Hear me out, Ponyboy just has this vibe to him, one that disturbs many people and he is completely aware of it, not many even realize it’s coming from Ponyboy.

He uses this to has advantage, he doesn’t necessarily like Steve, Ponyboy just has the ability to let off a bad aura that would set Steve off, Steve has no idea he’s being targeted by his boyfriends kid brother.

Then he will do the complete opposite with someone like Sodapop, who he uses the Pavlov method on. Ponyboy doesn’t notice he’s even doing it to his older brother at first, it’s something he simply did for a long time.

Ponyboy was always kind to Sodapop and each time he saw him close enough he always would do small gestures, a side hug or grip to the wrist for a light second. This only ever happened when Sodapop was actually near him or if Sodapop was close and talking to him. Sodapop subconsciously likes to stay near Ponyboy who he knows cares deeply for him. He doesn’t realize how much he misses those small touches of affection if not close to his little brother.

Then Ponyboy starts his golden gang, he has his members, Johnny, Curly, Mark, Cherry, Scout, Angela, and M&M. Sometimes even Tim is tagged along with them and no one knows if Charlie counts.

He does this with each of them in small different ways, he’s more aware of it now and can actually use the Pavlov method pretty well. A hand on Johnny’s back whenever Johnny is making jokes or being confident, a slightly more gentle voice to Curly when Curly isn’t actively trying to do something stupid without approval.

It takes a while for Ponyboy to put the pieces together that the reason he can creep others out so easy is that using the Pavlov method lets him understand people better and make him better at knowing what makes people unsettled by simple shifts.

He starts learning those around him, Greasers, Socs, his gang, anyone he knows it will work on.

While he’s always aware of what he’s doing once he learned about it, he simply doesn’t need to think of it in detailed ways anymore.

He has much more fun when he realizes Tim Shepherd is also an option and surprisingly just as easy as his siblings no matter how Tough he acts.

Tim is the only one who catches onto the fact that something deeper is at play with the boy who hangs around his younger siblings.

One thing Tim knows is that Ponyboy surely isn’t as innocent as everyone seems to think.

Ponyboy did this on purpose because it messes with Tim’s head.

He doesn’t regret anything.

Dallas Winston would NOT be boyfriend of the year 😭 dude is constantly in an out of jail and probably has a shit ton of issues, personally I cannot see dally ever holding a stable relationship bc dally himself isn't stable in life. He's a product of his environment and probably doesn't know what a healthy relationship is to begin with

I also cannot stand the way the fandom treats johnny, most of the fanfics I've seen make johnny out to be a shy soft little baby that needs to be protected at all times and so sweet and innocent he was a good kid yeah but he was also a greaser and still hung out with the people he did it's so annoying when people act like the dude couldn't hold himself up 😭 he literally killed a man and cared a switch in his pocket and said he'd kill the next person who tried him. Let Johnny be bitchy!! Let him have a personality outside the gang!! His whole plot in the books is that he was more than some greaser kid whose parents beat up on him, stop missing that point of his story and dumbing him down to a bland and basically peronsalityless character😭 ( personally I hc that johnny while he loved the gang, found their watchful eyes of him a little annoying. Johnny was a 16 year old boy and had taken care of himself his whole life)

This is oklahoma in the 60s they were all a little awful and hick

I also like the headcanons that the shepherds were not white, I don't have a specific headcanon from them but a lot of places in Oklahoma have a lot of native and Hispanic and black people ( especially Tulsa in the 60s) most not white people lived in the more shady parts of town bc that was all they could afford, this is the 60s and oklahoma it was WILDY RACIST ( and still kind of is) so it makes sense for the greasers to be diverse

Breath on an undying ember, It doesn't take much to remember, Those eloquent songs from the good old days, That set us to marching with banners ablaze, Ghosts of my history will follow me there, And the winds of the old days will blow through my hair

One last day. 

That’s all it was supposed to be. It was all that Sylvia had before everything was supposed to change. Not that anybody else knew that. No one else knew that everything was going to change, but Sylvia could sense it. She could feel it in the way that the wind kept moving and how all of her old friends were growing up and apart. 

Sylvia was overly aware of the way that everyone was starting to go their own way. It had only taken her one summer to turn into an angelic, albeit lonely thing, riding her bike up and down the streets by herself as she fought to keep her head above the water that threatened to take her. She was aware that everything was collapsing before her eyes but she couldn’t help the way that she wanted to hold onto all of it. Even if just by a thread. 

