Hate Is A Strong Word

Not gay, huh

Steve's POV: 

I pull up to a park and get out of the car. I open the trunk and get out a bag. This is probably the cheesiest thing I've done in a long time. It's embarrassing, but if this is what it takes I'll do it. Pony gets out and follows me to the field. I sit down on the grass under a tree and unpack some food I brought from the gas station I work at out of the bag.

"I figured you might be hungry." I say.

Ponyboy pauses for a moment, but sits down across from me.

"Okay." He says.

I unwrap a chocolate bar and start eating it. Ponyboy grabs a bag of chips.

"Okay, so tell me about the books you chose."

He looks at me, perplexed.

"Really?"

He shows me each book and explains why he chose it. It's cute the way his green eyes light up when he talks about them. Cute? I need to get out of my head.

"'Gone With The Wind' is definitely my favorite. You should read it sometime. And this one is for Sodapop 'cause he always tells us these jokes that he remembers wrong. It's getting annoying." He shows me a joke book.

"Yeah, I should have never started telling him jokes."

"He gets them from you? No way."

"Who else would he hear them from?"

"Maybe Two-Bit? I don't know, but not you."

"I can prove it to you."

"Sure you can."

"I haven't told Soda this one yet. My wife is really mad at the fact that I have no sense of direction. So I packed up my stuff and right."

Ponyboy laughs.

"Here's another. This graveyard looks overcrowded. People must be dying to get in."

"Okay, okay, I believe you!"

We laugh and talk some more.

"There's only one chip left," I say, "you can--"

"It's mine!" he starts to run, smiling.

I start running after him, but he is on the track team after all.

"You can give up, if you want." He says, jokingly.

"Oh no way." I smile.

I walk towards him casually, so he is unsure of my next move. Then, I jump and grab the last chip right out of his hand and start running. Ponyboy catches up to me and tackles me to the ground, going for an element of surprise. I freeze as I roll over onto my back and look into his eyes. My throat goes dry and I can hear my heart pound. His eyes are bright green and seem to glow as he smiles. His face gets closer to mine. Suddenly he snatches the chip out of my hand, leaps up to his feet, and eats the chip looking triumphant. I stay on the ground for a moment before I snap out of it and get up quickly.

"Come on! You never said it was a tackle sport." I say.

"Of course it is! Plus, you still couldn't beat me at Capture The Chip even if you knew. You could never catch me." He grins.

"I guess we'll have to find out." I hold up an unopened bag of chips. We both smile.

We spend the rest of the afternoon talking, laughing, and further developing the game of "Capture The Chip." We fell more and more into a groove of hanging out and having fun instead of taunting each other. All of a sudden I look up at the sky to notice it's starting to get dark. 

"It's getting dark. I should bring you back home so your brothers don't kill me." I tell him.

"Oh, ok." Ponyboy responds.

We go back to my car and get inside. I put the now mostly empty bag in the trunk. I drive in silence until when we're most of the way back. 

"Pull over." Ponyboy says.

I hesitate, but oblige.

"Look." He says as he points at the sky.

I then shift my gaze from him to the sky and see the bright sun setting with light pink clouds and a pale purple-ish sky. I look back at Pony and he looks directly into my eyes.

"Wow." I reply.

"Yeah." 

We stop and look at it for a few minutes.

"I get why you like it now." I say.

"I'm glad someone does." He says.

He looks back at me and our eyes lock. Ponyboy leans closer to me at about the speed of a snail. Just when I think he's never going to come any closer, he suddenly closes the remaining gap between us and grabs my face. He starts kissing me, slowly. I kiss back, gently, aware of how fragile his trust in me is. We kiss for what was probably a couple minutes when Ponyboy tears his lips off of mine, his eyes wide with fear. 

"Shit." He says quietly and puts his head in his hands. 

I put my hand on his shoulder, but he flinches and gets out of the car.

"Ponyboy, wait!" I call after him

"I'm sorry." He responds.

"Don't be! At least let me drive you the rest of the way home!"

"I can walk from here. Seeya, Steve."

"But--" I start, but he's already too far.

I get back in my car and slam the door. I slam my head against the steering wheel before gripping it tightly and driving towards my dad's house.