Hey everybody it's JessieMundaiFan with a new chapter of Wild Ride.

Here we are again, yet another final chapter. Time really does go by fast. In any case you will find my final thoughts on this story and what came out of it at the bottom like always. Hope you give it a read because I will be talking about future stories down there as well.

But before we start I would, once again, like to give out some thank you's. As all always, I would like to thank my reviewers Love, Plum Smugler, cassy1994, ILovePepsi2, Iliketoripthroats, PonyboyandDallyLover7, and ILovePepsi2. It always makes me happy to see all of yours reviews. Love you guys so much!

Hope you guys enjoy the chapter.

Disclaimer: The Outsiders is owned by S.E. Hinton I own nothing.

…

(General POV)

"I don't know how I agreed to do this," Curly shook his head staring off into space while still being able to successfully change the oil of the car he's working on.

Steve rolled from underneath the car to give him a smirk.

"Because you're a lovesick idiot," Steve told him smugly before rolling back under the car before Curly could say anything back to him.

Curly grumbled under his breath finishing up his job before moving onto the next one. The next car had dents all around the sides and the hood. It had been brought in not that long ago by some really demanding man.

"How the hell could somebody fuck up their car this bad?" Curly asked himself in his frustration but started to repair it otherwise.

Not too long after Curly started to work on the dents on the car Sodapop came over to inspect his work.

"Wow, you're actually good at this," Sodapop whistled seemingly very impressed.

"I knew it, I knew you didn't expect me to be good at this," Curly shot the second oldest Curtis brother a glare, "Why else would you let me do this?"

Sodapop's eyes went to the roof accompanied by an innocent smile on his face. His attempt at trying to look angelic was painfully poor.

Curly huffed stopping what he was doing to lean on the wall next to him, he was absolutely exhausted. He had been working his butt off for the last three hours on cars.

"Why did I agree to do this?" Curly asked once again out loud. Maybe he shouldn't have asked that to himself but he was too tired to think about that now.

Steve passed both him and Sodapop to get more of his tools all the while rolling his eyes at Curly's suffering.

"Is all the hard work clouding your brain Shepard? Your trying to score with the brat remember?" Steve reminded him.

At Sodapop's glare Steve slightly corrected himself. "Trying to score a date of course."

Oh yes, Curly could remember quiet clearly how that conversation went.

Ponyboy had been begging his brothers to let up and give Curly and Ponyboy some time to themselves. After they had found out that Curly had been the "friend" that the young greaser had been studying with (a mystery Ponyboy still couldn't figure out) they felt wary about what Ponyboy and Curly were going to do. There not necessarily putting all their trust in Ponyboy's word because he proved that he could lie to them.

Curly could only assume that they thought that he would pressure Ponyboy into sex or something like that. Well, he didn't have to pressure Ponyboy into sex but they didn't need to know that.

Begrudgingly, and out of sheer desperation to make all the arguments stop, Curly agreed to do something to prove that he can be reliable. Needless to say that he stunned the Curtis brothers but they agreed nonetheless.

It took them a while to come up with something but Sodapop had suddenly got an evil smile on his face and well, here Curly is a couple hours later working his ass off in a hot store fixing up cars.

"I hate you all," Curly declared grumpily taking a drink of his Coke that was beside him on the counter.

"Oh come on, Curlyboy," Sodapop replied with what some would call a kind smile but what Curly called a sinister smirk, "this type of work helps build character."

"One, don't call me Curlyboy and two, don't try and act like this is for me. You know that you only came up with this 'activity' so you could work less today," Curly accused.

Sodapop pouted, a gesture Curly couldn't help but noticed he shared with Ponyboy, before he heard Steve laughing behind them. This told the curly haired hood that he was clearly correct in his assumption.

"Shut up Steve," Sodapop hissed, "don't be a backstabber."

"I'm not stabbing anyone in the back," Steve replied smartly tilting his head at his friend mockingly, "everything I do is to make me happy and since seeing you suffer makes me happy…"

Caught up Sodapop's attempt to verbally attack his own best friend, Curly didn't even notice someone approaching them.

"What are you clowns doing?" Jason, the owner of shop and Sodapop and Steve's boss asked with a sigh.

Immediately, the two of them shaped up and stopped their arguing with one another facing their bosses stern gaze.

"I swear you two are trying to run me out of business," Jason groaned, "get back to work before I sack both of you."

And so Sodapop and Steve went back to what they were doing before this whole conversation started silently shooting angry looks at one another.