Dallas was supposed to be picking her up today. It had been a while since he’d called her. Voice husky over the static of the telephone as he asked for things that he wouldn’t have asked of anyone else. It was always difficult for Sylvia to say no to Dallas. He had been both her first and her everything… up until she’d run headfirst into oblivion, opting for the loneliness rather than the depths of hell where he seemed keen to drag her. 

So Sylvia sat on the porch, backpack under her feet and cigarette smoke curling around her ears. She was aware that it was early and that she might be waiting a long time, but Sylvia wanted a minute to prepare herself before tonight. She needed to gather the last of her courage. What she really needed to do was apply every bit of her armor that she’d managed to get rid of when she’d driven Dallas off for good. Since summer had driven them apart, she’d forgotten all the ways he managed to sink his teeth into her bones. He’d always had a way of pulling every dark and eager thing in her to the surface. As exciting as it all was for Sylvia, she’d sworn off it for the summer. She couldn’t have a boy like Dallas running around and mucking up her life before it really began. 

She couldn’t help but to hate the irony that swirled around her as she thought about how girlish and stupid it was of her to have said yes to him last night. He’d known exactly the right time to call her and get her to agree. All of his special ways of getting to bend with him resurfacing in the summer glow. 

It was three cigarettes later when Buck's old red chevy pulled to the curb for her. The windows down and a tarp scratching the bed of the truck. She knew it was stupid but a thrill went through her as she thought about what they used to mean to each other. Sylvia stands, letting a smile take over her face as Dallas’s bare arm hangs out the window and beckons her over. 

“Hey baby.” He says, nearly chewing his cigarette down to ash in his mouth as his eyes rake over her. Sylvia feels an odd sense of self consciousness that she tries to stuff down as she reminds herself that they aren’t anything anymore. She gets in the truck, barely managing to shut the door before he’s taking off. “How ya been?” 

“Fine.” She answers shortly, not wanting to go into the self imposed loneliness that had nearly cracked her soul in half. “You?” 

“Great.” He flashes a smile that ties her stomach in knots. “Finally got a place with crazy Davey out on 8th and Sutton.”

“Yeah? That’s great.” Her mouth dries up and she can’t help the way her eyes scan his bare arms as they grip the steering wheel. It’s probably an old habit leftover from their time together. The last time she’d been with him, they were covered in track marks and bruises. Sylvia remembers her promises to herself, when her arms had looked nearly identical. 

“It’s been good.” The silence stretches longer than Sylvia feels comfortable with. She finds herself wishing she hadn’t crushed out her cigarette just so she would have had something to do with her hands. She’s reminded again of the girl that Dallas has the power to turn her into. Weak and simpering, cradled in his arms like a fragile bird as she breaks her body to be with him. “You look good too.” He says then and he’s got that familiar look in his eye that tells Sylvia he wants to talk to her. 

“Thanks.” She says, feeling stupid. She’s more than thankful when the car pulls into Two-Bit’s driveway. Dallas doesn’t even have to honk before he’s stumbling out of the door and down the drive, already looking half drunk with Kathy under his arm.

“Hey Sylvia!” Two-Bit announces, nearly tripping into the car as Dallas takes off. “Been a while since we’ve seen ya around. Where ya been?” 

“Around.” She answers shortly. “Same as you.” 

“Well I’m glad Dallas convinced ya to celebrate the fourth with us.” Kathy pipes up, giving her hand a squeeze. “We missed having ya around. Nights at Tim’s den especially.” Sylvia shudders and looks out the window to avoid her gaze. She doesn’t want to think about the den and all the sins she’s tried so hard to wash herself clean of. The poker games and everything they used to do in the backrooms. She wraps her arms around herself, leaning back when Dallas starts fiddling with the radio.

It’s when they hit the canyon that Sylvia is really starting to hate herself for agreeing to come along. Perhaps, all of her self proclamations for getting clean and fixing herself up were fickle. All she was really doing was lying to herself. Sylvia had thought that she’d deserved this because she’d been doing so well but now she couldn’t stand herself for falling back in with the old crowd. It’s not her fault that Dallas drew something out in her. Something feral and primitive, almost like he knew just how to dig into her skin and burrow there until he was nothing more than a festering wound. Sylvia can’t help the sense of self loathing that crawls over her skin when they pull into that dirt lot at the mouth of the lake. She shouldn’t be here. 

