A/N: the amount of times I almost accidentally write who Red actually is, is very frustrating haha
Summary: Davey never understood why he wouldn’t come out to his friends. Half of them were just like him, yet he was still scared to admit it outloud. That’s where Red came in, he was scared too.
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Davey and Oscar stood in the secluded part of the library, both of them arguing back and forth for the majority of the morning. Davey couldn’t believe he was in this situation. A few weeks ago he’d never even talked to Oscar, and now they were both arguing over his secret identity that no one else knew about except for Red.
“Maybe if you were a nicer guy she’d say yes.” Davey explained, earning a glare from Oscar. A gasp left Davey’s mouth when his back hit one of the bookshelves, Oscar’s face only inches away from his.
“You have two days Jacobs. Two days, or everyone will know.” Oscar spat in his face before shoving him back against the shelf, leaving Davey standing there in shock.
There was no way Davey would be able to convince Sarah to go out with Oscar in two days. Davey pushed himself off the shelves, grabbing his backpack off the floor and he started to make his way to class with his thoughts spinning around in his head. He didn’t have to think much longer, a commotion in the hall drawing his attention away from his class when he saw a group of kids gathered around with some cheering.
Davey pushed his way to the front, freezing in place when he saw what was happening. There his friend laid limp on the floor as a few guys were kicking the life out of him, a pool of blood already on the floor. Davey stared in shock and horror, the fight only being ended when the school’s security came to pull everyone apart, Davey’s friend being rolled out in a stretcher. The whole rest of his day Davey was stuck with the image in his head, and he was filling with fear with each passing second.
It hadn’t been until dinner that Davey actually started acting normal, feeling safer, but not fully safe, in his own home. He picked at his food, not paying attention to any of the conversations. No one noticed he was quiet, usually he’d stay that way during dinner, only wanting to listen to everyone’s day, but once Sarah started talking about that morning, he couldn’t help but give his full attention.
“A fight happened at school today.” She explained making everyone look at her. “Some guys were beating on Race for being gay, he had to be carried out of the school.” She continued and Davey’s dad shook his head.
“That Anthony never learns. His parents have talked to him about the clothes he wears. He brought it upon himself.” Mr. Jacobs explained making Davey’s blood boil. “If a boy is going to go around dressing in girls clothes, then he should expect it to turn a few heads.” He continued, pushing Davey over the edge.
“Just because Race likes to wear girls clothes doesn’t give anybody the right to touch him, and you have no right to judge him if you weren’t there!” Davey exclaimed.
“David.” Mrs. Jacobs warned but Davey shook his head.
“He’s my friend! He didn’t deserve to be treated that way no matter what he was wearing. If no one came to get him they would have killed him. You didn’t see how he looked, but I did, there was nothing okay with that. He doesn’t deserve to die because you think people who dress like him deserve to be treated like crap.” Davey explained, his voice shaking as he stood up, leaving his untouched food on the table and his chair left pushed out while he made his way to his room, ignoring his father’s calls after him.
A few days had passed and Davey still couldn’t get the picture of Race out of his head. There was a school assembly on what had happened, and Davey couldn’t help but think of it. Half way through the assembly it hit Davey that he hadn’t been messaging Red, and he pulled out his phone, quickly typing a message.
Hey, Red I have to apologize for not talking in the past few days. Did you see what happened Monday morning? I hope you didn’t, I think it’s the worst thing I’ve seen in my entire life. To make things worse my dad heard about it and actually blamed it on what the guy was wearing. I really don’t think I’m coming out to them now. - SomebodyNobody
Davey shuddered at the memory, placing his phone back on his lap until it buzzed again.
I heard about it, but I can’t imagine even seeing it, I hope it wasn’t as bad as everyone made it out to be. I hope you’re feeling better, Nobody. - Red
Before Davey could get a response his attention was pulled back to the stage, his eyes bugging out at what was on the screen. He’d been too busy with his own things he forgot the two days were up the day before, his worst nightmare staring him in the face.
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Tag List: Let me know if you’d like to be tagged in this series :)
Anyways to add to my take, I have a couple reasons I choose to consider Morris the older and Oscar the younger
To start… yeah Oscar is always the short one in the three main versions (which I refer to as OBC, Livesies/Pro Shot, and 92sies respectively)
In OBC and 92sies Morris is far more stoic and quiet while Oscar is far more rowdy and louder. Though, people also use this as a reason for why Morris is actually younger, as they will point out he appears to be following Oscar’s lead. This is a good take I’ll admit it but I personally see it as an older brother exasperated with trying to contain his younger brother and just being the actual scary one (though in 92sies, Morris is seen to actively shove Oscar away from a confrontation and tell him to shut up, all while Oscar is snickering)
You find much of the stubborn teenage-boy-who-hasn’t-matured-yet pride in OBC!Oscar (though I haven’t watched the full boot I found). He holds himself like a stuck up popular kid in high school who thinks he’s untouchable. Meanwhile Morris stays quiet yet neutral. He holds himself high as well but it’s not in the same way Oscar does. He has a deadpan expression, a death stare if he’s mad, and he always stands in a way that would make him appear more intimidating (he likes to either cross his arms(Livesies) or stand wide open but with clenched fists(OBC) and he ALWAYS looks down his nose at the Newsies
Livesies is much harder to pinpoint. The only thing I usually have going for me is the fact that Oscar is the short one (and Anthony Norman looks younger than Devin Lewis). But I tend to also find myself leaning to him being the younger one because he’s the one the newsies actually interact with and engage with, and he is the one who runs the papers while his brother stands watch over the distribution center (both OBC and Livesies for that). It feels like a sort of task given to the younger sibling who still needs to be humbled by life considering he doesn’t exactly go to school
Honestly I probably have more but these are half asleep ramblings while I feel myself being dragged back into my newsies fixation and love for the brothers
