The strong smell of fish filled the crisp fall air near the docks the following morning as Bolt waited outside the lodging house for Spot. His eyes struggled to stay open and he had a splitting headache, as he was suffering from a hangover. Last night he and a few other newsies had traveled to Manhattan to celebrate a friend's eighteenth birthday. Well, he would barely call it a friend seeing as he didn't even know his name. Talk of the party had spread quickly and Bolt was always up for a good time. He had spent the night uptown and walked back this morning to sell, since he had gambled his last bit of money away last night.

Thompson walked up to the lodging house door next to Bolt, sporting a noticeable hickey on his neck. "I wanna die," he joked at his hung-over pain.

"Same here," laughed Bolt. "Great night, though."

"Oh, yeah." Thompson rubbed the place where a random girl had left the hickey.

The boys leaned against the wall and fought to win the war with sleep deprivation. Their eyes blinked slowly and recurrently, and their heads relied solely upon the support of the brick building. Just as they were about the drift off into a bottomless slumber, people started to file out of the lodging house. Bolt yawned powerfully and Thompson reached his arms high over her head in a deep stretch. Spot was last to come out after a few minutes, and Autumn was close at his side.

Thompson pushed himself off the wall and tipped his hat to Spot. "Morning."

"You guys look like shit," Spot greeted cynically.

Bolt stayed against the wall and lifted his hand to give Spot the finger sarcastically.

"I'm gonna excuse that since I can tell you'se was messed up last night."

Thompson looked at Autumn with a weird look, like he had seen her before. "You friends with Ginger?" he asked her.

"Yeah," she replied meekly.

"Oh." An imaginary light bulb blinked on above his head. "Ohh." A smirking grin lit up his face. "You guys have a good time last night, too, I see." He playfully elbowed Spot in the arm.

Spot looked at him and Autumn placed her hand on her hip.

"It's not like dat, Thompson," he finally replied.

Autumn glared at him, offended.

"Oh," Thompson fell.

Bolt let out an entertained laugh and pulled out a cigarette.

"I'll walk ya back home," Spot turned to Autumn.

Thompson and Bolt looked at one another; each wondering what that was about.

It was silent for most of the walk home. Practically no words were exchanged during the ten minutes it took to get to Autumn's place. Now it was awkward. But why? They had talked last night without too much problem. It was almost like the "morning after" without the crazy night.

Autumn twiddled her fingers and watched her boots carry herself the whole way home. Every time she looked at Spot he was staring straight ahead of him, his eyes seemingly determined. It looked like a million thoughts were skating around in his mind. And every time she looked at him or thought about him now, she got a little twinge in her tummy. It certainly wasn't a bad twinge, but in her case it was. She wasn't supposed to be attracted to him. She poked her stomach where the bruise was. Ow! I need to toughen up.

They finally reached the apartment building.

"So," Spot began, "ya gotta work today?"

Autumn made a face and completely forgot about work. It was the last place she wanted to be. "Yeah," she groaned.

Spot smiled sympathetically. "I bet it's not so bad. At least ya work with Ginger."

"I guess. She can be a handful sometimes."

"Won't argue with that." A small, grateful laugh followed.

Autumn smiled and her heart started to race. The finger twiddling quickened and her palms started to get damp with beads of sweat. She stared at the beautiful features of his distinguished face: his rough jaw line, the part of his golden brown hair that occasionally scraped along his forehead, the natural smile that made her knees wobble, and his eyes. Good god, the eyes. Their gaze could capture anyone within a two-mile radius and render them unconscious.

Or, in love?

Spot casually took her hand in a friendly way. "Well, I hope I'se be seein' ya again, Autumn."

"Me too." Goodbye kiss, goodbye kiss.

He held out his arms for a hug. Autumn graciously accepted and rested her head on his shoulde. She stayed there for longer than anticipated, hoping for a kiss. Spot rubbed her back and pulled away.

With a tip of his hat, he turned and made his way to the distribution office.

I am in a writing rut. Writer's block. It took me a long time to write that. I couldn't get the ideas out, and as you can see it didn't work. I have plans for later in the story (BIG plans!) and how it will end (I love the ending), but I was not too proud of this chapter. Leave me some love...and thoughts!!!