Angelfish7-You'll have to wait and see, but I don't see Diamond
getting back with Spot in this story, sorry :/
Hills of Eire-Oh you bet I will make Sadie act more like a Brooklyn girl, thanks for your reviews
Kellyerielf--- Thank you so much, I hope I can continue doing such a good job, like you described. :)
Walking up to a door that had a simple sign painted over the top that read 'Newsboys Lodging House', the two girls greeted a few boys who were sitting on the front stoop smoking. One was Racetrack, who grinned at Diamond, and then bent over Sadie's hand kissing it.
"Good evenin' ladies. Wonderful night, just wonderful." Diamond snickered with laughter at the short Italian boy. He put a hand to his heart over his checkered vest and pretended to look mournful.
"You hurt me, Diamond really you do. I'm just trying to welcome the new girl. Plus, I made a killing at the tracks." Sadie noticed that he appeared unmarked and curiously asked him why none of Spot's boys had gotten him.
"My lucky day, they weren't at the track. Poker anyone?" Tapping ash off of his cigar, he swaggered inside followed by the two other boys, Kid Blink and Snoddy. Diamond and Sadie shrugged and looked at each other before going inside after them. Diamond paused to sign her name in at the ledger on a creaky old desk squatting in the corner. A wrinkled, tough looking old man with a black bowler hat and spectacles sat on a stool, barking commands to the four little boys sword fighting in his lobby with wooden swords.
"Tumbler! Fly! Jinx! Crouch! You better not put holes in any of these walls or I swear it'll be your hides! Good evening Diamond, who's this?" Sadie found herself being assessed by a pair of surprisingly warm brown eyes.
"Her name's Sadie, Kloppman. She's just stayin' the night. She comes from Brooklyn." Sadie groaned inwardly. Surely the old man wouldn't react kindly to anyone coming from Brooklyn right now, but he just patted her hand and told her to sign the book.
"Spot used to be a regular over-niter here. He just needs some time to calm down." Sadie nodded and said something in agreement as she wrote her name beneath Diamond's. Together the two girls dodged the small boys and clattered up the stairs. Sadie began to wish that she wore pants like the other girls she had seen. It was easier for them to move around and run than in heavy woolen skirts.
Once upstairs, Sadie found herself in a hallway. There were only two rooms, one quite large, and the other a little bit smaller. Both were full of bunk beds. The larger room opened up into a washroom at one end with stalls to go to the bathroom, sinks with mirrors, and a pump with a metal laundry tub to wash with. Most of the kids only really bathed in the summer, when it was warm out. It took too long to heat up the water in the winter. Especially if the pipes happened to freeze, as they often did. In the larger room, boys lounged on bunk beds or sat at a small circular table propped up in one corner, playing cards. Diamond led Sadie into the smaller room first, where she realized the girls all slept. The loud buzz of chatter instantly died as the came through the doorway.
"What's SHE doin' here?" Sadie recognized the speaker as the girl Ink, who had accosted her before. The two others, Sorrow and Cloudy glowered at her from the bunk bed they shared. Sorrow was a rather thin, willowy girl with silver hair in a thick braid like Sadie's and chocolate brown eyes. Cloudy could have been Sadie's younger sister; their coloring was the same. Black hair, gray eyes, pale skin. There were only two other girls in the room, both younger than all the other girls, who were easily in their mid-teens.
"I am named Sadie, and I am spending the night. Deal with it." Diamond covered her smile with a hand and winked at Sadie as she pointed out her bunkbed. The bottom looked slept in, but the top was all made up so Sadie assumed nobody shared it with her.
"I ain't sleepin in the same room as someone who lives with the rat who's been soaking our boys. One of 'em almost got Sorrow a few days ago!" Ink's face was livid with rage, and her fists were clenched. Black eye's snapping, she advanced on Sadie. That was when all the anger about having to leave home to live with a bunch of rude boys, with one in particular who treated her like a piece of dog shit he found on his boot, because of another boy who threatened her kicked in and Sadie lost her temper.
"THAT'S IT! I've had just about enough of this! I don't agree with what Spot's doing, I just live in his lodging house. My friend is the new manager there, and I had to leave home and that's the ONLY place I could think of to go! I'M not the one beating up ANYBODY, so you can take your attitude and stick it up your ASS!" With that, she shoved Ink so hard that the girl flew backwards a few feet and slammed into the adjacent wall. Ink leapt up and charged Sadie, swinging a fist towards her face, but Sadie ducked and socked her in the kidney. Ink bent over in pain, dropping the cigar she had been chewing on out of her mouth onto the wooden floor. Wheezing, she backed up until she could lean against the two younger girls' bunk and looked up at Sadie.
