Chapter 2:
"So, how was the day?" Jack asked as he and Crutchie started back to the boarding house, "sellins good?"
"Yeah," Crutchie replied absentmindedly.
"What's eatin' you?" Jack asked. "You's been acting funny."
"Yeah… I met someone today… seems nice. Said she's a 'sweep'..."
"She? Crutch! Ya dog!" Racetrack interjected into the conversation as he joined Jack and Crutchie.
"Uh… wa?" Crutchie asks, confused, "It wasn' like that! We barely talked for two seconds."
"Mmm hmm." Race didn't seem convinced.
"Race, knock it off." Jack said before turning back to Crutchie, "So… this girl, she nice?"
"Yeah." Crutchie replied, "Her name's Lopey. Said she was a 'sweep', and sweeps hang out on rooftops and help people get the soot outta their Chimneys."
"She mention a 'Bert' by chance?" Jack asked.
"Yeah, she said Bert said that shaking hands with a sweep means good luck."
"Y'like 'er!" Race said in a singsong that was enough to make Crutchie's face blush a furious red.
"Didn't I tell ya t'shut up?" Jack asked Race, "What is Crutch's love life any business of ya's?" He turned back to Crutchie, "I met a guy named Bert t'day. Seems like a nice guy."
"Well, I'd like t'meet y'little girlfriend at sometime Crutch." Race said as they finally arrived back at the boarding house.
"Do y'ever stop talking?!" Crutchie asked angrily as they entered the boarding house alerting almost everyone on the ground floor.
"Crutch, I…"
"SHUT UP!" Crutchie snapped, before turning hopping up the stairs alone.
"I was kiddin'..." Race muttered to Jack.
"I know, kid." Jack said, He knew Crutchie was always a little sensitive, but newsies always teased each other, and Crutchie had never responded with anger to it before. "Somethin's eatin' at 'im. I'll talk to 'im about it."
"You saw that, did you?" Lopey asked at a certain "guest" in her apartment.
"You really think I wouldn' 'ave spo'ed you?" One of her fellow sweeps asked.
"Johnny, I know wha' you're thinkin', and it's not true." Lopey said.
"Y'gave 'im a good luck shake." Johnny said, "If I didn't know better, 'I'd say you were head ova heels fo' the boy."
"Well, I'm not." Lopey retorted, "I just thought he needed luck, He's crippl'd for Pete sakes."
"Oh, jus' admit it, you're only making yourself look bad."
Lopey was about to scream at him to get off of her back… in more 'unladylike' words… when Bert walked into the apartment. "Alrigh'. Wha's goin' on 'ere?
"I was abou' to get changed when this pervert came into m'room…" Lopey wasn't completely lying, she'd been half-way through unbuttoning her shirt when Johnny knocked.
"Tha's no' wha' 'appened!" Johnny said.
"Alrigh', out with ya." Bert told Johnny.
Johnny sulked out of the room, and Bert closed the door.
"Alrigh'..." Bert turned to Lopey, "Wha' was tha' really about?"
Lopey glanced to the floor.
"You can tell me." Bert said.
"He caught me talkin' to someone earlier… a boy… thinks I have… a… a thing for him…"
"Do you?"
"No. And even if I did, I wouldn't just rush into something like that."
"You've never takin' me as the the kind of person who would…" Bert replied, "But I will advise you you to no' completely close yourself off to the possibility." With that Bert left the room, closing the door behind him.
Lopey sighed and pulled off her hat, and her shoulder-length brown hair fall free. She changed into her nightgown and fell backwards onto her bed. She looked out her window and up at the stars, wondering if Crutchie was doing the same, and giggling quietly at the thought of meeting him again.
She shook her head violently. No. Love doesn't exist. She thought, and turned and blew out the candle on the side table.
