Disclaimer: If I owned "Newsies" then Mush, Blink, Racetrack, Spot and Skittery would all be tied to my bedpost with an endless supply of candy canes. It's pretty easy to tell that my bedpost is unoccupied, therefore… well. I can't bring myself to say it.
A/N: Major love-age goes to Mondie for the challenge, which was "Two-month old candy canes. Dirty Dancing soundtrack. A "best friends" picture frame. And Blush. BWAHAHAHA." As to the length… well. Yes.
Best Friends Forever
Mush wrinkled his nose slightly. The candy canes were stale. His mother had bought them to decorate the Christmas tree two months ago, but now it was February and the red and white peppermint treats were gummy and a little flavorless.
Mush didn't care though. Better to have sugar in one form, however repulsive, than in no form at all.
His tongue drifted over his molars, trying to pick out the bits of candy that had stuck there. Now that he thought about it, Mush didn't even like candy canes, stale or fresh. They were too artificial, too associated with a time of year that he had never really enjoyed.
Christmas meant winter, winter meant snow, and snow meant cold. Cold meant snuggling, which was always good, but it also meant bundling up, and runny noses, neither of which Mush liked. Candy canes were perfect for stirring hot chocolate with (and for sucking on enticingly, when someone you wanted to snuggle with was nearby), but in February Mush could see little purpose for them.
Leaving the candy cane in his mouth and wiping his sticky hands on his jeans, Mush picked up the picture frame that sat on his bedside table. It was pink, with blue glitter dusting the corners, and the bottom half read "Best Friends Forever," in girly cursive font. Mush felt the prickling of tears in his eyes as he looked at it. Someone had taken a piece of white masking tape and pasted over the "Best Friends Forever". In messy block letters written in Sharpie, the tape read "Boyfriends Forever." Inside the frame was a picture of Mush and another boy, both of them smiling and laughing. The other boy was wearing an eye patch and a Yankees baseball cap. The two had their cheeks pressed together, and an arm slung around one another's shoulders.
A tear crept down Mush's cheek, and slipped into the corner of his mouth. The taste of salt mixed with the taste of saccharine mint.
Mush frowned, and ripped the masking tape off of the picture frame. He rose from the bed and walked to his trashcan, where he dropped the tape, and then the frame, and then the candy cane. A borrowed, beat-up, Yankees sweatshirt lay on the floor next to the trashcan, and Mush put that in too.
The sweatshirt was followed by the tin foil and plastic stem left from a chocolate rose, and a teddy bear with hand-made eye patch. Mush continued to throw things in the trashcan, until it threatened to overflow, and when it was filled to the brim, he got out an old box and started throwing things in that too.
Notebook pages filled with heart and doodles and silly poems. A dried-out daisy chain. The "Dirty Dancing" soundtrack, with a little note written on the jacket cover. A ticket stub from "Rent," and a ticket stub from a Yankees game. Another photograph, and another, and another, until Mush was sure he could have filled up an album with them.
And as he threw things away, Mush let the salty tears drip down his cheek. The sickening peppermint taste wouldn't seem to leave his mouth, though the candy cane was buried at the bottom of the pile now. Mush welcomed the tears, and hoped that, as the stack of castaway memorabilia grew higher, the taste of peppermint would wash itself away.
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