"You sellin' much today?" The newsie nodded a greeting, while the other hopped from one foot to the other, trying to keep warm.

"Nah. Too God damn cold. You?"

" Nope. Every sane human being is inside. Hey, you hear about Tunes?

"Tunes? No. What's the story?"

"Word on th' street is Tunes an' Denton have been getting to be more then just friends while she apprentices at da newspapah."

"Aw…gimme a break. Tunes an' Denton? He could be her Father."

"Hey, you know how it goes…long nights workin', close quarters…and you know how that broad is.

"I thought she was with Skittery? They seem so happy."

"Oh, sure, they're happy…but only 'cause Skittery don't know. I'm sure if he did he'd be embarrassed as hell. I mean, Denton? Please. Tunes an' ole Denty have been runnin' around town, eatin' in fancy resturants, dancin' in posh Halls, just to make sure they avoid the old crowd. But I guess it didn't woik."

"Jesus Christ…"

"Yeah. but hey, ya didn't hear it from me, eh? I doubt they want this spread around."

"Oh, a' course. I won't tell a soul."

A half-hour later the story was being delievered to eager ears in bursts of clouded breath.

Autumn wasn't usually one to spread gossip. In fact, she considered herself above all that. A better, more principled person. However, this particular story…this was just to good. Too juicy to not pass on. Besides, didn't Jack deserve to know? He was close to two of the three parties involved, wasn't he? And he was the leader. Reason enough, Autumn kept repeating to herself as she hurried up the stairs of the Lodging House and into the boys bunkroom. Reason enough.

"Jack!" She said in a loud whisper, hoisting herself up onto Jack's already occupied bunk. She shook the blanketed mound. "Jack, wake up. It's nearly two."

"Huh? Wha—get th' hell outta here," Jack opened one eye and snarled up at the intruder. He hated to be woken up. Kloppman would tell anyone that would listen.

"Jack, honestly. You've been napping for an hour. It's lunch already." Autumn poked her boyfriend in the ribs and added nonchalantly, "Oh, and…there's something I need to tell you."

The slightly anxious tone of her usually steady, confident voice caused Jack to open both eyes and prop himself up on his elbows. He studied Autumn's pretty face carefully. "What is it?"

Under his steady gaze, she picked up the silver chain that was permanently around her neck and began to suck on it. A nervous habit. Maybe she shouldn't tell him. Skittery was one of his closest friends. Still…

"Have you seen Skittery lately?" Autumn's light blue eyes refused to meet Jack's, flitting around the messy bunkroom instead, searching for something to focus on.

"Yeah, last night. Me, him, Race an' Specs played a few rounds a poker at Tibby's. Why?"

"Was Tunes there, by any chance?"

"She may 'ave stopped by. Auty," he leaned forward,"What's goin' on?"

"She's been sleepin' with Denton." The words spilled out, and Autumn closed her eyes tightly, afraid of what sort of reaction they would bring. If they had been open,she would have seen all the color drain from Jack's usually tawny face. His mouth was slightly ajar, and he had to force down a swallow before he could find enough spit to speak.

"What?"

"I—I thought you should know. You an' Skittery are good friends…" She looked alarmed as Jack dropped his hands from their place on her shoulders and rubbed one of them over his forehead. This was harder then she thought it would be. Who knew Jack would be so…emotional?

"Holy Christ. Tunes and Denton?" He paused, looking up at her accusingly. "Where did you hear dis?"

"Me an' Bittah were sellin' in Central Park, and Socks came running up, all upset. She told us everything, said she heard it from bunches of people. People who saw them, Denton an' Tunes, together." Autumn shuddered at the thought. Denton, of all people.

Before she knew what was happening, Jack had tumbled out of bed, and now stood in the center of the room, jerking his pants on. Autumn watched cautiously from her perch. "Where are you going?"

"To find Skittery. He's probably punchin' holes in the wall right now." He paused to straighten his bandana. "If he's heard, that is."

"Oh, he's heard," Autumn assured her quickly retreating boyfriend, "trust me. Everyone's heard." Without another word, Jack ducked out the door, racing toward Tibby's as fast as he could.

