Requested by @Shalynn220
Modern Era
Mentions of murder and death and homophobia
"Hey Blink! How's it goin' today?" Mush asked his boyfriend at their lockers.
Blink mumbled a "fine" that was barely audible.
"You okay?" Mush asked, putting the rest of his books in the lockers before going over to the taller boy and rubbing his back. "Ya know you'se can tell me anythin'."
"Really, it's nothing."
Mush gave Blink a look of 'I know you very well and I know that something is very wrong so you better tell me what it is before I go get Davey and/or Jack over here'.
Blink put his face in his hands. "I had a nightmare where Layla died again, but this time I was the one holding the gun. Then you were missing for so long everybody thought you'se was dead. And I told everyone to keep searching for ya, but they all responded with, "Mush doesn't love you, he doesn't love you," And it kept echoing around my head so many times I ended up believing it. Den I woke up."
"Oh Louis," Mush said, using Blink's real name as he wrapped his arms around his lover's neck and stood on his tiptoes to kiss his forehead. "You'se know I will never leave you till the day I die. Don't listen to the people who still don't accept that we love each other. Let's just get through school, and then maybe we can just walk and talk around the shops."
→Timeskip brought by Race's stolen cigar (For some🔸weird🔸reason) ←
School was usually bad, but Monday was absolute crap, with not only students but teachers being in a bad mood.
Monday just brought bad vibes.
"I'm going to die. I hate school!" Blink groaned, putting a hand to his forehead dramatically. "My funeral better not be on a Monday."
Mush laughed at his boyfriend, although he agreed with him. "C'mon, let's go to the shops to buy you some food. Ya look like ya need some."
Blink literally had never been so grateful to have Mush in his life.
Sipping from a cup of mango lassi and talking to Mush with his mouth full of mango sweetness, Blink somehow didn't notice two girls walking towards them, dairy chips in hand.
The couple also didn't notice the older of the two whisper something into the other's ear, and walk up to Blush.
"Are you two together?"
Mush nearly got his drink up his nose. "Whaaaa.... Ummmm... we're justtttt...."
"Boyfriends." The girl finished for them, giving the boys (who were quite a few years older than her) a sceptical look. "You two are so obvious my 3-year old sister would notice that you are together."
Blink was shivering a bit. He really could not take homophobia and just ignore the mean comments and slurs that were thrown at him.
His day was already extra bad.
He didn't need someone, especially a little kid being homophobic (Excuse me?! I'm not a little kid! I'm literally a teen!) and probably didn't know too much about sexualities yet.
Mush could see that his boyfriend was getting nervous. He was about to confront the girl when she tossed her black hair and looked at them with her brown eyes. "I'm pretty sure that you think that I'm gonna be mean and say stuff, but I'm not. And it's very nice of you to assume that I would... ya know."
Blink was surprised at the sudden turn of events. "Why did you randomly come up to us and ask if we're together?"
"Since the world is still not very accepting sometimes, and bullying nowadays is getting extreme."
The girl's companion, who had shoulder length brown hair with gold highlights, came up next to her friend. "And you two looked very cute together. Name's Aishie by the way. And my grumpy Chinese friend here is Yong."
Yong looked a bit bothered by Aishie calling her grumpy.
"I'm Nicholas and this is Louis," Mush said, not really wanting to use their newsie nicknames.
"MUSH MEYERS! BLINK BALETTI!" Race shouted, rounding the corner. "We got the tick- Oh, hello."
"Antonio. What the heck?!" Blink asked.
"That's Race to you!"
Mush saw that a hint of familiarity crossed Yong's face as Race's nickname was mentioned, but shook it off.
"What did you get tickets for?" Aishie asked, popping a chip into her mouth.
"I actually don't know. Davey said that it would be a surprise!"
An alarm rang, and the three boys frantically searched their pockets to turn off their phone alarms before realising the sound was coming from Yong's watch. "It's 5:50. I need to go and get to school so that I can get ready for the show!"
The two girls waved goodbye and went their separate ways, Aishie going into a cafe further down the street while Yong jumped on her scooter and went off in a hurry.
"How come the tickets don't give any clue whatsoever about the show?!" Race muttered to himself.
"HEY RACER, BLINK AND MUSH GET A MOVE ON WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE TO THE SHOW!"
Jack yelled from somewhere unknown.
I'm writing a little bonus chapter thingy that follows this up but is more about the rest of the newsies as well.
-Yong
