I'm back! I know it has been way too long since I updated this but summer is a very busy time of year for me. Any way I hope you enjoy this chapter, the drama is certainly heavy here. I would recommend rereading the previous chapters first because even I had to do that and I wrote them! Also when I said in the first chapter that this would be a lighter read I lied. Your reviews are wonderful and I cherish them. I do not own Newsies as I am a poor college student!
Beep-Beep-Beep! Beep-Beep-Beep! Beep-Beep-Beep! Beep-be…
There were few things in life as unpleasant as the 5:30 alarm. Crutchie rolled out of bed, grabbed his crutch, and headed down the hall to the bathroom. Black and orange decorations covered the walls of the hall. Already the last week of October, he couldn't believe the year had gone so fast. It seemed like just yesterday he had just met Race and Buttons and now they were practically inseparable.
As Crutchie opened the door to the bathroom he heard the sound of voices.
Oh God.
Oscar and Morris hadn't been in the bathroom this early since the first day he was at school. Easing his crutch around the door he leaned his weight against the wall so he could close the door without making a sound. He stopped and listened, there was still talking further in, they hadn't noticed him.
Crutchie inched his way over to the sink, setting his crutch down as softly as possible, desperate to remain silent. Balancing his weight on the counter, he took the pills out of his pocket, filled a cup with water, and swallowed the meds. He paused again to listen.
Silence.
And then the hurried footsteps began. Grabbing his crutch, he rushed to the door, he just had to make it to the hall. Then he'd be fine, they wouldn't touch him there, it was too open.
The first kick came just as he reached for the handle.
His crutch flying out from underneath him, he desperately flailed to find support before he crashed to the floor. He looked up to see the boots of Oscar and Morris careening towards his head.
Pounding.
Throbbing.
But then, as Crutchie clung to his last thread of consciousness, the assault stopped. The kicks no longer came. He strained to focus his eyes on the brothers as they turned to someone behind them.
Oscar's voice spoke first. "C'mon kid. We have to know you're with us one hundred percent."
"Yea, we can't have you backing out on us," Morris added, "you know too much."
"C'mo Jack, end him."
Crutchie watched in horror as Jack stepped through the brothers. They were going to be best friends. They were going to be brothers. They weren't friends yet but he hoped. He had seen good in him. He had hoped.
Jack's leg went back, and his foot moved swiftly forward. How did they get here? What had Crutchie done? The thoughts flooded through his head. What could he have done…
Then his world went black.
Jack took a step back and a shallow breath.
He looked at his motionless roommate.
His crutch laying far away.
The bruise forming on his eye.
Oscar slapped him on the back. "That's what I'm talkin' about buddy, let's leave the rat before someone else shows up."
Jack aimlessly followed the brothers out the door and down the hall. He followed them back out into the early morning light which was hollow and void.
Race found him first. He was about to leave on his pre-class run when he stopped first into the bathroom and found his lifeless friend on the floor. Bruised and bloodied he looked as if he had just emerged from a nasty bar fight.
Race rushed to Crutchie's side, gently attempting to shake him awake. After shaking and shouting in his ear for minutes Race had nearly given up hope and was about to call for campus security when Crutchie gave two half-hearted coughs.
"Crutchie! Crutch! What happened? Are you ok?!" Race said, relieved to know his friend was at least alive.
"I…I'm not…" Crutchie coughed again, "I don't…" Another cough, this one with blood. And with that Crutchie slipped away from consciousness.
Crutchie's eyes fluttered open. The room was white. Machine's were all around him. He saw Race and Buttons sleeping on an uncomfortable looking couch by a window. And a tube ran into his arm. He struggled to remember what happened when all of a sudden pain rushed upon him filling his body. A machine began beeping rapidly next to him. Why was he here? Was that Race getting up? How? Why? Who?
Crutchie's eyes closed.
Class just wasn't an option for Jack right now. He left halfway through the lecture, unable to focus or think about anything.
What had he just done?
The scene kept replaying in his head. An innocent kid, his roommate, lying bloodied on the floor. His friends responsible.
How had he stooped this low?
Then the unthinkable. His own foot flying towards the kid's head. No. He couldn't have done it. It must have been a dream. That wasn't possibly him.
What had he become?
Jack opened the door to his room, praying for the first time that he would see his roommate when he looked inside.
The room was empty.
A furiously scribbled note was left on his bed.
"Jack,
You're roommate has been taken to the hospital. It doesn't look good.
Davey"
Jack read and reread the note. Desperately willing the words to disappear.
It doesn't look good.
It doesn't look good.
It doesn't look good.
Jack grasped the note to his chest and wept.