Chapter 2
Jack smiled, gratefully accepting the pennie for his last paper. Dropping it in his pocket with the others, he removed the coyboyhat off his head, wiping the beads of sweat from his forehead. High noon or somewhere around that time Jack had guessed. Whatever time it was he was heading over to Tibby's. Food, friends, relaxation. The only time he expected to get some today. A newsies job was never done.
Jack grinned entering Tibby's; the small bell ringing like it did everyday. His eyes wandered, only to see the placed was filled with Manhatten newsies, and the noise was overbearing. Jack manuvered his way through the crowd, receiving enough slaps on his back for three lifetimes. He plopped himself down in a booth, along with Racetrack, Mush and Kid Blink.
"Hey you guys. How was your selling day."
Race threw his bread down and shook his head. "Fine. Same old same old. I picked my papes up, and I sold them. Nothing ever changes around here."
Jack pointed a thumb, looking towards Blink, and Mush for some kind of explanation. "What's the matter with him?"
"Bad day at the races." Blink replied.
Jack nodded. "Well there will be other days. How about you guys, anything exciting happen that I should hear about?"
Blink leanded over the table, motioning Jack to do the same. His eyes watching the others behinde him not wanting to cause somekind of huge riot. Anything could stur a newsie up.
"I heard this rumor going around, I don't know if it's true or not though. Something about the Dalancey brothers getting soaked by some girl. Morris said they were pickpockets and they tried to rob him, but that scab is a damn liar. He probaly just couldn't take her."
"Whoa, wait, when did this supposingly happen, and how did it get past me?"
"Don't know the time, but it happened outside the pub about four blocks from here."
Jack sat back confused. If this soaking supposingly happened then would Spot be here. He always enjoyed a good fight with the Dalancey brothers, especially if it envolved a girl. Blink must have read his mind because he then replied.
"Newsies from Brooklyn were just in here before you came. Spot will be down here before you know it."
Jack groaned inwardly. All hell is going to break lose. Not because of the Dalancey brothers, or the fight, if he heard the word pickpocket he was going to go off. Spot may have been the leader of the Brooklyn newsies, and got involed in a few fights in his time but he was a decent guy. He believed the classes should stick together, and that meant looking out for one another. Pickpockets were not something he took lightly. Jack rose from his seat the release Race from the booth. Race turned giving one more slap to Jack's back.
"Sorry, we got to go. Daily poker game tonight."
"Hey Race do me a favor," Jack asked grabbing his arm lightly. "If I'm not back before Spot gets there tonight send somebody for me. I got to talk to him."
"Will do cowboy."
Race gave Jack another slap before he left, along with Mush and Blink, leaving Jack with his thoughts. Sitting back down in the booth he began to eat the dinner the waiter brought over while he talked with Blink. Jack chewed his food thoughtfully. He had to think of a way to flip the story. No pickpockets, just the Dalancey's and the fight. Yea, that's was he would do. However, he had to get to Spot first.
Jack pushed his plate away and patted his full stomach. He now sat alone. The other newsies left only moments ago alowing him to have a comforting silence.
The little bell above the door rang again, causing Jack's head to turn. Spot?…No just two girls fifthteen maybe sixteen. He whistled inwardly, not wanting to catch their attention. A catcall if that's what you wanted to call it. They weren't what he would call beautiful, or even attractive, but they way they dressed caught his attention. Both wore similar clothes to him, which surprised him to say the least. He hadn't seen girls like this around here before. He snapped out of his trance, the brunette literally dropping her friend into a seat. She was either extremly tired, or extremly drunk.
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Nichole dropped Mary down. Sitting opposite of her, she lit a cigarette and turned away. She didn't want to look at her only friend in this condition. The what-ifs and buts flashed through her mind, causing her to cringe noticebly. If she could afford it, she would buy ten packs of cigarettes and smoke every single on of them right there. Her head pounded, and she was sleep deprived.
Mary said something, but it only came out in gibberish. Nichole turned, not even going to try to ask what she just mumbled. She swallowed the lump in her throat as she took her first good look at her friend. Mary was absolutly wasted, and the fact that this was her first time to drink didn't help. Sucking the rest of the life out of the cigarette, she snubbed it on the table.
"Do you have any idea how dangerous what you just did was?"
Mary responded by resting her head on her folded arms. Her head pounded, feeling as if her skull had been ripped in two. She knew everything Nichole was rammbling on about was true. She had long ago thought of asking "What about you? You get drunk all the time!" Yes, she thought about saying it…yelling it. However, she hadn't, not yet anyway. She had done this for one reason and one reason only. To escape reality. The outcome wasn't what she had planned it to be.
