That night Skittery and royal sat in detention, both their faces showing clear anguish. They knew why they were in detention, but that did not mean they wanted to be there. Not when all other students, blissfully unaware of their absence, were playing and taking showers, enjoying their last free period of the day.
Skittery shot a quirky smile over at royal, giving her a wink before standing up quietly, willing his chair not to scratch the wooden floors with its iron legs.
The chair obliged and Skittery was able to stand up without disturbing the resting Mr. Berkowitz.
Royal watched anxiously as Skittery approached the teacher's desk on tiptoe, reaching into the teacher's jacket pocket and pulling out a large chain of keys. He dangled them deftly as one would a medal recently obtained.
A broad smile spread about the boy's face.
Royal shook her head, "skits, uh uh. We're in enough trouble as it is…" she whispered hoarsely.
"Ain't you the one whose always sayin' you can nevah' be in enough trouble? Besides, no one will evah' know. This bum will wake up in a couple hours when the 'lights out' bell rings and assume Mrs. Muller let us out already; his keys will be back in his pocket so where's the evidence we was evah gone."
Royal was still shaking her head 'no'; personally it didn't make sense for them to earn them selves a detention, skip out on the detention they earned, and then get in even more trouble for skipping.
Skittery began to beg, both with his eyes and with his words.
"C'mon!" he whispered huskily, getting down on his knees beside Royal's chair, "please! Think bout how much the teachers will hate us even if we do get caught! They'll always know that even if they catch us in da act, they can't really punish us for our rebellion cause we'll find a way ta avoid that too! Please! What we gonna do in this shit hole for an two hours anyway? Nothin' excitin' less we want the teacher ta wake up."
"Fine." Royal declared, throwing her hands up in the air, surrendering to Skittery's logic, "lets go get ourselves caught, again!"
"Now that's the spirit!" He smiled pleasantly, pulling royal from her seat and placing his arm around her shoulder.
She sighed pessimistically, rolling her eyes at him.
Skittery led her down the hallway, his hand slowly migrating from her shoulder to her waist where it clung lovingly.
She scowled up at him, "I still dunno why we're doin' this?" she snapped heatedly.
The point of them staying in the orphanage was to make trouble but not all on the same day! How rebellious could they be if the majority of their rebellions all occurred within the same 24 hours?
Skittery shrugged, "why not?"
Royal sighed once more as he drew her into an empty classroom. Skittery let go of her waist and wandered to the center of the room, searching blinding for an overhead light.
"Shut the door will ya?" Royal obliged cautiously, still a bit tentative of their escape from detention.
Suddenly the moonlit classroom was filled with a dim, gloomy light as Skittery found the light switch and was able to turn it on.
Royal looked about the room. It was the earth science room.
Suddenly she knew why Skittery had brought her here. The earth science teacher, Mr. valence, had shower duty every other day of the week, leaving his classroom unguarded and vacant. Not only his classroom but his sleeping and living quarters as well.
Tonight was his night for shower duty.
Skittery smiled as he watched recognition spread over his lover's face.
"I wonda' if Mr. valence has somethin' ta drink?" Skittery continued to seduce royal into his plans for the evening.
"Drink as in liquor?" Royal grinned flirtatiously.
Within minutes, Skittery had gotten Mr. valence's bedroom door open, using a pocketknife. She and him stumbled into the dimly lit room, the only light, a quarter moon cascading over the desk and tabletop. She found a candle and lit it, waving it around the room for a better view of their surroundings.
The room was quite small, about the size of a normal bunkroom, and contained only a bed, a writing desk, a counter complete with washbasin and a small bathroom stall in the corner.
Skimming her delicate fingers along the countertop, royal stared out the window, onto the New York City streets. The air was brisk and cool, cleansing royal thought to her self as she closed her eyes and breathed in the chilly air.
"Hey royal," Skittery beckoned her towards the writing desk.
She crouched down next to him and peered into the dark, narrow drawer beneath the desk.
There, lay 10 bottles of malt, all tightly fastened and beside them a bottle opener.
Skittery turned his head slightly and kissed Royal's cheek softly, grinned so very feverishly at his discovery.
"This is just fine." Skittery murmured next to royal, his legs sprawled out in front of him, the malt bottle dangling from his hand. Royal nodded, a jaded, weary smile that had been plastered upon her face for some time now.
She knew he didn't just mean the liquor. He also meant the freedom in drinking it. The feeling of rebellion pitted at the bottom of both their stomachs. The knowledge that they were completely alone; just the two of them. No friends having sex in the next room over. There weren't any other students bustling by. It was just them and the soporific silence.
Both she and Skittery hadn't had real alcohol for a month. Not since the birthday party the boys had thrown for her in the lodging house. How was it, she began to wonder, that something only a month ago, could seem a lifetime ago? Now and then she would think back to the newsboys lodging house, her month long vacation, but recently the memory's had become increasing harder to recall. The reminiscence faded away and pretty soon she had begun to forget what it felt like to be free.
"Skittery," she voiced, finally deciding that her thoughts were to much for her to handle by her self, "you remembah' what the lodging house was like?"
She stole a sideways glance, checking Skittery's expressions, making sure she hadn't gone to far.
"Nah…" he took another swig of his malt, his lips making a smacking sound as they drew away from the bottle.
"Really… you don't remember at all?"
Skittery gave her a wry look and repeated his answer with more force, "no, I don't."
Royal nodded her head comprehensively.
"If ya have 2 bits, how many papes can ya buy?"
Skittery shrugged, taking yet another drink, "I dunno, how many?"
Royal stared at him incredulously; as drunk as she was, something like this was not going to slip by.
"Wait, ya really don't remembah'?"
"I really don't remembah' so come off it already."
Royal turned away from Skittery, staring at the wall straight ahead of them.
How the hell could he not remember the place he had lived for over 4 years? Was he just not trying or was he too drunk?
She felt his hand on her thigh.
"How am I supposed ta remembah' when I'm stuck in a place like this?" he comforted.
He managed a giddy smile, to over powered by the liquor to do anything more. Royal smiled back, still in the midst of finishing off her first bottle.
"Now I don't want ya too drunk cause I don't wanna haf'ta take advantage of ya." Skittery declared, watching her drink.
"You wouldn't dare." Royal giggled, becoming increasingly light headed.
"With what you've been givin' me, oh yes I would."
" Your time will come soon enough." She chuckled, turning towards him and running her fingers through his brown hair, feeling its texture like she never had before.
She felt his tongue, slide along her cheek, leaving a trickle of saliva in its quake. She pulled away from his lips.
"Now, even when I'm drunk, I know that that's just plain disgusting." She giggled, bracing her self against his warm body.
"Nah, its romantic." Skittery beamed, his voice just as frivolous as hers.
"Spit? Kisses and hugs and making love…thats romantic… spit's a whole 'nother story."
"Fine… kisses then."
His lips began to pluck away at her neck, leaving a small red mark wherever they roamed.
"My turn." She got up, staggering a bit, and sat down on his lap, sucking on his neck as he had and leaving similar red marks.
She was on her third bottle of malt, Skittery his fourth.
"Stop at that one, we need to get back into the room."
How he had rationale while being this incredibly drunk was a question that could never be answered and would puzzle royal for eternally.
She nodded, slowly sliding off his lap.
His hand flew to her thigh once more, "I said stop the drinkin'. You can stay there… I don't mind." He chuckled seductively, his eyes glimmering through their bloodshot coloring.
Her shirt was off. His pants were down.
"Now this…this is romance."