It was then that Jason actually noticed that Curly was actually their and wearing one of their temporary work shirts.

"Who are you?" Jason asked seeming more curious than alarmed.

"Names Curly," The curly haired hood said briefly, "I was blackmailed into being here."

Jason looked over at Sodapop and Steve before turning back to Curly.

"It was the pretty boy wasn't it?" Jason guessed.

Curly grinned and nodded his head in response. He gained smug satisfaction at the look of shock on Sodapop's face.

"Boss I'm hurt," Sodapop whined, "do you really think I would blackmail anyone into doing anything fore me?

Jason completely ignored the second oldest Curtis brother in favor of talking to Curly once again.

"This isn't the first time he's done this," Jason told the curly haired teen, "every time he gets lazy he always tries to get someone in here to take off his work load."

"Well maybe if you'd hire some other people I wouldn't have to trick people into working with us," Sodapop argued in protest.

Looking over at the cars beside Curly, Jason noticed the work that he's done on it so far.

"You're not that bad kid," Jason said with an impressed nod before turning to Curly again, "You ever think of working here for real?"

Before Curly could even open his mouth Sodapop had practically teleported in between his boss and his brother's lover.

"No way boss," Sodapop said quickly objecting, "This guy cannot work here, this is definitely not the place for him."

Jason raised an eyebrow at him before looking over at Steve wanting an explanation.

"The kids dating Soda's younger brother," Steve answered much to Sodapop's chagrin.

Jason's eyebrows rose instantly. He gave Curly a once over look that told the curly haired teen that he knew just how protective Sodapop was of his little brother ( you could actually find that out by having a two minute conversation with him).

"How would you like a job kid?" Jason offered now looking more confident in his decision to hire Curly than before.

"No!" Sodapop shouted

"I don't know," Curly shrugged not really caring all that much. He's never had an official job before mostly because he never felt he needed one. He always used his five finger discount to get what he wanted.

"Look at it this way," Steve told him, "you get a nice fat paycheck every other week, one that you can use to buy a good car with to drive Ponyboy in."

Hearing Sodapop whimper at the thought of Curly driving Ponyboy anywhere put a smirk on Curly's face. If he did get a job here not only would he be able to get a car like Steve said but he'll constantly be in Sodapop's face as well.

"Sure, why not?" Curly told Jason accepting his offer for a job.

As the two of them started to discuss hours and pay Sodapop over at his best friend again.

"You're suffering make me happy," Steve reminded him once again before walking off contently.

…

About an hour later Curly found himself closing down the shop like Jason asked him to do. As Sodapop left he smugly told him to tell Ponyboy that he'll be over to pick him up in a couple minutes, which Soda happily flipped him off for.

As Curly turn off the machines and the lights of the shop he couldn't off think of the position he's in with surprising happiness. For some odd reason he felt that having a job could be a good thing. He hated never having money to do the things that he wanted to do and always have to beg his brother for things (because god knows his parents weren't going to give him any cash). It felt nice to have that weight off his shoulders.

"I'm acting like this is going to be a permanent thing," Curly snorted to himself aloud.

He hoped to himself silently that this whole job thing could be permanent. Apparently he's been all about permanent fixtures in his life lately.

Locking up the shop, Curly started to walk to the Curtis resident to get Ponyboy for their date. First he had to pick up something from his place really quick but it shouldn't take that long.

"Shepard."

Curly froze as a familiar voice called out to him. He could hear the footsteps of someone behind him.

"Well if it isn't my look alike," Curly declared not looking back and still staying tense, "I thought you dropped off the face of the earth."

"I did," Bruce hissed his foots echoing in Curly's mind, "all because of you."

Curly snorted. "I didn't do anything-"

"You did everything!" Bruce snapped angrily, "You stole Ponyboy from me like the snake that you are."

"Ponyboy was never yours," Curly replied tiredly it felt like he's been saying the same thing for years. "He didn't belong to either of us."

"He was in love with me," Bruce was ignoring everything Curly said as he was too caught up in his own mantra, "I was the one he wanted, I was the one that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with."

Okay, now was the time Curly thought Bruce was getting a bit overdramatic.

"Look man," Curly sighed and chuckled humorlessly, "you're taking this a bit too far. You're starting to sound like some kind of psycho. You need to calm down."

"Don't tell me to calm down," Bruce shouted moving closer to his look alike.

Curly heard Bruce reach for something in his pocket and recognized the familiar sound of a pocket knife being opened. The curly haired hood's actions were instantaneous as he side stepped Bruce pushing himself back and away from the country teen.

