A/N: This is a little one-shot that came to me at 3 a.m. while listening to Skillet on my i-pod and staring at the ceiling. I actually really like this story, and I guess I should sense I wrote it and all… but ANYWAYS…
Disclaimer: I do not own Newsies, Lyric and Star is owned by me, and Dreamer and Jumper own themselves.
--
I trudged through the streets of New York. The grey skies above me, the snow crunching beneath my feet. I hated the cold weather, and I especially hated it because it made selling papes pretty hard in the cold weather. No one ever really wanted to come out in the bitter cold, and I honestly couldn't blame them.
I pulled my coat tighter around me as another gust of wind went by. As I was walking down the street, I heard laughing, a girl laughing. I walked closer then recognized who that laughed belonged to. Lyric. She loved winter, heck, she loved anything involving nature. That's just the kind of person she is, always looking on the bright side of things. She was having a snowball fight with Star, one of the younger girl newsies, who absolutely loved Lyric and was now becoming her shadow. They both hadn't seen me yet, as I got just a couple feet away, and I was about to make myself known when one of Star's snowballs found it's way to my head. My face turned into a scowl and Star erupted into giggles. She was soon followed by Lyric.
"I guess saying 'Look out Blink' would be a little too late, huh?" Lyric said after she calmed down.
"Gee, you think?" I snapped, unable to keep the anger out of my voice. I thought I saw hurt in her eyes, but it was quickly replaced with a smile.
"Aw, come on, don't be like that." She replied. I grumbled something inaudible and she started laughing again. I just glared. "Hey Star, you ok?" Lyric asked, noticing the shivering girl beside her.
Star nodded.
"Come on; let's get you back to the Lodging House." Lyric said, handing Star her jacket.
"I'll walk you." I volunteered, quickly forgetting all anger.
She smiled, "Thanks."
Once we were just a couple of blocks away from the Girls' Lodging House, I realized Lyric didn't have her jacket, and she looked pretty cold. "Here, take my jacket." I told her as I took it off and attempted to hand it to her.
She just shook her head, "No thanks, you need it more than me."
"No, here." She stared at me for a couple of seconds, and then hesitantly took it. She smiled a thanks, and I smiled in return.
--
The next day at the distribution office I looked for Lyric all over but never found her, I did see her sister, Dreamer, at the end of the line though. I thought this was unusual, since they were seen together almost all the time. I made my way over to ask her where Lyric was, hoping everything was alright. Once I was able to pick my way through the small crowd over to where Dreamer was, I could tell she looked pretty tired.
"Hey, Dreamer." I greeted her.
"Hey, Blink." She said, giving me a small smile.
"You, uh, look pretty tired." I said, curiosity taking hold of me. She just nodded mutely. "So, um, where's Lyric?" I tried to ask as casually as possible, but I could tell I failed miserably, judging by the smirk Dreamer had on that soon faded as she answered.
"She's sick. I think it's just a cold or something." I nodded solemnly; it wasn't rare for a newsie -or any kid living on the street for that matter- to get sick during winter time.
"Alright, just tell her I hope she feels better." I said as I started to make my way towards the line at the desk that had shortened incredibly in mere minutes.
"Ok, will do." She said as she readjusted her papes under her arms, "Bye Blink."
"Bye." I called back from my position at the end of the line, a bit more depressed than earlier this morning. As if the weather wasn't bad enough.
--
As soon as I bought my papes and headed for the gates, Racetrack came up to me.
"Heya, Blink." He said a bit too cheery.
"Hey Race." I mumbled, not really feeling liking talking to anyone right now.
"So… where's Lyric?" He asked with a smirk.
"What makes you think I know?" I snapped.
He just shrugged, "Just thought you'd know, seeing how much you like her and everything." He said as that goofy grin of his made its way onto his face. I stopped dead in my tracks.
"Is it that obvious?" I asked, still not moving.
"Look, Blink, you liking her is about as obvious as me gambling." He rolled his eyes and sighed. I just looked at him. "Ok, so maybe not that obvious." I smiled and shook my head.
"What are you getting at anyways?" I was getting pretty annoyed now, because I already knew today would probably be a bad day selling and Racetrack delaying my selling would only make it worse.
He shrugged again, "I was just wondering when you'd finally ask her out."
"I don't have time for this, I got to sell." I said as I rolled my eyes and pushed past him. Luckily he didn't pursue me, but I still heard him muttering under his breath as he walked the opposite way, towards Sheepshead Bay.
--
The next day, after I was finished selling, I heard Lyric's cold had gotten worse so I decided to go see her. When I walked into the sickroom of the girls' lodging house, I noticed that Lyric was the only one in there. That was sick at least. Dreamer sat beside her bed talking casually while Jumper, one of the other girl newsies that was Lyric's closest friend besides Dreamer, sat beside her on the bed. Lyric was kinda of pale, there were dark circles under her eyes, like she hadn't slept in forever, and her blue-green eyes weren't shining like they always were. At least, they were always shining to me. Her brown hair hung limply past her shoulders and she looked all in all pretty frail. But if you hadn't of seen her, you would of thought Lyric wasn't even sick. She laughed as Dreamer told her of her and Jumper's experience with Star earlier that day.
"She was complaining about not being able to stay here with you half the time, and the other half she just stood there pouting." Dreamer explained.
"Although that did help with getting customers." Jumper said as they all laughed.
I cleared my throat to make myself know in the room, immediately feeling like I had just intruded on an important conversation or something, though I knew it wasn't incredibly important.
"Oh, hi Blink!" Jumper greeted.
"Heya, Blink." Dreamer called with a knowing smile. I somehow started thinking of Racetrack said yesterday; Was I really that obvious? "Hey, Lyric, me and Jumper are going to get you some food. Be back later." Dreamer said as she dragged Jumper, who looked completely and utterly confused, out with her.
