Chapter 10: Welcome Home
It had been nearly three days since the incident with Anthony. For some reason though, Myst began to notice Spot avoiding her. He always seemed to be leaving the washroom every morning, just as she would enter. They still sold together, however he no longer waited to walk with her to the distribution center. To top it all off, he stopped joining her on the roof at night. Worst thing about it, was that Myst had no idea why. At first, she blamed herself. She thought that maybe she had crossed some unknown boundary when she had leaned in to kiss him. But the more she thought about it, the more it didn't make sense. She had tried asking him what was wrong, but he merely supplied 'I don't know what you're talking about' and dropped the conversation.
Although, Spot's mood wasn't the only thing that seemed to change. After Myst so successfully dealt with Anthony, the Brooklyn newsies began treating her differently. For the first time since she came to Brooklyn, she noticed they had stopped glaring at her or avoiding her altogether. In fact, a few of them even spoke to her. It was though they had gained respect for her. They began treating her like she belonged.
Spot, aside from treating her like she didn't exist, evidently did not particularly agree to his newsies behavior. Though instead of stopping it, he chose to storm off anytime someone would come over to speak to her. Initially, when Myst was blaming herself, she felt horrible. She would run after him, try to get him to talk to her. But eventually, she stopped caring. If he had a problem with her or any of the other newsies, it was his problem.
After three days of dealing with a brooding Spot, Myst was exhausted. They had finished selling their afternoon rounds and he just took off without a word, leaving her standing in front of the lodging house ready to scream. She pounded up the stairs to go mull alone in her bedroom. She was so frustrated she didn't even notice poor Spike until it was too late. Myst nearly pummeled through him but thankfully he caught his balance on the hallway wall before falling completely over.
"Hey! What's a matter with you?" he asked with genuine concern in his voice.
This only made Myst feel more guilty. She wasn't intentionally trying to take her anger out on anyone else. "I'm sorry." She threw her hand to forehead and released a frustrated sigh. "It's just Spot. He is driving me crazy!"
Spike sent her a knowing look before replying, "Want to talk about it?"
"Yes. No. I don't know. I don't want to bother you with my issues."
"Come on," he grabbed her hand and dragged her the rest of the way up to her bedroom. As they entered he pulled out a deck of cards and took a seat on her bed. "Playing cards always calms me down," he supplied when she shot him a confused glance.
Myst took her cue and joined him on the bed. As he began to deal her in, they started talking about everything on her mind.
Night had well since fallen and Myst had turned on the light in her room so her and Spike could continue playing. He was right; she did feel a world better. It was just the kind of thing Race would have done for her. Of course, Race usually beat her every time. Spike was good, but Myst had actually managed to win at a few hands.
Spike was right in the middle of teaching her how to play black jack, when her bathroom door suddenly swung open.
"Well now, what do we have here?" Spot sneered down at the two of them.
Myst rolled her eyes and went to tell him to shove it and get lost, when Spike jumped up and answered before her. "Sorry Spot. I was just teaching her some card games." Myst looked over at Spike like he was nuts. Spike was nearly twice the size of Spot, yet he was apologizing to him?
Spot walked over to stand inches away from Spike. "Didn't I tell you to stay clear of her? Twice now?"
"What's so wrong with someone wanting to spend time with me? Just because you can't stand to be in a room with me, doesn't mean everyone else feels the same." Myst spat out.
Spot glanced over at her for a brief second before returning his gaze to Spike. "I'll deal with you later." Taking Spot's hint, Spike quickly moved out of the small bedroom, never once glimpsing over at Myst. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" All of Spot's attention was now focused solely on Myst.
Not especially in the mood to deal with Spot or his shifting moods, Myst stood up to face him, wanting to get this whole ordeal over with fast. "Mind explaining what exactly you are referring to?" she asked. Her voice was as laid-back as possible.
"You know what I'm talking about! How do you think it looks, you alone in your room with a guy?" he shouted over at her.
"What do you call this then? You're a guy; I'm alone with you now." She snipped back, anger rising inside her at his accusation.
"That's- That's different!" he screamed out.
"How? How it is different?!"
"Because it's me!" his voice strained out.
"So? What makes you so special?! Why do you get to be above the law?" In truth, Myst only said this for one purpose. She wanted him to admit how he really felt. Admit why he ran every time they'd almost kissed.
Unfortunately, he only supplemented, "Because it's my law! I can break it however I want!" before storming back into the bathroom and slamming the door in her face.
I need a break she thought as she stared at the closed door.
The next day, Myst woke up and went about her morning routine, completely avoiding Spot. She noticed him waiting outside for her, but she simply walked right past him. The whole way to the distribution center, she could feel his eyes on her back, but instead of turning around and confronting him, she kept her head forward. Spot was always the first to buy his papers in the morning, so Myst held back allowing him to pass. She waited until Spike came into view and handed him a note, before heading out. She wasn't planning on selling today; she just wanted Spot to think she was.
