Author's Note: I am really getting into this story now! I hope you guys are too!
And I have one quick Shout Out ~ Moneybags: *grins* You're going to have to wait to find out!
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August 19, 1899
Dear Journal,
Dear precious journal. At least you still care, right? I just don't know anymore. Everything was going great with David. That is, up until yesterday afternoon. It all happened right after we -- we being David, Stress, Jack, and myself -- had finished selling the morning edition of our papers and were heading down the street towards Tibby's. Jack had been nagging Stress all morning long about something...
"Jack, will ya jist give it a rest awlready." Stress sighed in annoyance as she walked ahead of her boyfriend.
"But Stress, ya promise dat we'd go ta Medda's tanight."
"We was jist deah a couple days ago. An' 'sides, ya know how much I hate da colah pink."
Jack ignored the comment about Medda's favorite color and continued to pester Stress. "C'mon, Stressie. I wanna spend da night wit' some o' da uddah fellas an' deah goils. An' ya said ya would go."
"An' I changed me mind, Jack. Geez, what's wit' da naggin' taday? I sweah, it's times like dese I wish I didn't break up wit' Dave. He nevah nagged me." Stress tossed her long curls over her shoulder and increased her step.
"Stress, dat ain't faih!" Jack called as he broke into a jog to catch up with her. Turning around quickly to face Secrets and David, he called, "We'se gonna head ovah ta Tibby's an' tawk fer a bit. See ya guys deah."
"See you." answered David before he turned to talk to Secrets. "What?" he asked when he noticed that she was staring at him oddly.
"What did she mean when she said dat she's sorry dat she broke up wit' you'se?" Secrets whispered.
David's face turned a lovely shade of red. "Well, uh, you see--"
"Did you'se two date or sumting, Dave?"
"Umm..."
"Tell me!" she exclaimed, her voice unnaturally shrill.
David paused for a moment, taken aback by her sudden outburst. "Yes, Secrets. Stress and I used to date."
"What? Are ya kiddin' me? Ya used ta be tageddah wit' dat goil?" Secrets brain whirled as she processed the information. For some reason she had gotten the idea that she was his first girlfriend. After all, David was her first boyfriend. She thought they would experience love and it's splendors together. But now that she knew he had experienced them all with another, Secrets was crushed. As tears filled her eyes, tears at her naivety, Secrets turned her back on David. She couldn't bare to let him see her tears.
David began to feel a little bit remorseful at not telling Secrets about his and Stress' prior relationship. "Secrets, I'm sorry," he began as he walked up to her and rested his hand on her shoulder.
Secrets, whose back had been turned to David, grew rigid at once. She wasn't expecting the sudden touch on her shoulder.
"I'm sorry, Layna, I'm sorry." Officer Murphy gently guided Layna away from the scene. "Officer Johnson," he called as he watched his comrade ride up to apartment building, "there are two bodies over there. Quite a mess to clean up, son."
Officer Johnson looked over at Officer Murphy in surprise. "You mean, I have to clean the mess up?"
Officer Murphy nodded. "Yes. I have a little more important matters to tend to right now." he said, gesturing to the wide-eyed little girl who stood, clung to his knees.
Officer Johnson looked at Layna and smiled gently. "I'm sorry, child. But mind Officer Murphy, he's a kind man." He tipped his policeman's hat in her direction and rode towards the end of the street where another crowd was gathering.
"Officah Moiphy?" she whispered into his pants leg.
"Yes, Layna?"
"What's gonna happen ta me?" Her tiny frame began to tremble as realization hit her seven-year-old brain. Without a mother or father to take care of her, she was alone.
"Don't you worry, child. I know the perfect orphanage for you. And I'm sure you'll love Madame Pearson."
"Secrets?" David froze, his hand on her shoulder, as he fought the urge to worry. It had been over a minute and Secrets had yet to respond to his call.
And then, all at once, her body relaxed. "Yes, David?" She turned around, wiping the tears from her eyes.
"I'm sorry, Secrets. I should have told you about Stress before." David pushed a patch of dirt around with his tip of his faded brown shoe, avoiding Secrets' eyes. "I was afraid that you would react just like this, so I figured I would just 'forget' to tell you. I mean, we were only together for a week before she dumped me for Cowboy, but--"
Secrets' frown slowly turned upwards as she pushed aside any negative thoughts she had. Only a week? And she dumped him? Dat ain't as bad. "Dat's O.K., Dave. Yer wit' me now, not her. I know I got no reason ta be jealous." She reached forward and wrapped her arms around his neck, trying hard not to imagine Stress and David locked in the very same embrace.
"Exactly." David leaned down and kissed Secrets gently. "We better be heading over to Tibby's right now before Stress and Jack kill each other."
Holding hands, Secrets and David headed over to the restaurant. Once they arrived at the door, Secrets nudged David in the side. "I don't t'ink dat dey'se missin' us too much." she giggled, as she pointed at the booth where Jack and Stress sat together.
