The drive home was basically spent in silence. Blink was worried about how his parents were going to react. It wasn't even that late, barely ten o'clock, but Blink still knew he was in for it. It wasn't fair, he was eighteen years old, and still stuck under his parents thumb. Unlike Racetrack, who could stay out until all hours of the night as long as he checked in, eventually came in and kept his grades up, Blink had almost no control over his own life.
Race pulled into the driveway and nodded to Blink. "Good luck," he said quietly as Blink climbed out of the car.
"Thanks," Blink said gloomily. "I'll need it." He paused. "You going home?"
Race shook his head. "Heading to Spot's apartment," he said with a smirk. "Call my cell and leave a message if you need a place to crash for the night. Or just call my house, you know how much my mother loves you."
"I will," Blink promised, and he slammed the door to the van.
Blink watched as Race pulled out of the driveway before entering the house. Just as he expected, both of his parents were waiting up for him.
"Living room," his father demanded as soon as Blink entered the house. Blink sighed, and took a seat on the couch.
"Where were you?"
"Out with Race," Blink responded sullenly.
"What were you doing with him?" his father pressed.
"We went for dinner at a club," Blink told him. "Well, if you count sticks as dinner," he added.
"Just dinner?" his father inquired sharply. Blink groaned as he realized where his father was going with this line of questioning.
"Race and I are just friends. He has a boyfriend, and I am not interested in him."
"You'd better not be. And I don't want you spending too much time alone with him. He's corrupting you."
"Race isn't corrupting me," Blink snapped. "My being gay has nothing to do with him." He turned to his mother, who was sitting on the couch opposite from him and refusing to meet his eyes. "Mom, please. Talk some sense into him."
"Ryan," she said hesitantly. "Your father is just doing what he thinks is best." Blink nodded, recognizing that as her way of offering support without directly contradicting his father.
"Look Ryan," his father said, almost pleadingly. "I just want what's best for you. Before you started hanging out with that Higgins boy, you were normal. None of this gay bullshit."
"What's best for me?" Blink exclaimed. "What's best for me would be to know that my parents love me for who I am, not for what they think I should be." He glared at his father. "And I was always gay, I just didn't have the courage to tell you until Race came out to his parents and they were accepting of him. I was hoping that you would be as understanding as his family was."
For the second time that day, Blink walked out on his parents. Storming out of the living room, he returned to his room and collapsed on his bed. Normally, he would have gone online and chatted until all hours of the night, but he was really in no mood to be social. He did need to talk to Race, but he knew that Race and Spot would still be otherwise occupied. He could call in the morning. Setting his alarm for six am, Blink stripped off his clothing and curled into bed. In his present state of emotional exhaustion he fell straight asleep.
~*~
Blink awoke the next morning to the sound of his alarm clock going off. He tried to fall back asleep but it just continued with its incessant beeping. If anything, the noise seemed to become even more obnoxious. He debated hitting the snooze button, but it wouldn't be worth it for just seven extra minutes. Grabbing a towel, he headed into the bathroom for a quick shower, waking up a bit as the water hit his skin.
At least today can't be any worse than yesterday, he thought as he shut off the water. Wrapping the towel around his waist, he inhaled deeply, recognizing the scent of coffee coming from the kitchen. Unlike Race, who was incapable of functioning without Starbucks, Blink didn't drink coffee, and he constantly teased Race about it, claiming that the caffeine addiction was responsible for his friend's short stature.
Returning to his room, Blink dressed quickly and pulled out his homework assignment. It was only 6:30, he had another twenty minutes before he had to catch the bus, which wasn't nearly as bad in the morning, since most people were too tired to do anything but try to catch a few minutes of extra sleep or finish their homework from the night before. He didn't eat in the morning anyway, and if he got desperate, he could always grab a poptart from the school cafeteria. He labored over the calc assignment, cursing himself for leaving it to the last minute. Math retained its position as number two in the source of all the evils of the universe, right behind his homophobic bastard of a father. High school itself came in at number three. Unfortunately, as Blink tried to work out a particularly difficult problem, he completely lost track of time.
When he next glanced at the clock, he groaned as he saw it said 6:53. That gave him exactly two minutes to get his stuff together and run down the street to the bus stop. If he ran, he might be able to make it. Quickly throwing all of his stuff into his black backpack, Blink ran out of the house, and down the block. The bus was just pulling away as he got there.
"Wait," he shouted, running after the bus, which amazingly stopped to let him on. Breathing a sigh of relief, Blink got on the bus and looked for an open seat.
"Late night faggot?" someone hissed. Blink recognized the speaker as one of the jerks from the wrestling team. He winced at the name, but ignored him, sliding into a seat next to one of the freshman girls, who turned away from him.
This was definitely not a good way to start the day.
And it just kept getting worse. Blink hadn't managed to finish the calc homework, and there had been a pop quiz in AP econ which he had definitely failed, and he had forgotten his AP bio lab book at home… the day just continued to get worse.
