Young Blood ⏤ Ponyboy Curtis | ✓

03 | masks

Tim's home when they get back from school.

This surprises Billie. For as long as she can remember, Tim comes home just before dinner or after. Usually, it's the latter. But there Tim is; seated on the hideous floral sofa, the newspaper in his hands, his eyes following the words on the page, eyebrows furrowed slightly as he does.

Curly laughs loudly, causing Tim to look up from over the top of the newspaper. He doesn't say a word, watching the three siblings with an unreadable expression on his face.

"What a surprise seeing you home so early, grandpa? Is it time for your nap?" Curly teased, throwing his backpack beside the couch and walking into the kitchen to get a drink.

Tim gives Curly the middle finger and scolds him as he sees Curly grab a bottle of beer. "No drinking before seven." Curly protests, but Tim remains stern and eventually Curly gives up, putting the beer back into the fridge and grabbing the milk carton instead, drinking it straight from the carton.

Both Angela and Billie frown in disgust. "Other people use the milk too, you know," Angela comments.

Curly shrugs his shoulders, not caring, and lets out a disgusting burp in response. Angela mutters something under her breath that Billie couldn't decipher as she walks down the hallway and into their bedroom.

Tim is still seated on the couch, but the newspaper has been folded up and placed down beside him. He turns to face Billie and Billie suddenly comes to the realisation of how similar her brothers really were. Tim studies Billie carefully, before asking Billie how school was.

Billie shrugs her shoulders. "It was alright," she replies, leaving out the part where she was humiliated in the cafeteria by a Soc. If Tim ever got wind of that, Charles Minor wouldn't be showing his face around town for a long time.

"What classes are you in?" Tim asks.

"Advanced Placement classes. The classes are full of Socs though," Billie answers. As she says this, Tim turns to face Curly, who is now seated at the kitchen table, twiddling his thumbs.

"You could learn from Billie, you know," Tim tells Curly, his voice even.

Curly makes a point of not looking up at Tim, instead, looking down at the plaid cloth on the table. "What's the point? Bil's the smart one and I'm the dumb one. That's how it goes," he says.

"You know that's not true. If you put the effort in -"

"Stop tryna parent us, Tim! We haven't had one for years now and we've been just fine. We don't need one now," Curly exclaims, Tim's words having a deeper effect on Curly than Tim realised. He stands up, the chair legs screeching loudly against the floorboards. Billie watches as Curly leaves the room.

Tim sighs defeatedly and runs a hand through his dark curls. Billie watches as they bounce slightly as his hand runs through them. Billie feels sorry for Tim. She can see that he is trying. For as long as Billie can remember, Tim has been trying to hold the family together. Now that their father has run off with some young broad to Kansas, Tim has been working in overdrive to continue to hold this family together.

Billie wonders if that is part of the reason why Tim has now let Curly join the gang.

Billie opens her mouth and begins to tell Tim more about her day. As she does, she can see a small smile begin to form on Tim's face before he purses his lips to hide it. She tells Tim about the book her class is going to start reading, she tells Tim about her History class and how ironic it is that she seems to be scared of teenagers but is a high school teacher. She tells Tim about the book Angela got her. She tells Tim all about spies and undercover missions and the Cold War.