★Sage★

Curly paused right before climbing in, it felt like he wasn’t supposed to be there.

He shouldn’t be sneaking through Pony’s window at one in the morning, he shouldn’t be staring at the way the moonlight shines over his face while he sleeps, and he REALLY shouldn’t be comparing him to the pretty girls he sees near the ribbon

Ponyboy was pretty, too pretty, so pretty it made Curly’s stomach turn. Curly couldn’t tell what it was that made him so beautiful. Was it his ethereal green eyes that resembled precious emeralds? Could it be his Auburn hair that reminded Curly that fall was quickly approaching?

He didn’t know.

Some of Johnny, some of Darry and Soda with their parents, there’s even one with Steve jumping off an old truck. There’s something so poetic about capturing memories as they happen.

It only becomes a problem for Pony after he breaks up with Curly.

when ponyboy looks at curly under the sketchy, flickering street lights, he doesn’t just see a Shepard, “all violent and nothing but trouble”, as darry would put it. He almost thinks of curly as untouchable and something so real in the void of Tulsa.

“he tastes like the real thing.”

when ponyboy kisses curly for the first time after a Tuesday night rumble, it wasn’t just blood and dirt. Honestly, he couldn’t even tell what it was because curly pushed him away before he got the chance to tell.

“my fake plastic love.”

reality always comes crashing back to ponyboy, he knew they would never work out. watching sunsets while smoking together, trespassing into soc territory, sneaking into the movie theater, it was all fake, an illusion.

you are loved.

It’s almost always portrayed in media that girl friend groups always have secret animosity towards each other.

But there’s so many great films and media that show male friend groups as being as close as brothers and willing to die for each other, WITHOUT THE SECRET HATRED.

Ponyboy knows best about this.

Whether it’s Darry talking to Soda about the bills,

Johnny talking to Dally about his parents beating him,

Two-Bit making dirty remarks toward the girls that hang around The Ribbon,

Pony will always appear to be invested in whatever book he’s reading, but he’s always listening.