Disclaimer: Don't own Newsies, never will, life sucks.

Lost and Found

"I've given up on love."

I stared down at my steaming hot cup of coffee, stirring it idly with a straw as I watched the sugar I had just placed in it slowly dissolve. My name is Andrew Reeves, but everyone calls me Skittery. I'm a senior in high school, and for the past six years of my life, the years when those hormones start working, I have longed to be in true love with my every being. I wanted to find my soul mate, and spend my entire life with him, and die happily. I wanted a high school sweetheart who I'd go to college with, and eventually marry. We'd be the envy of all my friends, because our relationship would have been just that strong.

But that would never happen. No one at Saint John's Highschool was like me. No one at Saint John's Highschool went against the Bible. No one at Saint John's Highschool was... gay. No one but me, and my best friend, Dominic "Bumlets" Rodriguez.

So, I have been spending almost half of my life being the most hopeless of all hopeless romantics and I am sick and tired of it.

"Aw, not again," Bumlets said, rolling his eyes at me and taking a sip of his iced mocha. "You say that every year, Skitts, and you've never once actually given up on it."

"Well, I'm serious this time," I replied, still stirring my slowly-cooling cup of coffee. I leaned forward, staring him in the eye. "Do you notice that I always fall for the most unavailable of all unavailable guys?"

Bumlets let out a sigh of exasperation. "At SJHS, all guys are unavailable, but come on, you've known that. I don't know why you continue to have crushes on all these assholes at school, even though you know they're straight."

"Do I really have any choice? We go to a private school."

"What's your point?"

"We get absolutely no exposure to the outside world! We go to school, we stay in school, we leave and go straight home. We have school dances at our school, we're not invited to dances at other schools... Just how many friends do you have that don't go to SJHS?"

"..."

"Ha!"

"Hey, I wasn't done thinking!" Bumlets exclaimed, glaring at me. I watched him as he stared up at the ceiling in though, before scratching his head, messing up part of his perfectly gelled hair.

"Oh! I've got it!" he said, jumping up slightly. "My cousin Bert."

"Bumlets, you can't choose your cousin!" I argued, jabbing my straw into my now cold cup of coffee. "First of all, he's your relative, so you're forced to be friends with him. Second of all, his name's Bert."

"And?"

"What the hell were your aunt and uncle thinking?"

"Actually, I think they were smoking..."

"Well, that explains it," I replied, chuckling softly.

"Ah, finally, a smile," Bumlets said, poking me in the nose. I glared at him, silently reminding him that I absolutely hated being poked. "I haven't seen one of those in a while. I thought your face had frozen like that and I'd have to endure seeing that ugly frown of yours for eternity."

"I'm not ugly..."

"When you frown, you are. So, smile more and drink that damn coffee I bought you."

Cold coffee that was meant to be hot is disgusting, but I drank it anyway, because Bumlets was weird about me wasting his precious four dollars and ninety-nine cents. The truth was, as much as I wanted Bumlets to be right, he just wasn't. I do not want to be in love anymore, and I am convinced that now it's just a waste of time. I am living proof that waiting for love to come into your life is a waste of time... and I have already wasted enough of that.

I'd lost the will to love, and he was not about to change that.

A/N: I thought this up while walking back to our hotel from dinner. Oh, yeah, I'm in San Diego right now! Whoohoo, Christmas vacation. And at a good time too, apparently there's a typhoon watch on Guam and all my friends have been divided between the "narcs" vs. the "partiers". ((sigh))

So, review, while I call one of my best friends and try to calm her down...