The Best Thing ||A Darry Curtis Fanfiction||

The 11th (and final) Chapter

"Ugh!" Kacie yelled as she opened the truck door and threw her suitcase into the backseat.

"What's wrong?" Darry asked, chuckling.

"I hate her," Kacie said. "I hate her so much. She ruins everything!" Darry looked at her.

"What did she do?" He asked. Kacie looked down, shaking her head.

"It's not even a big deal, she just ruined part of the plan. I'll just have to rework everything," she explained. Darry nodded.

"So... you wanna share the plan with me?" He asked, still confused. She held up her journal.

"This is a list of every planned protest for the next few months," she told him. "I've found some people that plan these, and I've been writing back and forth with them."

A/N: So here's the thing... This is the last thing I have written for this story, and it's all I can get out. And since it was kind of popular, this is how it's going to have to end, I guess. I won't take it down. But I can tell you how I figured it would end:

Kacie and Darry spent the next few weeks getting closer and closer. Kacie away from home was way different than anything Darry had ever seen from her. She was much less high maintenance, almost to the point of being calm. She was happy, and her sister never crossed her mind. She wished she could have stayed like that forever. They spent nights in Darry's truck, and others in friends RV's as they toured the country, protesting for what Kacie believed she had the right to. Her rights. Darry supported her all the way, only sometimes asking if she was ready to go home. He loved her and never wanted to make her unhappy, so he never told her that he was anxious about this. He missed his brothers, and his family, and even going to school. He knew that after this long, they wouldn't be able to finish senior year like normal. He wouldn't go to college. But as long as he had her, he told himself that it was okay.

And it was, for a while, anyways. But then things started to get bad. On the nights they predicted violent, Darry wouldn't let Kacie go. She would be upset, but she understood that he was only looking out for her. The night everything happened, though, no one predicted it to be the way it was. Everyone was happy that night, there was no anxiety, it was just a peaceful little protest. A little fun before they hit the road. Then the police came. Shots were fired, but very few were hurt. Someone grabbed Kacie from behind, putting her in handcuffs, and Darry tried to follow, but he was restrained before he could get much further. 

"You're that... kid,"  the officer said to Darry.  

"Excuse me?" he asked, fighting to get free. 

"Stop." The officer demanded. "You're that kid from Tulsa who ran away. Now where's the girl?" He demanded. 

"Someone took her," Darry said, trying to find her, but her was no where in sight. He felt sick, like he had failed, but he wasn't sure what of. The officer dragged him off, and Darry was practically in hysterics. It was only at the police station that he got to see his girlfriend again. She ran into his arms, a sobbing mess, crying about something he couldn't understand. There were a few other people in there that they knew, but the two paid attention to only each other. When she finally was stable enough to speak she said,

"Darry, they want me to call my parents!" He nodded, assuming that they would from the beginning. He knew that they were considered run aways, missing persons.. you name it, they were probably reported it. 

"So call them, Kace," he said, "it's over." She became a sobbing mess all over again. 

"I can't," she told him, "I'm not ready." She had loved what they had been doing, so much, that she couldn't imagine not doing it. 

"You have to," he told her. She shook her head and pulled away from her boyfriend, sitting alone on the floor, rocking herself. 

"If you call them, I will never speak to you again." She told him. But he knew that he had to, if either of them wanted to get out of here. It took them two hours to get there, which actually seemed fast, as neither of them even knew what state they were in anymore. Kacie's parents screamed when they got there, but Darry's whole family, mom, dad, and both brothers hugged and kissed him and cried, telling them how much they missed him. Piper stood off to the side, her arms folded over her chest, listening to her family yell as her sister sat in the stall. 

"I'm not leaving with them," Kacie had told an officer earlier, but no one believed the small teenage girl. She didn't belong in jail. Piper had had enough of her sister though. She walked into the unlocked stall, which they had been waiting for Kacie to get out of, and stood in front of her. Kacie looked up, it took her a while to say anything. 

"We really do look alike, don't we, sis?" She asked, wiping her tears.  

"Yeah," Piper responded, taking a deep breath. "I guess we do." 

Kacie got up and hugged her sister.

"I'm sorry, Pippi," she told her sister, although she didn't know really what she was apologizing for. Everything, she guessed. 

"It's okay, KayKay," Piper responded, smiling back at the other girl. 

They watched together as Darry walked out of the police station with his family. He was looking back at them, but he didn't stop. Kacie didn't follow him, or wave even. Neither of them told them they loved each other. 

Although she didn't really mind, with her sister, now her friend again, standing next to her, it was the last time Kacie would ever see the best thing in her life, Darry Curtis.