Chapter 13: Drunks and Nightmares

A/N: Hey guys! I am so, so, so sorry! With school, life, a little writer's block, and a few time-consuming events, I've had to put this story on the backburner for a little while. But with school ending, I will be able to update more! Woot! And thank you to all who patiently waited. I've read all your reviews and they make me smile. In response to one of the reviews, Spot and Race were acting 'strange' for a reason. I remember that Tiger is pretending she's a boy and I have reasons for what I write in my chapters. So enough of my yammering and let's get on with the story!

Disclaimer: I do not own Newsies. Only Tiger, this story, and any characters that were not in the movie. The rest is owned by Disney.

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Racetrack

Oh boy this isn't what I had planned. Not at all.

So here I was, laying in an already too-small bed, listening to the sleeping noises of the other newsies with a sleeping Tiger in the same bed as me, his head resting on my

outstretched arm. You'd think it wouldn't be so bad, only that I lost any space to spread out, but it wasn't. Listening to his deep breathing was....comfortable to me. Made

me feel at ease.

How the hell did I end up here?

After playing a few hands of poker, I began to lose any uneasy feeling that I had earlier. I guess playing cards makes me feel comfortable with myself, it's where I feel like

I can relax, I guess. Until Cowboy came over.

"'ey, Race," he said, standing next to me. "'ow's da game?"

I only nodded in response, too absorbed in the game to give him a decent reply.

After I called the hand before me, I heard Cowboy try to talk to me again. "So listen, I gotta tell ya somethin'..."

I finally looked up from my cards to look at him. To my suprise, he looked a little uneasy, his cowboy hat in his hands and him shifting on his feet.

This made me a little nervous and suspicious of what he was about to say. "What is it, Jack?" I asked, not used to ever seeing him nervous. Something must be up.

"Well...I made dis decision befoah you an' Tigah had any troubles between you'se guys but I already told da guys an' I need ta' stick by it.." He began to explain, his hands playing with the edge of his hat.

I stood up unexpectedly, my body pushing the table back a few inches.

"'ey, Race!" Blink exclaimed. "Watch wheah yer standin'!"

Instead of answering, I ignored Blink and simply stared at Cowboy. "Is Tigah goin' ta' Brooklyn?" I asked. "Queens? Da Bronx?"

I couldn't believe it. Even though I had completely ignored him tonight, I was scared that my best friend was going to another burough, to be with other newsies and forget about us...Namely, me.

Cowboy looked confused. "What?"

"'e's goin' ta' anodda' burough, ain' 'e?" I quickly asked, getting away from the table and quickly walking with Cowboy out the door, into the warm, fall night, away from the confused guys.

"A coise not!" Cowboy replied, slipping the leather strings of his hat around his neck, allowing his cowboy hat to hang from his back. "I would nevah make Tigah go somewheah else!"

"Den what is it?!" I angrily asked, pacing back and forth, uneasy.

"I was jes' gonna tell ya dat since we got a lotta newsies comin' in, I'm gonna 'ave you an' Tigah shaih a bed." he explained. "Dat's awl."

I stopped pacing and stared at him. "So..'e's not..leavin'?"

"If 'e was leavin', 'e would tell ya 'imself."

I thought about it. He probably would, if he knew...

"Does Tigah know?"

Cowboy looked confused for a second. "Yea...why?"

"Why isn' 'e freakin' out?" I asked.

"Prolly cause 'e knows not ta' freak out so easily."

"Den why were ya so noivous ta' tell me?"

Cowboy shrugged. "I didn' know 'ow'd ya react. I saw 'ow you were actin' ta'night. 'Specially wid Tigah."

Then it finally sunk in. "Wait..why do Tigah and me gotta shaih a bed?"

"'Cause I knew dat chyou guys would get awlong an' neidah a you'se guys would try ta' kill da otha' while one a you'se was sleepin'."

I nodded but I was wondering why he didn't pair up the younger kids or other guys who was also close.

"Tigah was gonna tell ya but 'e's...a liddle busy right now." Cowboy said, a slight smirk on his face.

"What's 'e doin' now?" I asked, sighing.

