Shoutouts!
misprint :: And now I'm updating again. So strange. Anyhow. Anyway, you should know by well as well as I do that I have a love of making deaths not real, which equals my love of abrupt, unexpected deaths. So watch out… ^_^ I'm not promising Six Strings, but I *am* promising something. Seraphim bugs me too. I don't like her. I'm kinda anxious to get this story ended so that I don't have to put up with her whining in my mind anymore. The ominous "yet" about Race is when I threatened you by saying that I hadn't killed off him… yet. LOL. I haven't decided if he'll be back in the story or not. Really, really strange: I think I either just read about, heard about, or dreamed about our trying to take Quebec City like you mentioned… now I don't know why I think that. Anyhow. **Mondie bobs her head to Linkin Park's "In The End"** Well, Seraphim kinda is the ultimate wimp… I think Mush would go for that. The girlie-girl who needs protecting. At least in my mind, he's always loved being the protector, the guy who'll do anything for his goil. Alliteration! Whoo whoo, that's one of the few things I actually remember from the whole long list of literary devices. OMG! I totally loved your whole drawn-out exclamation over just what Blink embodies! It was so cute. ^_^ Hehehe! LOL, your spot where you didn't yet know that Blink was dead and then you found out… haha, that reminds me of what I did in SOME review for you but I don't really remember what review or what it was about… hmmm. LOL we have a lot of empty, angry threats for each other, don't we Misi?? ;D A very nice, love-hate relationship. How lovely. I heart you!!!!
AaronLohrLover24 :: LOL thanks girlie! Aaron *is* the greatest person on the face of the earth, isn't he??? **Mondie swoons** Wow, I'm so glad you like this story so much!!! I'm trying to get it finished now. It's slow coming. Argh.
Keza: Queen of Procrastination :: It is my new mission to make Chocolate so golly gosh darn evil that even YOU can't stand him. Poor Choc. Sorry, hun. **Chocolate shrugs and eats some of his namesake** I'm glad Blink was the main character, not Mush… HAHAHA! Poor little blond Blinky boy… I love the kid. Thanks for the review Keeeeeeeeezles! I heart you muchly-mushly. Update everything you write sooooooooooon! LOL.
Falco Conlon :: Naughty Mush? That couldn't have come from Mondie's daydreams, could it? **Mondie giggles** Nope, NEVER! And it'll be all right, Falco, I promise… just keep reading… LOL **Mondie sprinkles magic waffle dust**
Gypsy :: Yeehoo, that was a fun review! Sorry I upset you so much. LOL! But this story will make EVERYONE happy, I assure you all. **Mondie is met with dozens of glaring responses, each wondering how she is going to be happy after the last blow** Who knows… maybe Race will shove Seraphim off a bridge, Lucy will die in an ironic twist of fate… none of you know and I do! **Mondie cackles over and over** It was no prob plugging Dogma, you know how much I love that story! LOL! And it's *always* exciting when one of my ff.net sistahs gets something as cool as LRRH in ITW! Whoo!
rumor :: Congrats to your team! LOL! :D **Mondie huggles Mushy Darling** Don't worry, he'll be happy in future chappies. I guarantee it. Sad Mush and I just don't vibe well. I miss happy-go-lucky, optimistic-as-hell Mush. **Mondie ponders for a moment her last extended adjective of Mush. Is hell optimistic??** No, he doesn't know Six Strings is dead, but it doesn't even come up… **Mondie shrugs** Maybe in a later chappy. Who knows. Luffle ya Rumor! Thanks for the review!
Pegasus M :: Look, not even a gazillion years! LOL I've missed you Peggy Sue! I think I tried to review a story of yours the other day but Fido The Idiot Dog wouldn't let me for some odd reason… :? I dunno. Anyhow. Thanks for the review girlie!!!!!!!!!! :D
Cards :: **Mondie pats Cards' Spotmuse on the head and reminds him that Spot never lived in Manhattan, at least not in this story, and therefore isn't mentioned on account of that.** **Cards' Spotmuse growls and his eyes turn red and Mondie takes her hand back quickly** Thanks for the review dear, I heart you!!!!!!! :D **Mondie draws a cape over her face** And don't worry, things in my stories are almost never what they seem to be………
bittersweet :: If I had time for a diary, I'd make another one. :( But unfortunately, I don't. With the play coming up, expect even less of me in the future! :( That makes me sad. My characters really *DO* seem to have troubles with picking out good girls to love, huh? Every single girl I create has *some* identity problem… hehe. Well, except in my early stuff, which we choose to ignore. Haha! Yay yay for Hairspray! I swear, that is one of my favey-davey CDs. Right now I'm listening to Linkin Park though. HOO HA! I find it odd that my favey-davey CDs include like strange musicals, hard rock, depressing alternative, bubblegum pop and cheese fluff. I'm so weird. Ha! Poor Benji and Jack, sounds like they need some counseling. **Mush assumes Guidance Councelor position** I MISS YOU TOOOOOOOOOO!