"Jesus Christ where did you learn to hit like that?" Sadie, face flushed and adrenaline pumping, just shrugged.
"I'm from Boston. We didn't live in a nice neighborhood." Ink suddenly laughed and rubbing her lower back, picked up her cigar before clapping Sadie on the shoulder.
"And all this time I thought you looked like a milk sop. Way to prove me wrong. You're okay kid. I'm sure you already know, but I'm Ink, that's Sorrow and Cloudy, and the two other girls are Truth and Snide. I'm sorry to do this but," Ink suddenly lashed out with a right jab that caught Sadie in the eye. Sadie's head flew back and she hissed in pain.
"I can't let ya hit me and not at least get one in. Are we even now?" Sadie caught the slight hint of apprehension in the other girl's voice and smiled through her hurt. Diamond had cried out, and pulling Sadie over to her bed, she took her hands away from her face and examined the eye.
"Yeah, I'd say you're even. That wasn't a fair hit, Ink." Sorrow stood nearby, hands on her narrow hips, frowning. Ink shrugged, and made a face. Diamond turned her head and barked an order to Cloudy to go get something for Sadie's eye.
"Good Lord, what're you girls doing in here, starting your own amateur boxing ring?" Amused faces of some of the boys appeared in the doorway. Jack stalked in and pointed a finger at Ink.
"I told you to let her alone, but you didn't. You want I should kick your ass out of here?" Ink shook her head and Jack gave her a cold look for a few more seconds before swatting at her head playfully.
"Then mind your ass, or it'll get a kicking from me." Kneeling down so that he was level with Sadie, he peered at her eye as well.
"Yup, you're going to have one hell of a shiner. Did you get a good hit in at least?" Ink lifted up her burgundy colored shirt to reveal a welt on her skin where her kidney was. Jack and the other boys crowed with laughter. Cloudy returned with a cloth carrying some ice Kloppman had spared. Sadie was herded into the boy's room with the rest of the girls to play a few hands of poker. She noticed that the other girls looked at her differently now, and even began to joke around with her and talk to her like they talked to the rest of the gang. They sat up for an hour or two before Kloppman came up the stairs hollering for them all to go to bed, didn't they know they had to get up early just like every other day? After some good-natured grumbling, everyone retired to his or her bunks.
"G'night Brooklyn," she heard Ink say in the darkness. Sadie grinned, and although her eye still throbbed and was swollen shut, it was a good pain. Turning onto her side, she drifted off to sleep.
Sadie awoke with Kloppman yelling once again, for all the kids to 'Get up! Carry da Banner!' She heard thumps as people rolled out of their bunks and blearily stumbled into the washroom to splash cold water on their faces. Rolling out of bed, she stumbled into the washroom after the rest of the girls, and with an escort of Racetrack and Kid Blink, made it to the Brooklyn Bridge. After bidding the two boy's goodbye, she found her way to the street where Spot had pointed out the orphanage and spent most of the day looking after the infants that were in her charge. The afternoon found her down on the docks with Spider, Lefty, and Frog. They had decided to show her how to use a slingshot, much to their amusement. The setting afternoon sun found her shooting targets off of a far dock railing. Spot decided to check on them before the sun sank beneath the East River.
"Where did you get that black eye?" Sadie leapt in shock at his question, not expecting it. Spot stood near the railing, wearing a red and white gingham checkered shirt with his usual red suspenders and dark brown trousers. Pulling back the rubber on her slingshot, she sighted down her arm towards a bottle sitting perched on a railing.
"I got it in Manhattan." Spot frowned and then smiled widely as she missed the bottle by a long shot. Stepping behind her, he took her hands in his own, set up the slingshot again, aimed their arms and hit the bottle off of the railing. Face flushing, Sadie mumbled her thanks and glared at Spider, who was snickering off to one side. Smugly, Spot tapped his cane on the dock, and gave the three other boys a pointed look. They said good-bye to Sadie, and immediately trooped off down the dock towards the lodging house.
"Manhattan, huh? Who hit ya?" Spot leaned against a pillar and lit a smoke.
"Ink." Spot's mouth lifted into a crooked smile and squinted as the sun hit his eyes.
"Ink's a tough broad. Mostly mouth, but she can hit."
"Yeah well I hit her in the kidney."