"You son of a bitch," Bruce hissed his eyes red with anger. He charged once more a gleam of determination flickering in his stare.

As Curly dodged every slash to his face and upper body, the curly haired teen noticed how sloppy Bruce was with a knife. He's been threatened and assaulted with a knife in the past and he would know a thing or two about the proper way to use a knife and Bruce's style was definitely awkward. He wasn't even using a strategy, he was just swinging at him blindly hoping for to hit him.

Initially Curly thought of just beating this idiot down to size, and now that he was attacking him that just gave him even more reason to finish their little spat once a for all. With clenched fists, Curly excitedly prepared himself for this fight, until he noticed something.

You couldn't see it on the surface but if you looked deeper and closer into Bruce's eyes, behind the anger and frustration, you could see sorrow and anguish darkening within his eyes. It seemed to be more prominent than the anger was.

Curly silently cursed himself and Ponyboy.

Catching Bruce's hand mid-thrust, Curly twisted his arm so tight that he forced his look alike to drop the knife. Despite the pain he felt Bruce continued on without his weapon, or rather, he tried to continue on before Curly grabbed his other arm and twisted the both of them around so Curly was behind his look alike holding down both of his hands.

In one move, Curly was able to use his own strength to force Bruce to fall face down into the grass beside them. The curly haired hood was using his weight to hold him down, setting his knees on Bruce's back, making it so he could not escape.

"Are you going calm down any time soon?" Curly asked dryly watching in semi-amusement as Bruce continued to struggle, "I have somewhere to be."

Again he was silently cursing himself and Ponyboy. He didn't like that he gained the tact to not mention that where he was going involved Ponyboy.

Once again, Bruce did not listen to his look alike but instead chose to just glare up at him with intense hatred.

"Well, aren't you going to beat up on me like the brainless brute that you are?" Bruce asked with a sneer.

"Brainless brute?" Curly repeated with a smirk, "Hate to break to you kid, but you're the one that came at me with a knife. You can't really get away with calling me a brute."

Bruce growled, or at least tried to, the pressure of Curly's weight was cutting off his movements and gestures.

Slowly, Bruce stopped struggling and fidgeting under Curly's hold and forced himself to calm down.

"So? Just get it over with," Bruce demanded softly.

"Damn you Ponyboy," Curly murmured to himself out loud. Despite the invitation to beat up on Bruce, he could clearly see the hopelessness in Bruce's stare present and preventing him from doing anything.

"Look kid, I'm not going to do anything to you," Curly admitted sad that he couldn't give this punk what for.

Bruce looked almost as surprised as Curly at this revelation.

"I know how you feel," Curly told him with slightly hint of gentleness in his voice though his facial features displayed nothing.

"I love Ponyboy just like you do," Curly reminded him, "and I would have been just as pissed if he rejected me. Hell, I was acting like you just a couple months ago when he started hanging out with you (only not as psycho killerish)."

Bruce looked up at him wondering what he was getting at. He couldn't tell if the curly haired hood was trying to mock him or be sincere (or as sincere a hood could get anyway) but he decided to listen to what he had to say regardless.

"But you can't do this," Curly said emphasizing by putting a little bit more pressure on his hands, "you can't attack me or anyone else just because you didn't get who you wanted. You got to learn to control yourself."

"I can control myself," Bruce argued feeling that he had to defend himself at this moment, "but I just didn't want Ponyboy to fall in with you, the wrong crowd. You and your friends that would just end up hurting him, you have hurt him before!"

"You're right, I did hurt him and I own up to that," Curly confessed before staring down at Bruce pointedly, "but at I never threatened him or raised a weapon to him."

"I never-"

"You came at him with a horse shoe," Curly snapped angrily channeling that feeling of dread he felt when he saw Ponyboy standing petrified as Bruce held a horse shoe above his head.

Curly put that anger aside as he saw Bruce wince at the tone of his voice. He knew that now wasn't the time for it.

"I-I didn't want to hurt him," Bruce said regretfully, "I don't know what I was thinking. I would never wanted to hurt Ponyboy, he's the only person I want to protect."

"How do you know him?" Curly asked out of sheer curiosity. (That damn Ponyboy again.)

Bruce sighed looking up to the sky as if in a trance.

"Our parents knew each other. Mr. and Mrs. Curtis always use to come over with their boys and to see the animals and hang around. I never had any friends a kid, nobody around our ranch had any kids so I was always alone. I was shy, I didn't think any of them would play with him, especially the older ones."

