Young Blood ⏤ Ponyboy Curtis | ✓

13 | mounting frustrations

Curly is awake and eating breakfast when Billie walks in the next morning. She freezes and checks the clock hanging up on the wall. She's not late, and she's not dreaming; she doesn't understand why Curly is the first one up. 

"Couldn't sleep," Curly mumbles, his voice laced with exhaustion as he chews his Sugar Stars. 

"Yeah, me too," Billie admits as she grabs a cereal bowl from the cupboard. 

"I'm real worried 'bout Angela," Curly admits to Billie once Billie has finished pouring out Sugar Stars into her bowl. 

"You think we should talk to her today?" Billie asks her twin. 

"If she's here after you come back from school," Curly replies. 

"I'll come here as soon as school ends," Billie promises. 

"And I'll stay home today to try and get Ange to stay home also," Curly says. 

At this moment, heavy footsteps enter the living area, belonging to none other than Tim. His eyes are hooded with fatigue as he rubs them while he walks by the kitchen table and takes the Sugar Stars packet with him. 

Billie and Curly watch their older brother without a word as Tim pours himself cereal and milk and sits down on the couch. He looks up, feeling their stares on him. 

"You want somethin'?" Tim asks. 

"Yeah, we do," Curly answers. "Bil and I are gonna speak to Angela after school. You in?" 

"No," Tim responds, not even looking at his younger siblings. Billie and Curly are still staring at him, waiting for Tim to elaborate. Tim sighs in annoyance and looks up. "I've got business to sort out." 

"Can't it wait?" Curly asks, not bothering to hide the annoyance in his voice. 

"No," Tim replies. 

"Don't you care for Angela?" Curly questions, rising from his seat. 

"Of course I do," Tim answers, annoyed at having been questioned by Curly. 

"You're doing a shit job of acting like it," Curly responds, his chin raised in defiance as he glares at Tim. 

The inevitability of this conversation ending in a confrontation is making Billie's skin crawl. All she wants to do is rush back into her bedroom and hide underneath her bedsheets. 

"Slim it," Tim warns, glaring at Curly with the same ice-blue eyes all four siblings share. 

"Or what?" Curly challenges, eyes blazing at Tim from across the room. 

Billie sees the signs of Tim's temper flaring; the way he cocks his head to the side faintly, the way his tongue darts out of his mouth to run over his cracked, lower lip. 

Tim stands up and takes a menacing step forward, arm slightly raised ⏤

"Stop!" Billie cries out, jumping out of her seat. She stands in between her brothers, like a buffer. Billie doesn't know if Tim was actually going to attack his own brother, but from the way she's him, discipline members of his gang, Billie doesn't want to take that chance. Especially when she knows Tim is like a wild, caged animal set free when he fights. 

Tim lowers his arm and turns away, storming out of the house without looking back. 

The sound of the flyscreen door slamming against the doorframe is grating to Billie's ears, filling up the tense silence in the house. 

Looking back at her twin, Curly has a hateful glare directed at the spot Tim was standing at moments ago. Curly's eyes then dart to Billie's, and Billie can see the wrath and hate in them.