Chapter Text
Greasers and Socs were, and will always be sworn enemies. Socs hated the Greasers, for God knows what. Sure, some Socs were kind to the Greasers, but that was only because they felt bad. After all, the Greasers had no money. Ponyboy Curtis, was different than other Greasers, in a lot of different ways, but one thing they all collectively agreed on, was that they hate the Socs. That’s why Ponyboy would never see himself in a million years actually befriend a Soc.
It all started a few weeks back, Ponyboy was at track practice. He was having a water break, like the others, when somebody tapped his shoulder. He slowly turned around only to be met by a Soc. He’d seen—and heard of the Soc enough to know that he was not on the track team.
“Hey.” The Soc greeted. His tone made it sound as if they’d known each other for the longest time, but that just wasn’t true, for obvious reasons. Ponyboy glared at the Soc in front of him.
“What do you want, Soc?” Ponyboy harshly asked. You might think that Ponyboy was being a jerk, but if you’d known him—or even lived his life, you would understand why he was being harsh with this Soc.
“Whoah, calm down there, buddy. I just wanted to tell you something.” The Soc said. Ponyboy looked at the coach before taking a long drink of his water. He looked back at the Soc, waiting for him to talk. “My friend is on the track team and I was here supporting him, but I saw you running. You’re pretty fast.” The Soc said.
‘That’s all?’ Ponyboy thought. ‘That couldn’t possibly be all!’
Ponyboy shifted uncomfortably onto his left foot. “Uhm, thanks…” He said. Ponyboy began praying that the five minutes had passed soon because he was desperate to get out of there, even if that meant not getting all the minutes of his much-needed break.
“Yeah. Anyway, I just wanted to ask if you wanted to hang after your practice?” The Soc asked.
“Are you kidding? We just met.” Ponyboy said. He wanted to desperately laugh but he knew that the Soc would probably beat his head in. “Besides, why would you want to hang out with a Greaser?” Ponyboy curiously asked.
Before the Soc could answer, the coach blew his whistle. Ponyboy looked at the Soc with a fake apologetic look on his face. He gestured over to the coach and put his water bottle down.
He began to run back out onto the field but stopped when he heard the Soc yell out: “Just think about it, Ponyboy!” He looked back at the Soc. He was plenty surprised that the Soc knew his name.
“Ponyboy Curtis!” The coach called out, causing Ponyboy to snap his attention back to the field. The rest of the team and the coach were all staring at him. The color of his face and ears went red as everybody continued to stare. He looked back at the Soc one last time before running back onto the field.
That brings us to today. Ponyboy had been talking to Noah the Soc before school had started. Noah was at least a foot taller than him with blonde, straight hair. Although it had been pretty short compared to Ponyboy’s. He had light brown eyes, which Ponyboy was glad for; he hated dudes with green eyes. Noah was only 1 year older than Ponyboy and was in the tenth grade. He was fairly handsome, Ponyboy had noted while talking with Noah.
“Hey, I need to ask you for a favor.” Noah had said. Ponyboy grinned at him. Noah had never asked much of Ponyboy since they started hanging out, today wouldn’t have been any different, or so Ponyboy had thought. “Not now, or here, though. Meet me in the upstairs boy's bathroom second period?” Noah asked.
“Of course,” Ponyboy said, just before the school bell rung.
When Ponyboy had gotten to the boy’s room on the second floor, he didn’t expect Noah to be there before him.
“Beat ya here.” Noah joked as he took out a pack of cigarettes. Ponyboy looked at the cigarettes as Noah held out the pack for him.
“I thought you didn’t smoke,” Ponyboy said. He took a cigarette and put it in between his lips.
“I don’t but you do,” Noah said. He put the pack away as Ponyboy looked up at him. He was surprised, to say the least. Why was Noah being so nice to him? Sure, they were friends, but they just met.
Ponyboy remembered why Noah asked him to meet in the bathroom. “So, what did you want to ask me?” Ponyboy said as he blew out the smoke.
“Man, as you know, I’m dating this crazy chick and was hoping you’d help me break up with her,” Noah said. Ponyboy, however, looked at Noah strangely.
“Why don’t you just tell her? Why do you need my help?” There had been a hundred questions going through Ponyboy’s head. Noah looked smug, though, making Ponyboy scared of what Noah was going to ask him to do.