Mary lifted her head, barely. The pain was still imennse. She tapped Nichole's elbow to get her attention. "Nichole…Nichole…Nichole…Shut up!" She rested her head in her head a few moments before continuing.
" I know what I did was wrong and I'm sorry. I…I just…I don't know what I was thinking." You liar, you know exacly what you were thinking and doing. Your just afraid to tell Nick the truth.
Nichole turned her glare down to the table, taken back by Mary's outburst. "Well you should have been thinking! Do you have any idea what would have happened to you if I hadn't came at the time I did? Those boys…they would have tired…tired too…"
Mary grabbed Nichole's hand to comfort her as her voice faded. Silence washed over the yelling and arguing. Their moment was quickly inturrupted by a young man literally falling into the resturant. He bent over, trying to regain the air in his lungs. He stood, his eyes darting directly to the back.
"Hey Jack!" His voice held a heavy New York accent, like most around here. "Did you hear about the Dalancey's? They both got soaked by some girl."
Jack rolled his eyes and watched as the Brooklyn newsie walked towards him. He never made it though, stopping he examined the brunette's face, his eyes flashing with shock and disbelieve. "Yous the girl. Yous the girl that soaked the Dalanceys."
Nichole groaned both shocked and annoyed. She slammed her hand down on the table with a sigh, causing the boy to jump slightly away from her. His face was still of disbelieve.
"Goddamit! We're in Brooklyn for what? Two days? And we are already screwed."
If it was possible Mary's headach suddenly worstened. There goes that word, Nick's trademark word. If you wanted to know when they were in deep shit, just listen for Nick to say, "We're screwed." Mary eyed the lone boy and almost laughed at his expression. New York girls obviously didn't know how to fight. She began to lay her head back in its previous position, but was ripped to her feet when Nichole grabbed her by the wrist, dragging her outside.
"Yous two better watch your backs. The Dalanceys are lookin to soak you."
Grabbing a breadstick from a basket that lay on a table, Nichole turned to face the boy. Bestowing him an obscene gesture, she ripped the bread out of her mouth taking the end with it, and walked out the door leaving the boy it yet another stage of shock.
Jack slapped the boy on the back, his eyebrows raised in amusment. He couldn't help but release a snicker. "Well, she's a fiesty one, ain't she?"
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Nichole paced the musky alleyway, her eyes searching everywhich way waiting for any kind of danger. She stopped for only a split second, to eye Mary who slept in a fedal position on the cobblestone ground.
Two days they sat in that dirty alley switching position, one sleeping, the other looking out for anything suspicious. Both days they hadn't heard anything, and Nichole was beginning to become anxious. Picturing the last four days they spent in Brooklyn caused her blood to rush. Not even in one place for a week and they were already screwed over.
God, it was exciting. The danger, the fear, the what-ifs of being caught. Hell she wouldn't worry about that until the basterds corner her in an alley. Growing up not knowing her parents, or where she came from taught her to not take shit from anyone, stare danger in the face. Which help her through her difficult life, but also almost got her killed.
Nichole sat against the hard brick watching her shadow appear as the sun sank down in the sky. Evening taking over the day. She moved over as Mary sturred and sat up out of her sleep.
Mary placed a hand over her mouth to surpress the yawn that was yearning to be released, and eyed Nichole tiredly. "Anything happen while I was asleep?"
Nichole stood and walked towards the opposite wall, sliding down in a sitting position again. "Well, I'm still here, and we're still in the same alley we've been in for two days, so…nope nothing happened."
"For Christ sake, you think they would have found us already. There has to be more then two of them looking for us."
"You want them to find us?" Nichole asked confused with her friend's words.
"No! It's just this anxiety. It's going to kill me before this damn thing blows over." Mary leaned her head back banging it lightly before continuing. "I just want everything to be back the way it was before we came here."
Nichole was still confused. Was she saying she wanted to go back? Go back to the hellhole they grew up in?
"You want to go back to the orphanage?"
Mary was surprised by the hurt and resentment that flowed out with Nchole's voice. "No. I…I don't really know what I want anymore. Our lives are so screwed up it's impossible to think they're going to improve. Maybe we could just go back for a few years, until we are eighteen. Everything sould be fine then."
Wherever that hurt and resetment came from the first time she spoke, it was gone now. Anger took over. After all these years of friendship, Mary just wanted to go and throw it away.
