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.
Bottle Alley Lodging House
Through all the black that she was floating in, there came a light. Not a bright white one, no, but a dull one that called her attention all the same. "No... I don't want to go back. Leave me be, Rip. No..." Stress mumbled as she fought against regaining consciousness. It would be safer for her to remain floating in the black abyss of unconsciousness.
It was getting late at the Bottle Alley Lodging House. All the lodgers had gone to bed, save Jack and King who had kept their vigil at the bedsides of Stress and Gip for the past twelve hours. Mrs. Cook had consented to let the two boys stay, at least until the two girls woke up, but she had sent Race and Blink back to the Manhattan Newsboys' Lodging House, much to the dismay of Martini and Bookie. But, as King had pointed out, someone needed to tell Kloppman what was going on and surely the other newsies needed to be aware of what exactly went down on their territory, right?
Jack's attention was not drawn at first to Stress's mumblings. His head shot up and his eyes widened when he heard the sheets rustling on the bunk on his right side. "I'm sorry, Rip. Please don't hurt me no more...," Stress pleaded as she tossed and turned in her bunk, refusing to open her eyes.
King looked over at Jack and nodded, but refused to leave Gip's side. She hadn't stirred once since he had laid her on the bunk and, unless it was his imagination, her heartbeat had only gotten fainter in the twelve hours she laid silently.
"Stress," Jack whispered as he leapt to her side, clasping her hand in a supportive grip, "Stressie, you're safe. I swear."
"Rip?" she questioned timidly as she reluctantly opened her eyes, preparing herself for the worst.
"Nope, it ain't Rip. It's Jack," he replied as he waited patiently for Stress to get her bearings back.
"Jack? Jack!" she cried as she sat up and flung her arms around his neck. "What are you doing hear? What am I doing here? Jack, what happened to ... him?" she asked, looking around wildly as if she expected Rip to jump out and attack her in her new home.
"Shh... It's OK, Stressie," he whispered soothingly as he gently pushed her back on the bunk. "Martini and Bookie got me and King and we entered that alley just in time. After we took care o' that scabber, we brought you and Gip back to the lodging house," he explained as he gestured to Gip's slumbering silhouette on the neighboring bunk.
"What? You and King? And Gip? Gip?! What happened to her?" she cried weakly as she tried to sit back up and reach her friend all at the same time.
"Stress, you need to rest," he said gently but firmly as he guided her head to her pillow once more before continuing. "From what we gather, Gip followed you into that alley and ended up knocked out too."
Upon realizing that it was her fault that one of her friends was hurt, Stress began to cry softly to herself. Jack heard the tears and quickly tried to find out exactly what happened before the emotion of the morning's events impacted him as well. "I must be tough until I find out just what happened," he told himself before turning to face Stress again. "Stressie? Who was that? Why was he here? And just what happened in that alley?"
Stress stopped crying for a moment and looked at Jack. "He'll think that I'm just common street trash if I tell 'him the truth," she thought to herself as she feverishly began to wipe away her tears. Out of the corner of her left eye she caught sight of Gip, with King still sitting by her side. With a firm resolve, she knew what she had to do. "Jack, that was Rip," she began, her voice quiet but clear, " and he was the boyfriend of the leader of the newsgirls in Queens. I say was 'cause for the last few weeks he was seeing me. But it wasn't because I wanted to, you see. Rip's the kind of guy that decides he loves you and you can't say no..." her voice trailed off and her eyes clouded over as she recalled her first encounters with Rip. Of all the times she said "no" and all the pain she endured because she did.
Jack looked up at her, understanding exactly what she meant. "He hurt ya?"
Stress nodded slowly before continuing with her story. "Yeah, he hurt me. A lot. But I took it cause he told' me if I didn't then me friends and family would be the first to go. I couldn't let him hurt them so I never said a word. Then the day came when his girl found out about me," Stress stopped again, raising trembling fingers to point at the bandage on her shoulder that was still there from when Kloppman had applied it. "She tried to kill me, but missed. I knew that it weren't safe in Queens no more so I convinced me guardians to let me come here. An' here I am. But he found me, just like I knew he would. He found me this morning and made me tell him how much I love him. But I don't, I never had. But he just won't take 'no' for an answer." Stress turned her head away from Jack's gaze, preferring not to see the disgusted look on his face.
But there wasn't a disgusted look on his face, just one of respect and remorse. "I'm so sorry, Stressie. Why didn't you tell me? We could have made sure that he never found you. But don't worry, me and King took care of that today," he laughed to himself as he remembered the state that they had left Rip in upon leaving the alley that morning.
"You mean, I'll never see him again?" The hopeful tone in her voice was evident, even through the silent tears that streaked down her once rosy cheeks.