By the time she made it to the Brooklyn Bridge, she could hear the newsies behind her start to shout out headlines. This only made her walk faster. She wasn't sure how Spot would feel about her going to Manhattan for a day, but she knew how all the other Brooklyn newsies would feel. Technically, the two boroughs had decided not to step foot on one another's grounds for the time being. Myst wasn't exactly sure where she stood on these terms since she was a Manhattan newsies living in Brooklyn, but she was going anyway.
When she finally made it over to Manhattan it was near lunch so she headed over to Tibby's. When she entered the restaurant filled with newsies, everyone instantly fell dead silent.
"Wow, with such a warm welcoming, a girl would think you didn't want her here." She flashed a smirk, hoping to break the silence in the room.
Jack stood up and walked over to her. He embraced her in a tight hug before pulling back slightly to look her very critically in the eyes. "Are you ok, Myst? Did something happen in Brooklyn?"
Deciding not to admit about her fight with Spot since that would only bring up more questions, she replied, "Um... No. I just missed you guys. And since no one has bothered to even come visit me, "she sent Race a pointed look before transferring it back to Jack, "I decided to come see you guys myself."
"Hey now, it isn't our fault we can't go into Brooklyn," Race said. He knew she was mostly joking, but she could detect some guilt in his eyes.
As Jack led her over to his table, conversation slowly began to pick up around her. After the waiter left with her order, she turned back to face Jack. "So what's been going on over here? Any news on dad?"
Jack looked down at the plate in front of him, which was never a good sign, "Mush says he saw him the other day when he was on his way to Midtown. About a week ago a letter came for you. Kloppman says he never saw the man before, but that he was older."
"Letter? Did you read it? What did it say?" she asked right as her food was delivered.
"Yeah, I read it..."
"Well?" All Myst could think about was why Jack was still refusing to look her in the eye. She knew that trick well; he was hiding something from her.
"Let's just say, you have to stay in Brooklyn until we can figure out what to do with dad." Finally Jack looked at her. He still wasn't telling her the full truth, but she noticed fear in his eyes.
"What did it say, Jack?" she asked very directly.
"We'll talk about it later," Jack glanced around the room as though stating there were too many listeners at the moment. Myst decided to put it aside for the moment and try to focus on something other than drama, something she had been dealing with too much lately.
As she began to eat, a new emotion started to swell inside her. Frustration. She thought by coming to Manhattan, by surprising Jack, she would spend one day surrounded by love. Yet ever since she had walked into the diner, she got an insatiable feeling like she didn't belong here anymore. Like her being in Manhattan was inconvenient for everyone else.
It was around noon and Spot's anger had well surpassed its boiling point. He had every intention of apologizing to Myst today, yet it was a little hard to apologize to someone who was nowhere to be found. The only thing stronger than his anger was his sheer worry for her. It wasn't like her to take off without so much as a warning. To make matters worse, every newsies he saw today claimed they hadn't seen her around either.
Spot's mood was affecting him so poorly. He had hardly even sold any papers over the course of the day. He finally decided to give up completely and focus on finding her, though he wasn't quite sure if he'd apologize or wring her neck for causing him to worry. When he finished selling back all his remaining papers, he started to head out on his search when he heard someone call out to him. He turned to see Spike running up the street towards him.
Considering that Spike was on his to-kill-for-disobeying-me list, he found it slightly odd that the newsies was making his attention known. Most of his newsies knew to lay low and let Spot cool off for a few days if they had crossed him. Yet here was Spike, screaming his name. Instantly, an envious voice in his head told him to look around for Myst, figuring that they were together. However, she was nowhere to be seen.
Once Spike had caught up to him he merely handed Spot a note. Spot glared up at Spike before asking, "What's this?"
"It's from Myst. She told me to get it to you."
Spot unfolded the note and anger began to course through him even stronger, though now, he wasn't sure who it was aimed at.
Spot, I've left for Manhattan, if you even care. –Myst.
He crumbled the note up and stuffed it in his pocket before walking away, not even bothering to acknowledge Spike. He was heading to Manhattan.
After lunch Jack and Race walked back to the lodging house with Myst. Jack had stayed quiet the whole trip. Once they got inside and up to the bunkroom, Jack led them over to his bunk and pulled a wrinkled note out from his pillow casing. Myst's hands began shaking as she read each word five times over.
I don't forget where I brought you, whore! You ruined my life, now I'll ruin yours. And I WILL finish what I started...
"Myst?" Jack had evidently had been trying to get her attention but she had been so lost in her thoughts that she didn't hear him at first.
"Huh? What?" she threw the note back onto Jack's bed, not wanting to look at it again.
"What is he talking about? Where did he bring you?" he was looking at her seriously, waiting for an answer.
Myst glanced over to see the same look on Racetrack's face, but she didn't know how to answer them.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
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