"You?"
"Yeah" Spot's eyebrows raised and he laughed this time, a gruff, infectious sound.
"I'm impressed kid. You don't seem like you got it in ya." Spot flicked his cigarette and looked suddenly hesitant.
"How was Diamond? Did you meet a girl named Diamond?" Sadie's eyes dropped to her feet, and she fidgeted before sitting down on a crate. Spot moved over and sat on the crate next to her, his gaze intent.
"Yeah. I met her. I helped her sell her papers. She seemed okay. She isn't very happy with the way things are going." Spot spat onto the dock and his eyebrows furrowed in anger. Sadie put her hands on her knees and gripped them tightly. Spot suddenly lost all the tension in his back and shoulders and he threw his cigarette off of the dock before sighing heavily.
"I can't keep beating up Manhattan kids for what her and Jack have done. I know it ain't their faults. I just wish." He stopped and pulled a small, battered, tarnished silver flask out of his back pocket and took a swig. Wincing, he held it out to Sadie. Gingerly taking it from his newsprint stained hands, she took a swallow and coughed at the burning liquid that flooded down her throat. It gathered in her stomach in a molten pool of whiskey, making her feel deliciously warm in the rapidly cooling air.
" Ever had whiskey before?" Sadie looked up and their eyes caught. Shaking her head, he took the flask back and swallowed more before handing it to her again.
"It goes down easier as you drink more. Got any plans?"
"No not that I know of."
"Good. Me and you are going to sit here and drink this, and you're going to tell me about your visit to Manhattan." Not one to argue with someone who was never argued with, Sadie nodded her acceptance and began her story of the day and night before. When she was done, she sat back, feeling light-headed and realized that she hadn't eaten anything all day. It had grown dark, and the street lamps had gone on. The black water of the river slapped gently against the dock's pilings and lulled the two teenagers into a mellow state. Belly's filled with cheap whiskey helped that along as well.
"Diamond must hate me." Spot's voice made her jerk her nodding head up and she blinked in confusion. Seeing the glowing tip of a cigarette next to her, she remembered that she was sitting with Spot at the docks.
"She doesn't hate you, she told me she loves you. Just not in the way I think you want her to." Spot laughed bitterly and Sadie winced at the sound.
"I know you don't know me from a hole in the wall and could probably give a rat's ass about what I have to say, but I think that Diamond and Jack care about you very much, Spot. I think you care about them too. And I think it scares the shit out of you." Liquid courage fueled her words, and Sadie ranted on, not heeding what she was saying.
"You think that because she left you, she's a whore and Jack should get beaten. But there had to have been something that you did to make her leave, Spot. Why can't you take your part of the blame instead of laying it all on them?"
"Shut up." Spot's voice was raw and hoarse. Grabbing Sadie's shoulders he stood up, ripping her to her feet along with him. He bent his head so that they were nose to nose, and she could smell the whiskey on his breath.
"You got a lot of balls, talking to me like that Sadie. Or should I call you Trouble? You do always seem to be landing yourself straight in the middle of it on a daily basis." Sadie didn't speak, just rigidly lay on his chest trying to ignore the pinching grip of his hands. Spot suddenly dipped his head lower and kissed her. It was a gentle half-kiss. One that wasn't demanding and was almost just a pressing of his lips to hers. Sadie's eyes widened and she squirmed.
"What're you doing?" She managed to say when he pulled his mouth away. Dropping his hands from her arms, he smiled and she could see the white flash of his teeth in the moonlight.
"You reminded me of her for a moment there." Sadie felt anger course through her veins and she reached out with a quick hand and slapped him across the face. Spot's hand shot out like a viper striking and he grabbed her to him again.
"Spare me your shit, Conlon. I don't let boys kiss me because I remind them of their old girls." Sadie hissed at him through clenched teeth. She felt Spot's chest vibrate with laughter. Tilting her chin up with a finger, he gazed down at her.
"How about because we're drunk then?" Sadie shoved against his chest and angrily shook her head. He was a rather solid young man for someone who looked so lean. Spot sighed and let her go before reaching down and picking up his cane from the crates where they had been sitting.
"Have it your way then Trouble. At least let me walk you back to the lodging house. It's dark, you're drunk, and there's no way in Hell I'm letting you skip around the streets of Brooklyn at night by yourself." Sadie stuck her nose in the air and hitched her shawl up around her shoulders tightly.
"Fine," she said walking past him with a sniff.
