Darren Pierce

Darren Pierce is a fictional character on the soap opera Sunset Bay. Introduced in 2018, he is written by Nikki Petrie, and is portrayed by actor Brandon Flynn.

Characterization
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Background
Darren grew up in Sunset Bay and his family are devout Christians, and raised Darren that way. They believe that homosexuality is sin, and Darren has realised since he was around nine years old that he was gay and that he would never truly be accepted by his family.

Summer 2018
Darren was part of the school trip to fix up the school in Peachboro, Georgia. While on the trip, he shared a room with Hunter Kay, the two originally disagreed over the temperature of the room, but on the third night of the trip, Darren owned up to intentionally setting the temperature higher so that both of them would wander around half-naked. This was while he and Hunter were in bed together, after the two had been flirting - after Darren had a little liquid courage - the two of them hooked up that night, and continued to do so through the majority of the trip. Hunter did tell Darren that he was in a relationship with a girl who was also on the trip, but Darren did not believe him, he thought that Hunter was just lying to himself.

Once back home in Sunset Bay, Hunter met up with Darren to tell him that things were over between the two of them since Hunter is now committed to his girlfriend. Darren still found it hard to believe, and told Hunter that he would be around if Hunter changed his mind. On that same day, Darren met Oliver Grey, who was flirting with him, but the flirtation was soon over when Darren heard some school kids laughing and worried that they had overheard his conversation with Olly, and he bolted.

Darren attended Tessa Wakefield's Pool Party, where he saw for himself that Hunter was indeed in a relationship with a girl, Jenna Willis, the chaperone from the school trip, to be exact. He tells Cristian Bradford that he is worried that Jenna using her position of power over Hunter, but Cristian comes to the defence of his best friend. Later on at the party, Darren talks with Carleigh and it becomes clear to him that Hunter told Carleigh of their fling, and he begs her not to tell anyone after misunderstanding what she was trying to say about his secret coming out. He and Hunter have a moment where it seems like something might happen between them, but nothing does.

At a church bake sale, Darren met Luis de la Cruz, and the two became fast friends, despite Darren's mother being rude and racist to Luis and Luis' family.

Darren met Oliver again later in the summer, this time at Burger Barn when he was out for dinner with the wrestling team. Again, there was some mild flirtation, but when Hunter appeared, Darren started to feel insecure and left, though Hunter tried to encourage him to stay to pursue things with Olly, but Darren told Hunter that he simply did not get it.