Two-Bit is jumping out of the car before Dallas even has a chance to throw it into park, running over to those guys they’d all gone to school with and starting to catch up. Kathy already has her hands on a beer bottle, red lipstick staining the rim and her teeth as she laughs. Sylvia gets the sense that she should go and talk to the rest of the girlfriends. After all, that’s what she was now that she had arrived with Dallas, right? 

Instead, she turns, red dust settling into her shoes as she watches Dallas start to unload the back of the truck. He’s always been skinny, especially with the way they had been wasting away together just a few months ago but now he looks like he’s put some lean corded muscle on those thin arms. He gives her a small grin as he catches her staring at him. 

“You too sober for one drink?” He asks, a small smile playing on his lips and Sylvia can’t help but to grin back. 

“Nah, I can do one. It’s all about moderation, right?” He nods, handing her a drink from the cooler he’s just pulled out of the truck bed. She can tell by his eyes that he wants to talk to her but that he’s much too sober to say what he means. 

“You…” He trails off, his eyes taking her in once again and Sylvia can’t stand it any longer. 

“I’m gonna go catch up with the rest of the girls.” She makes an awkward pointing gesture and sees herself out as she walks back over to the gaggle of girlfriends, laughing and talking as they let loose. Sylvia can’t help it as she sticks close to Kathy. So much has changed since the last time she’d been running with this crowd, people have broken up and moved on. It was still the same type of people but everyone Sylvia had known seemed to have moved on. 

Instead of entering into the conversation, Sylvia takes the sidelines, nodding along to the words and the snide as she watches the glimmer of the lake water. Some guys were in the water, fighting the heat that had begun to settle now that the sun was going down. Sylvia knew how these parties went. Pretty soon someone would get drunk enough to start up with the fireworks and the whole thing would be less than chaos. 

“Sylvia? You need another drink?” She looks over at Kathy, who seems to be completely serious. Apparently, she hadn’t heard about Sylvia’s latest attempts at sobriety. Figuring she deserves to let loose after restricting everything for so long, Sylvia nods. 

“Perfect, I’ll be back honey.” Despite the warm buzz of the first drink and the endless chatter of the girls, Sylvia can feel Dally’s eyes on her from across the lake shore. She tries not to notice his attempts to talk to her. She doesn’t know if she can resist him for the rest of the night but she knows that as long as the girls are together, she’ll be safe. Kathy comes back with another drink, handing it to her and sitting down in the sand next to her. 

“They’re flipping knives over there.” She says. “I wouldn’t be surprised if this ends with a trip to the hospital.” 

Sylvia smiles. “It did last year.” 

“That’s what I’m sayin’!” Kathy falls into the conversation with the rest of the girls while Sylvia opts to half-listen and watch the game of chicken going on in the water before her. She can’t think about Dallas or any of it without feeling just like that same girl that had nearly killed herself last summer.

“Who is ready for fireworks?” The girls cheer and Sylvia smiles a bit but can’t help the dread that overtakes her as everyone scatters and pairs up. Most of them go to sit on the truck beds or blankets they’ve laid out but Sylvia doesn’t move. Instead, she lies on her stomach, letting her hair shroud her as she starts to watch the fireworks. She needed to get out. The realization had hit her before but it had never threatened her with such a stark sense of reality as it was now, surrounded by derelicts and drop-outs alike. The sky is completely dark now, something that Sylvia is thankful for as nobody can see that she’s alone.

“Hey,” She startles, cursing herself for not knowing better. There was always one who knew her inside and out, knew which words to say to get her off of her high horse and down into the gutters. Knew the spots to touch to make her soft and pliable in thin but wiry arms. “You know…” She turns right into him as he sits much too close. “Everyone here thought you went crazy this summer? They were surprised I managed to drag you out of wherever you were hiding.” His words clipped with the remnants of a New York accent. 

“What?” She asks, taking in his warm brown eyes that were alight with the fireworks. “I didn’t go crazy. I’m here ain’t I?” 

“That might make ya a little crazy.” 

“No more crazy than the rest of ‘em.” She’s quiet for a moment, looking back up at the fireworks instead of the desire in Dally’s eyes. 

“Can’t blame ‘em, y’know?” He drawls on, unbeknownst to Sylvia’s attempts at silence. “We didn’t hear from you for weeks. Just gone, like you were dead or something.” His voice is low and hot, so close that Sylvia can feel it on her exposed collarbone. 

“I’m not dead.” She says dumbly, closing her mouth as she stares at his cheekbones. 