"And don't call me Trouble," she added before stalking away, him following his laughter echoing in the night.
Hills of Eire-Oh you bet I will make Sadie act more like a Brooklyn girl, thanks for your reviews
Kellyerielf--- Thank you so much, I hope I can continue doing such a good job, like you described. :)
Walking up to a door that had a simple sign painted over the top that read 'Newsboys Lodging House', the two girls greeted a few boys who were sitting on the front stoop smoking. One was Racetrack, who grinned at Diamond, and then bent over Sadie's hand kissing it.
"Good evenin' ladies. Wonderful night, just wonderful." Diamond snickered with laughter at the short Italian boy. He put a hand to his heart over his checkered vest and pretended to look mournful.
"You hurt me, Diamond really you do. I'm just trying to welcome the new girl. Plus, I made a killing at the tracks." Sadie noticed that he appeared unmarked and curiously asked him why none of Spot's boys had gotten him.
"My lucky day, they weren't at the track. Poker anyone?" Tapping ash off of his cigar, he swaggered inside followed by the two other boys, Kid Blink and Snoddy. Diamond and Sadie shrugged and looked at each other before going inside after them. Diamond paused to sign her name in at the ledger on a creaky old desk squatting in the corner. A wrinkled, tough looking old man with a black bowler hat and spectacles sat on a stool, barking commands to the four little boys sword fighting in his lobby with wooden swords.
"Tumbler! Fly! Jinx! Crouch! You better not put holes in any of these walls or I swear it'll be your hides! Good evening Diamond, who's this?" Sadie found herself being assessed by a pair of surprisingly warm brown eyes.
"Her name's Sadie, Kloppman. She's just stayin' the night. She comes from Brooklyn." Sadie groaned inwardly. Surely the old man wouldn't react kindly to anyone coming from Brooklyn right now, but he just patted her hand and told her to sign the book.
"Spot used to be a regular over-niter here. He just needs some time to calm down." Sadie nodded and said something in agreement as she wrote her name beneath Diamond's. Together the two girls dodged the small boys and clattered up the stairs. Sadie began to wish that she wore pants like the other girls she had seen. It was easier for them to move around and run than in heavy woolen skirts.
Once upstairs, Sadie found herself in a hallway. There were only two rooms, one quite large, and the other a little bit smaller. Both were full of bunk beds. The larger room opened up into a washroom at one end with stalls to go to the bathroom, sinks with mirrors, and a pump with a metal laundry tub to wash with. Most of the kids only really bathed in the summer, when it was warm out. It took too long to heat up the water in the winter. Especially if the pipes happened to freeze, as they often did. In the larger room, boys lounged on bunk beds or sat at a small circular table propped up in one corner, playing cards. Diamond led Sadie into the smaller room first, where she realized the girls all slept. The loud buzz of chatter instantly died as the came through the doorway.
"What's SHE doin' here?" Sadie recognized the speaker as the girl Ink, who had accosted her before. The two others, Sorrow and Cloudy glowered at her from the bunk bed they shared. Sorrow was a rather thin, willowy girl with silver hair in a thick braid like Sadie's and chocolate brown eyes. Cloudy could have been Sadie's younger sister; their coloring was the same. Black hair, gray eyes, pale skin. There were only two other girls in the room, both younger than all the other girls, who were easily in their mid-teens.
"I am named Sadie, and I am spending the night. Deal with it." Diamond covered her smile with a hand and winked at Sadie as she pointed out her bunkbed. The bottom looked slept in, but the top was all made up so Sadie assumed nobody shared it with her.
"I ain't sleepin in the same room as someone who lives with the rat who's been soaking our boys. One of 'em almost got Sorrow a few days ago!" Ink's face was livid with rage, and her fists were clenched. Black eye's snapping, she advanced on Sadie. That was when all the anger about having to leave home to live with a bunch of rude boys, with one in particular who treated her like a piece of dog shit he found on his boot, because of another boy who threatened her kicked in and Sadie lost her temper.
"THAT'S IT! I've had just about enough of this! I don't agree with what Spot's doing, I just live in his lodging house. My friend is the new manager there, and I had to leave home and that's the ONLY place I could think of to go! I'M not the one beating up ANYBODY, so you can take your attitude and stick it up your ASS!" With that, she shoved Ink so hard that the girl flew backwards a few feet and slammed into the adjacent wall. Ink leapt up and charged Sadie, swinging a fist towards her face, but Sadie ducked and socked her in the kidney. Ink bent over in pain, dropping the cigar she had been chewing on out of her mouth onto the wooden floor. Wheezing, she backed up until she could lean against the two younger girls' bunk and looked up at Sadie.
