Pony and I started going out after that…though we didn't exactly go about kissin' and holdin' hands all the time. We did just what we did when we were just friends, just with the joy of knowin' we were more than that. I was content, and we did hold hands most of the time. The other guys treated us exactly the same, making the same jokes they had made when we weren't dating. All in all, it was quite nice. My fears of things changing had been dumb, silly, compared to how it really was being with Pony. Sure, every time he dropped me off now, he'd give me a kiss. And we hugged a lot more, and I went over to dinner at his house a lot more, and we liked going to the movies. Most of the time we kissed during the movie, which I was okay with. Ponyboy was a good kisser, and I was startin' to get the hang of it now.
For Pony's birthday - he turned sixteen - I got him a new book with my allowance. I don't remember what it was called, but he finished it a couple weeks later, and told us all about it. I think it had something to do with books burning. I'm not sure, it sounded really boring to me, so I didn't take the effort to remember it. He seemed really happy about it, though, so I pretended. We spent more time together, true, but he still had to work on roofs, even though Darry couldn't. Now, he was doing it because he felt like he needed too, not because he had to. He told me that he worked extra hard to make up for Darry not being there. I think, really, he was proving to Darry that he could make enough money to make up for Darry not having a job anymore. He'd started getting paid, because the manager gave him Darry's spot, he was really happy about it.
When I wasn't with him, I had taken up the habit of visiting the graveyard. I don't know why, but I'd sit down beside Johnny's grave and talk to it about Ponyboy. I thought maybe if ghosts were real, Johnny's would be at his grave, and he'd like to hear how Pony was doin'. I stayed there a while during the day, when Pony was workin'. When I wasn't there, I was either at Buck's with Soda, or out followin' Two-bit around, and he usually caused trouble. One time, while I was following him, he took me to a Soc neighborhood and threw a rock through the car window. He didn't try to hide either, but when three Soc guys came running from the house, he grabbed my wrist and we ran. We were a lot faster than the Soc's, because we were used to running, but they threw stuff at us. I got hit with a rock in my back, it left a small bruise, but I was okay with it.
One of the many times that I was sittin' at Johhny's grave, Cherry Valance came to talk to me, which was a huge surprise to me. I hadn't expected to see the Soc girl in a Greaser cemetery, if you could consider it such. Most of the Greasers chose to use a certain one, and Soc's another. It was part of the whole separation thing. I was still trying to understand it, because where I had been before, there wasn't no such thing as Greaser or Soc, I'd been in the country. When she came up - Cherry that is - she didn't notice me at first. I wasn't going to complain about that either, but she saw me as she was leaving, and made her way over. I couldn't exactly complain now, besides, I was dating Ponyboy…not her. Why should I keep hating her? But no matter what, I couldn't stop the irritation when she actually spoke. I figured it'd take a while.
"Hi." she said softly, sitting down on my other side. I nodded, smiling a bit grimly at her. "Sorry for bothering you,"
"It's okay. But…" I trailed off, not knowing how to form the question without sounding rude.
"Well, I was coming to see Tim," Cherry began, understanding my unasked question. "And I thought I'd just look…"
"Oh." I nodded, understanding what exactly she meant.
"I, um, heard from Tim that you and Ponyboy are dating now." she said, rather awkwardly.
"Yeah…" I said, just as uncomfortably.
"That's nice." she smiled, and it seemed so genuine that I instantly felt bad for being so hard on her. "You guys are good together. I can tell he likes you-"
"Yeah…" I shifted uncomfortably on the ground. Cherry seemed to notice, and share, my discomfort and she stood suddenly.
"I should go.." she muttered, and then hurried off before I could reply. I waved good-bye and watched her go silently, then sighed and looked at Johnny's headstone, frowning.
"I should go too, Johnny." I stood, then looked down at the stone again, for some reason my eyes were stinging, like I was going to cry or somethin'. Which was odd, because I hadn't really known Johnny, his death shouldn't have been such a huge deal for me. "I think we would have been friends…" then I left the graveyard, feeling a bit weird in my stomach, and I went off to find Ponyboy.
Finally, my birthday rolled around, and everyone was talkin' about the party they were gonna throw me. They didn't try to make it a surprise, even asked me what kind of stuff I wanted there.
"So, who do you want invited, Scout?" Two-bit asked me once at Buck's. I was sitting between him and Pony, drinking a coke as usual. I shrugged, looking around at them all. Steve was working out in the fuel stations.
"Just you guys, plus Steve and Darry of course." I told him. "I haven't got tons of friends, y'know."
"Don't wanna invite anyone else? Tim? Cur-" Sodapop cut off before finishing Curly's name, casting an anxious glance at Ponyboy. If anyone ever mentioned his name, Pony would get real stony and glare at everything. I was shocked at how well he could hold a grudge, even I had gotten over the whole ordeal, and it had happened to me! But, no one really questioned him about it. It was obvious he wouldn't really get over it ever.
"Nope, just you guys." I cut in before Ponyboy could realize what Soda had been about to say.
"Hey, maybe I'll get you 'To Kill a Mockingbird', so you can finally read it. That's where your nickname came from." Pony piped up, smiling at me. I felt my heart thump just a little when he did that. It always did that, and just because I finally knew he liked me, it wouldn't change the fact that it did.
"That'd be cool. But couldn't I just borrow yours?" I asked curiously.
"Yeah, but in case you wanna read it all the time. It's pretty good," he shrugged. I felt bad for ruining his idea, but just smiled and nudged his arm.
