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For all Steve Randle acts exasperated and annoyed with Ponyboy, he does actually care for the kid. Sure, the two fight like dogs and the kid is seemingly always getting on his nerves, but he’s still a part of the gang. (Steve also sometimes enjoys his company, the kid's wit and smart remarks make for a good time. He’d never admit that though, the kid doesn’t need the ego boost.)
So as much as Steve pretends to despise Pony, he still looks out for the kid when he needs to. Like today, when he spotted the kid looking miserable at a lunch table next to Curly Shepard and Mark Jennings. He didn’t know the Jennings kid that much, but he knew he was bad news. The kid was almost a sketchier hood then Dallas. And the Shepard kid wasn’t much better. He’s been in and out of the reformatory more times than Steve knows.
Steve doesn’t pay that much attention to Pony’s social life, but he didn’t really see the kid as the kind of person to hang around with the likes of Mark and Curly. The unpleasant look on the youngest Curtis’ face seemed to prove him right.
Deciding to be a good person, Steve made his way off the wall he was leaning on and moved over to Pony’s table. He strode along, keeping his head up and an unreadable expression on his face. He’s gone to this school long enough to know how to get Soc kids to leave him alone.
“-Right, baby Curtis?” Steve heard as he caught the end of Curly’s sentence. The Shepard kid was grinning like a mad man, while nodding his head like he was trying to get Pony to agree with him.
Steve wasn’t at the table yet, and decided to stay a bit behind so he could catch the conversation and see if he really needed to intervene.
“Honestly, I wasn’t listenin’, but you’re prolly wrong.” Pony looks up from the book he was reading and gives Curly an exasperated look.
“Oh c’mon! Work with me here, Pone!” Curly slams his hands on the table in annoyance as Pony just shakes his head and rolls his eyes.
“Fine. What are y’all arguin’ about now?” Pony asked, the ‘again’ in his statement making it clear that arguments are common between Jennings and Shepard.
“Which of us is your favorite? It's me, right?” Curly grins, clearly believing that he’s going to be deemed as the favorite. What a weird thing to argue about.
“Neither of y’all.” Pony says simply, eyes tracking back on the book as both Curly and Mark scoff.
Steve decides to take a seat at the table now, announcing his presence by saying, “Hey kid, why’re you hangin’ around with these hoods?” He isn’t sure if either of them are gonna take offence to that, but he also didn’t really care.
“I don’t really know. I’m just kinda stuck with ‘em.” Pony shrugs, sighing like he was babysitting the other two kids.
“Stuck with ‘em?” Steve repeats as an attempt to get the kid to elaborate.
“Mark doesn’t have any other friends and Curly’s just kinda like that.” Pony tells him, shrugging like that explains everything.
“I have other friends!” Jennings exclaims in protest, slamming his hand on the table like Shepard had done earlier.
“Really?” Pony raised his eyebrow, a quirk that almost all of the Curtis gang had developed, courtesy of Two-Bit.
“Yeah.” Mark nodded and crossed his arms, almost pouting. The idea of him pouting was thoroughly entertaining to Steve, considering he’d heard the rumors of the kid being a drug dealer.
“Who?” Pony asked, completely closing his book and crossing his arms as well to mimic Mark.
At that, Mark seemed to be caught off guard as he stuttered out various noises, never actually listing someone.
“Exactly.” Pony smirked and nodded, taking Mark’s mumbled words as a sign of victory. Steve couldn’t help it, he smiled a little at the kid’s antics.
“Wait, what do ya mean I’m ‘like that’?” Curly seemed to have remembered what Pony said about him and was trying to see if he should be upset or not. Wow, these kids really were a little slow. Even more of a reason for Steve to wonder why Pony was hanging around them.
“You do what you want, I couldn’t get rid of ya if I tried.” Pony smiled, weirdly fondly, in Steve’s opinion.
“You love hangin’ with me, don’t deny it baby Curtis.” Curly stuck his fork out at Ponyboy, swinging it around like a shitty threat.
“Sure.” Pony reached over and grabbed a strawberry off of Curly’s tray. Steve ate a few grapes off his own tray, watching the Greasers bicker and play fight. It was kind of interesting, seeing this side of Ponyboy.
The kid he knew was an annoying prick, but a quiet one. He never really spoke out, only doing so to argue or correct someone. But here Pony was, sitting and laughing and teasing with his friends.
Well, Steve assumed they were his friends. It wouldn’t really make sense for him to be acting like this with people he didn’t like.
“If neither of us are your favorite, who is?” Mark asked. He was still kind of pouting and it took a lot in Steve to not make fun of him for it.
“Johnny.” Pony answered with zero hesitation. It made sense, the two members of the Curtis gang always went hand in hand. It was like they were the same person, always able to read each other’s minds. It was kind of freaky.
“He don’t count! It can’t be a member of your gang.” Curly cried out.
“Fine. Cherry, then.” Ponyboy took another strawberry as he answered. Steve only knew one person named Cherry in all of Tulsa, and that was Cherry Valance. A Soc girl. A really, really popular Soc girl. How the hell was Pony friends with a Soc?
“That ain’t fair, she’s a Soc!” Now it was Mark’s turn to complain. He confirmed Steve’s suspicion though, Pony was somehow friends with the queen of Socs.
