New Kid, New Century • A Newsies Fanfic

chapter twenty-one.

chapter twenty-one.
trigger warning(s): implied sexual assault, fighting

Crutchie was sitting on the very edge of the rooftop, letting his legs dangle over the edge. He held onto the railing, though - just to make sure he wouldn't fall. Ever since Jack had caught him about to jump off the side of the rooftop, Jack had been a lot more watchful over him. He'd been so much more protective over him lately, which, of course, only made Crutchie fall more in love with him by the minute. Every single time Jack breathed, Crutchie swore that it could've made him fall even deeper in love. It was killing him not to act upon his feelings. He wasn't even sure what he had to lose.

But at the same time, Jack had been the only person keeping him alive at more than one point in his life. Jack, and his idea of Santa Fe. And, if Crutchie told Jack how he really felt - then would he lose the one person that meant anything to him?

He didn't know. But it was much better to be safe than sorry. He couldn't lose his best friend, not to mention the love of his life.

Sometimes, he wanted to slap himself. Out of all the boys he could've fallen for, he chose Jack Motherfucking Kelly. Although he was extremely attractive, and Crutchie could've spent hours just thinking about him at a time (and he'd often done so), he definitely did not like boys. Nope. Nope. He was straight as fuck, that was for sure. Even if Crutchie was a girl, which he wasn't and had no intention to be one, why would Jack ever have a reason to love Crutchie? All Crutchie ever would be was a pathetic, emotionally fragile, worthless crip. No one had ever loved him, and no one ever would. He'd just learned to accept that. Still, knowing that Jack wouldn't love him and that no one was ever gonna love him hurt him a little. It was fine though... wasn't it? It was just perfectly fine.

Crutchie sighed and grabbed his crutch, using it to stand himself up. He had been sitting on the edge of the penthouse for a while now, and he'd been getting lonely. He had no clue where Jack was, but he knew Jack would be back at some point. He used the stairs to get down to the "living room" of the Lodging House, where the boys were playing card games. He laughed to himself as he heard one of the boys scream "Ya can't do that, ya just can't!" Ahh, card games. The master of destroying friendships, no matter how strong they stood. That was why he never played them. He preferred to actually have friends, thank you very much.

"Hey, Crutch!" someone exclaimed. He yelped and jumped a little. That was thanks to the refuge. Ever since then, he'd been considerably more jumpy. After he got over the surprise, he looked over his shoulder to see Race there. He took in a deep breath before smiling.

"Hey," he said, giving Race a small wave. Race frowned a little.

"Oh, did I scare ya? Sorry," he quickly apolo-

Wait one fucking second.

Did Racetrack Higgins just apologize to him?

This had to be some sort of alternate dimension. That was the only explanation for it.

"Did you just apologize?" " Crutchie said, quite shocked. He was awfully bad at hiding his surprise, and he was sure Race noticed.

"What brings you down here? You'se been up on the rooftop for, like, three hours now," Race asked, ignoring Crutchie's past question.

"It's been three hours?" Crutchie said, with wide eyes. He didn't realize he'd been up there for that long, it had felt more like thirty minutes to him.

Race slowly nodded. "Yeah.."

"My god," Crutchie mumbled to himself.

"What do ya even do up there?" Race asked.