"I think you're right." David affirmed as he watched the couple kissing each other and murmuring their apologies all the while ignoring the poor waiter who was trying to ask them for their order.
I accepted David's reasons for excluding that little tidbit of information. But I couldn't accept it when he spent all this morning with her instead of me...
"Oh, Dave." laughed Stress as she clutched David's arm and led him away from an angry Jack and livid Secrets.
"I'm so glad you like my joke, Stress." David gushed as he let himself be led by her.
"Stress, do ya wanna sell wit' me now?" asked Jack, pointedly, feeling left out of the conversation. And he was still a little sore at Stress' remark from the day before. As much as he didn't want to admit it, he was hurt at the way Stress said she would rather date David than him. Even if she had only said it in the heat of their fight yesterday morning.
Yet it seemed like she was still miffed at him. "Hey, Cowboy. Hold yer horses, I'se tawkin' ta Dave heah." O.K., maybe a lot miffed at him. The truth was, though, that she was only doing it to make Jack jealous. She was mad at the way that he implied that she was too stubborn and fickle. Even after they had made up yesterday, she stewed over it all night long and decided she would show Jack how important she was by ignoring him and spending the day with David.
Unfortunately it was working on Secrets too, except she didn't have the nerve to say anything to them. But it didn't stop her from thinking. "I can't believe she's holdin' on ta me guy like dat when she's got her own right behind her. I bet she's tryin' ta take him away from me." Secrets' blue eyes darted over to the happy expression on David's face. "An' he's lettin' her! I t'ought we had dat awl figahed out yestahday. Guess not..." she noted when she witnessed Stress lean over and give David a quick kiss on the cheek.
"Dat's it, we'se gonna sell by ourselves taday." Jack announced as he walked forward and, grabbing Stress by the arm, began to head in the opposite direction.
Secrets cheered inwardly at Cowboy's possessiveness. Maybe now she could spend some time alone with her boyfriend.
Nope. "Francis Sullivan, what da heck do ya t'ink yer doin'?" Stress yelled as she yanked her arm from his grip.
"I'se stoppin' me goil from floitin' wit' me best friend, Jess Lynch." he countered.
"I was doin' no such t'ing." she defended herself.
"Yeah, ya wheah. Right, Secrets?" Jack turned to Secrets for help.
Secrets just shrugged her shoulders, not trusting herself to say anything at the moment. She was going to wait until Jack and Stress were out of ear-shot before she said anything to David.
Jack rolled his eyes. "Stress, I t'ink ya bettah come wit' me. We need ta tawk."
Stress took her stack of papers and threw them at Jack's feet. "I don't t'ink so, Cowboy." she yelled before turning and stalking off. No one couldn't say she didn't have a flair for drama when she was upset.
Jack stared as she walked away, silent for a moment. Then, all of a sudden, he muttered one word, "Goils!", before walking away in the opposite direction, Stress' papers laying forgotten in the middle of the street.
"David?"
"Secrets, no. Just no." David said simply before shaking his head and turning to sell his papers. Just because Stress and Jack let their squabble ruin their selling, didn't mean that the Jacobs' were going to go hungry.
Secrets begrudgingly nodded her head and followed after David. No? she asked herself, I wonder what he's saying no to...
I knew it was to good to be true.
Secrets carefully drew the period after the "e" and laid down her pen, feeling much better now that she had her anxieties written out on paper.
"Secrets?" called a voice from the other end of the bunkroom. Secrets hastily shoved her journal under her pillow and stuck her head outside of the bunk. "Yeah?"
It was Stress. "Secrets, are you'se O.K.? Ya seemed a li'l angry dis moinin' when we was sellin' our papes."
Duh. "I'se fine, Stress. An' I believe dat you'se weah da one dat seemed moah angry." she added, a bit more testily than she meant to.
"Are ya shoah?" Stress' golden eyes showed her sincerity, but Secrets wasn't having any of that.
"I said I was fine, didn't I? Gawd, jist leave me alone!" Secrets reached under her pillow, grabbed her journal, rose from her bunk and stormed from the bunkroom.
Stress stood at the foot of Secrets' bunk, her cheeks flaming at Secrets' sudden outburst. "What did I do?" She shrugged her shoulders and headed towards the door. "I guess I bettah find Secrets an' find out what dat was 'bout."
Later that night, Secrets ignored all the questioning looks from the other lodgers as she slugged towards her bunk, cradling her head with one hand and clutching her journal with the other. "What a night." she murmured as she threw herself down on her bed. She sat for a moment, holding her head. For some strange reason she had one hell of a headache, yet no memory of anything other than storming from the bunkroom earlier that evening and just now returning back. "Maybe I wrote down what I was doin'."
She used her other hand to open her journal and raise the page to her eyes. There was a message, though not from herself. It was from Kisses.
Layna,
I know I should be mad at you. I mean, look, it's been 3 days since your last entry. But I forgive you. I always do. And just to show you how much I care about you, I'm going to take care of your problems. Trust me. You won't have to worry about Stress stealing all of David's attention from you anymore.
Kisses