“Yeah? Prove it then…” He trails off and his mouth is on hers then. She welcomes it, getting knocked back into six months ago when this was normal and she would bend at his every whim. Now she’s just relishing the booze in her system that is turning this experience into something entirely better than it actually is. She drinks him in, all of the wayward gazes and searching looks finally making sense. He wants her again, possibly more than Sylvia can return. 

She can’t get sucked back into his vacuum. She can’t. Not when her big plans include trapezing cross country and forgetting every bad thing that has ever happened to her. Not when she has to get out. Dallas will only serve to anchor her to this one horse town, forever. 

“Dallas…” She trails off, pulling her lips away from hers even though he’s making every move to push them back together. “Stop…” He’s pulling away then, looking at her through heavy lidded eyes. Sylvia can tell that he’s probably had a lot more to drink than her. 

“You know how to kiss me just right baby.” He whispers, eyes moving lazily from her lips up to her eyes. “I missed ya.” 

“We can’t.” She says, thinking of her future. The golden and bright future that laid so far away from this place and everything it contained. A future that would quickly be diminished by Dallas and his heavy laden eyes, his needles, and his pills. Everything that he was would ruin Sylvia if she let it. 

“Nothin’ ever stopped ya before, even when your momma…” Sylvia closes her eyes tightly, trying not to think back on everything that had gone on in that house. The red fiery sting of it that had only served to throw her back into Dallas’s arms. 

“It’s different now.” She says, hoping against hope that it’s true. She’d hoped that their months apart had done her some good. She’d managed to get clean, for the most part, even if she knew the burning desire between them was palpable. 

“Different how? Just ‘cause you disappeared for a couple months. C’mon baby…” He trails off, planting a kiss against her neck again. 

“Just different.” She pulls away, taking a breath. “I’m clean… and you know I can’t stay here forever.” 

“Aw I know that. You’re gonna be big somewhere. College and all that shit… Why can’t we just have it now?” She falls back into him just the slightest bit, hoping that this won’t come back to bite her. 

“Dallas stop.” She says again, even though everything inside of her is telling her to go to him. He pulls away then, sitting beside her on the darkened lakeshore as the fireworks dance all around them. 

“Sure honey…” He says, trailing off as he looks at her. “What’s wrong, Sylvia? You ain’t ever stayed away for too long before.” She gives him a look before laying her head down in his lap, hoping that will stop him from kissing her again. 

“Dally…” She trails off, unsure of the best way to put it. “I was gonna kill myself to be with you and… I figured that I still got a lot more life left to live. Y'know?" He doesn’t say anything, just sits there playing with her hair and nodding along. “I loved you a lot, but I can’t let it be the death of me. You and I both know that somewhere down the line, it woulda killed me.” They sit for a moment, completely quiet as Sylvia tries to gather the best of her thoughts. Every time she thought of their love, she imagined a big star off in the galaxy somewhere. Not the shining kind that people wish on, but the big fiery ones that go out blazing and hotter than hell. The kinds that take out entire planets and destroy worlds. That’s what Sylvia saw when she looked at Dallas. “Hell Dally… it’s gonna kill you.” 

“It ain’t.” He says, sounding firm and mean. “I didn’t mean for it to be like that. Honest.” He says and Sylvia can’t help the way she pushes her head into him. “Just come back with me?” Sylvia's heart starts to flutter at his question. He wanted her to come back with him, for things to be just like they were, back before Sylvia had gone crazy and nearly killed herself shooting smack. 

Maybe she should go back. The thought fills her with a sense of shame. What was she doing kidding herself that she was clean? Did she honestly think she could stay that way? Sure, she’d spent a couple months hiding herself away and pretending herself onto a pedestal with the other druggie derelicts far beneath her. Sylvia admitted that she was better for it now, her arms less bruised and she’d gained her weight back but her veins still itched for it sometimes. Her body still remembered what it felt like to be tucked into Dallas’s side with her mind quiet and his arms around her. Not only did she remember it, she longed for it. 

Then she remembers something else, the shaking and the throwing up as she’d worked to change into the version of herself she’d always wanted to be. Someone so far above the horrible things that a person can do, like shooting drugs and living in this town. More than that, she liked being above those horrible things.

“I can’t” 

“I wish you would.” Sylvia shakes her head, feeling firm in choice. She wouldn’t go crawling back to Dallas… or the drugs.

“Don’t worry, I’ll always be a memory holdin’ ya babe. A good one too.”

same thing with tim and darry like i don’t get that one either. no hate. absolutely no hate, i don’t care what you ship, im just confused as to why.