Chapter Text
As Ponyboy glanced out at the bright sunlight beyond the car window, he had only two things on his mind; a cigarette and New York.
I didn’t want to be here. Wherever here was. I could faintly register the familiar words coming from my social worker, who, to my dismay, has become the only permanent figure in my life since the ripe age of 6 years old.
Throughout these years, from Texas to California and all the way to New York, the city that never sleeps, or the city where I’d never sleep, I’d become acquainted with her familiar lectures. Wether it was about ‘Not getting into fights’ or ‘If you have nothing nice to say, don’t say it at all’, topped off with my personal favourite ‘whoever dropped you on your head as a child’. It was my favourite as if anyone did drop me, I wouldn’t know and to contrary belief I’m smart and get good grades. That doesn’t mean I go to school, I can’t remember the last time I stepped foot in one, however my test scores make up for that meaning I’ve only been kicked out of school once and I’ve even been bumped up a year.
“-have you been listening to anything I’ve been saying!?”
No.
‘Yeah, yeah I got it.” I mumbled, my glare still aimed at the window.
“Ponyboy, you don’t understand. This is the one time you cannot mess up again. Keep your mouth shut, your family have waited a long time for this. 8 years is long enough, there’s no need to be sent to the cooler and make them wait any longer.”
What?
“My family? I ain’t got one. Thought you’d get the gist of that by now.” My tone was cold and nonchalant but my insides were churning. My family? Miss Davison might be a handful of a woman but when it comes to her job, she’s a no nonsense woman. But there’s gotta be some mistake here?
“Honestly, you can’t listen for a second. We’re going to Tusla, Oklahoma. Where you’re from. Where your family are waiting for you.”
I stare at her unconvincingly, dumbfounded by her words but hiding it well. As always.
“Your family have been trying to get custody back since the state took you away. I’m unsure of the whole story however it’s likely it was a false accusation after all. So your now being sent back to your family, your mum, dad and older brothers are waiting for you.” She said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
I processed these words with a blank expression and an uncaring attitude, but what I felt was far from what showed. For all these years, after home after home, this whole time my parents were trying to get me back. Not just my parents but my older brothers. All who I didn’t have a slight memory of but a blur of kind faces and whispered words, displaced by the horrors I’d faced at homes, the cooler, party’s, and the threatening streets of New York.
And still, I can’t seem to catch a break.
You’ve got to be kidding me.