“Cherry Valance?” He decided to interpret their little argument. Steve wanted to know what the hell they were talking about.
“Yep. We’ve managed to corrupt her into a Greaser.” Curly grinned at Steve. It was kind of unsettling, like a wolf smiling at a sheep before it pounced.
“We,” Pony rolled his eyes. “Y’all didn’t do shit. All you did was piss her off and get stuff thrown at you.”
“And she never would’a done that before.” Curly smiled at Pony this time, but it was more genuine. Less like a predator looking at prey and more like a toddler checking to see if it did something right. God, with all these metaphors he’s beginning to sound like Ponyboy.
“Whatever.” Pony huffed and took the last strawberry from Curly’s tray.
“Since when are you friends with a Soc?” Steve raised his eyebrow, mimicking Pony’s earlier movement.
“We talked a little at the Drive-In and we’re partners for an English project.” Pony shrugged again. It was getting annoying how many times the kid shrugged.
“And now y’all are pals?” Steve was acting like he couldn’t believe it, but if any Greaser could become friendly with a Soc, it would be Ponyboy.
“Yeah.” Pony finished off the last of Curly’s strawberries, who hadn’t seemed to mind him eating his own.
“Between me and Curly, who’s the favorite?” Mark started up again, really wanting to get Pony’s answer.
“Curly.” Pony said as he grabbed Curly’s empty tray and headed for the trash cans. It seemed like it took a bit for the statement to process because Pony was already halfway across the cafeteria before Mark stood up and rushed after him.
Curly stayed seated, grinning to himself as he messed with his ring. A ring that looked vaguely familiar, like one Steve had seen Pony wear before. Curly probably took it off of him, he decided. The hood was known for swiping things from stores, he wouldn’t put it past him to take from his friends.
“You need somethin’?” Curly turned to him when he remembered he was sitting there and stared at him.
Steve took that as his cue to leave as he stood up and walked out without saying anything. He heard Curly huff and mutter ‘rude’ as he left. It was still weird as hell to him that Pony was all buddy buddy with some well known hoods. To each their own, or whatever the saying is.
—-------
The next time Steve saw Pony and Curly together, it wasn’t nearly as fun as the first time.
His piece-of-shit father had kicked him out for the day and since it was a Sunday, he didn’t have work. Soda did, though, or Steve would’ve gone to hang out with him. He probably should’ve gone to bum around the DX instead of going to the Curtis house.
He expected it to be empty, with both Darry and Soda working. Two-Bit was looking after his sister and Johnny and Dally were probably hanging around town together. The one person Steve forgot to account for was Pony, who was, in fact, home.
Steve didn’t know that, though, as he opened the door and left the screen to slam shut behind him. He moved towards the main room in the house, trying to go to the kitchen when he saw something that made him stop.
Pony was asleep on the couch. That wasn’t weird, the kid could sleep just about anywhere, probably a side effect of the nasty nightmares he got. What was weird was that Curly Shepard was also sleeping on the couch. Shepard was basically using the kid as a blanket. Pony’s head was resting on his Curly’s chest while Shepard’s arm was wrapped around Pony’s waist, holding him close.
Now, the Curtis’ were always known as a pretty tactile family, especially with people they trusted. Soda was a great example of this, always throwing an arm around his friends or holding onto their shirts in a crowd. Pony wasn’t nearly as touchy as his brother, and when he was, it was only with a few certain people.
There was no way the two boys were cuddling on the couch while using the power of friendship.
If Steve was someone else, someone more full of hatred (if he was his father), he probably would’ve lost his damn mind at the sight. Queers weren’t exactly well liked in Tulsa, and neither were people of color. (Steve would know. He’s gotten plenty of nasty looks from Socs who think his darker skin means they can walk all over him like he’s dirt.) Being a person of color and a queer in Tulsa was basically a death sentence.
But here Curly and Pony were, cuddling on the couch without a care in the world. (Steve’s counting himself lucky that they were asleep and not making out or something. He really didn’t want to see that.)
He would’ve just let the two stay asleep, but he knew it wasn’t a good idea. With the amount of Greasers that like to lay low in the Curtis house like it was a motel, he knew it wasn’t safe to let them stay in case they were seen.
He walked back outside, making sure the door didn’t slam, before he walked back inside. He shut the door unnecessarily hard. The loud boom from the door woke Pony up. Steve could hear him wrestling in Curly’s grip, trying to wake the other boy up. He waited a bit before walking into the room, giving the two boys time to get in a more friend-like position.
“Steve, why’re you here?” Pony called out from the couch, now sitting next to Curly who still looked half asleep. And who still had his arm around Pony’s waist. Steve’s eyes lingered there, and Pony must’ve caught on because he shoved Curly’s arm off of him.
“Got kicked out again. I’m stopping by here before headin’ to the DX.” Steve lied, walking to the kitchen to see what food was in the fridge. He didn’t mention what he had seen, just grabbing a Coke out of the fridge before walking back out of the house.
He should probably tell Sodapop, but he knew that it wasn’t his secret to tell. Instead, Steve would keep his silence until Pony either blabbed his secret to the gang, or someone else caught them. He had a feeling it would be the latter.
He headed towards the DX, wondering if it would be too obvious if he threatened Curly. Just because he didn’t like the kid didn’t mean he would let him get hurt.