I have to block out thoughts of you so I don't lose my head.

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"You gonna say something, or what?"

We'd been at the diner five minutes, at least, and other than ordering coffee, the girl hadn't said a word. It was creeping me out.

She shrugged at my question, leaning back in the booth. "I figured you didn't want to talk. This is your payback, after all – it's supposed to be about what you want."

"If you really meant that, we wouldn't be here," I returned. I hated that the coffee was actually starting to make me feel better. "You already dragged me here. You can't make it any worse."

She looked thoughtful. "Well… okay. How old are you? I turn seventeen next month – I kinda want to know what I'm in for. Did you have any big revelations at that age?"

"Yeah, sure. I realized it was the same stupid day as the other sixteen I'd seen." I rolled my eyes. "I'm nineteen, going on twenty. Too old to be playing around with newsies."

She was quiet for another minute. I thought she might get up and leave, and wondered if she'd drank very much of her coffee, or if I could pilfer it once she was out the door. Instead, of course, she just opened her mouth to talk again.

"What do you do for fun, Oscar?"

Another stupid question. And yet, here I was, not walking away. What was wrong with me?

"I don't have fun. I work to eat. That's what I call fun." There. It wasn't a full on insult, but at least it wasn't nice.

She didn't even have the decency to look flustered. "That can't be true. I see you laughing a lot at the distribution center."

"I'm laughing at those stupid newsies. You probably know the type." I gave her what I thought was a pretty pointed look, but she started laughing, so I must have been wrong. "You think it's funny? I beat those kids up, that's what I do for fun!"

"I believe you, that's what's funny." I didn't know what to say to that, mostly because I figured she must be crazy, so she went on. "I just think it's funny, it's all. I mean, here we are sitting together when my idea of fun is picking flowers in central park, and yours is busting peoples' heads. Doesn't seem like a likely match, does it?"

"That's what I've been saying this whole time!" This girl was going to drive me nuts!

"… Good thing I don't care much about what other people think is likely. Jesus ate with prostitutes, too, right?"

Did she just call me a whore? "Did you just call me a whore?"

She just laughed and drank more of her coffee. "You really are funny, you know. So, is it okay if I ask you why you hate newsies so much? I mean, that's sort of a big group of people."

"Newsies killed my mother." Now it was her turn to look surprised, finally, and I got to laugh. "You must not sell many papers if you're really that gullible. I just think they're annoying as all hell. Why did you think?"

She smiled, and I just knew something bad was coming. I guess I pushed it with the gullible comment. "But, I don't annoy you that much, right? I mean, if I did, you'd be gone right now, wouldn't you?"

If this girl could have swung a two-by-four as well as she could apparently make me uncomfortable, I would've hired her to do all my head-busting jobs in a second. She had me; it was true, and the worst part was, she knew that we both knew it. Too bad I'd step in front of a runaway wagon before I'd admit it.

Fortunately, I didn't have to say anything. Instead of rubbing it in until I felt like the world's biggest idiot, which is exactly what I would've done, she just continued on like it was nothing.

A graceful winner… what a jerk.

"You're a hard worker," she said, giving me that weird, nice smile that only people who are new to New York ever give. A local like her should have known better, I thought. "You probably really don't have much time for fun."

"No, I don't." I didn't like how her comment made me feel so relaxed, so I just drank my coffee and tried to ignore how comfortable this latest quiet was. It was like we were actually friends or something.

It was awhile before she broke the silence again.

"Did you know those guys that jumped me?" I must have looked surprised, which was becoming a trend with this broad, because she shrugged her shoulders. "I didn't know if maybe they were enemies of yours, or something, the way you broke in like that. I know you didn't do it for me, so, I was just curious."

"You didn't know them?" I couldn't help it; her endless questions were contagious, I guess. Sorta like the plague. "Figured you met 'em in a bar or something."

She shook her head so fast it made her hair fan out. It looked nice, combed and not messed up with blood and all. "I never even got a good look at them. I was just trying to hurry and get back to the boarding house, you know, before it got dark, so I took a shortcut. Pretty stupid given how it turned out, I know."

Ordinarily, this would have been the part where I agreed with her and went on to kick her while she was down, but instead I found myself shaking head. "This city's full of rocks and hard places; sometimes there's no good choice. No, I didn't know them; didn't know you were there, either. Just got nosy, is all."

She smiled, looking like she knew something I didn't. "I come here every day at this time. The coffee warms me up, makes it easier to go sell the afternoon edition. There's always a seat and coffee for you, you know, if you ever want to stop by again."

"Don't hold your breath, kid," I replied, drinking the rest of my coffee faster than I probably should have and standing up. Being around here was making me act strangely; saying things that were almost nice, not punching people. Whatever it was, I had to get out before it became permanent.

"Oscar?" She stood up too, forcing me to wait while she took nearly half a minute to maneuver herself up. She really was a lousy gimp.

"What? I'm going to be late," I said, back to my normal aggravated tone.

"Thank you." And then, she hugged me.

Ugh.

Newsies.

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It had been a little over a week since the diner. Just to be clear, I hadn't gone back. She could go there all she wanted, but I didn't need some little newsgirl being my new best friend that I gossiped with over coffee. I wasn't one of those kinda guys, okay?

I was just the kinda guy who stopped working when she came through the distribution line so that I could watch her until she walked off.

She was driving me crazy. I wasn't trying to stalk her or anything; I was real obvious about it, figuring she'd feel me looking and look up, maybe give me a smile or something. Then, I'd have given her my best sneer (which I'd checked in the mirror when I'd gotten back from the diner; looked pretty damn scary to me, so I still couldn't figure out why it didn't seem to bother her), and said something really insulting to let her know that we were not friends.

Instead, she acted like I wasn't there, every single time. Do you have any idea how hard it is to intimidate someone into leaving you alone if they won't pay attention to you?

Finally after another morning of this, I'd had enough. I barely made it to lunch before I stormed down to the diner, ready to really let her have it.

"Oscar – over here!" True to her word, the girl was sitting right at the same spot in the same booth, waving at me.

"You are some piece of work, you – what is this?" I stopped what was the start of my pretty well-prepared speech when I got up close enough to her table to realize there were two cups of coffee.

"I told you – you always have a seat and a cup of coffee here. Are you going to sit down?" She sounded so sweet that my speech fell right out of my head. It was infuriating.

"What's the matter with you? One day you won't leave me alone, and the next you're ignoring me. I don't get the game," I said. I still couldn't seem to sound as mad as I wanted to with this girl, but at least I hadn't sat down. It was always the small battles that won the wars.

"Oh, at the distribution center? Is that what you're talking about?" I must have scowled, because she shrugged after a moment. "I thought that that's what you wanted. I figured this place could sort of be our… spot, and outside of here I'd leave you alone. I know your reputation's probably pretty important to you. I didn't want to do anything to mess it up."

That thing about small battles? Completely true. Which is why when I sat down after a minute of debating over it, I knew I'd lost. "We're not friends; don't get confused. I just like the coffee here."

"And I like you. So we're both set to have some good lunches here, huh?" She laughed, and didn't seem to care at all that I didn't. "How was your day? I like your new hat, looks nice…"

Battles – hah, yeah right. I never stood a chance.

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(Author's Note – Hi! Thanks so much for the reviews! It's so cool to know I'm not the only one reading the story! Anyway, thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! And since I haven't done it before, Newsies and the Delancey's belong to Disney, Adren belongs to Adren, 'Hate Me' lyrics belong to Blue October, and that makes… pretty much nothing that belongs to me. So please don't sue me!)

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