bringing a jacket.

"I heard what you and the girls were talking about," Curly finally says, breaking the silence between the two of them. Curly's referring to Billie's conversation with Evie and Sandy at Spencer's Special when the boys were smoking. Billie thought they were being quiet, but if Curly could hear their conversation, anybody could have heard it.

"I'm worried about her too," Curly says, putting his hands in the pockets of his jeans as he looks straight ahead, where Dean and Lloyd are walking together, a decent amount of space between them. It looks as though Dean hasn't forgiven Lloyd about his comments he had made earlier. Billie doesn't blame Lloyd. Lloyd's an asshole.

"I don't know what to do," Billie admits. "Ange won't even look at Tim, how are we gonna get her to talk to him?"

"Who knows if we'll see her," Curly replies. "She's probably off partyin' and hooking up with another piece of shit." Curly's tone is bitter, his eyes hardening as he says the last sentence. Everybody boy that Angela has been with has been a piece of shit; arrogant, slimy and disrespectful. Although Angela's relationships never last long, Billie's blood boils whenever Angela's latest boyfriend comes around to the house.

"It's not like she's gonna listen," Curly continues. "She's so stubborn it's like talkin' to a brick wall."

"You're one to talk," Billie says before she can stop herself. Stubbornness was a family trait, passed on to all four kids by their parents, who were both stubborn themselves, never agreeing or compromising for the other.

Curly just laughs, knowing that his twin was right. "Can't disagree with that, can I?" He looks ahead again as he continues speaking. "She might listen to you. She's always had a soft spot for ya."

Billie's always thought Angela had a soft spot for Curly, as she constantly teased him about his crush on Sylvia, constantly ruffling his hair and always making sure he didn't get himself into too much trouble.

"Are you blind? Angela's always worried about you getting hurt. Didn't you see the way she acted when that Soc prick made fun of you in the cafeteria?"

"Y-Yeah." Billie manages to get out. She gives Curly a weak smile as she says, "I'll try talking to her, but I don't know how well it will go."

"All you can do is try," Curly replies as they arrive at the drive-in.

The movie has just started, as the opening credits end and fade, the image of a beach in black and white pops up instead. All chatter ceases as the movie officially begins. Cars belonging to both social classes are lined up near the screen, Soc and Greaser couples seated on hoods as they sit next to each other, all loved up.

The four teenagers sneak in, stealthily climbing under the fence and slipping into a vacant row of seats at the back. There aren't a lot of other people sitting on the chairs, which makes Billie feel less worried.

She knows she has an invisible target on her back, and being at the drive-in, out in the open made her paranoid that something would happen to her, that someone would try and do something to her. She wasn't like her siblings; she couldn't waltz around the town, causing trouble and being reckless without a care, not at all fazed by the targets they had created that were pinned on their backs.

Hopefully being with Curly and his friends will stop somebody from doing something, but even if something did happen, all the Greasers at the drive-in would not hesitate to step in and fight. It was an unwritten code between Greasers, to help a fellow Greaser out when a Soc was involved. All Greasers had a common enemy in the Socs.