Newsiesettes – Chapter 6
A long while after it had gotten dark, I realized how tired I was. The good, faithful owner of Tibby's had told us we had to leave, he had to close up. So all of us went outside and hung around on the street and sidewalk, just talking and laughing. Then Spot said he wanted to go on home. This surprised me more than anything. Was he crazy? What on earth was he trying to prove? Sure he's old enough to go walking by himself, but this late? It was after midnight. The walk to Brooklyn was a long one.
"Are you crazy?" Oh, yes, what a way to be subtle, Emily. I told myself.
"What?" he asked. Had I offended him? Oh, great now I felt bad.
"I'm sorry. It's just…do you really want to walk all the way to Brooklyn?"
"I ain't got much of a choice do I?"
That was when Jack stood up and said "You could stay at the Lodging House. It's just one night, we have extra beds." Then he got that ever famous twinkle in his eye and he grinned. I guessed what he was going to say before he said it. "And we have Emily's bed."
"Yeah, we sure do, and its open to you…whenever you need it." I looked up at Spot and smiled. The guys broke into fits of yelling.
Spot looked at me for a moment, possibly contemplating all I had said, and responded with, "Be careful what you say, I might just take you up on that offer." This only contributed to the yelling.
I threw Lisa and Glitz a look that said maybe we should go home. I wasn't really sure if sticking around to be ridiculed and God knows what else by a group of drunken newsies was how I wanted to spend the next few hours.
Glitz took my hint, stood up and said "I'm so tired. I believe I'll be heading home now."
Glitz and I both looked at Lisa. She just stared at us. I cleared my throat. She snapped back into attention and said,
"Um. Yeah, me too."
Well, if you couldn't have told from their behavior, you would've known the guys were drunk from the way they bought our sorry act.
Blink jumped up and said "You girls can't go off now. It's too late, too dark and you'd be all alone." That brought everyone to life and they all joined in on choruses of agreement.
Jack looked at the three of us and said "Spot, David and I'll walk ya home." I could tell from the looks of Glitz and Lisa's faces they'd never been happier. I didn't really want to be escorted home, but I smiled and thanked Jack for the offer.
Lisa linked arms with David, and Glitz with Jack. Spot threw his arm around my shoulders and I couldn't help but think how very well the six of us went together
