Character Analysis
Darren is Deanna's older brother, Stacy's baby daddy, and Tommy's former best friend and pot-smoking buddy. When Story of a Girl opens, he's been out of high school for a year, but he and Stacy already have an infant daughter. Darren's been busted for pot in the past, although we don't get the details, and he's now working at Safeway and living in his parents' basement.
Sounds like a complete loser, right? Well hold up a minute, because Darren arguably has more brains and insight than anyone else in the book, even if he does want to take out a cash advance on a credit card. (Pro tip: Don't ever do that. No, seriously. If you're ever tempted, just picture Mr. Burns from The Simpsons sitting on a pile of money and cackling at you.)
Darren sees the error of his ways, and he's determined not to let Deanna go down the same path. She tries to give him the money from her job so he doesn't have to do that cash-advance thing, but he tells her to save it for college. He doesn't want Deanna hanging around Pacifica for the rest of her life and getting into trouble, and he's the one person in the book who tells her she's capable of more. As he says when Deanna tries to give him her money to move out, "Use it for college, okay? Or something. Hell, maybe you want to take a road trip after you graduate or move to New York or something, I don't know, but don't give it to us." (14.50)
When Stacy leaves Darren and runs off with Corvette Kim for a few days, Darren's understandably furious. But when Stacy comes home and Deanna calls Darren to tell him, he says, "Tell her to get out of my house" (9.43). Then he reconsiders, takes Stacy back, and brings her into Picasso's Pizza while Deanna's working just to show Deanna the importance of forgiveness. They only stay a minute, but Darren makes a point of telling her, "Stacy has to work. We just thought we should come by, you know, so you could see" (11.31).
Even though he doesn't tell Deanna until later, he wants her to know that he's made the decision not to be like their dad, and if he can do this, then she can too. Breaking the cycle of anger and misery their father has taught them is their only hope for a better life. At the end of the book, Darren's the one who has the most encouraging words for Deanna: "We can be different from him" (16.17). He's talking about their dad, of course, the Man Who Can't Forgive. By encouraging Deanna to fight against their legacy, he's living his dreams through her: even if it's too late for him to get out of Pacifica, Deanna still can.