oof I'm back with a longer chapter bc I left y'all high and dry last time but this is the chapter where everything gets fucked so get excited. uuhhh seriously this chapter is like the biggest reason I wanted to even write this story and I made myself wait for it so hhhhh I'm so rEAD Y. OH also theres some p derogatory stuff said directed at ya boi Davey , and its rlly anti Semitic so just a heads up.
so I don't have a lot to say I'll just get into it whoo.
(ALSO HAVE ANY OF YOU LISTENED TO THE NEW PANIC AT THE DISCO ALBUM I LOVE IT)
Katherine is in the middle of flipping through the Saturday paper (delivered by Specs, not Jack, who clearly was not over their fight from a few nights ago), when she gets a phone call. She jumps and hears Spot snicker from the closet, rolls her eyes and grabs her phone.
It's an unknown number, but she answers it anyway.
"Hey, Katherine, it's Morris."
Katherine is taken aback and nearly stutters out a response. "Oh. Uh, hey M-" she cuts herself off before she can say his name in front of Spot. (Who looks up in interest when she answers the phone with such eloquence and grace.)
"We got cut off the other night, and I have some information you might want to hear about this Jack kid. Meet me at the Bowery around eight?"
"Yeah, sounds good, I'll, uh, be there." Katherine is just full of charisma and confidence tonight.
"Great. See you at eight." Katherine nods, realizes he cant see her, then agrees and stays goodbye.
She checks her watch and realizes she only has an hour to weasel someone into going with her and get ready. She can't get Davey, because she spit him through everything thenpast few weeks, plus he has his own problems, and she can't get any of the other newsies. Except... She dials the only number she can think of.
Racer runs his hands through his hair and sighs, pacing the length of the living room floor of the apartment he and Jack shared.
"I dunno, Kath. I hav'nt really done anything since... nevermind."
"Exactly Racer! This is your chance to get out and do something fun!" Race can practically see her making puppy dog eyes as she says, "please, Race?"
Race groans and Katherine seems to take that as a yes, squealing so loud Race has to actually move his phone away from his ear. Jack, despite sitting in the couch across the room playing Mario Kart with Mush and Smalls, looks up at the loud noise.
"Great. Can you pick me up at eight-ish, please?" Race agrees and hangs up, staring out the window dramatically until someone (Smalls) takes the bait and asks what's wrong.
"I have t' go outside." He says nobly and the three snort at him.
"That's ridiculous," Smalls says. "We go out all the time an' invite you ev'rytime, but y' just decide to mope th' whole time."
Race jumps on the couch from behind, squeezing in between Smalls and Jack. "I'll tell ya what's ridiculous." Race looks over at Jack, elbowing him so he pauses the game. "Jack, Smalls is snogging yer brother."
Jack drops his remote onto the table at the same time Smals yells, "Racetrack! I told you that in secret! Ya weren't s'posed ta tell nobody!"
"Wait, yer doin' it wit' Crutchie?"
Smalls stares at her remote and mumbles quietly, giving one small nod of confirmation.
"Dammit. That little bastard never told me. Oh man, is he in trouble! You jus' wait 'till he gets home!"
Smalls glares at Racetrack. "You dick. I told ya not ta tell anybody, 'specially Jackie."
Race shrugs. "That's what ya get fer making fun o' me. Anyway," he jumps off the couch and heads back to his room, calling over his shoulder, "I gotta get ready fer my date! You losers have fun," he says, slamming his bedroom door theatrically behind him.
Racetrack Higgins was absolutely miserable. Katherine was flat drunk, the person she needed to meet was two hours late, and every time Race saw a happy couple his heart hurt a little more than it had the past few months.
Don't get him wrong, Katherine was funny the first few minutes that were there. For a rich person, she wasn't a pain in the ass like her dad, but after her third drink she was a slurring drunk mess.
