East West Sunset - A Darry Curtis Fanfiction

Chapter Twenty-Four

I needed to get home. It was hard to believe that just an hour before, Darry had smiled as he dropped me off and I had felt so happy and hopeful. Now, my entire world was crashing down around my ears like a thunderstorm of despair and uncertainty. I had a twin sibling, my father was a Greaser, and my grandmother had told me that I wasn't good enough to be her granddaughter. It was all too much for me to handle; I didn't want to act like a child, but I needed my mother. I needed her desperately, so that she could maybe explain. I knew she didn't want to. But I needed to figure out what was going on and why nobody wanted to tell me anything.

I needed to get home.

I dragged the back of my hand over my eyes, wiping the tears from my vision so I could at least see clearly as I stumbled along. I didn't know exactly where I was, but I knew I was deep in Soc territory so I needed to be careful. I glanced up at a street sign and saw that I was at N Union Avenue. Across the street, there was a lush, rich-looking country club. I decided to follow N Union for as far as I could, until I found a gas station where I could call for someone to drive me home; I didn't want to walk alone in Soc territory for longer than was absolutely necessary.

No cars drove along the road. It was just me, my feet trembling across the cold, unfeeling concrete. I didn't like this side of Tulsa. It wasn't laid out in the crumbling grid that the East side was; instead, the roads curved unexpectedly. On either side of N Union, side streets branched off and spiraled away into the subdivision at random. There was a lawlessness here that I didn't like. Behind the freshly manicured lawns and spotless facades of the stately brick homes, there was a slithering unease that bit into my chest like a snake. Nothing was certain here- not even the sun seemed the same. It shone as brightly as ever, but instead of beating down heat, it pressed cold upon me. I shivered in the cold white light.

I followed N Union Avenue for a good ten minutes. Slowly, the houses began to become less fancy, and the streets straightened into recognizable lines. The unease began to lift, but I still felt heavy and defeated. I couldn't see far enough into the future to discern what I should do next. Now that my housecleaning plan had fallen through, I didn't know what I should do next.

At least one of my questions was answered: I knew why my mother had been disowned. It was all because she had loved a Greaser. But I didn't know anything about my father. Who was he? All I had was a name- Charles.

I spotted a Shell gas station ahead a few streets and increased my pace. My heart constricted painfully in relief. Finally, I would be able to go back to the Curtis house and just sleep for a while. The sun was low in the sky; it was probably about six o'clock by now. The blast of freezing air-conditioned air hit my face like blizzard winds when I opened the door to the gas station, and my arms were immediately covered in goosebumps. 

I pushed my hand into the pocket of my shorts and was pleased to discover that a quarter was tucked inside. I headed to the back of the convenience store, where a payphone was lodged next to the large central window. I dropped the quarter into the coin slot and picked up the phone, biting my lip as the operator picked up.

"Hi, I need to reach the Curtis house," I mumbled. 

"Alright," the operator responded in a bored voice.

As I waited for one of the boys to pick up, I glanced out the window. There were a few cars parked by the gas pumps, with attendants smiling and helping the drivers pump gas. They all looked like Soc-mobiles, and it wasn't until a black AMC convertible pulled out of the station that I noticed something bloodchilling.

There was a bright red '67 Corvette parked in the lot, and next to it stood three Soc boys. One of them was Arnie, and I recognized the other two as some of the same cronies that had been present when he had jumped Pony and me.