"Romeo…ROMEO!" Finch yelled, jerking Romeo out of his complete zone out.
"Huh? Oh, you was talkin'. Whaddja say again?" Romeo turned to his fellow newsie. The two had been taking a break from selling on a bench near Central Park.
"I was askin' if you wanted to go with Mush and me to Coney Island tonight. We're gonna leave a little early."
"What's at Coney Island that you gotta see so bad?" Romeo said, leaning back on the bench. Finch gaped at him, disbelieving.
"You don't wanna see the Ooh-La-La girl? Tell me you've heard of her." Finch gasped.
"I haven't heard and I got other plans better than seeing some vaudeville show."
Finch smirked. "A goil?" he rolled his eyes and guessed the answer by Romeo's lack of response. "Third one this month! No wonder ya got the name Romeo."
"Romeo, what are you doing?" The lace curtains hanging by her window parted, and Romeo saw the girl of his dreams, Elizabeth. He resisted the urge to smile.
"Surely you've read Romeo and Juliet? Well, as my namesake would do, I am announcin' my love to you on yer balcony... err, fire escape."
Elizabeth laughed. "You've already told me you love me. Several times. Including the first time you sold me a paper." She rested her elbows on the window sill. Romeo shrugged.
"I thought we had a date! Are ya ready or not?"
Elizabeth tapped his nose with her finger. "Yes, I'm ready. Now come to meet me at the door properly instead of gallivanting around outside my window." She smiled smugly. Jokingly, Romeo rolled his eyes and exaggerated huffiness as he walked down the stairs.
A few moments later, he and Elizabeth left the apartment building. "So, do you want to head over to Coney Island? I heard there's a new show."
"Good grief, what is with everyone and Coney Island recently?" he muttered. "That's a hike. Let's stay over 'ere, shall we?"
"And go watch Medda Larkin, and eat dinner at Jacobi's? Again?" Subtly, Elizabeth reminded Romeo that almost every single one of their dates had consisted of just that.
Romeo shrugged. "Sure, why not? It's cheap." Elizabeth laughed and reached for his hand.
The two of them walked slowly down the street, heading in unspoken agreement to Jacobi's. Romeo broke the silence. "'Member when we first met?"
Elizabeth nodded. "Uh huh. I was on my way to work and you tried-and failed-to sell me a paper." She worked as a seamstress in a factory.
"I'm pretty sure that the only reason you didn't by the pape was 'cause you was out of cash." Romeo said, playing the offended.
"Telling me first I was gorgeous and heaven on earth, then proceeding to use your flattery to make a penny is not good salesmanship, Romeo. And neither is continuing by flaunting a fake headline, telling me you already loved me, and then stalking off angrily when I refused to buy."
"A guy's gotta do what a guy's gotta do." Romeo defended himself and stuck his thumbs through his suspenders. "It's startin' to rain!" he yelled a second later. "Damn, Crutchie said it wasn't goin' to!"
They ran underneath the eve of an obliging building. "I guess dat's it for our date. Jacobi's is still several blocks away." The light drizzle suddenly turned into a steady downpour.
"I don't mind getting wet, but I do mind getting soaked." Elizabeth said. She looked around to figure out where they were. "Hey, isn't that the lodging house?" she pointed half a block away.
"Yeah, so what?"
"Why can't we go there?"
"I don' think that's a good idea—" Romeo started.
"Oh, so you don't want to introduce me to your friends, then?" she crossed her arms.
"No, it's not that. But-"
"Then come on!" She cut him off again and took off into the rain.
"Wait!" Romeo yelled, silently praying the rest of the boys had either all gone to Coney Island or were caught in the rain too.
He was terribly wrong.
The moment he opened the door for Elizabeth, he could hear the sounds of his fellow newsies. Judging by the noise, all of them were here. He could hear Finch and Mush alternately complaining that their trip got cancelled and berating Crutchie for not reading the weather correctly. Race was winning large sums of money from Albert and Specs in a poker game. Henry and Boots were making paper airplanes out of leftover newspapers, and Jack was, as usual, drawing.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked up when Elizabeth, closely followed by Romeo, made their entrance.
He counted three wolf whistles and two dozen smirks. "'Ey fellas. This here's Elizabeth. We, uh, got caught in the rain."
"Twenty five!" Race and Mush high-fived and Specs reluctantly dished out some cash to each of them.
"Huh?" Elizabeth said, looking at Romeo for answers. He shrugged, not about to tell her that they had betting whether or not he'd get twenty-five girls in three months.
Then all the guys began to talk at once.
"Romeo, why'd you bring her here?"
"Nice to meet you, numba twenty-five. Thanks for makin' me some cash."
"So youse the only one who can stand Romeo. What's it like?"
And, "Crutchie's poor weather predictions cost you alone time with Romeo."
Romeo grabbed her arm. "Let's go in the kitchen." He pulled her through the newsboys and closed the door behind them.
"These are your friends?" Romeo nodded. "They're very…interesting." Before she could say anything else, Race opened the door.
"You know the rules, Romeo. Door's gotta stay open so we can chaperone you." He said, smirking.
"What rules, Race?"
"Oh, ya know." His smirk widened.
Romeo turned to Elizabeth. "Dis was the reason I didn't want to bring you here."
Hope you guys enjoyed! This was pretty much comfort food to my longing-for-newsies-why-must-they-close soul. I mean, first Laura Osnes leaves Cinderella, and then Bridges closes, and now Newsies! WHY MUST THE GOOD DIE YOUNG!
Anyway, writing in Newsies dialect is HARD! And did anyone catch the Love Never Dies reference? Blame my total girl-crush on Summer Strallen, who played Meg in the original London production of LND.
Okay, enough with the rambling. Please review! posting the second chapter when I get five reviews!
~~Delovlies