#soc!au

i.

the movie reviews come in one by one as the movie airs, but what steve is really looking for are the ones from tulsa. they're his home town after all; they're the ones who he most cares about their opinion of the movie.

many of them praise him for effortlessly embodying the wayward curtis son, caught in the grips between an overwhelming alpha and the beta he cares for. another is a tearjerking review from someone who supposedly knew johnny cade before he died, saying steve randle really is ponyboy curtis in this riveting curio of our time, truly becoming the friend of a slain boy, the object of possession of an alpha and by the end, utterly lost between them.

however, it's the review that comes in from tulsa world that has him furious. it's by a critic -- a woman by the name of molly -- who states, when the movie isn't outright deceiving it's viewer, it's both too saccharine and too insincere to truly evoke genuine emotion. randle clearly believes that the best way to convey ponyboy curtis -- as a person, as an omega, as victim and as perpetrator -- is to simply gape at the camera, to force his eyes to try and emulate someone more innocent than what he claims to be. he's simply out of place, miscast in a movie where he would be more suited to once again play a rugged, possessive man or to be an extra, once more, on the edge of greatness but always falling up short. always the bridesmaid but never quite the bride you want for a rather money grabbing, soulless effort to bring a complicated case to the screen.

of all of the reviews, that's the one that sticks in his head the most, despite the praise of others. it's what he thinks of the most as more offers come in, and he itches to pick up the phone, call up soda.

ii.

saccharine is a word that comes up on the test before him. ponyboy knows what it means: something oversweet, sentimental, cloying. he thinks that dallas would probably love the word saccharine and all it means. he's sure that some of what it means to him is overlaid by an overly rosy look on things.

to ponyboy though, it's not necessarily a bad word. he thinks of when dallas had decided to take him to the fourth of july parade for the first time a few months ago. the town had been buzzing with activity, everyone excited. dallas had known his birthday was later that month and he'd done any and everything in his power to get ponyboy to all the games, to win him that big stupid bag of popcorn they shared together as the fireworks erupted in the sky.

it is a sweet, overly sentimental memory. it's also a memory where he noticed, as the last firework blasted above them, dyeing everyone in red and blue and white, that dallas hadn't been looking at the fireworks. he'd been looking at him.