"Jesus Christ where did you learn to hit like that?" Sadie, face flushed and adrenaline pumping, just shrugged.
"I'm from Boston. We didn't live in a nice neighborhood." Ink suddenly laughed and rubbing her lower back, picked up her cigar before clapping Sadie on the shoulder.
"And all this time I thought you looked like a milk sop. Way to prove me wrong. You're okay kid. I'm sure you already know, but I'm Ink, that's Sorrow and Cloudy, and the two other girls are Truth and Snide. I'm sorry to do this but," Ink suddenly lashed out with a right jab that caught Sadie in the eye. Sadie's head flew back and she hissed in pain.
"I can't let ya hit me and not at least get one in. Are we even now?" Sadie caught the slight hint of apprehension in the other girl's voice and smiled through her hurt. Diamond had cried out, and pulling Sadie over to her bed, she took her hands away from her face and examined the eye.
"Yeah, I'd say you're even. That wasn't a fair hit, Ink." Sorrow stood nearby, hands on her narrow hips, frowning. Ink shrugged, and made a face. Diamond turned her head and barked an order to Cloudy to go get something for Sadie's eye.
"Good Lord, what're you girls doing in here, starting your own amateur boxing ring?" Amused faces of some of the boys appeared in the doorway. Jack stalked in and pointed a finger at Ink.
"I told you to let her alone, but you didn't. You want I should kick your ass out of here?" Ink shook her head and Jack gave her a cold look for a few more seconds before swatting at her head playfully.
"Then mind your ass, or it'll get a kicking from me." Kneeling down so that he was level with Sadie, he peered at her eye as well.
"Yup, you're going to have one hell of a shiner. Did you get a good hit in at least?" Ink lifted up her burgundy colored shirt to reveal a welt on her skin where her kidney was. Jack and the other boys crowed with laughter. Cloudy returned with a cloth carrying some ice Kloppman had spared. Sadie was herded into the boy's room with the rest of the girls to play a few hands of poker. She noticed that the other girls looked at her differently now, and even began to joke around with her and talk to her like they talked to the rest of the gang. They sat up for an hour or two before Kloppman came up the stairs hollering for them all to go to bed, didn't they know they had to get up early just like every other day? After some good-natured grumbling, everyone retired to his or her bunks.
"G'night Brooklyn," she heard Ink say in the darkness. Sadie grinned, and although her eye still throbbed and was swollen shut, it was a good pain. Turning onto her side, she drifted off to sleep.
Sadie awoke with Kloppman yelling once again, for all the kids to 'Get up! Carry da Banner!' She heard thumps as people rolled out of their bunks and blearily stumbled into the washroom to splash cold water on their faces. Rolling out of bed, she stumbled into the washroom after the rest of the girls, and with an escort of Racetrack and Kid Blink, made it to the Brooklyn Bridge. After bidding the two boy's goodbye, she found her way to the street where Spot had pointed out the orphanage and spent most of the day looking after the infants that were in her charge. The afternoon found her down on the docks with Spider, Lefty, and Frog. They had decided to show her how to use a slingshot, much to their amusement. The setting afternoon sun found her shooting targets off of a far dock railing. Spot decided to check on them before the sun sank beneath the East River.
"Where did you get that black eye?" Sadie leapt in shock at his question, not expecting it. Spot stood near the railing, wearing a red and white gingham checkered shirt with his usual red suspenders and dark brown trousers. Pulling back the rubber on her slingshot, she sighted down her arm towards a bottle sitting perched on a railing.
"I got it in Manhattan." Spot frowned and then smiled widely as she missed the bottle by a long shot. Stepping behind her, he took her hands in his own, set up the slingshot again, aimed their arms and hit the bottle off of the railing. Face flushing, Sadie mumbled her thanks and glared at Spider, who was snickering off to one side. Smugly, Spot tapped his cane on the dock, and gave the three other boys a pointed look. They said good-bye to Sadie, and immediately trooped off down the dock towards the lodging house.
"Manhattan, huh? Who hit ya?" Spot leaned against a pillar and lit a smoke.
"Ink." Spot's mouth lifted into a crooked smile and squinted as the sun hit his eyes.
"Ink's a tough broad. Mostly mouth, but she can hit."
"Yeah well I hit her in the kidney."
"You?"