“I’ve tried, but she won’t let me. I need you,” Noah paused. “I need you to pretend to be my boyfriend.” He finally said. Ponyboy just stared at him, eyes open just as wide as his mouth.
“W… what?” Ponyboy asked. “Why would I do that? That’s…. that’s crazy!”
Noah definitely was not pleased by Ponyboy’s choice of words, but chose to ignore it. “We’re friends, man. Right? I would do this for you if you asked!” Noah was lying, and they both knew that.
“But I’m not even gay. Or a liar!” Pony said, but Noah had just smirked at him.
“I know you're not but it’s fine. Ruby isn’t even the type to spread rumors. She won’t tell anyone.”
Ponyboy was a tad suspicious, though. “But didn’t you say she was crazy?” He asked. Noah was really beginning to get desperate.
“Please, man. Just do it for me. I swear I’ll make it up to you.” Noah pleaded. He wasn’t the type to grovel to a dirty Greaser, but he really needed Ponyboy to agree to this.
“Fine. But you swear nobody will know?” Ponyboy asked, earning a nod from Noah.
“I swear.” And just like that, the school bell rang, indicating the end of second period.
After school, Ponyboy began walking to Noah’s house, where Noah had told him to meet. Apparently, Ruby was going to be there and that’s where he was going to pretend to be the Soc's boyfriend. He felt a pit begin to build up in his stomach. Ruby had better not tell anyone, otherwise, his whole life would be over. How would his friends—hell, his brothers react if they thought he was gay?
He slowly turned the knob to the front door, it was unlocked. He began to walk around the house when he spotted the back of Noah’s head. That’s when he saw Ruby’s arm around Noah’s shoulder. She had short, red hair and blue eyes. She had fair skin, just like Noah. Ponyboy had seen her around school before. She was a cheerleader and hung around Sherri Valance and Marcia a lot.
Although Ponyboy had seen Ruby, he pretended not to, just to help out Noah. Here it goes. His palms were sweating, so he wiped them onto his jeans.
“Noah! Noah, did you finally tell her?“ Ponyboy asked but stopped walking towards the couch when they turned to look at him. “Oh, I didn’t know she was here.” Ponyboy lied. “I can leave…”
Noah bolted up from his seat on the couch and walked over to the young Greaser. “Pony, what are you doing here? I thought I told you I was going to do it today.” The Soc said quietly, but loud enough for Ruby to hear.
“Uh, do what?” Ruby asked. She sounded annoyed to Pony, but she didn’t seem insane. She seemed normal enough, he thought. She did hang around with Sherri and Marcia and they were nice to him when no one was around, otherwise they would just ignored him.
“Ruby, you know I like you, but I just can’t stay in a relationship with you…” Noah nervously declared.
“What? Why not?” She screamed at both Noah and Ponyboy, for some odd reason.
Noah put his hand around Ponyboy’s lower waist and pulled him a bit closer. He looked down at the young Greaser before he nervously bit his lower lip. “Because I’m seeing Pony…”
Ruby made a face at them, not a disgusted one though; she looked unsure on whether to believe him or not. “I’m sorry, Noah, I don’t believe you.” She said. This had got to be a prank, she thought. There was no way this was real.
The Soc took in a deep breath as he let go of Ponyboy and put his hands to the Greaser's face. He leaned in, their faces only centimeters apart. Pony’s bottom lip quivered as the Soc got closer. Ponyboy wasn’t gay; he didn’t want to kiss Noah. God, why did he ever agree to this?
Noah eventually had hesitantly closed the gap between him and Ponyboy. Ponyboy brought his hands to Noah’s hips and grabbed onto them. Noah brought Ponyboy’s face closer to his own. This is not how Ponyboy thought his first kiss would go. For starters, it wasn’t even real, and it was supposed to be a girl. He was supposed to have his first kiss with a girl while the gang cheered him on. Obviously, Ponyboy thought there was nothing wrong with being gay, but he just wasn’t. As long as he didn’t tell the gang about this, they wouldn’t know that he had his first kiss. Eventually, they broke apart and Pony could feel himself blushing a deep crimson red.
The Soc and Greaser broke eye contact when Ruby cleared her throat. “Y’all are fuckin’ disgusting, you know that?” She said. Ponyboy flinched at her harsh words. She really was crazy if she thought that being gay was disgusting. She glared at Ponyboy as she began heading for the door. She bumped her shoulder into Pony’s, separating him and Noah.