Before Cowboy could answer, a loud crash could be heard from inside, followed by a lot of yelling. Looking at each other for a second, me and Cowboy raced back inside to see what was going on. It appeared that a table was overturned, along with Tiger and a big, burly guy from Queens tackling him, both of them fighting each other on the ground, along with the other newsies yelling for it to continue.

"Not again.." Cowboy mumbled under his breath, pushing through the growing crowd.

I followed him, the presence of the both of us creating a path to the fighting newsies. When we got to the center of the action, it was clear that the bigger guy had the upper hand, sitting on top of Tiger while slugging him a few times. The yelling began to quiet down as both Cowboy and me pulled the guy off of Tiger.

"What's goin' on heah?" Cowboy asked, putting his cowboy on, going into Manhattan leader mode.

The big guy wiped the blood dripping from his nose and he angrily stared at Cowboy. "Tigah t'ought 'e was slick, sayin' 'e could beat me."

Tiger, who was leaning on a worried Mush, laughed loudly. "I...could beat chya wid...one ahm tied behind me...back." Tiger slurred, swaying slightly.

"Ya obviously couldn' beat 'im drunk, dat's foah suah." I mumbled, standing next to Cowboy.

"Ah, shuddup Race!" Tiger exclaimed, attempting to walk towards me. "I ain' scaihed ta' soak ya good!"

Before he could carry out his threat, Mush pulled him back and held him up, making sure that he didn't try to get into anymore fights.

"Ya know, you should know not ta' fight anodda newsie if ya know 'e can't 'old 'is own." Mush said, attempting to be a calm voice in this situation.

"'e was askin' foah it," the guy said, crossing his massive arms. "'sides...I hoid what happened between 'im an' Brooklyn an' udda guys from different buroughs."

"'e was sobah foah dose guys!" Mush exclaimed.

Cowboy silenced him, giving him a look that shut him up real quick. Then, he turned back to the guy from Queens. "Go home, Chailie."

'Charlie' gave Cowboy one last dirty look before walking out the door, a crash a few seconds later that gave us an idea that he kicked over something in anger.

We turned our attention to our drunk friend. "Whatta ya t'ink ya doin', pickin' a fight like dis?" Cowboy asked, slipping his cowboy hat off his head.

Tiger chuckled. "Ya know dat chyou would fight dat big goon, too."

"Not dis drunk, I wouldn'." Cowboy stated. "An' not ovah somethin' dis stupid."

"Dun'.....lie, Cowboy." Tiger slurred.

Cowboy rolled his eyes. "C'mon, let's get 'im back befoah 'e get soaked by anyone else."

"I was gonna beat 'im an' you'se guys know it." Tiger mumbled.

"Was dat gonna 'appen befoah oih aftah 'e beat chya inta da ground?" Cowboy asked, clearly still a little angry from the whole thing.

Tiger laughed, clearly not sensing the sarcasm due to having too many drinks. "Befoah, a coise!"

Mush held Tiger up as he began to walk to the door, Tiger still laughing.

Tiger turned to me, his face bruised from the fight earlier. "I'm sorry 'bout eaihlier, Race." he began to apologize, his upset feeling heightened due to him being drunk.

I raised my hand to stop him as the three of us stepped into the warm, fall night, this time slower than usual. "It's awlright, Tigah," I replied. "I was bein' a real jerk."

But he continued. "It's awl my fault...If I 'adn't ran out onta' da road..but chyou-chyou saved me."

"It was nothin'." I mumbled. "You woulda done da same t'ing foah me."

In the dark, I could hear him sniffle. "I would..'cause yer me best friend, Race. I dun' mean ta' be a botha."

With that, I saw Tiger's form move from Mush's side and felt him collide into me, his sniffling form making me step back from the sudden weight.

"Owf!" I let out, grabbing onto Tiger. "Stop yer cryin' an' let's chya back ta' da boardin' house."

With the help of Mush and Cowboy, we continued to walk down the street, towards the Manhattan Newsies Boardinghouse.

Of course, not without him throwing up on me before getting into bed.

"Damn lightweight," I mumbled as I set him down and began to go to the other end of the bed and clean myself of the throw-up, he grabbed my arm really hard, even with him too drunk to even stand up straight.