Omni :: Haha, your "and don't talk to me about being a hypocrite. I'll disregard you." comment had me like ROLLING on the ground, for no apparent reason! I thought it was just SO funny! Hehehe! Lookie, I *did* update soon! Go go me!
Raider :: Thanks chica! Whoo whoo! I heart you muchly-mushly! No word back on auditions yet (though I *was* one of the six girls who made callbacks, and four of us including myself were for the 3 main roles… so I might actually get a PART this year!) And… yeah! LOL! Thanks so much!
Growth Chapter 15
The room was too hot. Mush could taste the thick air as if it were a morsel of food. He kicked off the thin comforter covering his frame, exposing his body. There. A bit better. He fell back to sleep.
When he was next awoken, a red hot blade of sunshine sliced upon his bare stomach. He groaned and prepared to roll over, his head aching from the amount of alcohol he'd drank the night before. The shifting of weight on the other side of the sagging mattress was what caught his attention.
The indescribable beauty and youth that were clear merely from her back intrigued Mush, and he stared at the limp blonde curls rippling down over her shoulders. He couldn't remember the last time he'd encountered a body with such vitality and elasticity as this girl moved with. She had her back to him, and she began to pull on her underclothing first. He smiled as she struggled to pull the skirts over her blossoming hips. Was there no age which caused more aching than mid-teens?
She lightly pulled the strings on her corset, as if it were paining her. Then she turned around, and gasped aloud to see him propped up, watching her. "Oh… I didn't know you were awake," she said, her blue eyes opening to an exceptionally wide height.
Mush eyed her. So alive, so full of vitality. "What's yer name?" he asked as he studied her.
She peered at him, as if confused. "Are you joking?" she wondered, trying very hard not to let her eyes wander over his fully-exposed, muscled body. "And why don't you get dressed, Mush."
He looked down at himself, then shrugged and grabbed his underclothing from the floor next to him. He pulled on his shorts and then lowered himself back onto the bed. "So who are ya?" he asked amiably, feeling that now that he'd obeyed her wish, she could comply to his.
She looked dismayed as she pulled a coarse brush through her hair. "It's me, Mush. Lucy."
"Lucy?" he asked, looking at her with a bit of a laugh. "Don' sound familiar, doll."
She looked immediately hurt, though she tried to hide it. "I should've known that Chocolate was right," she said angrily. "You just forgot all about me after I left! After you raised me… and I trusted you…"
"Wait a minute, wait a minute," Mush said, breaking in. He stared at her even more closely. "You're Lucy? My Lucy? Who ran away from me when she was nine?"
She began to pull a silk dressing gown over her underclothes. "Yes," she answered crisply.
Mush leapt from the bed and embraced her. "Luce!" he shouted, looking overjoyed. "Fine'ly. At leas' one of me ol' friends is … still …" Suddenly, he fell silent and let go of her.
She was looking excited, in spite of herself. "What's wrong?" she asked, crossing to where he had sat heavily upon the bed, his head in his hands. She traced his arm muscles with a delicate finger, then kissed the back of his neck. "Anything I can help with?" she suggested coyly, into his ear.
He broke away from her grip, and began pacing the room. Lucy didn't know what to do after that, so she chose to lay back upon the bed and look as desirable and seductive as she knew how.
"Blink's dead, Lucy," Mush said. "That's why I came out drinkin' las' night. I didn't know…" His voice cracked. "Over a yeah, an' I'se didn' know! Wha' kinda bes' friend am I?"
Lucy got up and hugged him tightly. "Sometimes things happen that we can't control, Mush." Her beautiful face took on a sly smile. "Other things, however, we can control quite easily…" She led him back to the cot and pushed him backward onto it. She threw off her dressing gown, tossed it back onto the floor, and hungrily began pressing kisses to his lips.
Mush felt himself begin to cry again, and the tears mixed into their mouths. He caught a glimpse of gold on his left hand—the slight ring that matched Seraphim's. He shoved thoughts of his wife out of his mind and began unlacing Lucy's corset. His life was already damned to hell… what was another sin added to it?
