The Name's Crutchie

Chapter 1: The Name's Crutchie

The sky growled and continued to darken, it was obvious that there was going to be a repeat of the previous day. Crutchie looked around, before ducking into the alleyway between Perry and Charles Street. He hobbled through, his crutch striking against the cobbled ground. The wind cut through his shirt and ruffled his hair. Then he heard footsteps behind him. Splashing in the puddles that accumulated in the abundant divots that covered the ground. The soft snickers and snide comments echoed against the walls of the alley. The Delancy brothers, Crutchie ignored them and walked a little faster.

"Hey! Gimpy!" Oscar's obnoxious voice bounced off the walls and it made the hairs on the back of Crutchie's neck stand on end. He kept his head down, not slowing his pace, when he felt his crutch being kicked out from underneath him. His legs buckled underneath him and he fell, along with the rest of his papes.
Then he felt it, a fat raindrop fell onto Crutchie's face, mixing with the dirt and blood smeared across his face. Then it started to pour, soaking him through in a few seconds flat. Oscar roughly pulled Crutchie up by the collar of his shirt and shoved him against the wall.

"No one calls my brother a lousy little shrimp but me, Andrew." Oscar growled as he spat in his face. Crutchie flinched at the sound of his real name. But as soon as Oscar has said it he socked Crutchie right on the puss. Sometime before, Oscar had slipped on a pair of brass knuckles. Crutchie's face was now bleeding started to turn a lovely shade of purple.

 "The name's Crutchie." he spat before blacking out, the freezing rain soaked through his clothes and to the bone.

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Crutchie was vaguely aware that he was being roughly shaken awake.

"Crutchie? C'mon, wake up." It was Jack. Crutchie's head was pounding and he lifted a hand to his face, it came away covered in red blood which if anything made him even more nauseous.

"Hey Crutch, Crutchie, look at me." Jack held his face in his hands, softly dabbing at the blood on Crutchie's face with the red bandana that he always had around his neck, now stained with dark red blood. Crutchie attempted a weak smile.

"Heya Jack." He croaked, his eyes as bright as ever.

"What the hell happened? We got real worried." The light in Crutchie's eyes flickered for a second. He propped himself up against the wall and looked around but his crutch was nowhere to be seen. Sighing, he rested his head against the rough bricks; of course they had taken his crutch.

 "Crutchie?" Jack sounded worried

 "It was the Delancy brothers." Jack looked absolutely livid.

"Oh I'll soak 'em so bad they won't be able to walk for a week. They think they can jus-" Crutchie put a hand on Jack shoulder, cutting him off and pulling him out of his rage.

 "Jack, it's fine. It really doesn't hurt that bad, plus it's getting late." The sky was slowly getting darker and the last bit of sun was just peeking over the buildings, but the rain wasn't letting up.

 "Yeah, you're right." Jack slipped am arm around Crutchie, trying hard not to hurt him any further. He could feel the smaller boy shivering like crazy, he had no idea how long he'd been lying in the rain and he was soaked through. His wet hair falling into his face.

 "I'm not going to break, Jack." Crutchie said brushing his wet hair out of his face before putting an arm around Jack's shoulders and standing up. They stood there for a second, Crutchie's leg wobbling dangerously underneath him and his shoulders violently shaking from the cold.

 "Crutchie?" Jack sounded concerned but Crutchie didn't reply, he just started walking, he didn't want to talk about it. He didn't want Jack pitying him anymore than he already did. Jack understood, he started yammering on about something but didn't really matter. Crutchie leant his head against the taller boy's shoulder. Jack's voice was calming, and soon enough they were coming up on the lodging house. Crutchie could see the faint outlines of a few of the boys waiting outside. The rain had slowed to a drizzle as they got closer he could see Race, Mush, and Specs leaning against the house.

 "Woah Crutchie. What happened?" Said Race, putting a hand on his shoulder. Crutchie shrugged it off and waited for Jack to rely for him.

"Delancy brothers." Jack whispered, keeping his voice low so he didn't wake the other boys. Crutchie, looked down as he walked past the three boys, he could see raindrops sparkling under the lamplight in the Spec's golden hair. Crutchie hated this about as much as Specs hated seeing him like this. Jack led Crutchie silently over to his bed and lowered him down, he sat with him for a second.

 "You sure you're alright Crutch?" He said, his voice low enough to only be heard by Crutchie.

"I'm always fine, Jack." Crutchie smiled still as happy as ever, despite the purple bruises covering -his face.

"Yeah, I know kid." He replied, ruffling Crutchie's hair a half-hearted smile.

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Okay I hope you guys like it. Criticism is welcome.

#Santa gayyyyyyyyyyy#

-K ☆