"Race," he asked, staring at me with his bloodshot eyes, "W-will you stay ovah heah?"

I gave him a look. "Uh, why?"

"I dun' wanna....be alone."

I still continued to stare at him, hoping that he wasn't always like this when he's drunk.

With his pleading eyes boring into mine, I sighed. "Awlrigh'," I said, giving in. "Jes' lemme clean up foist."

He gave a half-smile, his eyes drooping with sleep. "T'anks, Race," he mumbled. "Yer a good friend."

I rolled my eyes. "Yea, yea, ain' I jes' da greatest?" I replied.

After changing my clothes and washing my face, I quietly slid in next to Tiger. As soon as I was right next to him, trying to keep my distance, he turned and laid his head on my arm.

"G'night, Race." Tiger happily answered as he closed his eyes.

"Yea, yea," I mumbled.

But he had already passed out on my arm.

Oh yeah, that's how.

I continued to think about the night's events as Tiger shifted in his sleep, mumbling as he moved. It seemed he was dreaming but as his movements became more violent, I could tell that his dream was turning into a nightmare.

"No, I won'...! Get away from me! Dun'...no!" he began to almost yell, thrashing from side to side.

I grabbed onto him, trying to keep him from falling off the bed. "Shh!" I quietly tried to keep him quiet and from waking up everyone.

His movements were less violent but he kept yelling. "No! No! Get offa me!" he continued, trying to push an imaginary person who was obviously trying to hurt him.

"Tigah!" I whispered. "Relax! No one's tryin' ta' hoit chya!"

As I kept whispering, he quieted down, his thrashing movements stopping altogether.

I stopped whispering but kept my hold on him, in case he started yelling and all that again. Being a newsie, you get used to screaming in the night and how to handle it.

Luckily, no one barely lifted their head to the noise. I breathed a sigh of relief as I kept my arms held tight around my friend, in case he began to have a nightmare again.

But he did something worse.

Tiger turned, his face facing mine, and wrapped his arms around me, breathing a sigh as he kept his own hold around me.

Oh, great.

This turned from a 'keep-my-friend-from-falling-off-the-bed-and-waking-up-everyone' situation into a 'Racetrack, the teddy bear' one.

This isn't awkward at all.

I slowly loosened my hold on Tiger's shoulders as I attempted to quietly pull myself out of Tiger's grasp. But he, of course, had a death grip on me and refused to let go, even in his sleep.

Damn.

I looked around, seeing if anyone was awake. Luckily, everyone was knocked out so we wouldn't be the targets to any guys thinking they can make fun of us for the rest of time. Besides, they wouldn't have any teeth left if that happened.

I happily thought of the ways of torture me and Tiger could come up with until...Until IT happened.

Tiger brought me closer to himself, bringing his face closer to mine. And sighed.

No, no, no. Please let this be a nightmare. Please let this be a nightmare.

After shaking my head and closing and opening my eyes a few times, I knew that this was no nightmare.

I was just in my own personal Hell.

He was so close....I should be pushing him away right now but...I didn't want to.

The moonlight from the window shined down on his face, making his face look more well-defined, more innocent. It made his skin look unearthly bright and smooth. It practically looked like white stone....

Wait, what the hell am I even talking about? I shouldn't be thinking about this. I'm NOT going to be thinking about this.

But as soon as I looked back at him, any idea of not thinking about him disappeared. I gave a little smile as Tiger continued to sleep, his deep breath giving me the relaxation I needed, the feeling of his warm breath on my face.

I slowly wrapped my arms back around him and shifted to make myself more comfortable. I rested my head on the pillow space above him, my chin almost resting on the top of his head.

As I closed my eyes and slowly let sleep take over, I had one last thought:

My best friend is going to drive me insane.

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So there you have it! A little shorter than you guys might be used to but I really wanted to get this chapter out and it hopefully wasn't too cheesy, lame, or weird for you guys. I know Race didn't have an accent when not talking but I figured he shouldn't have his accent in his thoughts. And remember: I write characters and the plotline the way they are for a reason. Review, please! -Fox