#while darry immediately calls ma mathews on the phone to tell her

[tending-the-hearth]

i think marcia absolutely was hoping two-bit would call her back, she probably waited by the phone every night because she was hoping that she wasn't just reading into things, that the spark she felt, the spark she never felt with randy, wasn't just in her mind.

and when two-bit doesn't call her, she feels absolutely hopeless and heartbroken, but there are other things going on, so she puts it in the back of her mind until things are resolved.

but marcia finally confronts ponyboy at school one day, later on, and asks him why two-bit hasn't called her, if it's because of everything randy did, and ponyboy's eyes go wide with shock and he explains that two-bit fully believed she gave him a fake phone number because he didn't think a girl like her would want to go out with a guy like him, so he threw away the paper, and marcia has to bite back the most frustrated scream because how is it that the funniest, cutest boy she's ever met is also the biggest idiot, and ponyboy just has to follow along as she storms through the halls of the school to find two-bit, who's sitting in the cafeteria, and marcia rips out a piece of notebook paper, writes her name, address, and number down, and shoves it into a shocked and speechless two-bit's chest. she tells him he'd better call her at 6 p.m. later that night and ask her on a date or else she's never speaking to him again, and ponyboy is just doubled over wheezing because he's never laughed so hard in his entire life

and two-bit is sitting there unable to speak because he thinks he's just fallen in love and he's not exactly sure what just happened but he knows he'd better make that phone call at 6 p.m.