|| Side-By-Side || A Sprace Love Story

Chapter 27 - Carson's Rant

Warnings: Kidnapping, manipulation
Third Person POV

Race regained consciousness about a day later.

In the place he didn't want to be.

And he felt terrible.

He just laid on the cold ground, trying to figure out his surroundings by sound and touch since sight wasn't working and he didn't want to use taste.

Like, ew, that's disgusting. Why would he want to lick the floor of wherever he was?

No.

Race's head was pounding, making it really hard to focus on what he was doing.

And as if his luck couldn't get any worse, he also felt like he was going to throw up.

What a nice mix.

Speaking of nice (this part not being sarcastic), the cold ground felt really nice to him.

Sure, it was hard, since, you know, concrete is hard, but it wasn't too bad and the cold felt good against Race's skin and helped distract him from his pain.

Race didn't mind the cold.

The boys usually had to force him to wear a coat in the winter, since he always convinced himself that he was Elsa.

I'm joking.

He just didn't mind the cold so he was always like 'it's just a bit chilly, I'll be fine'.

Which, in hindsight, is a terrible idea, and since the boys don't want him to get sick/frostbite, they force him to wear a coat.

Race didn't hear anything though.

No, I lie, he can hear something now.

He hears a door open. The door somehow sounded really far away, but he knew it probably wasn't.

He hears someone place a bucket down, suddenly now sounding really close.

"You always were pretty stubborn." Race hears a voice sigh. "All of us are pretty stubborn."

The voice sounded familiar, too familiar.

Race felt a cold, and wet, cloth touch the top of his forehead, and then someone brush his curls out of the way of the cloth.

"Caleb's too annoyed that Haste got taken to come down here, but I promise he loves you, too." The voice speaks again. "It took a lot of convincing Rock and Spade to let me come down here. I don't know what their problem is, we're the leaders, not them. Why is it bad that I love you and care about you?"

The voice sighs again. "I never wanted this, Anth. I just wanted to see you. This isn't fair to you."

"If anything happens, I'll still let you see your friends." The voice promises. "Well, you call them brothers. I guess you're pretty close to them."

"I had friends like that, but Spade and Rock changed. They don't let me be good friends with the other Queensies." The voice laughs weakly. "Queensies. I must sound so stupid. We all made that up when we started being friends, and it kinda just stuck."

"You seem fond of your friends and boyfriend. I wish I had enough courage to admit that I have a boyfriend, but I can't even admit it to Caleb." The voice's name was on the top of Race's tongue, but he couldn't focus enough to figure it out. "They even gave you the Newsie name 'Race'. You did always take after dad in that aspect, with the cards and betting."

The voice sighs again, re-dumping the cloth in the water. "Dad is still alive. I hate it so much. I'll see him on the streets, but he doesn't pay attention enough to notice me, thankfully. I had to stop Caleb from trying to soak him so many times."

The voice squeezes the cloth, before placing it back on Race's forehead. "Who am I kidding? I'm sitting here, ranting to you when you're probably asleep. You probably don't even care. You probably don't even love us anymore."

The voice takes Race's hand in their own, tracing patterns on Race's palm. "We have been terrible to you, and I'm sorry. Rock and Spade changed us, but they say what we're doing is fine. Maybe your friends, and Haste, are right. I just hope that one day- one day, maybe, you could forgive me."

Race forces himself to squeeze his brother's hand, after finally realizing who it is. "I- I love y-you, Car- Carson."

Carson smiles a bit. "I'm sorry, Anth. I'll try to convince Caleb, Rock, and Spade that we should stop what we're doing. It's not making you or us happy. It's not worth it."

"Carson- go- go to B-Brooklyn," Race starts, before coughing. Carson's eyes widen. "Haste is t-there. He- he needs t-to talk to- to you."

"I can't go to Brooklyn, Anth. They hate me!" Carson whispers, a bit shocked that he would suggest that.

Race squeezes his brother's hand tighter. "Tell- tell them I-I s-sent you. T-They'll know what I'm- Im doing."

"And Haste is there?" Carson whispers, hoping that the answer was yes.

"Unharmed." Race answers, still whispering. Carson smiles, relieved. "You- you t-two are c-cute together."

Carson groans. "You are almost as bad as Caleb when I have a crush."

Race weakly laughs. It came out more like a cough, but he did manage to laugh. "We a-are siblings. Plus, I g-grew up- with some- some r-really annoying f-flirts that I call m-my second f-family."

Carson smiles a bit. "I love you so much, Anth. I'll go to Brooklyn to see what you're talking about, as soon as I can."

Race nods. He started to feel sick again.

The door opens and Spade stood at the door. "Come on, Blade, we need to talk about our plan."

Carson nods, giving Race's hand one more squeeze, before he grabs the cloth and bucket, and gets up to leave.

Anthony swore he heard Carson whisper 'I promise' as he heard Carson walk away and the door slam shut.

Jack, Spot, Al, Jo, please figure out what I'm trying to do here, Race silently prays. Let Carson talk to Haste, we have a bigger chance of getting him to realize what they're doing if you do.

And then please get me out of here...

Race turns over, laying on a bit of the rope that his hands were tied to, and a few minutes into zoning out, he fell asleep again.

1064 Words
I might post a third chapter today, since I have so many chapter already finished.