By the time Blink reached English class, he was sure the whole day was shot to hell. He just wanted to get out of there. At least it's Friday, he reminded himself. He could spend the weekend at Racetrack's if Race would let him, which he undoubtedly would, since he was pretty sure his father would cut him off entirely after the previous nights events. Only a few more periods to get through, and then a two day break.
"Now," Mrs. Jaye said, calling the class to attention. "We're going to be choosing partners. And since I don't want to encourage any more of this cliquish nonsense, I've made the decisions for you." She began to run down a list of names, and Blink half-heartedly paid attention listening for his own name to be called. "Ryan Ballat will be working with Nicholas Meyers."
Blink blinked. He knew he had to have heard that wrong. Working with Mush? On the senior English project? For the next three months?! Maybe this day wasn't going to be so bad after all.
When Mrs. Jaye had finished assigning partners, she instructed them to change seats around so they would be sitting with their new partner. Passing out a sheet of paper with instructions, she began to explain the project.
"The Advanced Placement English senior project is very complex. You will be working with your partner one day a week during class until the AP exam in May, and then the last month of class will be completely devoted to this project, which will count as your final exam. You will be thoroughly researching any subject of your choosing, but you will have to be able to justify the scholarly merits of your research. Since you have a partner, this will be a cooperative effort. That means you will share in the research work, you will share in the writing of the paper, and you will share in the grade. In fact, there will be two sections to the paper. The first will be describing the research, the process you went through in choosing the subject, and your findings. The second section will be an analysis of the findings, and what was important about what you learned. While you may choose to write the first section together, each of you will have to write your own second part. If one person is not doing their part in the research, the other partner can talk to me and explain why, and I will separate the pair. Now, get to work."
Blink turned to look at Mush, and sighed. This was not going to be fun. Mush was a good student, but notoriously bad at researching. And with Blink's crush on him to contend with, it was going to be an uncomfortable partnership.
Mush seemed oblivious to Blink's mood though. He just smiled, and motioned him over.
"Hey," he said in greeting.
Blink mumbled a response, and glanced down at the guidesheets that Mrs. Jaye had passed out.
"So we should get started then," Mush said cheerfully. He was always in a good mood, and while Blink normally would find that absolutely adorable, with the mood he was currently in, he just found it aggravating.
"What do you want to research," he asked bluntly.
"Umm. I don't really know. But I'm sure we'll think of something."
"You mean I'll end up doing the work since no high school superstar would be seen outside of class with a freak like me." Blink was surprised by the sharpness of his tone and his words. He finally gets a chance to talk to his crush, and this was how he acted. Even if Mush was gay, like Racetrack claimed, Blink had just lost any chance of Mush thinking he was a decent guy.
"That's not true," Mush told him. "I don't think you're a freak. And I do try to do my share of the work. I'm just not really that good at it."
"Well, you'll learn then," Blink said. "Because I intend to get an A on this project, and I can't do it alone."
"Well, we'll have plenty of time in class," Mush laughed.
"And after," Blink added. "This kind of project is a lot of work."
"Oh. Umm… well, I'm sure we can get most of it done in class."
"Sure," Blink agreed. He knew exactly why Mush didn't want to do the project with him. He'd ruin his reputation. Being forced to work together was one thing, but actually meeting outside of school was something entirely different.
Luckily for him, the bell rang, ending the class.
Blink sighed. At least the day couldn't get any worse.
~*~
A/N: Wow, I am a bitch. Poor Blink. He really needs a hug. And his dad is just so obnoxious. But he has Race for a best friend. And Mush to crush on. So it should end up being good eventually. Maybe. Because I'm still an evil bitch. Oh, and naked!Blink belongs to B, because she rules, and you should go read all of her stuff now, if you haven't already.
Next chapter, Blink gets screwed. And not in a good way. However, Race gets screwed in a good way. But that happens a lot, so it's nothing special. Oh, and we meet Race's family. If I get up to that part.
Disclaimer: I still don't own Newsies. Never have, never will.
Shoutouts!
B-*grins* I'm glad you're enjoying it, since this story is for you. And it gets better, I promise (You did get naked!Blink this chapter)
Sock-free- Yeah, it should sound familiar. MWAHAHAHA
Sita- Slashyprettyboyangst is just too much fun to write. I'm glad you're enjoying.
Thistle-Race is the best best friend ever, mainly because he's based (in this fic) on my best friend from home, whom I adore. And Spot and Race being all flirty is fun… Mush will eventually find out though, don't worry. *evil grin*
Nani-*blush* thanks for the compliment.
Dakota Jones- *grins* There will be many more references to Dutchy screwing Specs. Because they are just too adorable.
Gothic Author- Psych!Race unfortunately belongs to Spot, but you can ask Spot if you can borrow him…
Braids- *blush* Glad you're enjoying it. And I love Spot/Race (they're my OTP) so they will be in this a lot more. Because I 3 them.
V-channy-chan- I love modern day fics too! And honestly, I will stick by my wrestling comment, since it makes sense. *grins*
Til next chapter!
~TSB