the outsiders imagines

perfect - ponyboy

pairing: ponyboy x soc reader

warning: violence

summary: he doesn't want to ruin her. except his mere existence does exactly that.

---

he knew she was perfect the moment he saw her.

she was the type of girl who didn't have many friends, because she was shy. the type of girl that laughed at her own jokes because there was nobody to laugh with her. the type of girl who hid away in the library at lunch time, because she'd rather have the company of fictional characters than of people who didn't care about her.

but he cared.

that's why he followed her to the library that day. he watched as she took her usual seat in the corner, near the fiction section, and settled in with her book of choice: to kill a mockingbird. he watched as she crossed her legs and began losing herself in the story.

"hey," he spoke nervously. she looked up at him in shock, as if she had never been addressed before. then he realized that it was because he was a greaser, and greasers never dared to talk to socs. especially at school.

"hi?" she squeaked. she tucked her book back into her book bag before standing up. ponyboy glanced down at her body. she was wearing a pink sweater with a white collared shirt underneath, all tucked into a soft gray plaid skirt. his gaze moved up to meet hers, and he almost regretted coming to talk to her. because he really didn't have much to say.

"i, uh, i'm ponyboy," he said quickly, fidgeting with his denim jacket.

"y/n." ponyboy could have sworn he'd never heard such an angelic voice in his life. not even his mother's voice could compare to hers. it was like the sweet tinkling of tiny bells, or what he imagined pixie dust would sound like if it were real.

"i was wondering if you wanted to hang out with me after school. only if ya wanna."

her eyes widened as she began chewing on her bottom lip. "i guess you could walk me home?"

"deal."

——

it didn't take long for them to become best friends. ponyboy wasn't exactly the most popular kid in school either, so he appreciated having someone to talk to besides the gang and curly. not only that, but y/n was unlike anyone he'd ever met.

despite her affluent background, she was humble. she never spoke a bad word about anyone, not even randy adderson or the other boys that bullied her on a daily basis. "it's alright," she said. "everyone's got something they're struggling with. they just don't know how to deal with it."

ponyboy had never thought about it like that before. he'd assumed that if you had money, you had no problems, because a lot of the troubles in his life would go away if his brothers had money. that's what ponyboy liked about y/n, that she saw things differently from everybody else. ponyboy could relate to that. darry always told him that he didn't have any common sense, but it was just that ponyboy and darry saw things differently.

ponyboy felt guilty for hanging around y/n, though. he couldn't help but notice how rough the skin on his hands was compared to hers: his had scars, while hers smelled like roses and were soft like silk. his sneakers were all dirty and holey, while her saddle shoes were always polished and perfect. even the clothes he wore, the denim jacket he'd been handed down from sodapop, looked vulgar compared to her pink and pale blue sweaters. ponyboy felt like he was tainting her, ruining her. even bringing her to his side of town made him uneasy. he wanted her to stay who she was, an innocent, pure girl who didn't seem to carry a grudge or a burden.

— —

the day ponyboy realized he was in love with her was also the day everything went downhill.

they were at the park, watching the sunset as they did every weekend. except ponyboy wasn't watching the sky, he was looking at her. admiring the way the sun made her skin look like liquid gold, how the pinks and oranges in the sky reflected in her eyes. ponyboy used to think sunsets were the most beautiful thing in the world. now he knew it was her.

"pony?"

ponyboy snapped out of his daze, a dark red rising to his cheeks. "yeah, y/n?"

"have you ever been in love?"

and just as those words left her mouth, ponyboy heard the screeching of car tires. or more precisely, the screeching of nelson miller's mustang.

ponyboy scrambled to his feet, pushing y/n behind him as she did the same. his heartbeat took off, adrenaline rushing through his veins. he watched as nelson and his soc friends clambered out of the mustang and beelined towards them.

"look who we have here," nelson sneered. "the grease and the goody two shoes. how ironic."

"the only thing ironic here is that you don't know the definition of irony," ponyboy snapped. nelson's friends started laughing, only to be silenced by nelson's death glare.

"i wouldn't be talking smack if i were you," nelson said, his voice quiet but full of venom. ponyboy noticed the lump in the pocket of nelson's khakis, and his heart dropped. he had a weapon.

"look, just leave us alone. or i'll get my gang," ponyboy said. he could feel y/n trembling behind him, scared out of her wits.

"or how about you show your girl just how tough you are." nelson took a step towards ponyboy and y/n. ponyboy, instinctively, put his hands out and pushed nelson backwards. nelson went stumbling into his group of friends, tripping over his own feet.

in a blur of a moment, nelson reached into his pocket and pulled out his weapon: a heater. ponyboy's jaw dropped; he didn't know socs carried guns.

"put that away, don't wave that around," ponyboy said, voice wavering. y/n cowered behind him, a sob escaping her mouth. ponyboy wished he could run away with her, away from nelson and his stupid friends, but he knew any wrong movement could cause irreversible damage.

"oh, now the grease is scared," nelson taunted, stepping closer. "why? can't handle a bit of violence? that's all greasers know."

"that's not true!" ponyboy whipped around to shush y/n, but she kept going. "they wouldn't be violent if they didn't have socs harassing them all the time!"

"you little bitch," nelson spat. ponyboy, enraged, lunged towards him in pure fury.

"don't you dare talk to her like that!" ponyboy yelled. but the next thing he knew, a loud pop rang through the air. he froze, but realizing he didn't feel any pain, he looked up at nelson. nelson's mouth had dropped open, his eyes locked on something behind ponyboy, and in that moment ponyboy knew that she was gone.

"y/n," he whispered, rushing to her side. he watched as a red circle widened on her baby blue sweater, just below her ribcage. the color of her blood was so ugly, so garish compared to the softness of her clothes and skin. ponyboy ignored the socs as they ran back to their mustang and sped off, leaving ponyboy and y/n alone in the cold night.

"ponyboy," y/n coughed. ponyboy shook his head, trying to hold his tears back.

"no, no, no," he said. but then she was gone.

ponyboy screamed, swore, and then screamed some more. he regretted ever talking to her in that library that day, for bringing her into his dirty and violent world. he hated himself for tainting her, for being so damn selfish...for thinking that it didn't matter that he was a greaser and she was a soc, because it did matter. and it would always matter.

"i'm sorry," he whispered. but it was too late. there was no one there to hear him.