They stood there for a moment before Ponyboy broke the silence. “So, are you sure she won’t tell anyone?”
“Positive.”
When Ponyboy got home that night, he realized that he’d forgotten to let his brothers know that he was going over to a friend's house. He noticed that the rest of the gang was there too. They all looked worried sick, except for maybe Steve and Dally. Ponyboy took a deep breath and opened the door. Darry immediately shot up after putting his paper down.
“Where the hell’ve you been? Do you know what time it is?" Darry asked Pony, shouting. Ponyboy put his head down and shook it. "It’s 11:00 at night, kiddo!” Darry screamed at Ponyboy.
“Hey, Pony. Where you been?” Sodapop asked. His voice was soft and gentle, something Darry would never be able to do. He was always too harsh when it came to Ponyboy.
“I was at a friend's house. Forgot to call…”
“You what?” Darry said. He was glaring at Ponyboy at this point. Didn't he realize how hard Darry had worked his ass off and how much he gave up for the three brothers to stay together?
“I was talking to a friend, and I lost track of time. I didn’t mean to.” Ponyboy apologized.
“I reckon it never occurred to you that your brothers might be worrying their heads off and afraid to call the police because something like that could get you two thrown in a boy’s home so quick it’d make your head spin.”
“I said I didn’t mean to!” Ponyboy finally yelled.
Darry looked at Ponyboy, a bit surprised before he began screaming again. “‘I didn’t mean to,’ ‘I forgot,’ that’s all I ever hear from you!”
Ponyboy had begun to get sick of this fight already and looked at Sodapop for help. Sodapop looked at his kid brother but before he had a chance to break up this fight, somebody else did.
“Darry, give the kid a break, man.” Dallas Winston, of all people, said. “Man, he said he didn’t mean to, man,” Dally said and Darry looked just about ready to sock him.
“He had me worried sick!” Darry yelled. Dallas, though, just put his hand on Darry’s shoulder.
“And he didn’t mean to. He forgot.” Dallas said but right at that moment, the front door swung open, and in walked none other than Noah.
“Hey, Pony, you forgot your jacket!” Noah said. He was holding a leather jacket and was wearing a smug grin on his face.
“What are you doing here, Soc?” Steve growled at him.
“Hey, Steve,” Noah said. He tried to walk past Steve but the gang—and Steve, blocked his way.
“Ponyboy, do you know this guy?” Darrel asked, fire in his eyes. It was bad enough that Socs entered the Greasers' territory all the time, now they were in his home?
“Pony, did you not tell them that you came over this afternoon?” Noah asked. Noah got on his tiptoes to see Ponyboy.
The gang turned to look at Ponyboy, whose head was down in shame. “You were at a Socs house? Do you know how dangerous and stupid that is? Why can’t you ever use your head?!” This time, it was Dally lecturing him.
“Did you not tell them I drove you back home after we hung out?” Noah said. There was a reason that Ponyboy had never introduced Noah to the gang. The gang would never understand, and he knew it.
“You let him drive you home?! He could’ve done something to you! Hurt you!” Everybody, minus Noah, turned to look at Johnny with the most confused expressions. Johnny had never spoken this much let alone yell at anyone.
“Johnnycakes…” Ponyboy whispered. He was both surprised, and hurt to be the first person that Johnny had yelled at.
“He’s right, Pony, that was pretty dumb.” Two-Bit agreed.
“Guys, calm down. I would never hurt Pony.” Noah finally spoke up.
“He’s right…” Ponyboy defended. He didn’t want Noah to get hurt, because even though he’d only known him for a few weeks, Noah hadn’t done anything wrong; hadn’t hurt Ponyboy.
“He could’ve... he could’ve been planning to do something later. We’re just worried about you…” Sodapop said. Unlike all the others, his voice was still calm. It actually somewhat helped calm Ponyboy down.
“Can I just talk to Noah alone?” Ponyboy asked and although they were all reluctant, they agreed. Ponyboy walked out onto the porch, Noah following behind him.
“Did I do something wrong?” Noah asked.
“Look, I know that you’re not like the other Socs, but you can’t just come into my home and tell my friends and family that we’re friends. I’m a Greaser and you’re a Soc. They don’t trust you.” Ponyboy said but that turned out to be the least of his concerns at the moment because what Noah broke to him next almost broke him.
“Pony, I didn’t want to say this in front of your family, but I got a call from Bob Sheldon. He asked me if we were really dating…”