CHAPTER 3

Jack woke up first, as he usually does on weekdays, he looked over when his peripheral vision picked up long blonde hair. That's when he remembered, Minnie was sleeping, not five feet from him. He could reach out his arm and touch her cheek.

"Minnie," he said softly. She woke up with a soft groan as she turned over and opened her eyes.

"Hmm?" She said.

"Come on, I wanna show you something," Jack jumped off his bed and grabbed Minnie's hand, pulling her body out of bed. He pushed down the anger when he saw the purple bruise on her cheek.

"Jack, what time is it?"

"I donna know, come on," Jack held lightly onto Minnie's hand, pulling her slightly along behind him. Jack looked back at her as he pulled her up the steps, her hair was frizzled and stuck up in the front. "I would have taken you for a morning person, Minnie."

"I am, when I wake myself up," she chuckled, rubbing her eyes with her left hand. "Why are we up here?" Minnie wrapped her arms around her waist, the cold morning waking up her bones.

Jack pulled up to the edge of the roof, then leaned on the railing, the metal creaking beneath his weight. He pointed his head over at the soft light ahead. "Watch this."

For the next ten minutes Jack and Minnie watched as the sun rose over New York. The orange into pink into yellow, an hombre of light filled the chill city with warmth. Jack hadn't moved, but he did notice that Minnie had gravitated toward him, her arm barley touching his. Jack ended up watching the sunrise through Minnie's eyes, as he couldn't seem to look away. The bruise on her cheek was covered by her uncombed hair, he fought the urge to push her hair back behind her ear.

"It's beautiful, Jack," she spoke turning her head. "Thank you." Their eyes connected and Jack felt his chest concave, he stepped forward lightly holding onto her arm.

"I…I'm just glad you're safe." Minnie slid her arms around Jack's torso, resting her head on his chest. She could hear his heart beat increase, and she wondered if he didn't want her to hug him. A second later his arms were wound tightly around her so she guessed it was just because he was cold, her heart was racing too, but it wasn't because of the weather.

"Jack, would you…never mind." Minnie shook her head.

"What is it?" He looked down at her, his arms trying not to move along her waist.

"I was going to ask you to walk me home, but you have to get to work, don't you?"

"The Newsies can live an hour without me," Jack smiled.

"Are you sure?"

Jack nodded and headed back to the door, he noticed that Minnie wasn't behind him. "Minnie?"

"I'm going to go down the fire escape," she smiled.

"Why?" Jack laughed heading over to her.

"I've never been on one before. They look fun," Minnie smiled as she walked down the stairs, the metal bing-ing as her heels hit each step.

People watched a high class public figure and a news boy walk down the street, everyone had a strong opinion about the situation but said nothing.

"-so I run down the stairs thinking there was a fire when Johnny had just set off a fire cracker in his room." Jack laughed at Minnie's story from when she was little.

"That reminds me of the time Sammy fell asleep smoking a cig and set some papes on fire. The middle of the night, I'm wakin' up to the sound of Davey screaming and jumping on the fire that couldn't have been larger than my fist." Minnie laughed and stopped walking, Jack noticed a while later and turned looking up at the mansion before him. "Woah," thought he knew Minnie's high society status, it had never occurred that she lived in an American castle. He had always put people's attitude into how they lived, if a young man paid him extra and talked with him as he took a paper, he imagined the young man was a hard working middle class man who fought for the little guy. And an elderly woman who scoffed when he accidently touched her hand while handing over the paper was obviously a stuck up governor's wife or mother who hadn't broken a sweet in her life.

Minnie was the exception. Minnie was kind, caring, completely selfless, yet lived in this palace with her rich family and no worries lifestyle. Sometimes Jack would overhear other newsies talking about how she only talked to them as a charity case. Jack would make sure they never spoke bad about her again. The way he saw it, any kindness is worthy of their respect.

What Jack didn't know is that some newsies still talked behind his back about Minnie. But they talked about how strung up Jack was on her, and how she would never settle for a less than poor paper boy.

"I'll try to stop by later today, after you're done with today selling, if that's alright with you?"

Jack wanted to say that she could live with him and that would be alright with him, but that sounded creepy in his head, and probably would sound even worse out loud.

"That sounds nice," Jack said with restraint.

"Thank you again, for letting me stay the night," Minnie said. She stepped forward and pulled Jack into a hug, wrapping her arms around his back. Jack, instead of thinking about his hands, took the time to take a deep breath in. She didn't smell like she used too, like a cloud. She smelled like…well, like a newsie. And that made Jack smile.

"I'll always be here for you, Minnie," he ducked his head a bit, lifting his eyes to watch her response.

"I know, Jack. I hope you know that if there is anything you need that I will be there for you too."

Jack nodded, knowing he would never ask her for anything…well, there is one thing he would ask her.