"Bye, Dream." Lyric said as they left, "So, Blink, what brings you here?" she asked me as I took Dreamer's former spot in the chair beside the bed.
"Oh, well, you know, just checking up on you." I leaned back in the chair, "These past couple of weeks have been pretty tough, selling and all." I said trying to make small talk. Lyric just nodded in agreement, I could tell she missed going out and selling, even though she'd only missed a couple of days. But then again being cooped up in a small room for a couple of days without going out could seem like forever to someone who barely even stayed inside, someone like Lyric. We talked for a little while longer until Dreamer came in with Jumper, both having no food. Go figure.
"Okay Blink, I really hate to do this to you but you got to go home, Lyrics needs her rest." Dreamer said.
"Where's my food?" Lyric asked, but I'm pretty sure she already knew.
"We ate it." Jumper said bluntly. Lyric just laughed and shook her head.
"Well, I guess I better go. Bye Lyric." I said getting up and heading towards the door.
"Wait, Blink," Lyric said and I turned around, "Yeah?" I answered.
"Don't say goodbye." She said quietly. I looked at her strangely.
"Why?"
"Because…" she started, "Goodbye means you won't see someone again." She answered as she shrugged. "So, see you later."
"Uh, right, see you later." I called, right before heading out of the room. What did she mean by 'Don't say goodbye'? I've said that to her as long as I've known her, but she's never said anything about it before. This bothered me the whole way to the lodging house, and it even kept me up all night. How those words were able to worry me like that, I have no idea, but I did know that Racetrack noticed. Lucky me. I had tried avoiding him at first since I had gotten back from visiting Lyric, but the next morning he was able to corner me in my sleep deprived state.
"What's up with you?" he asked, his thick New York accent shining through.
"Nothing."
"Yeah right nothing, what's wrong with you? You've been sort of out of it lately."
"So? I have a lot of things on my mind." I said trying to push pass him. He just followed me.
"What kinda things?"
"None of your business." I snapped at him.
"Well fine, if you don't want to tell me…"
"No, I don't want to tell you." I was finally able to get rid of him and continued to avoid the rest of the day. This was pretty easy for me, though, seeing as he just left me alone after this morning.
--
I headed over to Tibby's for lunch; I just finished selling half of my papes from the morning addition and decided I had enough money to spare. As I walked down the street my wandered to Lyric. It had been two day's since I visited, or even heard anything of her, so I wondered how she was doing. And, now that I thought about it, I hadn't seen Dreamer or Jumper all day today; and I usually saw them at the distribution office or something. But I didn't have too much time to think about that as I was soon met with the laughing and talk of newsies inside Tibby's. I made my way over to a table that had Mush, Racetrack and Skittery sitting at it.
"Hey guys." I greeted, taking a seat by Mush. I wasn't avoiding Racetrack anymore, since he had finally dropped the subject about Lyric.
"Hey Blink." Mush said, before taking a bite out of his sandwich. The others nodded, having food in their mouths, too.
We sat there, eating and chatting, when Jumper walked in, looking pretty stressed. She walked over to Skittery; the two were dating, and asked to talk to him alone. They went outside to talk, then came back shortly after. The restaurant had quieted down thinking something was wrong while I continued to eat. When Skittery came back to the table he was avoiding eye contact with everyone and fidgeting a lot, and he didn't even sit down.
"Everything ok, Skitts?" Mush asked, obviously sensing the tension. Skittery quickly shook his head no, still not looking at anyone. He then sighed and took me aside, dragging me from my chair.
"What the heck are you-" I started to say before he cut me off.
"Blink, listen. Lyric, she… she died, Blink." Skittery said, this time looking me straight in the eye. I froze, gulped, and then nodded looking out the window.
"How's Dreamer taking it?" I asked.
"Not sure, you'll have to ask Jumper that." I nodded again then went back to the table. I think Jumper had told Jack, but that was it, and she soon quickly left. I was quiet the rest of the day, a whole bunch of new thoughts running through my head. I left Tibby's early to go sell the evening edition early, hoping to clear my head a little bit, even though I knew it would never work.
--
The funeral for Lyric was small, not many people showed up. Dreamer said she had wanted it that way. I'm glad Lyric got what she wanted. I also found Dreamer was taking her sister's death pretty well; they had all known she was going to die anyways. Dreamer also said that Lyric didn't want people to be sad when she died, life's too short to be sad. She proved a perfect example. I took her advice, though; I wasn't going to be sad, but I had a new feeling come over me, not any better than sadness. It was regret. Regret for not talking to her as much as I wanted. Regret for not being honest with her, for telling her what I feel about her. Regret for not saying how much I liked her. And I did like her. But now she was gone, away, not here, with me. Even though I don't feel as sad, I still feel torn, and almost a little helpless.
"Wait, Blink," Lyric said and I turned around, "Yeah?" I answered.
"Don't say goodbye." She said quietly. I looked at her strangely.
"Why?"
"Because…" she started, "Goodbye means you won't see someone again." She answered as she shrugged. "So, see you later."
Her words ran over and over through my head. I guess, I now know what she meant by that. She knew she was going to die, but she also knew we'd see each other later. Later, as in when my time comes, and I die, too. Then, I'll see her again. And, in a way, relief washed over me. The regret was gone, but don't get me mistaken, I still wish I had told her how I felt and, for once, listened to Racetrack. But, I'll see her later. And I as looked down at Lyric's grave, I whispered one small phrase before I started my walk back to the lodging house,
"Don't say goobye…"
--
A/N: So, there it is. My little Blink one-shot and my first completed newsies fic. Reviews are appreciated…