He decided he was done when she left a drunken voice mail to Jack, telling him to fuck off several times, along with calling him several unique insults (a monkey-faced ravioli noodle that puts over-cooked spaghetti noodles in his friends Gucci flip-flops).
Finally, he decides he's had enough. He gently grabs Katherine's arm and tugs her away from the top of her lemon drop. "C'mon Kath. He's not comin', let's go home."
Katherine grabs onto the edge of the bar and holds on with dear life. "Noooo, Racer, Race, Racetrack Higgins, he said he would be here, he told me, he promised me."
He tugs harder and she hangs on harder. "Kath, he lied ta you, he's not gonna show up."
At that same moment a brown-haired, average height guy shows up, sliding into the stool on the other side of Katherine. This guy only makes Race grip Katherine's arm tighter because he looks like the kind of guy your phone gives you an Amber alert about.
The worst part is, Race recognizes him almost immediately. He tugs in vain again, because Race knows this guy and he hates him, and he knows that if Katherine gets close to him she'll be in trouble and won't know how to get out of it.
"Let's go, Kath." She still doesn't move, but stares, transfixed, at the guy beside her. She seemed thrilled by his presence, despite the fact that he's two hours late and hasn't apologized for it.
"Morris!" Katherine tugs back on Race's arm and points at Morris, grinning. "Racer this is the guy, look he's here!"
Race doesn't acknowledge him and grabs Katherine's coat from the stool she's sitting on. "Katherine Edith Pulitzer I am not leaving this bar without you, let's go."
Morris stops him. "Why don't you leave the kid here? I'll take her home." Race feels the panic rising in his chest threatening to close in his throat when another hand lays itself gently on Katherine's arm.
"I don't think so."
Race almost cries with relief when Davey appears beside him. He takes the coat from Race's arms and and starts trying to coax Katherine out of the seat, to no avail.
"Who the hell are you?" Morris asks, and Race's inner alarm starts telling him get out get out get outgetoutgetoutgetou-
"Wait, I know you!" Getoutgetoutgetout- "you're that guy who stole my wallet. What are you, a Jew, stealing all my stuff? You owe me money, you greedy bastard!" GetoutgetoutgETOUTGETOUTGETOUT-
Morris is suddenly leaning heavily against the bar, clutching his jaw and clenching his eyes shut. Both Race and Davey let go of Katherine, having the immediate effect of her letting go of her death grip on the bar. In the corner of Race's eye he sees Jack Kelly himself, holding his fast and breathing heavily.
He physically lifts Katherine from her bar stool by her waist and carries her out the door. Race and Davey anxiously follow after him, grabbing whatever belongings were left behind, leaving Morris standing clutching his face.
Outside the air is cold on Race's face, and he almost feels the need to open his mouth and pop his ears after the loudness of the bar compared to the quiet parking lot. Beside him, Davey looks as anxious as Race feels, which gives him comfort in knowing that he's not alone to face the wrath of Jack Kelly.
In front of them, Katherine is fighting and punching Jack's chest, yelling and screaming muffled, slurred insults into his chest. "Which car did ya drive?"
Race hurries over and unlocks the car door, and Jack unceremoniously wrestles Katherine into the back seat. Davey takes the front passenger seat, and Jack becomes the unappointed driver, leaving Race to deal with an angry and swearing Kathrine in the back.
"Did you drink?" After both of them answer no, the car lapses into an uneasy silence. By this time, Katherine has fallen silent, her head resting gently on Race's shoulder, and by the time they pull up to her house, she's asleep.
Neither Race nor Davey are strong enough to carry Katheine so it's up to Jack to carry her again. He picks her up gently and carries her up the long sidewalk to her house, leaving Race and Davey alone.
"So-"
"Why the hell would you take her to a bar, especially with knowing who she was meeting?"
Race is taken aback, because this is the first time he's ever seen Davey actually angry at something.
"I didnt know she was meeting that guy! I can't read minds or anythin', Davey! Get off m' back!"
"Yeah, but you could at least made sure she left when that guy showed up!"