As he succumbed to the guilty pleasure which was her body, his thoughts grew louder and louder and more intense with every heave of his trembling torso. Even her blonde hair seemed to grow horrifying, as he realized it was the same shade as Blink's. The scent of cheap cigarettes that clung to the corners of the stale room smelled exactly the same as Blink's childhood cigarettes. And the ink stains that had permanently changed Mush's palms to a violet shade only reminded him of all the good times he'd had selling with his best friend, his partner, his comrade, his brother.
Kid Blink… dead, he thought to himself angrily, pushing himself into Lucy so hard that she cried out. Dead dead dead dead dead… A stupid corpse in some nameless cemetery somewhere! Lucy began a constant whimpering now, and tried to shove Mush off of her. He didn't seem to notice. Gone. Forever. And I didn't even tell him goodbye…
Lucy was in complete pain and turmoil now. Angry tears seemed to leave welts down her face, and it was complete relief when Mush rolled off of her. He calmly began to pull on his clothing again, as if nothing abnormal had happened.
Lucy shivered to herself, though the room was still steaming with heat. She reached over the edge of the bed and caught ahold of her satin dressing gown's sash, pulling it toward her and then slipping it over her shaking body. Then she looked over at Mush. His coarse hands were pressed to either side of his face, pulling the tan skin taut across his forehead. His eyes were closed firmly, golden eyelashes (eternally bleached by the sun) clinging to the soft flesh of his cheek. The brown hair, not quite as curly as she'd remembered, positioned in a startlingly professional way…
She crawled across the bed and climbed off it awkwardly, then hugged Mush to her. Even in all this time, he hadn't changed. He still needed her, just as much as he had when he'd been fifteen and she'd ran from him. Now she was the one who was fifteen, and for the first time, she realized she needed him, too.
For a long while, the duo stood there, Mush lost in his reverie world while Lucy clung onto him for dear life. The one pair in the world perhaps the worst for each other… and, oh, how gorgeous they were. Tragic, their beauty.
Seraphim was startled at a knock on the door. No one had called in so long…. She hurried over, smoothing her hair and her frock as she went.
The cheap door came open with a force she hadn't quite reckoned with, and it was a moment before she regained herself well enough to look at the visitor. Immediately a look of discontent crossed her pretty features. "Oh," she said curtly, preparing to shut the door. "And what do you want, pray tell?"
"Mush heah?"
"No," she answered, and began to slam the door. But the man standing there was too quick. He slid his hand in between just in time, and pried the door back open. "Please, wheah'd 'e go?"
Seraphim could only roll her eyes, and let out a heavy sigh. She slowly opened the door again. "Don't you know?" she asked.
"No, ma'am," he answered.
She let out an annoyed sound. "Please, we've known each other forever, haven't we? I don't call you 'sir,' so don't make me sound like an old widow or something. And what do you mean, you don't know where Mush is? Didn't he come back with you?"
"Come back from where, ma'am—er, Seraphim?"
"Kid Blink!" she admonished. "Mush just left to find you in Philadelphia."
Kid Blink's face was already paler than she'd ever remembered it, but at that statement it seemed to lose even more of its color. "'E wen' ta Philly?" he squeaked.
"Yes. And he left me here ALL ALONE to do it, too," Seraphim told him indignantly.
"Shit," Kid Blink said, sitting down on a rickety stool. "Do ya know if he went ta Otteh's house?"
"Well, that would be the plan, wouldn't it?" Seraphim countered, remaining standing. She rather liked the feeling of looking down on Kid Blink.
"Shit," he said again. "Mush's gonna kill me when 'e gets back heah…"
That night, after Lucy, or Rose, had performed her number for the sell-out crowd, Chocolate pulled her aside. "How'd it go last night?" he asked in a low tone.
Lucy shrugged. "It was fine."
"Fine? Just fine?" Chocolate persisted.
"Okay, better than fine…" Lucy admitted. "He's pretty good. I mean, compared to the other men."
"Didn't I tell you that you wouldn't regret joining this troupe with me?" Chocolate sounded absolutely delighted. "Now come on, there's a nice businessman waiting for you over there…" He began pulling her over to where a wealthy man stood, jewels blinking in the darkness, as vibrant as the warning color of a poisonous frog.
"Not tonight," Lucy said softly.
