CHAPTER 2
PONYBOYS P.O.V
I walked to school the next morning. At first I was thinking of trying to get out of going. You know, pretend to be sick or something. But then I thought about Soda and how he was going out tonight. And this eventually led me to thinking about Curly and how he might be going out tonight as well. So I needed to see Curly and find out if he was doing. I met Curly at the front gate. He was standing there with another guy, Mark, smoking and yelling out rude comments to every girl that went by. Mark was 15 with brown hair that came to his shoulders and a fringe that covered his eyebrows. He is pretty skinny and doesn't really get into fights. Though he did like to make fun of Socs.
"Hey Curly, Mark." I said, standing next to them.
"Hey Pony. Going to class today?" Curly said, looking at my books.
"Well, Darry thinks I am." I said. Oh no, I thought. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Why did I just say that? There's no way I can get out of skipping with Curly and Mark now.The bell went and everyone began to go inside the school building. But not me. I stayed with Mark and Curly.
"Let's go." Mark said, and he started to walk away.
"Where am I gonna leave my stuff?" I asked.
"My place isn't far. We can drop them in and get them later." Mark said. I couldn't move. Someone must be watching me, I thought. But no one was around.
"You coming?" Curly asked. I nodded, taking a deep breath. I caught up with them and we continued on to Marks house. Marks house was even smaller than mine. The front yard was full of rubbish and I didn't really want to go in. But I did follow Curly inside.
"What are you doing home, Mark?" his mother yelled from another room.
"I forgot my homework, I'm going back now." Mark yelled to her. He took my books off me and put them away in his bedroom. "Let's go." We went back outside. The sun was now out with no clouds to be seen.
"Let's go to the empty field near your place." Curly said, looking at me. I nodded. Don't go past the DX; don't go past the DX I silently begged. But I knew we had no choice, we had to go past it. As we got closer I tried to see if Soda was out the front but I didn't see him. We walked past it, Mark and Curly chatting about something or other. I was concentrating on not looking up and hoping that Soda didn't come outside. And he didn't. We went past our house and got to the lot soon enough. Tim and a few of his gang were hanging around there.
"Heya guys." Mark said, as we went over to them. Two of them were sitting on the ground and Tim was leaning against the wall, smoking.
"Hi Mark. Oh hey Ponyboy." Tim said. He didn't seem too happy to see me. I nodded at him and muttered a small hey. "Why aren't we at school today?" Tim asked.
"Why aren't you?" Curly asked.
"I'm eighteen, I don't have to go." Tim said, getting annoyed at Curly.
"Well, I'm fifteen!" Curly argued.
"I'm older." Tim said.
"Yeah well I'm..older than Angela!" he yelled. And that settled it. "Anyway, where you going tonight?"
"We're going to the river. We're going to crash the Socs party. Should be pretty fun. You come too." Tim said looking at me and Mark. He already knew Curly was going to come. I nodded.
"Yeah alright." I said. The two other guys sitting on the ground hadn't said anything, but looked as if they must've been out at a party pretty late last night. One of them looked like they were going to drop off to sleep any moment. And the other had a few cuts, with dried blood on them, and was still drinking beer.
"C'mon let's go." Curly said. We left and headed off to a little cafe where there were a few other greasers in there. We took up five tables all pushed together. It was pretty cool, sitting there talking and yelling comments at every person that came in. I knew I wouldn't yell these kinds of comments if Johnny was here, but then again Johnny wasn't coming back. So I needed to stop caring about what he would think. We stayed there all day and I was about to leave when Steve came in with Two-Bit. Lucky we were sitting at the back and they didn't spot us right away. But they were bound to come over here.
"Hey, Steve and Two-Bit are 'ere I gotta go." I said to Curly. But he didn't get what I meant and called Two-Bit over. He nodded at Curly and Steve followed him over to us. I sank down in my seat, begging silently that Steve wouldn't say anything.
"Hey Two-Bit." I said when he sat down across from Curly and I.
"Well, what's a little punk like you doing here on a school day?" he asked.
"What do you think?' I asked.
"Well wait 'til Soda hears about this." he said. I knew he wouldn't tell anyone. He just got kicks saying things like this to people.
"Shut up. I gotta go anyway. Ok if I get my books from your place?" I asked Mark, as I stood up. He nodded at me, because his mouth was full of food. But not once did I look at Steve or say anything to him. Maybe if I didn't annoy him he wouldn't say anything. "See ya later Curly." I began to make my way out of the cafe and out onto the streets. But before I did I heard "I'll go with him." I walked a little slowly and waited for whoever it was to catch up to me.
"Hey." Steve said, as he walked with me.
"What do you want?" I asked.
"I need to go to the DX. Maybe tell Soda you didn't go to school."
"Don't tell him Steve." I said. He grinned.
"We'll see." I stopped walking. That always meant he would tell if I did one little thing wrong.
"Please don't." I said, looking at him. He nodded.
"Fine I won't tell." We walked along for a minute in silence. It was always awkward between us. As we got closer to the DX I decided I should go through the back streets to get to Marks place.
"I gotta go this way." I said, pointing at the alley. He nodded.
"You're gonna see Curly tonight?" he asked.
"Yeah. Could you tell Soda I won't come with him tonight?" I asked.
"Lucky me." I heard him say under his breath. "Ok." And he ran across the road to the DX. I walked home feeling excited. I hadn't felt this way in a long time. I didn't have to spend my night Steve. I didn't have to go to school. And I got away with it. But a little part of me was saying, Johnny told you not to be like this. And another part of me was saying you need to take Dallys place. And I was sure I wasn't going to listen to Johnny side, even thought he was my best friend.
I'm not sure how old Tim was. I'm guessing he was 18.