"I was tryin', Davey, you saw that when you showed up! How d'ya even know we was there, anyway?"
Davey pulls out his phone. "I assume the message was left for Jack, but Katherine sent to to my phone."
"Be real with me. How pissed is Jack gonna be?"
Davey laughs ruefully and leans against the car, staring at the house partly obscured by trees. "I'm just glad I don't live with him."
Race laughs too, banging his head on the car and grimacing. Davey mumbles something.
"What?"
"I'm going to college."
"Oh. When?"
"Next year, when the first semester starts. It's out of state, so I'll have to move, but it's worth it."
"Congrats t' you, Davey. You's gonna be a college man now. The jokes are just runnin through m' head, Jacobs."
"Shut up."
Jack was trying his hardest to be quiet and careful taking Katherine up the fire escape to her room, because frankly, he's scared of her, but he can't help it if her stupid, unnecessary fire escape (seriously, who uses fire escapes anymore?) creaks, and that Katherine is the lightest sleeper in the planet.
She immediately pushes herself out of Jack's arms, despite the fact that she just crashed harder than a car on the highway, and nearly falls over the side of the fire escape. Jack grabs her arm and pulls her away from the fire escape, but he underestimates her lack of strength due to being drunk, and he pulls harder than necessary, making her fall into his chest again.
She pushes away from irritatedly. "Don't touch me," she mumbles, almost incoherently, because she's drunk and tired and shouldn't be standing on a fucking fire escape with Jack Kelly, and just wants her bed and quiet room. She tries (unsuccessfully) to open her window, and instead ends up pounding her head on it repeatedly, making her headache worse.
"Hey, don't get mad at me," he says, holding his hands up, "I'm not the one who went to the bar with dickhead Delancey. That was all you."
Katherine steps closer, despite better judgement telling her to just go inside and sleep off everything. She and Jack are nose-to-nose, glaring at each other with malice lighting their gazes.
Suddenly Katherine's lips are pressed against his and he doesn't resist, but then she's pulling away and he's confused because what just happened? and now Katherine is standing there looking like a lost, sad puppy and he desperately wants to reach out and console her but instead he just stands there, dumbstruck, as she starts pacing back and forth across the useless fire escape with her fists clenched, worrying her bottom lip.
"Uh." Jack says, stepping back and als most falling down the narrow stairs, "I'll just," he jabs his thumb behind him like an idiot, "y'know."
Katherine whips around, and Jack is surprised by how panicked she looks, her eyes wide and scared. "Don't leave."
So he doesn't. He stays with her on that stupid fire escape all night, but he's gone when she wakes. The only thing he leaves behind is a drawing of her sleeping on the fire escape, on an old piece of newspaper he always seems to have tucked in his pocket.
Idly Katherine wonders what happened last night. She doesn't remember a thing except that Jack stayed over on the fire escape with her.
She stands, then realizes how cold and stiff she is. A blue shirt falls off her shoulders and she recognizes it immediately. Jack, the idiot, gave her his shirt, which means he walked home without it, so he probably caught a cold, but she appreciates the gesture anyway.
Jack arrives back at the apartment early, and the first sight he sees is Race, sprawled on the couch, and Davey, curled in a ball on the floor, and both look exhausted. He realizes, witha pang of guilt that they left the car for him and walked home, which means they're probably both pissed and tired, and now he'll have to deal with it himself, because Crutchie isn't home, and the usual boys that hang around are oddly absent, so he's on his own now.
He wonders when he's going to get that shirt back.
BJDKBHDHVIDVHI y'all this story just got started. we aren't even halfway through yet jbdkbkhkhbd. so I actually wrote a majority of this on like Monday of last week and then had a bunch to do and never got around to finishing it, but it's here now, sorry for the delay,,,, I promise we're back to a normal schedule now, don't worry. bls forgive any spelling and grammar mistakes I want to get this over with.
have a great day/night all of you!