"What?" Chocolate asked, turning to her sharply. "I took you under my wing, Rose! I gave you everything! You get money from these gentlemen, you get praise and happiness…"
"No!" she cried, twisting her wrist out of his grip. "I get loneliness, and heartache, and pain. That is what I get. Did you ever remember that I'm only fifteen?" She stomped a foot upon the ground. "And I'm… I'm in love."
"You're what?" Chocolate asked, beginning to laugh. "You can't possibly know what love is."
"I do!" she insisted. "I fell in love last night with the one person I ever cared about. My father, my brother, my lover."
"Silly girl!" Chocolate hissed. "You grew up on the streets. You became a whore in this very theatre troupe. You have never known love, and you never will. How could anyone love you back?"
"He does! Mush does! I know it!" she cried, near hysterics.
Chocolate shook his head. "Did you look at his left hand, darling? He's married. He's not in love with you, he's in love with your body and your youth."
"You promised it'd be different," she said, pointing a finger into his chest. "You promised life would be different once I joined your troupe. You said I'd become a great star."
"And so you shall, little one," Chocolate answered. "Patience."
"No! No more! I refuse to do this anymore," she said, very near tears. "I love Mush."
"He does not love you back!" Chocolate said again. "Now follow me to your partner for tonight!"
At that moment, a soft step behind them made them both turn. Mush stood there, running his hand through his frizzy hair.
"How'd you get in here?" Chocolate asked loudly, his eyes narrowing. "You weren't in the crowd tonight."
Mush shrugged. "I wasn' a newsie fer all dem yeahs wit'out loinin' da simple trick a' breakin' inta a buildin', Choc'late." He turned to Lucy. "C'mon, Luce. Let's go somewheahs else."
Lucy glared at Chocolate self-righteously, then took Mush's arm. "Yes, let's," she agreed haughtily. "Oh, and Chocolate… you'd better find yourself another theatre whore. I'm not coming back."
Chocolate turned away as the duo made their exit. It wouldn't be so hard… every whore wanted to be on the stage.
Seraphim had left the flat, more than a little annoyed at Kid Blink's presence. She'd told him she needed to go talk to one of her friends or something, telling him that she'd die if she didn't get him out of her sight. Blink had shrugged. He wasn't all that fond of Seraphim anymore either, to tell the truth.
He began to open books that were situated around the room. Most were filled with boring papers that didn't interest Blink in the slightest—bills, shopping lists, the like. Then he stumbled across a small bound book. A diary. Mush's diary.
Blink couldn't help but smile with nostalgia when he caught the slanted penmanship—quite sloppy, because Mush was impatient when it came to words and just wanted to write things fast—that Mush had written with during his childhood and adolescence. The diary skipped around a lot. The first entries seemed to be when he was about ten, and most of the entries consisted of unimportant things that Mush had done with Blink. Wave after wave of sadness rushed over Blink as he began to read their story. God… they'd had so much fun together. No wonder they'd been brothers. What else could they be?
Nicknames, the introductions of the boys who would come to be their friends, arguments, apologies, and memories surged from the ink on every page. The latest entry had only been a few days before—Mush was upset because he hadn't heard from Blink in forever. Mush wrote with an eloquence he couldn't copy in his everyday speech, and Blink began to realize just how much of an impact his leaving had had on Mush. He hadn't realized how hurt Mush had been, how alone he had felt. Blink had thought he was the only one who felt that way.
Of course, he should have known that Mush would feel exactly the same.
A picture fell from the pages written when Mush was seventeen, and Blink could do nothing but grin for a long time, staring at the image. Denton had taken this picture, on Mush's request. It showed the two of them with their arms around each other, each showing off the gargantuan smiles which had been so commonplace in those times. Mush's out-of-control hair made Blink laugh out loud, as did the way Mush's head cocked to the left. And, really, how silly had he himself looked with that ridiculous eyepatch on? But, ah, they'd been so happy then. The smiles were genuine, as genuine as the bond between the two.
Blink held onto the picture for a long time, staring at the eternal image which so captured their essence. Brothers.
Brothers. The word came to Mush suddenly, clearly, as he lay on top of Lucy. He sat bolt upright, and toppled off her.
"What are you doing?" she demanded, her eyes flashing.
He shrugged. "Gotta get back ta New Yawk," he answered.
"Why?" she shrieked, but her heart was sinking slowly. She knew why. Seraphim.
"Because," he shrugged. "I jus' do."
Lucy felt her shoulders sag. She was out of a job now. She knew she was meant to be with Mush, but he was married, damn him. Now what was she supposed to do?
"I'm coming with you," she finally decided.