Lost loves | ✨Sprace✨

Chapter 1

December 1946

Antonio Higgins' life was practically perfect. He may have only been six, but it didn't matter. Yes, the war was hard, and he had experienced a lot of loss—more than any six-year-old should. Yes, he was living life in a small house that his parents could barely afford in a random small town in the middle of nowhere New York state where he had no roots because all of his family had lived in New York City for generations. And yes, his mother was diagnosed with a disease whose name he could never quite remember, but Antonio's life was looking up from what it used to be, and what his father's was, and his grandfather's. And compared to some kids at his school, his life was dreamlike.

Antonio skipped down the halls, smiling as the school day was almost over. His grandparents had come up to visit and his grandmother always made her homemade pesto for him. This time, she mentioned he might get to help make it, something his own mother hadn't been allowed to do.

He pushed the heavy bathroom door open and hummed a little tune.

"Look at me! I'm the king of New York! Badada da da!" He had made it up partially to annoy his old teacher, Mr. Bunsen, but also to cheer up his friend, Charlie, who has recently gotten polio on his left leg. Antonio always liked to sing it to cheer him and his friends up.

As he entered the open stall, he heard crying from the other one.

"W-who's in there?" Antonio asked, a little nervous but sincerely.

There was no answer. So he asked again. "Hello?"

Still, no answer. Now he was concerned. He pushed the door open to find a crying boy around his age with dark brown air and chocolate eyes. It took him a moment to realize that the boy was, in fact, Sean Conlon. Sean freaking Conlon! That boy never cried.

"Are you okay?" Antonio asked, tentatively.

"Just... go away!" Sean sobbed, wanting to be alone.

"Hey, hey! Being alone won't help!" Antonio told him, not knowing any better. "Why don't you... uh... tell me what happened?" He ushered Sean out of the stall.

"Well. I, uh—hey! Why should I tell you!" Sean's usually scary demeanor was returning, though he was still crying a little.

"Because I won't tell anyone and it feels good to get things off your chest!"

"No, it doesn't!" Sean half pouted, half cried.

"Well, you won't know till you try!" Antonio started to rub his back gently. Sean didn't really know what to do. He hadn't experienced this kind of compassion in a while.

"Well..." Sean thought for a moment, no longer completely sobbing. "You know how people were sent off to fight in the war a few years back?"

"Yeah," Antonio responded, thinking about his dad.

"Well, my older brother was one of those people. He was sent away around two years ago and hasn't returned yet..." Sean started to cry again.

"I'm sure he's just stuck in Germany. That happened to my dad and he returned a month ago completely fine!"

"That's what I thought!" Sean was yelling now while tears welled in his eyes. "But a week ago they called saying that they had found his dead body!"

Now Sean was full-on sobbing and Antonio wrapped him in a hug.

"And-and now my parents won't talk to anyone!" Sean continued. "They've just been crying, and my teacher has just been asking how I'm feeling and it's really annoying and I haven't cried until now because I'm Sean Conlon but I had to for some reason so I came here and I'm telling all this and—wait. Who are you?" Sean just noticed he had been completely wrapped in a hug, something not even his parents had done since the war started. The boy pulled away from Sean, who now felt cold in his absence.

"Name's Antonio Higgins, but my friends call me Tony. I think you pushed me on the playground last week."

"Oh yeah." Sean chuckled. "Sorry 'bout that. Hey! Ain't you da 'King of New York' kid?"

"Yup. The one and only!"

"Wait, your name was Anthony last I checked." Sean noticed Tony wince at the name. He wondered why. 

"It was—well, is. I was named Antonio, but my parents thought it was 'too Italian' so they had me change it. I don't like the name one bit."

"Oh. Sorry." Sean felt a bit guilty. He didn't want Antonio to feel bad. They sat in silence for a moment.

"Well..." Antonio started. "School's almost over. I better get back to class."

"Me too," Sean sighed, with a bit of sadness in his voice.

Sean got up and started to walk out the door.

"Ey! Sean!" Antonio yelled to him. "Sorry 'bout your brother. If you ever need someone to talk to, you can come to me, alright?"

"Thanks." Sean had almost forgotten about his brother. Well, talking about it did help, he guessed. Antonio was so kind to him, something most of his friends weren't. It was nice for him to finally have someone to talk to.

"Bye Sean!" Antonio called out as he ran to his classroom down the opposite end of the hall.

"See you around, Tonio!" Sean yelled back, with a smile growing on his face because he had just made a new friend.

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Okay, there was chapter one. I hope you enjoyed it, even if it was total garbage. I'll try and update tomorrow, as I have another chapter already written. The first like 2, maybe 3 chapters will be more like set up to the story, and will probably be a little bit shorter. Until next time!

Also, about the reasons why Antonio changed his name to Anthony, in case you weren't aware in world war 2 the allies weren't only fighting against Germany. They were also fighting against Italy and Japan who sided with Germany. In America, Japanese people were literally incarcerated, and I would assume for Italian people it wouldn't be as bad, but they still would be not treated very nicely.