Work Text:
Uhhh, kinda no POV? Idk, it’s something.
“My girl Liddy used to always smoke,”
Curly frowns as he watches Ponyboy smoke another pack; it had already been his second one that day.
“Cigarettes when she couldn’t sleep.”
Curly woke up in the middle of the night, reaching over to try and find Ponyboy on his bed since Ponyboy slept over that night. Curly frowned as he felt no one there, the other side cold.
“She’d disappear for an hour and a half,”
This kept happening every time Ponyboy slept over, where Curly would wake up and Ponyboy would just be gone. So one night he pretended to be asleep. He heard Ponyboy get up and go out of the house sometime during the night.
It was an hour and a half later when Curly finally heard Ponyboy walk back into the house.
“And when she’d come back she’d brush her teeth.”
Curly heard Ponyboy brush his teeth whenever he came back in, washing away evidence that he ever got out of bed to smoke.
“But I could still smell it on her raggedy tee,”
Curly wrapped his arms around Ponyboy when he got back in bed, burying his face into Ponyboy’s shirt he borrowed from Curly. Curly’s eyebrows furrowed as the smell of smoke hit his nose as cuddled Ponyboy. Curly decided not to mention it.
“And I could taste it on her lips when we kiss.”
Curly didn’t pretend to be asleep when Ponyboy got back one time, just giving him a kiss as he laid back in bed. Curly frowned at the taste of smoke residue on Ponyboy’s lips, just kissing him harder so as to not think about it.
“Poor little Liddy used to always quit.”
Curly watched as he told Darry he quit smoking, a smile on his face as he lied straight to his big brother’s face. Curly didn’t call him out on it though.
“But she never really quit,”
That same night, Ponyboy went out again and smoked for an hour and a half. Curly still didn’t tell Darry anything.
“She’d just say she did.”
Ponyboy continued telling his brothers and friends that he quit smoking a few months after everything that happened in the church, said he was feeling better. Curly didn’t know how to react as he saw Ponyboy lie through his teeth.
“My girl Liddy used to always smoke,”
Curly sighed as he took the pack away from Ponyboy’s grasp, not wanting him to smoke another one that day. He saw Ponyboy down two packs the day before, not wanting him to smoke anymore than a few today.
“Cigarettes when she couldn’t sleep.”
Curly frowned when he woke up to Ponyboy not in bed again. Curly got up and looked out of the window, looking at where Ponyboy usually was when he got up to smoke. Curly sighs as he sees Ponyboy there. He somehow found another pack and was still smoking.
“I wonder what she did when she got done,”
Curly stopped watching Ponyboy after the first few times. Curly wondered what Ponyboy did with the smokes to make sure no one knew they were his.
“I guess she’d just flick them out in the street.”
Curly watched from afar as Ponyboy flicked out his smokes in the street, sighing softly.
“Poor little Liddy, she wishes it was dark,”
“I wish it was darker in the summer.” Ponyboy said to Curly one evening. Ponyboy always loved sunsets, but after what happened in the church, he preferred for it to just get dark quickly like it usually did in the summer.
“But it’s never really that dark in LA.”
Ponyboy stayed inside when the sun was setting in summer, barely able to even look outside until it got dark. Sometimes hours would pass before it got dark enough for Ponyboy to enjoy his evening.
“The light from the billboard always shines,”
Curly liked the day, the sun always shone down on him brightly, making him feel warm.
“But it changed twelve times since you went away.”
Curly no longer liked the sun as much when Ponyboy died, trying to enjoy the night like Ponyboy did before. The sun always hurts Curly too much now. It reminded him of the way Ponyboy used to shine at him in the same way.