𝖮𝗁 𝗇𝗈! Hobie Brown

One

OH NO!

HOBIE BROWN
X
READER

JUNE

2023

CHAPTER ONE: MOONLIGHT

"Running around, catching up all the light...
In moonlight, black boys look blue. You blue, that's what I go call you, Blue," the man spoke, his Cuban accent swirling within the oceans breeze and current as the trees above him shiver with triumph. White diamonds of his grill sit neatly across the length of a small portion of his bottom teeth, not shining bright enough to distract the little boy from his vulnerability.

Next to him, the child with skin as deep as the sea was staring up at him, his young mind slightly confused with the quote from his father.

"So yo name blue?"

Both you and his father chuckle in tandem.

"Nah," he answers, looking over the endless horizon. You sit on the couch with your knees folded to the side, an empty container of chinese takeout sitting in the middle of a scratched and rather dusty table. It's been a while since that sudden shock of stress cleaning had pitched in despite your mind staying heavy at a constant. Maybe the dark circles forming underneath your brown eyes were the only things that could tell how long you'd been keeping a cycle of 9 hour shifts and binge watching films. Coping mechanisms isn't one of the few things taught during those brief years of highschool before ultimately having to drop out to take care of oneself.

Learning to distract rather than solve was always the best solution to all things bothersome. It's easier running than leaving but, after a while, your mind naturally learns to disregard some things.

A small droplet of water peaks at the corner of your squinting eyes.

    "At some point, you gotta decide for yourself, who you wanna be," the father said, knowing the questions that ran through his son's mind without having to ask.

    "Can't let nobody make that decision for you."

Melancholy heavily weighs your shoulders as you pick up the TV remote and paused the movie. The reason you even decided on watching Moonlight was because it had been dancing around your recommendations for the past month. HBO was insistent that you watch this movie despite most of your watches surrounding supernatural or fantasy films. It started off with an immense talent for holding your attention until the climate began falling, showing how much harder a black boy's life is when he loves someone who was a boy as well. It's a sad situation but at the very least, that boy had his dad to remind him that it wasn't any problem loving anyone that he does. 'What a nice father,' you thought, staring down at your red and white striped socks.

And after the thought, echoes of loneliness seem to bounce off of the walls of your oh so tiny studio apartment. Sitting here in this lonely room was sometimes too much to bear, but what else did you have? The only other thing you found comfort in was often somewhere else, coming maybe once or twice a week to rendezvous about his doings or plans for the upcoming weeks. You miss Hobie Brown.

Who knows what that destructive boy was doing when he wasn't here with you? The two of you are living your own chaotic versions of life but admittedly, this was much more worrisome whereas you were constantly working despite not even knowing what it's like to be an adult. And not to mention that your motivation for working so hard was to have a place for Hobie to lay his head. There wasn't a moment where the boy wasn't on your mind. Some would say that Hobie was too rude, too cruel and opinionated to relax with but none of it mattered. You've known the boy for as long as you could remember.

You sigh, staring down your door while the rest of your hope was beginning to sizzle out. Hobie would probably be gone another night, probably getting into fights with men twice his size– again.

But instead of jinxing him or worrying yourself 50 years older, you got up and began to get ready for bed. And just as you turn the television off, there's a ruckus heard from outside your window, immediately making you freeze in the middle of the room. No, you didn't live in the safest parts of the city but at least the rent was somewhat tolerable if you ignore the arguing couple that usually start their fights at 7 AM on the dot.

    "Shit!" someone said, voice coming faintly since you're up a couple of stories.

You make sure to grab your cell phone from the table before heading over. If someone needed help, calling the non-emergency line would be good enough. However, once you're leaning out the window and looking at the damp streets to see what had happened, calling the police was the last thing on your mind.

The tense hold of your shoulders gradually fell as the smallest smile lifted away the previous frown caused by the very guy you're trying not to laugh at. Hobie was stumbling to get on his feet for a moment, swearing callously as his heavy voice echoed off the empty streets. He shakes a comedic banana peel off of his wicks while dusting off whatever remnants of trash away from his dramatic punk-styled jeans. Hobie nearly looked panicked as he started doing the same to his shirt, trying to get small scraps of who knows what away from his sleeves. Almost from here, you could hear the necklaces jingling around his neck, making him the loudest thing out in the night.

You knew he would be stinky after this little incident, still, you couldn't wait for your favorite person to come up.

    "If you tied your shoes, you wouldn't fall so much," you spoke, catching his attention immediately.

Hobie swiveled with an alarmed expression but it quickly turned into a boyish grin as he began to heartedly chuckle at the sight of you. More than often, this exact scenario would happen in some shape or form. Hobie does something to make you sigh heavily from a distance and he would turn around and smile, assuring you that it was no big deal. In his own way, he was charming.

    "Hey man! What're you still doing awake?" Hobie tilted his head, stepping away from the newly discarded mess of garbage.

Instead of answering the obvious question, you found yourself shrugging. If only he knew that sleep was rare whenever he wasn't around.

    "Just come on up, I wanna talk to you about something,"

    "Ah... I don't know Y/N. You sound kinda angry," Hobie said, his hard features twisting into one of feigned fear.

You stand at the window, staring down at him with a daring tilt of your head.

    "Hobie Toby Brown, now."

He grins, letting his head fall limply to his shoulder, somehow making himself look cute, cocky, and guilty all at the same time. Nevertheless, the expression makes you suppress a barely-hidden smile.

    "You know I don't have a middle name, right?"
    "Now, boy."

M O O N L I G H T
— Oh no!

Note: In Moonlight, Juan actually isnt the boys father.