The Best Thing ||A Darry Curtis Fanfiction||

Chapter 9

This chapter is kind of harder to follow, but you should be able to figure it out in time. For those of you that have waited patiently for the next update and haven't stopped reading, thank you! Please don't give up on me yet, my loves. Oh, and remember that this is taking place in the 1960s.

"Why do you wanna do this, Kace?" Darry asked Kacie the next morning, putting a hand on her knee.

"This would just be leaving... giving up," he said. She looked him right in the eye as he said it.

"Wouldn't it?" But she shook her head. It wasn't giving up, it was something she had to do. She knew it.

Last night, Kacie had fallen asleep on the Curtis's couch. When Darry awoke later that night to use the bathroom, he found there. She looked so peaceful that he put a blanket over her and went back to bed, deciding to ask tomorrow. Well, tomorrow was now. 

"There's something I need you to understand," she started. She didn't know if she could say it, no matter how true it was.

"I love you, Darrel Curtis, but with or without you, I have to do this." He sighed. He knew she needed to get away, but was this really the answer? It seemed drastic.

"But why? I don't even understand what's going on. And if you stay, and keep going with school and gymnastics and everything you've been doing, you could go to college. Get a job. Have a great life. You could provide for yourself, Kacie, and I know that's something you want," he argued.

"But that's just it!" Kacie yelled, trying to explain. She may have wanted to get away, but at least she was going something good with herself during that time... right?

"I want to go to college, Darry. I want to go so bad that I need to leave home and school to go petition and protest for my own rights because I am a half African-American woman. I'm not sure if you understand that. I feel lucky that you and I go to the same school, but I shouldn't have to. My mom didn't go to the same school as my dad, because she was black, and schools in that time, in the world, were racially separated. It wasn't too long ago. This is the same world, it was barely even twenty years ago. And not only that, but I am a woman, and this world you almost have to be perfect if you want to survive as a woman. I want to go to college, and maybe the rates for that have gone up, but not many colleges even look at women, still. Barely any offer four year programs for us, I've done the research. It's not fair, Darry. So I'll leave you with this," she said, sounding more angry as she started to get up. "You can come with me if you'd like, but I have to go, one way or another." Darry stared at her. The truth had finally come out, he finally knew why she wanted to take him and his parents truck and drive around. He just didn't know if he believed it. He didn't know if this was the whole reason.

"Do you like me enough to stay?" He asked, quietly, nervously even. All he knew was that she was going. He didn't have the courage to ask her what made her want to do this now, though. He was barely able to ask the question at hand.

"That's just it! Do I like you, Darry? I love you. I love you so much that I don't want to go without you and it hurts that I may have to, but I just have to get out of here!" Looking down at his feet, instead of in her eyes, he nodded. Kacie was getting hysterical, and he could tell how much getting away meant to her, more with every word.

"Fine. I'll go with."

"You will?" She didn't think he ever would. And it hurt her. He wasn't into this kind of thing. He liked school and he liked sports.... but he also liked her.

"I will," he agreed, taking her hand. She smiled at him.

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Darry really didn't want to be marked absent from school. He was graduating this year and didn't know if his permanent record could stand any more absences. He didn't want his parents to worry, either, but he didn't want to have to worry about his Kacie, all alone in the world, either.

So they drove to school, with him annoyed and her trying to calm him down with a hand on his thigh.

"I have to do this," she whispered. "You understand why, right?" He nodded along, but he really didn't. He didn't think it was right for a 17 year old girl to be running away from everything. He didn't even know if it would be right for him to go with her.

When they got to the school parking lot, he came around and opened the door for her.

"I'll meet you here after school, okay? We'll get going from here?" He lowered his voice after he said this, and noticed Kacie looking like she was about to cry. When she left last night, she took nothing with her, and had not even a pencil for school to her name. He hugged her, wishing she wouldn't worry so much. That morning as she was getting dressed, he left a note for his parents saying that he'd call, and took $200 that he'd been saving. He knew Kacie felt guilty though, not having anything to chip in herself.

"You're sure this is what you want?" He asked one more time. She was sure. She was positive this was the right thing to do, she just didn't know how she would pull it off.

A/N: Confused or excited? This story is definitely just getting started, and like I told you guys before, not only is it going to center on Darry and Kacie's (Dacie? Karry?) relationship and how it grows, but politics and how things worked back then. One reason I haven't updated in a while is because I've been doing lots of research to make sure I'm getting all of my facts right. I hope I'm doing a good job, thanks for sticking with me, everyone!