"You want to go back, well you go ahead and go back, but you're going by yourself, cause I ain't going nowhere."
Mary stared after her as she walked out of the alley, tears threatening to spill over her eyes. She quickly composed herself and chased after her.
"You know I can't make it without you. I don't want to stay here anymore. I want to be somewhere where I feel safe. I want a real bed, real clothes, real food. I don't want to have to go around and steal to live." By the time she finished the tears spilled over and dripped down her face.
Nichole had long ago turned and stared at her friend, her eyes holding no compassion what so ever. Her inside however were being torn apart. Another thing she learned living in the streets. Never show your emotions. "You think if you leave New York everything will dissapear? Well, you thought wrong. We are going to be chased and threathened wherever we go, because we screwed up." She poked herself in the chest harshly trying to release somewhat of her anger. "We screwed up and we can't go back and change it. We have to go forward and deal with it. You can't just turn around retrace your steps and pretend like nothing happened, because it is always going to be there with you."
Nichole turned away from Mary again, her own words echoing through her head. IWe screwed up and we can't go back to change it./I Hell that was a lie. The truth was she screwed up, not Mary. She was just an innocent onlooker, dragged through Nichole's many problems. Both stood in silence, Nichole listening to Mary's occasional sniffel and Mary listening the any sign Nichole would forgive her.
They both turned to look at one another at the same time, their eyes holding the same look of fear, and confusion. The sound, they both heard it. Footsteps, a mass of them. They both stared to their left, the way the noise was coming from and froze. They didn't move until they saw the first group of boys round the corner, chains, sticks and other weapons in their hands.
Neither of the girls waited to see if they were indeed after them. They took off running, their feet pounding against the hard ground. Masculine hoots and yells erupted through the quiet night encouraging the girls to give all their energy into running.
They went on like that, block after block after block. Their feet becoming tired, but they never slowed. The yells died down and became almost an echo in the night, and by that, Nichole judged the distance between the two groups. Deciding they were as far away as they were going to get, she ran to a house trying the door. Locked.
They tried a second a third and a fourth, but none opened. Nichole jumped over the ralling of the stoop she stood on and jumped to another, determined to not give up. She tried the knob and to her suprise, it turned. Runnig down the steps she grabbed Mary roughly and threw her through the door then entered herself, shutting the door and leaning against it.
Nichole closed her eyes trying to regain her breath. A jab in the side released a choke from her throat, and she turned towards Mary, questionably. Mary didn't say anything she just grabbed her face roughly and turned it to stare in front of her. Any comfort Nichole held in her body left as her eyes searched over a sea of boys, wairly. The boys stood as shocked as the two girls, ceasing their activities to stare and gape.
"They musn't get many girl visitors, or see many girls for that matter." Mary thought almost laughing. "How the hell are we going to get out of this one?"
Nichole answered her question when she leaned over whispering something in her ear. Run? Yea that was it. She watched Nichole point secretly to a door that look like it led up to the roof. With their luck it probaly didn't.
Taking a chance they ran for it, throwing the door open. Thank god, it wasn't locked. A flight of stairs loomed in front of them. Running up them two by two, they barged through the door at the top and ended up outside on the roof. They leaned against it.
"Ha, I knew It lead up to the roof. I just knew it." Nichole boosted, breathlessly.
Mary gave her a sarcastic smile. "Yea, yea. I don't think it's the time or place to be boosting. We are stuck on a roof that houses boys, which are probaly downstairs wondering what the just happened. What are we going to do?"
Nichole stared thoughtfully at the ground. Grabbing anything she could find, which was a stick, she jammed it into the door to hold it closed. Mary carefully lifted her weight off the door making sure it wouldn't open. When she was sure it wasn't she joined Nichole at the edge of the roof and stared down at the streets with her.
"You aren't planning to jump are you?"
Nichole shook her head and leaned over the get a better look of the street. "Nope. But I think I figured something out."
"And whats that?" Mary looked at her almost afraid to ask.
"That's the only way down."
Mary would have laughed at that remark in any other situation, but now wasn't the time.
"Hey, what do you two think yous are doing?"
They turned and were surprised to see a boy sixteen maybe seventeen, with a cowboy hat hanging from his neck, standing behind them. Mary's eyes looked him over. Damn, she hoped the others that lived here where attractive as he was.
Nichole smiled sheepishly at the boy, shrugging her shoulders. "Ummm, getting a better veiw of the city?" Mary rolled her eyes and watched the boy do the same. Maybe staying in the New York wouldn't be as terrible as she thought.