- Chapter 17 - A Sick Boyfriend -
Warnings: Sick Romeo?
Third Person POV
Specs loves happy endings.
Like every Newsie knows, he loves reading.
He really liked the books that had happy endings, and even though 'Romeo and Juliet' doesn't have a happy ending, he still loves it.
He had always wondered why he felt so connected to it.
He found why when he found out he and Romeo were soulmates.
When he had told Romeo, Romeo just chuckled.
And even though Romeo's real name isn't Romeo, he still loved it.
Speaking of soulmates-
"Specs."
Specs turns to Anthony, confused. "Yeah?"
Anthony looked guilty and panicked. "Romeo and I- we were tapping-"
Specs cuts him off. "You tap?"
"Tell anyone and I will- will-" Anthony stops, defeated. "Just don't tell anyone." Specs nods. "Romeo just collapsed."
Specs stands up quickly. "What?!"
Anthony panics. "I'm not sure what happened. Buttons and Tommy boy told me to go get you while they bring him to the living room."
Specs nods, putting his book down and a bookmark in it. "Come on Anth, we're gonna go see him and figure out what's wrong."
Anthony nods, and the two boys leave the room.
They get downstairs after a minute.
They found Romeo laying on the couch, with Buttons and Tommy boy talking to him to try to keep him awake.
A few other boys were trying to ask what happened, but Tommy boy and Buttons were more focused on making sure Romeo was okay and awake.
"Ro!" Specs exclaims, running over to him.
Romeo sends a weak, cheeky smile to his boyfriend. "Hey- Specsie."
Specs sits down next to his boyfriend. "Ro, what happened?"
"I don't know," Romeo pauses, cringing in pain. "One second I'm tapping, laughing, and having a lot of fun, and then next everything goes black. I woke up here and in a lot of pain."
Before Specs can say anything else, Jack comes into the room, also looking panicked. "What happened?"
Romeo repeats what happened for Jack, who looks confused.
He didn't know what happened, he wasn't a medic. He was just as clueless as everyone else.
Jack presses the back of his hand against Romeo's head, immediately pulling it away. "Jeez Ro, you're burning up!"
Specs looks at his boyfriend warily, whilst his boyfriend just shrugs. "What can I say, I'm smoking."
A few of the boys chuckle. Specs shakes his head, laughing. "You are something else, Ro."
Romeo sends Specs a cheeky smile. "You love me."
Specs holds Romeo's hand, pressing it against his (Specs') forehead. "Yes, I do."
Jack smiles slightly. "Okay, here's the deal. Go lay down with him in your room, Specs. Get water, medicine, and crackers, while I call Medda to see if it could be anything really bad."
Specs nods. "Got it Jack."
Specs makes eye contact with Mush, who nods, grabbing Anthony's wrist, and pulling him out of the room.
Specs helps Romeo up, and helps him walk to Specs' room, while Jack walks to his own room.
Specs and Romeo sit on Specs' bunk, since he had the bottom bunk in the room he shared with Blink.
A few minutes later, Anthony and Mush came in with crackers, water, and medicine.
Romeo was one of the few Newsies who had a ton of difficulty swallowing pills, so they brought liquid medicine.
Anthony places the crackers on the table next to the bed, while Specs helps Romeo take the medicine.
"Disgusting." Romeo mumbles, cause the other three boys to laugh.
"Got that right" Anthony agrees. He had had some of the liquid medicine recently, because they had run out of pills for a few days.
"They could make medicine a little yummier," Romeo adds. Anthony nods.
"I think kids are supposed to like it" Mush responds. Specs nods.
Romeo's face scrunches up in disgust. "I definitely didn't like that when I was a kid."
"Same here," Anthony agrees, handing Romeo the crackers.
Mush weakly laughs. "I did?"
Anthony and Romeo look at him like he's crazy. "It was good!"
"No! It wasn't, and it never will be!" The two younger boys exclaim at the same time.
Mush and Specs laugh.
"That's kinda like when Buttons says celery and peanut butter are good together." Romeo adds. Anthony's face scrunches up in disgust.
"Hey!" Buttons shouts from his room. "If that's bad, then Nutella is horrible!"
"There are a lot of Newsies in this house who will fight you for saying that!" Romeo shouts back, cupping his hands around his mouth like a microphone. "Don't roll your eyes at me! You know I'm right!"
Buttons scoffs. "Oh shut up, Romeo!"
Anthony looks at Romeo, eyes wide. "How did you know he rolled his eyes?"
Mush and Specs stifle laughs, as Romeo smirks. "I'm magic."
Anthony nods, eyes still wide as he turns back around, mumbling stuff like 'these people are crazy'.
Romeo snickers to himself.
"He thinks your magic now. You shouldn't have done that," Specs whispers to his boyfriend, who smirks.
"He's like a child. Heck, even Lucky and Tumbler know I'm lying when I say that." Romeo whispers back. Specs rolls his eyes.
Jack comes back in a few minutes later. "Medda says to give you medicine, water, and crackers, and let you sleep. If you're not better later, we'll go to the doctor."
Specs and Romeo nod.
"Which means we're gonna leave you in here to sleep," Mush tells Romeo, who pouts.
"I don't want to sleep though" He whines. The boys laugh.
Anthony goes over to Romeo, and whispers something in his ear that only he and Specs could hear. "If you sleep, we can do your song after we finish tapping with 'the Cover is Not the Book'."
Specs chuckles, as Romeo vigorously nods.
Anthony laughs, pulling away.
Mush, Anthony, and Jack leave the room, as Romeo and Specs lay down together.
Specs kisses his boyfriends head. "Next time, if you're gonna tap with a new kid, invite me."
Romeo laughs, nodding. "Got it. We just kinda picked the people who liked tapping the best so we didn't overwhelm him."
Specs nods. "Nice of you."
Romeo yawns. "Love you, Specsie."
"Love you, Ro."
So yeah, Specs loves happy endings.
There might be problems, but that's just part of the story.
You can't have a happy ending without rising action, climax, and falling action.
He loves the endings that have him and Romeo cuddling together.
To him, that's the happiest ending of all.
Not the kisses by the water (though those are cool too), not the ice cream on the nose pictures.
Just when he's cuddling with the person he loves the most.
1138 Words
Wow, look at me using stuff that I learned in English class. I'm on a roll.
Also, I kinda forgot that I post today, so fun lol.