Chapter Text
“Be careful!” I winced away from the chemical smell of the bleach and hit my head on the wall.
“Johnnycakes. Stay still.” Ponyboy and I were sitting on the Curtises’ tiled bathroom floor, with the open bottle of bleach beside us and his hand clutched around a couple strands of my dark hair. The blue box dye was on the sink.
It was too quiet, normally there was some kind of noise always echoing through the house, radio or TV or wrestling or Soda flipping the table after losing at cards. But everybody was gone so it was just me and Ponyboy, and I had decided on a whim to dye a chunk of my hair blue. Mostly because I knew my dad would kill me if he knew I was doing this.
“Ok.” Pony leaned back to admire his handiwork.
“I wanna seeeeeee, Pony.”
“No. The bleach has to dry.” He wiped his hands on the towels and stood upright. “Come on, let’s go outside!”
Ponyboy picked me up.
“Let me down! Fucker!” I laughed and hit him with open palms. He opened the door with his foot and placed me on the stoop, while I was still laughing.
“I probably look like my mom getting her hair done.” Ponyboy giggled. “I’ll make iced tea. Stay out here.”
He left.
It was a nice summer day, the cicadas were screaming and the sprinkler, where two little kids played was on and water logging the already muddy grass from yesterday’s rain. I glanced over my shoulder, looking at where Ponyboy was boiling water and humming to the radio.
***
“Iced tea is ready!” He hopped outside, placing an iced tea in my hand and plopping down beside me. Pony was wearing his dumb shirt that he got from Curly, ‘Smoking kills, but so does life, so light up!’ It always made me laugh. His hair was ungreased and fluffy, still blond, but the reddish brown had begun to come back from the roots.
He looked to where the kids played, they were engrossed by something in the soil, probably a bug or something. Nobody else was out.
“Can I kiss you?” I felt like I had never choked out a ‘yes’ faster in my life. He leaned in and pressed his lips to mine. It probably lasted just two seconds. I kinda wished it was forever.
I looked down at my legs, trying to hide my obvious blush, and pretended to be focused on my shorts.
“Twobit was right.” Pony laughed.
“Huh?”
“He said I look at you like you hang the moon. He was right. I love when you’re like this.”
“Like what?”
“Happy.”