#eternity-can-wait

Darry has no idea how he speaks over the roaring in his ears. He’s not sure he’s ever felt rage like this before, and if he’s honest with himself, it’s unchartered territory. But his brother is looking at him like he wants to combust, so Darry fights to keep his voice level.

~

Darry and Sodapop try to navigate the day Soda drops out of school.

Darry doesn’t remember hanging up the phone. He doesn’t remember calling for Soda. He doesn’t remember getting in the car, or the screeching of his tires as they pull away from the curb outside their house that hasn’t felt like home in a week. All he knows is that for the first time in longer than he ever wants to have it be again, he knows where Ponyboy is.

~

Darry has been waiting for a week to know what has happened to his little brother. It's quite possibly the longest week of his whole life, and the ending starts with a phone call.

“What’s spooked ya, kid?” He asks knowingly. Pony immediately wants to deny that anything has spooked him. But he knows there’s no point. It’s not exactly a secret amongst them that his nightmares don’t exactly follow positive experiences in his life. Instead, he gets up and pads out to his bedroom. Soda and Darry wait patiently until he comes back a moment later, a yearbook sitting uncomfortably in his palms. He thumbs through until he finds the page that will serve as an explanation and passes it to his brothers.

~

It's been a little while since nightmares have plagued the Curtis household. Tonight, they're back with a vengeance.

“Ok Dar, give it up.” Pony announces suddenly, his voice laced with exasperation as he slams his book closed. “What’s going on?” “What are you talking about, Ponyboy?” Darry asks, genuinely surprised by his brother’s outburst. “You’ve never relaxed a day in your life. You think sleep is a waste of time, and now we’re taking vacations? What gives?”

~

The Curtis brothers are hitting the road and taking a vacation! Pony isn't convinced by his brother's motives, and Darry has some news to share.

Whispers have been following Ponyboy around all day.

He doesn’t know what his classmates might be whispering about. At first, he thinks he must be imagining things but after a while, he knows it’s directed at him. Stares accompany the words, hushed as they are, and conversations are abruptly ended when he walks into a room or past lockers.

He knows the signs. It isn’t the first time, after all.

~

Ponyboy makes a surprise discovery in his senior yearbook.

A Thousand Words - eternity_can_wait - The Outsiders - S. E. Hinton [Archive of Our Own]

"Suddenly I realized, horrified, that Darry was crying. He didn’t make a sound, but tears were running down his cheeks. I hadn’t seen him cry in years, not even when Mom and Dad had been killed. (I remembered the funeral. I had sobbed in spite of myself; Soda had broken down and bawled like a baby; but Darry had only stood there, his fists in his pockets and that look on his face, the same helpless, pleading look that he was wearing now.)"

Ponyboy may think that Darry hadn't cried when their parents had been killed, but he doesn't know about the time between his oldest brother getting the phone call, and arriving back at their house.

“I guess I just don’t know why I came.” Darry answers honestly, his voice low and decidedly dejected. “It’s not like I have much to show for the last five years.”

~

Darry attends his first high school reunion, and gets an unexpected proposition.

Hopefully, I've been a little nicer to Darry this time!