The crutch that ain't under my arm (Crutchie x Jack)

Chapter 3

A few of the guys got back from selling early, so they were sitting in a circle on the floor of their bunks room in the lodging house. They were all holding cards and very engaged in their game.

Race studied his cards. "Hmm. Specs, got any Kings?" 

"Go fish!" Specs pushed up his glasses. 

Jack leaned his head on his fist. "How 'bout Crutchie. Got any sevens?" 

"Aw Jack, I almost had all four!" Crutchie handed over three sevens as Jack laughed. 

"An' you see folks, I is down to two cards and have four matches. We may have a winner for the, what was it? Fifth time in a row..." Jack whistled and shook his head.

Specs looked kind of annoyed at this point. He kind of takes these things too seriously. He likes to be the best. "Alrighty, Romeo, got any fives?" 

"You in luck Specs, I got one." Romeo dramatically handed over his card.

Romeo shifted his cards some. "Alrighty Jack, hand over your three."

Jack looked like he wasn't expecting that for a second, but regained his composure soon after and slid the card across the floor. 

Crutchie smiled sweetly, "Hey Race, would you just so happen to have any kings?"

Race groaned, "Seriously?" He handed over two cards. Crutchy threw down all of his cards, which consisted of four kings. "Boom, now that's how you take a win!" 

Sure enough, Crutchie actually had five matches. Everyone else started counting their cards to see who got second. The way that they played, once one person was out, for each card you have in your hand, you have to take a card out from your matches. It was kind of a combination of rummy at the end. Jack actually came up with it. 

"Ha, Jack, he sure got you!" Race joked.

Jack put his hands up, "Alright, alright. Good game everybody." He then pointed at Crutchie. " 'specially you kid. You've been beatin me more an more. Now don't you go forgettin that you leart from the best."

Romeo made a face "Aw Jack. Crutchie broke your streak! Only Crutch could get away with that."

Crutchie made an innocent face and shrugged. This caused everyone to laugh and conversation picked up. Some time into their conversation, Race turned to Crutchie. "Hey Crutch why do you keep doin that, are you mad at somethin'?"

Crutchie looked to his left towards Race slightly and made a confused face. His eyes darted to Jack for some explanation for a second. "Doin what?" Crutchie asked slowly.

"Y' know, clickin' your teeth like that."

"No, like what..."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to call you out or nothin'... "

Jack suddenly whispered "Oh..." He looked towards Crutchie. "Do you think."

Crutchie's eyebrows knitted together in confusion for a second before his face relaxed with realisation. He groaned and set his face in his hands. "Yup. Oh god, I thought I outgrew them."

Romeo looked around confused. "Is it just me or is this not makin' no sense?"

Jack looked back at Crutchie, though Crutchie's head was still in his hands. "Can I-"

Crutchie kept his head in his left hand, but used his right to wave nonchalantly. "sure, sure"

"When Crutchie was younger, he had Tourettes. We thought he outgrew it."

"Oh man." Race said

Crutchie raised his head, "Now I ain't never gone round cussin or nothin, is just some movement ticks."

" 'salright kid, I'm sure it'll just go away again." Jack said, trying to comfort him. 

"Yeah... Now who's down for another round of cards!" Crutchie smiled wide. Jack smiled and started collecting all the cards off the floor.

"I'm winning this time, watch it happen!" Romeo put his hand out.

"Aw, you wish Romeo." Race added.

Crutchie chuckled. "I dunno, but my bets on Specs here. He's been awfully focused today."

Jack started shuffling "Yeah, you're all going down."

Here's a short one. Again, If anyone has any suggestions (either plotline or for my writing), then let me know. (I can take criticism too). Thanks for sticking around!

Word count: 632