Young Blood ⏤ Ponyboy Curtis | ✓

16 | the greaser club

"Hey, Bil, do you wanna come out tonight?"

Billie looks up from the mess of textbooks and worksheets she's created on the bed. With a blue pen in her hand, she looks at Angela who is standing by the door, wearing a tight red dress and fishnet stockings which means one thing: she's going out partying.

Billie shakes her head, "I can't, sorry. I have homework." Even though the voice in the back of Billie's mind is telling her that her workload isn't a lot this weekend, that she could take Friday night off, that she could go out with Angela and her friends if she really wanted to. Billie doesn't want to admit it, but the real reason she declines is that she doesn't want to go. Angela's friends aren't Billie's crowd and she'll stick out like a sore thumb even more than she already does when she's with her siblings.

She just wants that suffocating feeling of alienation to disappear, to not always feel that it's there, wherever she goes and with everything she does. Does that make her a bad person, to not want to spend time with her siblings because she can't deal with being so different?

Angela's face falls, disappointed with her younger sister's response. In a split second, the disappointment vanishes with a smile. "Maybe next time?" she says, posing it as a question.

Billie nods her head and smiles at her older sister.

Billie hears as Angela walks away, heels clicking and clacking on the weary floorboards. Billie hears as Angela announces to their brothers that she's leaving. Billie hears Tim tell her to not pass out high in an alleyway or to not end up in a holding cell by the fuzz, with Angela telling Tim to shut up.

Billie hears Curly snicker. The sound is followed by a thump and a groan from Curly, meaning that Angela most likely has thumped Curly over the head with a pillow. A car horn impatiently blares from the street and the high-pitched female voices mean that Angela's friends have now arrived. The fly-screen door slams shut and the low rumble of a car engine fading into the distance mean that Angela has left.

Not long after Angela has left, heavy footsteps pad across the floorboards that creak in time with each step. Billie recognises the footsteps belong to Tim and she's looking expectantly at the doorway when Tim steps into view. He steps inside the room and sits on the edge of the bed and Billie knows that a big brother talk is coming.

Billie doesn't say anything, not wanting to be the first person to talk, since Tim is the one who came into her bedroom. She blinks her Shepard blue eyes at her brother, gently placing her pen on the blank English worksheet. She hasn't had any luck finding inspiration for a short story assigned by Mr Symes for homework over the weekend, much to her frustration.

"You've been quiet lately," Tim begins, speaking softly as though to not offend his little sister. It's a pity he wasn't so considerate last week when Angela was passed out in that alleyway.

Billie wants to tell Tim that she's quiet all the time. She wants to ask Tim what's the difference between her behaviour in the last few days compared to every other day.

But she doesn't. She keeps her mouth shut, as Tim continues talking.

"Is there a reason why you don't wanna go out with Ange tonight?"

"I... have a lot of homework to do," Billie responds and feels lame as she says it. Even though her workload isn't as intensive as it has been since starting the school year, it will take her longer than she initially expected because she can't seem to force the words onto the page for her short story.

Tim doesn't say anything, instead, he looks at Billie. Billie feels like she's been scrutinised and all she wants to do is hide away by burying herself under the bedsheets to get away from Tim's searching gaze.