"Yeah" Spot's eyebrows raised and he laughed this time, a gruff, infectious sound.
"I'm impressed kid. You don't seem like you got it in ya." Spot flicked his cigarette and looked suddenly hesitant.
"How was Diamond? Did you meet a girl named Diamond?" Sadie's eyes dropped to her feet, and she fidgeted before sitting down on a crate. Spot moved over and sat on the crate next to her, his gaze intent.
"Yeah. I met her. I helped her sell her papers. She seemed okay. She isn't very happy with the way things are going." Spot spat onto the dock and his eyebrows furrowed in anger. Sadie put her hands on her knees and gripped them tightly. Spot suddenly lost all the tension in his back and shoulders and he threw his cigarette off of the dock before sighing heavily.
"I can't keep beating up Manhattan kids for what her and Jack have done. I know it ain't their faults. I just wish." He stopped and pulled a small, battered, tarnished silver flask out of his back pocket and took a swig. Wincing, he held it out to Sadie. Gingerly taking it from his newsprint stained hands, she took a swallow and coughed at the burning liquid that flooded down her throat. It gathered in her stomach in a molten pool of whiskey, making her feel deliciously warm in the rapidly cooling air.
" Ever had whiskey before?" Sadie looked up and their eyes caught. Shaking her head, he took the flask back and swallowed more before handing it to her again.
"It goes down easier as you drink more. Got any plans?"
"No not that I know of."
"Good. Me and you are going to sit here and drink this, and you're going to tell me about your visit to Manhattan." Not one to argue with someone who was never argued with, Sadie nodded her acceptance and began her story of the day and night before. When she was done, she sat back, feeling light-headed and realized that she hadn't eaten anything all day. It had grown dark, and the street lamps had gone on. The black water of the river slapped gently against the dock's pilings and lulled the two teenagers into a mellow state. Belly's filled with cheap whiskey helped that along as well.
"Diamond must hate me." Spot's voice made her jerk her nodding head up and she blinked in confusion. Seeing the glowing tip of a cigarette next to her, she remembered that she was sitting with Spot at the docks.
"She doesn't hate you, she told me she loves you. Just not in the way I think you want her to." Spot laughed bitterly and Sadie winced at the sound.
"I know you don't know me from a hole in the wall and could probably give a rat's ass about what I have to say, but I think that Diamond and Jack care about you very much, Spot. I think you care about them too. And I think it scares the shit out of you." Liquid courage fueled her words, and Sadie ranted on, not heeding what she was saying.
"You think that because she left you, she's a whore and Jack should get beaten. But there had to have been something that you did to make her leave, Spot. Why can't you take your part of the blame instead of laying it all on them?"
"Shut up." Spot's voice was raw and hoarse. Grabbing Sadie's shoulders he stood up, ripping her to her feet along with him. He bent his head so that they were nose to nose, and she could smell the whiskey on his breath.
"You got a lot of balls, talking to me like that Sadie. Or should I call you Trouble? You do always seem to be landing yourself straight in the middle of it on a daily basis." Sadie didn't speak, just rigidly lay on his chest trying to ignore the pinching grip of his hands. Spot suddenly dipped his head lower and kissed her. It was a gentle half-kiss. One that wasn't demanding and was almost just a pressing of his lips to hers. Sadie's eyes widened and she squirmed.
"What're you doing?" She managed to say when he pulled his mouth away. Dropping his hands from her arms, he smiled and she could see the white flash of his teeth in the moonlight.
"You reminded me of her for a moment there." Sadie felt anger course through her veins and she reached out with a quick hand and slapped him across the face. Spot's hand shot out like a viper striking and he grabbed her to him again.
"Spare me your shit, Conlon. I don't let boys kiss me because I remind them of their old girls." Sadie hissed at him through clenched teeth. She felt Spot's chest vibrate with laughter. Tilting her chin up with a finger, he gazed down at her.
"How about because we're drunk then?" Sadie shoved against his chest and angrily shook her head. He was a rather solid young man for someone who looked so lean. Spot sighed and let her go before reaching down and picking up his cane from the crates where they had been sitting.
"Have it your way then Trouble. At least let me walk you back to the lodging house. It's dark, you're drunk, and there's no way in Hell I'm letting you skip around the streets of Brooklyn at night by yourself." Sadie stuck her nose in the air and hitched her shawl up around her shoulders tightly.
"Fine," she said walking past him with a sniff.
"And don't call me Trouble," she added before stalking away, him following his laughter echoing in the night.