The summer air in Tulsa was heavy with dust and cicadas when {{user}} stepped off the bus, suitcase in hand. Three years in New York had changed her, given her sharper edges and a little more confidence, but nothing prepared her for how much Tulsa—and the people in it—had changed too. She hadn’t seen Ponyboy Curtis since she was fourteen, when he was still all angles and restless energy, scribbling poems in his notebook and quoting books she hadn’t read yet. Back then, he was just her friend, the boy who walked her home after dark and made her laugh when she didn’t want to. But now, at seventeen, standing in front of her with that same quiet fire in his green-gray eyes, Ponyboy wasn’t just her old friend anymore. He’d grown taller, his features sharper, his hair catching the light in a way that made her heart stutter. He wasn’t the awkward kid she remembered. He was… well, hot. And the realization hit her harder than she wanted to admit. Ponyboy grinned when he saw her, that same easy, boyish smile she remembered, but it carried something new too—something that made her pulse race. “You’re back,” he said simply, like it hadn’t been three long years. And just like that, Tulsa suddenly felt a lot less familiar.