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Ponyboy doesn't remember anything between Curly helping him stand up and Tim pulling him into a hug and telling him it's going to be okay.
Ponyboy was still shaking despite being in dry clothes, clinging to Curly's jacket feeling like he's the only thing anchoring him in the moment. Curly's hands are tremoring with some emotion Ponyboy isn't in a good enough headspace to figure out, but his voice is calm when he asks Ponyboy to get in the passenger seat of the truck he was taking from one of the Shepard Gang members driveway.
He'd thrown the two back packs into the bed, and Johnny had sat with them, Ponyboy had forgotten the quiet Greaser was with them.
Curly takes off his jacket and drapes it over Ponyboy to get him into the passenger seat of the truck, rushing over to the drivers side as soon as he shuts the door.
Curly still had dried blood on his skin but most of the blood was on his jacket. Ponyboy's hair was curling as it dried in the freezing air, his attention is dragged back to Curly when he runs a hand through Ponyboy's hair and looks at his face.
"Pony, you should try to sleep. The drive is a few hours, we'll have to stop an make sure ta get stuff fer that one. Tim says sleep helps ya heal an I'll be here when ya wake up." Curly's voice is still calm, Ponyboy was impressed, he could see Curly's other hand clenching tight on the steering wheel while he tries to keep calm.
The rest of the drive is a blur, he'd leaned against Curly's arm that was sitting on the shifter, being jostled awake every time Curly changed gears and dropping back off listening to Curly do math problems to keep himself awake. Curly was doing an impressive job of driving obly slightly illegally instead if his usual road laws are a suggestion method.
He vaguely remembers waking up to an argument between Johnny and Curly, the truck parked outside a convenience store. Curly was giving Johnny money to go get his own supplies while Johnny was afraid Curly would drive off without him.
The sky is starting to lighten when Curly does shake Ponyboy awake to go inside of an unkempt house that looks like it's been painted every color under the sun and then left to rot.
Curly has both backpacks again and has placed one arm across Ponyboy's shoulder to direct him on where to go. Johnny ghosts along a few steps behind them with his own bag.
They're greeted by a man Curly calls Red, who asks them no questions but sets them up in a room with three old couches shoved against the wall and two ratty, stained mattresses laid out on the floor. There's a blonde chick totally out of her mind draped across one of the mattresses, she doesn't even react when they walk in.
Curly drops their bags on the couch closest to the window and farthest from the door, leaving Johnny to figure himself out while Curly digs through a pile of folded blankets for the least smelling ones.
Ponyboy has to give Curly some extra credit, he does drop off one of the blankets to the couch Johnny had set down on before coming over and wrapping a blanket around Ponyboy, laying on the couch with Ponyboy between him and the back cushion.
Ponyboy doesn't wake back up until late in the day when Curly gets up to get them food.
Johnny is silently flicking through a magazine on the other couch, his eyes flicking over to Ponyboy every time his breath comes a little too raspy.
Ponyboy's lungs ached, but he knew they'd recover by the next day as long as he doesn't do anything to make them worse today.
Curly brings a bowl of some kind of soup up to share with Ponyboy, explaining that while there's not always food available unless someone cooks it, there is sometimes. He'd brought a few cans of soup in their bag for them.
Curly is tense everytime there's somebody else in the room with them, sitting as close to Ponyboy as possible and eyeing the carousel of Hippies as they pass through.
So Ponyboy tries to distract him, going through the bag to find Curly had brought packed a few books in Ponyboy's bag, granola bars, two water bottles, an extra jacket, three changes of clothes, a deck of cards, and a gun in his own bag.
Ponyboy had jerked away from it as soon as he realized what it was but Curly had just shot him a wicked grin and zipped the bag back closed.
Johnny got up and left at some point while they were playing a two player game of solitaire, coming back an hour later with no grease in his hair. Ponyboy almost hadn't recognized him. Curly was still angry at him, but was finally starting to calm down.
Curly and Ponyboy watched the sunset through the window and Ponyboy was feeling melancholic.
"Hard ta believe it was jus yesterday I was at tha movies wit Dally."
"An Tim and Winston were fightin, I won some money in that bet Winston was stupid to accept." Curly's echoes, smirking smugly at the reminder.
Ponyboy chuckles "an we were hustlin them fools at Buck's, He was so disappointed he had ta chase us out."
Johnny's magazine slams down on the couch with a muffled thud as he snaps "Yesterday ya murdered a kid! He was only seventeen!" Looking a bit manicky, Ponyboy falls silent at the reminder and Curly growls.
"It was him or Pony. Ya said it yerself, I had ta." Ponyboy sighs and runs a hand through his own hair, tugging Curly back onto the couch when he makes to get up.
"Jus drop it. Not worth fightin over."
Curly is still tense when he pulls Ponyboy back against his chest again that night, only relaxing a bit when Ponyboy hums.
They're woken up on the third morning by the blonde chick having sex with some ratty haired guy in the middle of the room. Curly wasn't super bothered, more amused really. Johnny's ears were bright red and he'd buried his face in his arms.
Ponyboy was annoyed, he'd been hoping to sleep more. So instead he grabs out one of the books Curly had packed and started reading it outloud.
It didn't take long for Curly to be pressed against his side, head rested against his shoulder to stare at the book in his lap andfollow along silently. Johnny's head was now on his arms and he was staring at the wall in silence. The two Hippies had actually stopped, not getting out of their compromising position but they were more invested in the story than their previous actions, jumping in with "Groovy man." And "I can jive with that." Every once in awhile.
Curly hummed quietly as he was finally relaxed, he knew what Ponyboy was doing and appreciated it.