Title: Cuts Like A Knife
Author: Stress
First written: May 12, 2002
Edited and replaced: January 21, 2005
Summary: Part I of the Soul Mates Series; She thought that life couldn't get any better. She had friends and a family that loved her – she was taken care of and had no complaints. But that was before he came into her life. And, no matter how hard she tries to escape his grasp, he'll never let her go.
At the DistributionCenter
Grace walked slowly to the distribution center, feeling totally empty and alone now that her best friend was gone. "Stop feeling sorry for yourself," she scolded herself as she picked up her pace, "Jess is counting on you to get those awful scabbers to forget about her. You can't blow this."
She arrived just in time to walk in on a conversation that a group of girls were having: Quipster, Tunes, Moneybags, Corner, Dice and Iris were all standing around the gate, attempting to console an exceptionally angry Spindle while keeping a fearful eye out for Jess.
"Can you believe that she went after Rip, even when she knew he was me guy?" Spindle announced again as she paced back and forth, waiting for Jess to arrive so she could finish their business.
Moneybags tried to calm her down. "Are you sure, Spindle? I mean, maybe that wasn't even Jess you saw in that alley last night?"
Quipster nodded, not wanting Spindle to get upset, answered Moneybags first. "Of course Spindle is sure. I just can't get over what nerve that girl has."
Dice and Iris exchanged a quick look before turning to face Spindle and saying in unison, "Yeah, what nerve!"
Corner reached over and patted Spindle on her arm. "Don't worry Spindle, we all know who Rip prefers," she said as she crossed her fingers behind her back. "Anything to keep the leader happy..." she thought to herself as she looked over to Tunes for help.
Tunes, recognizing the look Corner was giving her as one for help, jumped in. "Yeah, Spindle. You got nothing to worry about."
Grace, after taking a deep breath, stepped forward. "Tunes is right, Spindle. You sure got nothing to worry about no more."
Spindle stopped pacing at once upon hearing Grace's voice enter their conversation. Skipping all the niceties, Spindle zeroed in on the meaning of Grace's words. "Grace, what do you mean by that?"
Remembering the emptiness that she felt as she watched Jess leave the apartment that morning with Mr. O'Connor, Grace was able to fill her eyes with tears. Tears would be essential if her fib was to fool Spindle. "Well, you see, I dunno what happened last night or what, cause Jess never returned to the O'Connor's apartment last night. We were all worried but a couple of hours ago, one of the bulls that Mr. O'Connor was friendly with came by and gave us the news. It seems that she was found under an overturned carriage this morning," Grace lied as she thanked her lucky stars that she had been able to buy a paper from one of the newer newsies and had heard about the carriage accident from the night before, "The bulls think she ran in front of the carriage and didn't get away in time," she added with a convincing sniffle.
While all the other girls gasped and began to get upset over the "death" of their comrade, Spindle let out a laugh. "I'm just sorry that I wasn't the one that got to off the li'l goody-two-shoes, but as long as she's outta me hair, I'm satisfied," she said with a casual toss of said hair.
Quipster, Tunes, Moneybags, Corner, Iris, Dice and Grace all stood there with similiar shocked expressions on their faces, though no one actually said anything.
Spindle took their silence to be their acceptance and flounced off to tell Rip, who had just strolled up to the distribution center, the good news.
"Morning, Rip dear," she cooed as she gave him a peck on his cheek.
Rip, still annoyed at the note that Spindle had written him the night before, backed away. "What makes you so chipper, Spindle?" he asked suspiciously. Though she said she had forgiven him, he felt uneasy at the way she was acting so cozy with him so soon.
"Well, I just got a bit of - er, interesting news." she announced with a mischievious gleam in her emerald eyes. "It seems that your 'li'l Miss' was in an accident last night."
"An...an accident? What kind of accident?" Rip asked nervously as he felt the pit of his stomach drop down to his ankles.
Spindle grabbed a paper out of the stack in Braces's arms. "Extry, extry Rip. Li'l Miss Goody-two-shoes dies in horrific carriage accident," she said spitefully as she eagerly awaited Rip's response to her news.
Not willing to believe a word Spindle was saying, Rip snatched the paper from Spindle. His eyes skimmed the article rapidly, catching all the main points. "Carriage overturned... Late last night...Freak accident...Young girl found underneath...No survivors..."
"No Survivors..." The one line of the article etched itself in Rip's memory as the meaning of the article and what Spindle had said sunk in. "Me...me...me 'li'l Miss' is gone. Gone, I just can't believe it..." he mumbled to himself before realizing that there was a crowd forming to see what his reaction would be.
The frenzied panic and look of defeat that had occupied Rip's blue eyes as he read the article quickly fled as their icy coolness returned. "Well, what's one less whore on the streets anyways? As long as I got me girl here with me." And, to everyone's surprise, he grabbed Spindle around her waist and gave her a long kiss.
Even as he was saying the words, words that shocked the crowd around the distribution center, Rip knew he could never mean any of them. And the kiss- all for show. But he had to watch his back. Without Jess around anymore, the only girl he had at the moment was Spindle. "Maybe she's right, maybe we will be together forever," he sighed as he pulled away from Spindle, tuning out the catcalls and cheers the other newsies were giving them.
"Goodbye Miss Jess," he whispered as he ignored the glowing look Spindle gave him as she started to drag him away from the rest of the crowd for a more private location. "Goodbye."