Young Blood ⏤ Ponyboy Curtis | ✓

23 | stargazing

WARNING: references to past child abuse and death.

Curly ends up being sent to reform school, confirming his siblings' worst fears.

They can only watch on helplessly as the court decides Curly's fate; a year away in reform school instead of formally charging him, due to his age.

Billie's heart is in her throat as she watches the fuzz take away her twin brother. It's almost as though a part of her has been ripped away, an empty abyss left behind. Without even knowing until now, Curly had been a part of her. It makes sense, they're two sides of the same coin; the good twin and the bad twin. They spent nine months in the room together, growing and developing side-by-side until Billie was born first, followed by her brother minutes later.

Now that he was gone, a part of her had gone with him. She wonders if he feels the same way. That a part of him is missing now that she's not with him. This is the first time they've ever been separated, the invisible string that was tethered between them has snapped.

She remembers racing to the station with Tim and Angela, heart hammering in her chest as Tim demanded answers from the fuzz. He slammed his hands against the desk as he was denied answers, being told that Curly needed a legal guardian with him. Tim had lied through gritted teeth, telling the fuzz that their father was away on a job and wasn't able to come back any time soon, so he was Curly's guardian for now. The police officer — a stout man with a thick moustache — informed Tim that the law didn't work like that; that you weren't able to bend the rules so they align with your situation. There was no grey area regarding the law; only black and white.

Tim gave up, sitting down beside Billie, sighing into his hands. "I knew this would happen," he had muttered, "we'll be lucky if the fuzz don't sniff around looking for Dad."

Angela had leant over Billie and rested a hand on Tim's shoulder. "Hey, don't think like that, okay? Let's just focus on this issue we have going on right now."

"Do you know anything about this?" Tim had asked Billie. "You were with him tonight."

"I —" Billie didn't know what to say. She did know something about this, but Dean and Lloyd were with Curly too. And they hadn't be arrested. Did that mean Curly took the fall for his friends? Or was this a separate incident, one that Curly did on his own?

"Curly, Dean and Lloyd wanted to key Bob Sheldon's car," Billie had informed her older siblings. Upon seeing Tim's dark expression she had quickly added, "but that can't be it, can it? Because Dean and Lloyd aren't here, and neither is Bob Sheldon to report the crime."

Billie had been right in the end; Curly hadn't been caught vandalising Bob Sheldon's car. Instead, high on the feeling of gratification at damaging something Bob Sheldon holds dear to him, he wanted to try his luck breaking into a liquor store. Maybe he would strike gold and find some whiskey, running back to the train tracks to empty the bottle in success. Dean and Lloyd had warned Curly that it was too risky, Billie would find out later. They unsuccessfully convinced him to go home. The next thing they knew, blue and red lights were flashing and Curly was being hauled out in handcuffs, roughly shoved in the back of a police car.

Curly's luck had stretched out thin, his carelessness causing him to be required to complete a stint in reform school, not being able to see his family and friends for a year.

That had been exactly fifteen days ago. Fifteen days of not having to clean up after Curly's messes, to tell him to stop drinking milk out of the carton, of not hearing his boisterous laughter. Fifteen days of tortuous silence, the three Shepard siblings avoiding the elephant in the room: the large, gaping hole Curly had left in his wake.