"Get me something fun, gee Pony." I joked. He rolled his eyes, but smiled again at me.
"Well, we'll have it at the Curtis'." Two-bit said, interrupting my moment with Pony. "Tonight, so, Pony. We'll need you to busy her the rest of the day." he raised his eyebrows suggestively at us, grinning.
"We'll go shoppin'." Ponyboy suggested, shrugging. Two-bit sighed heavily, shaking his head.
"Pony, you're sixteen-"
"Two-bit!" Soda said very sternly, looking at him with a very annoyed look.
"Soda, the boy-"
"No. Stop. That's my kid brother, man."
"Alright, alright. Fine." Two-bit rolled his eyes and looked back at Ponyboy, looking quite harassed. I knew exactly what they were talking about, and I tried to control the way my face heated up, unfortunately, it didn't work and I felt myself turning incredibly red. Ponyboy didn't look much better, but he was putting on a brave face, pretending like he didn't notice his face.
"I got my pay couple days ago, got some extra after gettin' food and stuff. We don't got bills 'till later." he said, pretending that the conversation before hadn't happened. "We can go buy you that book or anything else you see that you want instead."
"Okay." I nodded, my voice was a bit strangled, because my embarrassment was a lot more than just a red face.
"Get home at like…six." Soda shrugged. "Be warned, Scout, it's not gonna be all decorated or nothin'."
"Yeah, just a cake and some presents. We just gotta have time to make it and stuff." Two-bit nodded.
"Sure." I replied just as shortly as before.
"Get outta here then!" Soda demanded, shooing them off. "I'm off in a few minutes."
"Come on, Scout." Ponyboy smiled, standing and holding out his hand for me. I took it, and he led me outside of the place. We stood in the doorway for a few moments, as he thought, and I let my face cool down, then we started towards the shops. It took only a few minutes for us to get there, because everything was pretty close together in town, and we just walked around. Window-shoppin' mostly, because they were pretty expensive. He only had a couple bucks left, so, we couldn't afford the expensive stuff. I saw a dress for ten dollars, and I thought it was well worth it. It was pretty and blue, even though I didn't wear dresses, it was still nice. We didn't go in until we reached the book store, and he opened the door for me.
"Ponyboy Curtis!" the shop owner exclaimed when we walked in. He was a very old-looking man, and from the looks of him, I could tell he was definitely a Greaser with age. I never really thought about old people being Greaser's, but thinking about it then, it was silly not to think of them getting older over time.
"Hey, Mr. Smith." Ponyboy greeted politely, shaking the man's hand vigorously.
"Whatcha lookin' for today, Mr. Curtis?" Mr. Smith asked, he looked really excited to actually have customers.
"'To Kill a Mockingbird'," Pony told him, looking curious.
"I don't got another one of them," Mr. Smith said, looking quite beat up about not having what we were looking for. "Only had one, and you're the one who went and bought it!"
"Haven't got another yet?"
"Boy, I don't get replacements! Ain't nobody bringin' in their old books anymore. I just got what I've had for years." the old man sighed.
"I'm real sorry, Mr. Smith." Ponyboy frowned. "Let's go Scout, we'll find somethin' else for you."
"Nice meetin' you, Mr. Smith!" I called as we walked out the door. Pony led me to a shop nearby, and I saw it was a candy store. Most of the candy was really cheap, but there was one chocolate bar that was a whole five dollars. I was shocked that it cost so much, but then the store owner explained to me it was a kind of candy from across the ocean, and I understood why it would be more than the others. I picked out a few lollipops and some jawbreakers, Pony got some sour candy, and after he paid we left. I was eatin' one of my suckers, and he was chewing on the sour candy.
"Don't know how you can eat that stuff." I said, looking at the candy then at his face. He shrugged.
"Taste good." He smiled, popping another in his mouth.
"Hey, Pony…" I said tentatively. He looked down at me, eyes curious.
"What's up?" he asked.
"You know what Two-"
"Don't," he interrupted me, and he was suddenly turning very red again. "Don't worry about that. Two-bit's just an idiot."
"That's not what I was gonna ask," I looked down at my sucker, biting my tongue and wondering if I should go on. I decided I might as well now, because he was looking very curious again, though still red. "I was gonna ask…have you?"
"Oh," he also looked down at his candy, and I knew the answer before he said it. "Yeah. Yeah, I have."
"And Soda don't know?" I asked, trying to act like it was no big deal.
"Nah. I only ever told Darry…" he shrugged. That left me feeling stunned. I had thought that maybe he'd kept it secret from everyone, because if Soda and Two-bit didn't know, then that meant something. I knew he wouldn't ever confide anything with Steve, that was just a stupid thought, but never once did I think he would tell Darry either. To me, his and Darry's relationship just didn't seem to be set up where he'd discuss important stuff with Darry. But, apparently…
"Yeah, anyways," Ponyboy said very pointedly. He was obviously as eager as me to change the subject. I didn't want him to get the wrong idea, or an idea in his head that I didn't have…I don't know, it was just a very uncomfortable thing for me. Obviously it was for him, the way he talked about it. But, maybe that was just with me? I didn't want to ask him, but I did have a strange urge to ask him who it was, but I kept my mouth shut. We walked on a little bit in silence, then eventually he struck up a conversation about work that day. We talked about that until we went into another store, where we made fun of a lot of things that were dumb, and wished we could buy other things. By the time we left, it was nearly half after five, so we started towards his house. I was glad our former conversations awkwardness lifted.