"Ponyboy did though," Bruce said with a chuckle, "He came over and practically dragged me out of the hiding spot I was watching him play from and played with me. He was the only person I ever met that wanted to spend time with me. Sure, my dad was great but he had to man the farm all by himself, he could barely spend time with me growing up."

"And that's why you're so obsessed with him," Curly guessed filling in the blanks.

"I always looked forward to playing with Ponyboy until one day he stopped coming over," Bruce said continuing on with his story, "When I saw him that night with my horse I knew it was him. I knew I had to have him and keep him safe from harm."

"But I fucked it up," Bruce cried out in anguish bury his head in the grass, "and now he wants nothing to do with me."

Carefully, Curly let go of Bruce and released him from the hold he had on his hands. Bruce looked up in confusion as Curly held out his hand to him.

"Go on, I won't bite," Curly reassured him with smirk.

Reluctantly, Bruce took his hand and picked himself up from the ground. He gave Curly a once over wondering what he was doing now.

"Look Bruce, I can't fault you for liking Ponyboy but you're not going to get him by acting like a deranged psychopath," Curly told him honestly, "What you need to do is either man up and start going after him the honest way or just give up on him and move on. Either way I don't really care."

"Are you giving me love advice on your lover?" Bruce questioned with raised eyebrows.

"I know, I don't get it either," Curly shrugged, "it's that Ponyboy disease, he's making me stupidly nice."

Bruce was actually able to crack a smile at that. Things weren't better but it was a start, a slow start to something new.

"Thanks…Curly."

"Whatever," Curly huffed and started to walk away not looking back.

Bruce walked off as well, back home and not even bothering to pick up his pocket knife out of the street.

…

"This place is beautiful," Ponyboy said for about the fourth time.

"I know, that's why it's my secret hideout," Curly told him looking smug.

Curly had decided that instead of taking Ponyboy on a traditional date he would just show him his private place on this roof that he liked to be alone in. He figured Ponyboy would like that and did indeed.

"Thank you for me this place Curly," Ponyboy said sweetly kissing his lover on the cheek.

"Sure," Curly said suddenly getting very nervous.

"What's wrong?" Ponyboy asked curiously.

"I have something I want you to look at," Curly announced reaching downward and bringing up the box he brought with them.

"My brother gave it to me," Curly said answering Ponyboy's very obvious question, "I know it probably has some things in it from the times I don't remember."

Ponyboy nodded silently knowing exactly what he was going to say.

"Do you want it?" Ponyboy questioned gently, "The box I mean."

"Not really," Curly looked at said box in complete disinterest, "it's not important to me."

And with that Ponyboy happily snatched the box out of Curly's hands and threw it down to the trashcan below them.

"Good, cause if it doesn't matter to you it's not important," Ponyboy said with a grin.

Curly furrowed his brow in confusion. That box might have had something that could have told them whether Curly had been that little curly haired boy.

"But it-"

"It's not important Curly," Ponyboy repeated sternly, "now shut up and kiss me."

Searching Ponyboy's eyes, Curly finally dropped his confusion for happiness and gladly did what he was told to do.

All the while, as the two of them kissed underneath the moon, a stripped rubber band that flew out of the box stood at the top of the trash can. The words "BE BRAVE" still present despite it's age.

…

Final Thoughts

I'm going to keep this one short and sweet. I would like to say that I had a lot of fun writing this story, everything from the plot to the characters were just a joy to write about. I really do love the Outsider characters and writing about them has truly been a highlight for me for the past couple of months.

And you guys are just amazing. It never ceased to amaze me that I would get a review every week from the same dedicated fans. Iliketoripthroats, ILovePepsi2, SinuousFun-Keeper of Innocence, bella526, elex88, CaliSwag14, Aly208, ponyboy07, Chick1966, PonyboyandDallyLover7, cassy1994 and all my other reviewers that I can't remember off the top of my head ( yes, I remembered all those names off the top of my head because that's how much I love you all) thank you all so much for giving me your support.

On a less than happy note I am announcing that I am taking a bit of a break from the Outsider fandom but only because I have to do Kid Lantern 2. I've kept my fans of Kid Lantern waiting long enough and it's time I finally started writing for them again. My break from Kid Lantern wasn't intentional, I just was stuck on what to write about for the longest time and I didn't know what to do.

Not to worry though, when I finish Kid Lantern 2 I will be sure to come back to the Outsiders. Right now I don't know what or who I should write about so please either PM or vote for what you want on my poll.

Take care everyone and just know that I will be back!