"Well, as long as you stay here in Manhattan, with me," he added shyly as he pulled his well-known cowboy hat back onto his head.
Stress sat up again and gave Jack a hug. "Don't you worry, Cowboy, I don't ever plan on leaving." And it was true. She had even written a letter to the O'Connor's the night before, a letter she had intended on mailing that morning but, due to certain circumstances, it would have to be mailed later. After seriously considering her decision, Stress had decided it would be better just to start over fresh, in a town with not as many unpleasant memories. A town where she had friends. Manhattan, her new home.
It was at that moment that Gip decided to wake up. As she gently held her throbbing head in one hand, she sat up in her bunk. Opening her eyes delicately, she zeroed in on the close embrace that Stress and Jack were sharing.
"And what may we have here?" she asked slyly, forgetting for that moment that she had just woken up after being knocked out for over twelve hours.
As Stress and Jack broke apart suddenly at the sound of Gip's southern voice, King jumped up and gave Gip a hug. "Gypsy, you're OK!" King shouted in relief as he held onto her tight, afraid that if he let go she would go back to asleep.
Gip fell back in surprise and returned his hug. "Uhh, yeah, I think I was before you smothered me, King," she whispered hoarsely until King got the hint and let go, grinning sheepishly as he did.
"Sorry, Gip. Me emotions got a bit carried away. It's kinda hard to see one of your newsies out cold like that," King explained, trying to explain his actions.
"That's OK, King. Now, before one of you tells me what the hell happened here today, I wanna ask you two a question," Gip said as she pointed at Stress and Jack who were still sitting on the same bunk. "Are you together or not?"
Stress and Jack looked at Gip and King, then at each other, and then back at Gip and King. "Naw, we're just friends," they answered in the same voice before looking at each other again and bursting into laughter, with Gip joining in soon after.
Now that he was sure that the girls were OK, King started to get some of his macho-ness back. Shaking his head at the playful antics of the three younger newsies, he walked over to a bunk on the opposite side of the bunkroom, far from where Stripes, Bookie and Martini had already laid sleeping and even farther from where Gip, Stress and Jack sat laughing like hyenas. "This is the future of New York?"
Later that Night
Later that night, long after King and Gip had fallen deep into sleep, Jack lay awake in the bunk above Stress. Everything that had happened since Stress arrived in Manhattan - every comment, every fearful look - finally made sense to Jack. He sighed as he rolled over in his bunk. "Nobody deserves to be treated like that, nobody, especially such a lovely girl," Jack caught his thought and sighed again. He really was beginning to like the girl, but he wasn't sure if it was just as a friend, or if it was as something more. He frowned at the darkness when the words Rip had sneeringly tossed his way came rushing back and replayed in his memory. "Let me guess, the famous Cowboy? The one that Jess can't stand?...She'll never let you in, Cowboy, never."
"He don't know that!" he mumbled as he hit his pillow in anger. "Just because she don't love him, doesn't mean that she'll never love anyone."
"Jack?" came a feminine voice from below him.
Jack smacked himself in the forehead. By letting that momentary flash of anger consume him, he had hit his pillow which had resulted in shaking the entire wooden bunk structure. "Stressie, did I wake you up?" he asked as he leaned over the edge of the bunk to look at her.
Stress smiled upon seeing his face over the edge of his bunk. "Naw, Jack. I just haven't been able to sleep tonight. It's like every time I go to shut me eyes, I'm afraid that when I wake up all this would have been a dream and Rip'll be sitting next to me with his arms wrapped around me like every time before."
Jack's stomach twisted itself up in knots as a mental image of Stress and Rip wrapped up into each other's arms, murmuring their "I-Love-You"'s flashed through his mind.
Stress looked up at Jack and her smile turned into a look of concern when she saw a pained expression on his face. "Jack, are you OK?"
Jack began to nod but stopped himself. As he shook his head, he asked Stress one of the questions that had been on his mind since that morning. "Stress, umm, did you ever really love that guy, that Rip?"
Stress's breath was caught in her throat when she heard Jack's question. She was not expecting that at all. Propping herself up on her elbows so that she was looking Jack in the eye, she answered him, honestly and truthfully. "No, Jack I never did. There was too much fear and pain and hurt in our relationship for there to ever be love."
"Well, umm, do you ever think that you''ll be able to love someone?" he asked shyly as he peered down upon her and awaited her answer.
"Sure, I know that I love you, Jack. You're the best friend I got right now," Stress answered, misinterpreting Jack's question.
But the answer was good enough for Jack. "You're me best pal, too, Stressie. Good night," he added as he laid flat on his back once more and prepared himself to go to sleep for the night. Right before he dozed off for the night, Jack whispered to the darkness. "I like you, too, kid."