Mean Socs ||Darry Curtis||

Chapter 22-23 //Alternate Ending\\

Darry's POV:

After Elizabeth left, we didn't talk for a while. I had no idea how to get ahold of her, no idea where she went, anything. A few times I went out looking for her: at some of her old friends houses, at our favorite places. I even asked some people about her, but no one had seen her. It was like she'd disappeared. Then one day I decided to pick up the phone and call Dally, remembering how close she was with him and Beka.

"Yeah, she's here," he'd said.

"Well, can I talk to her?" I asked him. He said no, that she was busy and she didn't want to talk to me anyways. He said he was sorry and we made a few minutes of small talk, like how Elizabeth got there, which turned out to be by plane. I learned that she was starting classes again at NYU soon.

He asked me about Pony and Soda and Johnny and I told them that they were all fine, he said he and Beka were doing fine too.

He asked me if I knew Elizabeth was pregnant. I told him I did, and his next question was "Is it yours?" I didn't know exactly how to respond to that. Who else's would it be? After a while, I got annoyed and told him to put Elizabeth on the phone. I didn't think it was fair of her to leave while carrying my baby. Her beautiful voice rang in the background, yelling at me.

"If you want to talk to me, you can come to New York and do it face to face!" And of course, I would have loved to. I wanted her back. I wanted to tell her much how I love her and misses her and hold her in my arms and take care of her through the pregnancy. I just didn't have the money to do so.

I asked Dally if he would ask her to consider coming home. He said she wouldn't without even asking her, and repeated what Elizabeth had yelled to me earlier. I thanked him and said goodbye, crestfallen.

I thought about Elizabeth. How angry and upset she'd looked when she'd walked out, how I'd hurt her so much that she moved halfway across the country... And how much I wanted to go and get her. I didn't have enough money for that. I had two kids to raise.

In the meantime, I tried to put her out of my mind. I focused on working and taking care of my brothers, but that only made me thinking the baby on their way. It made me wonder if it would be a boy, like my brothers, or a girl, like Elizabeth. I called Dally every now and then. He and Beka would answer, but not Elizabeth. I always asked if they knew the sex of the baby, but they wouldn't even tell me that. They never handed the phone to my ex-girlfriend either, even through all of my begging and pleading.

Quicker and quicker the September due date came upon us, and I became more stressed out and edgy. I couldn't focus. I wasn't eating or sleeping, and Soda commented a lot on the bags under my eyes. I didn't even have the energy to help Pony. I'd still make sure he was getting his homework done, but I wouldn't check it all over, and wouldn't care enough to get mad when he did it wrong.

Absentmindedly, I took a few girls out. We got drinks, went to dinner, but it was nothing special. We never had any chemistry like Elizabeth and I did.

One day in early September, my boss called me into his office.

"Curtis, you're looking terrible these days," he said. I just barely cracked a smile, knowing it was true.

"Something's on your mind, I can tell. Something you need to get done. You haven't been focusing lately. Maybe you just need some rest, I'm not sure, but I think it's time you had a vacation," he said. I was stunned, not having had one, well, at all.

"T-thank you, sir. That would be wonderful," I said. At first, I didn't know what to do with it. Then he told me the whole week would be paid, and something clicked in my head.