Seizing The Day//A Modern Day Newsies Story//COMPLETED

Confession

TW: Mention of rules

Crutchie POV
"Hey, Crutch?" Elmer asked me. I turned onto my side and faced him.

"Yeah?" I questioned. Elmer had a slightly scared look in his eyes.

"I was just wondering why you were being so jumpy today. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to!" Elmer added the last part in quickly. I cringed slightly at the question. I guess people did notice. I thought with a sigh.

"I... you know what? I will tell you." I said determinedly. "I probably should tell more people when I am hurting..."

"Yeah that would probably help you a lot," Elmer said, a slightly breathy chuckle escaping him.

"So, remember at that assembly when you, Jack, Spot, and I were talking about injuries? Well, my worst was obviously my leg. But I didn't want to, ya know, tell you how it had happened. I don't know why I didn't but... yeah." I said.

"You don't have to tell me if you aren't ready!" Elmer cut me off quickly. I brushed it ofd quickly.

"I know, but I want to now." I assured him. "So basically, I used to ride horses. Like a lot. I was actually rather good at it. But one day I was on the horse I usually rode and we were doing some jumps. Normal. Easy. So we jump over I think a four pole one, and the horse lands. But as she landed, she tripped. It wasn't her fault, the ground was rather muddy and unkempt right there. But I was thrown off the horse. I landed somewhere away and felt my leg hurting before I either blacked-out or was knocked unconscious. I woke up three days later in a hospital bed. Pins were sticking out of my leg, and for once my dad was actually worried. The doctors said that the way my leg had shattered, it would never heal properly. The months following that I could barely even look at a picture of a horse, and I haven't been on any horse since. Although, I do miss Everest and riding her. She was the best horse." I finished up my story, a slightly wistful tone seeping into my words.

Elmer laid there with his mouth agape. He looked completely shell-shocked. But he is keeping the pity out of his eyes. I realized, happily. I hated when people gave me looks of pity. It felt really nice that finally someone wasn't.

"I don't know if this is rude, but why didn't they just amputate your leg?" Elmer finally asked.

"Something about the risk of infection being too high. I am not completely sure, I was basically high on pain-meds when they explained that part." I joked.

"I bet. Did you have any weird hallucinations?" Elmer questioned.

"Not hallucinations, but I realized after that I had managed to convince myself that I was a newsboy in 1899 during the newsboys strike. It was weird. But they brought the dosage down quite a bit after I was awake for a few days." I explained. We say in silence for a while after that, each of us resigned to our own thoughts. I was mostly re-living the days after the accident. I couldn't tell exactly what Elmer was thinking, but it definitely looked like he was plotting something.

I shrugged it off though, and my mind instead turned to these rules. There HAS to be something we can do! I thought exasperatingly. A strike, sit-in, or petition wouldn't work, too many people in school were LGBTQIADP+phobes. Is there anything else? I thought. To be honest, I wasn't sure.

"Oh crap!" I heard Elmer murmur from beside me. "Sorry Crutch, I gotta go. I may or may not have, like, ten minutes til curfew." We both got up and I lead him to the door, saying goodbye. I then preceded to get ready for bed as fast as I could, because I was very tired for some reason.

As I laid in bed, my eyes staring at the ceiling and the only sound being the frogs outside, I thought. I did a lot of thinking these days. Although, these were definitely good thoughts. Elmer really is the best boyfriend ever.