As it happened, Skittery had heard of his girlfriend's–or now ex-girlfriend's–sexual escapades with the distinguished Bryan Denton. And just as Jack had predicted, a few of the walls in Tibby's Restaurant now had fist-shaped holes decorating them.

Needless to say, the staff was not happy.

"The real kicker of the whole God damn thing is that it was Denton. It was only a couple months ago that he was our God damn hero." Racetrack Higgins shook his head and commenced chewing on his cigar, intermittently muttering about 'the dumb broad' and her antics.

"Race, shut yer trap, will ya? Your fucking blabbering ain't helping the situation none, " Bookie hissed, smacking her boyfriend on the arm. Sometimes that boy didn't have enough sense in him to just keep quiet.

The veins in Skittery's neck bulged as he threw himself into a chair. Almost instantly a glass of brown alcohol was pushed in front of him, but he shoved it away angrily. "I don't want a fuckin' drink. I want to see Tunes. Or Denton, that sonnovabitch." He added as an afterthought. Snoddy, who was sprawled in his chair trying to look concerned, sighed and peered around the crowded restarant. Suddenly, a thought hit him and he scrambled to his feet, intercepting Mush as he was returning to the table from a trip to the restroom.

"You seen Tommy Dugan around?"

"What?" Mush narrowed his eyes at his friend. "Dugan? Snoddy, who cares? I think we got bigger things to worry about." He shook his head and pushed by his friend to return to the group, leaving Snoddy standing by himself in the center of the room, mind racing as quickly as the waiters that were zipping around Tibby's.

"No one knows where Tunes is. Conveniently enough." Back at the table, Kid Blink cast an accusing glance toward the female members of the assembled.

"Can it, Blink." Bittah muttered, shooting daggers at him with vivid green eyes. "We already told ya. None of the girls know where she is."

"Yeah, sure ya don't," Blink retorted, obviously not buying it. "We all know how girls band together at times like this. Like a pack of God damn wolves."

Someone threw a dinner roll then, beaning Blink square on the head, and shouting erupted in the crowded corner table.

"HEY!" Jack, as far as he could see, had arrived just in time. Things were falling apart. "Everyone SHUT UP!" Silence fell not only across the collected newsies, but the entire restaurant. Jack looked around, a small smirk on his face.

Now that was power.

A few smaller newsies scurried away, leaving room for their revered leader, and Jack sat down slowly. "I'm sure everyone has some place to be right now," he said sternly, looking around.

"Da only place I gotta be is right here," Racetrack announced with a grin, causing Bookie to elbow him sharply in the ribs. He shot her a look. "What?"

Jack crossed his arms over his chest. Now was not the time for games, and the look on his face told the newsies as much. "Out. Now. Everyone except Skittery." A collective groan sounded from the table, yet slowly but surely, amidst the sound of chairs scraping and the clink of empty glass against wooden table, the table emptied. "How bout ya try sellin' some PAPERS?! You know, a little change of PACE!" He shouted to the dwindling crowd, only to be met with a few sarcastic mumbled responses. Selling papers? Who did he think he was, Pulitzer? They would sell papers on their own damn schedules, thank you very much.

Sighing, Jack settled himself next to his morose friend, taking it upon himself to down the glass of liquor that sat abandoned on the table. "I know where Tunes is."

At this, Skittery lifted his head. "What? Where? How?" He began to stand up, only to be pushed back down by Jack's firm hand.

"Skitts, don't do anything stupid. I'm only tellin' you 'cause you're my friend. And I think it was wrong, what she did."

"That's the fuckin' understatement of the year," Skittery muttered, pushing a handful of hair away from his scowling face. He rose, shrugging off Jack's hand and sliding out of the booth. "Where is she, Jack." He turned to his friend and stared at him with deadened eyes.

"The boathouse at Central Park. Saw her sneakin' over there on my way over, lookin' guilty as all hell," Jack said, tracing his fingers along the rim of the empty glass before him. He did not have to look up to know that his friend had run out the door as soon as the words had left his mouth.

Tunes buried her face in her hands and willed the tears stinging behind her eyes not to fall. This was a nightmare. A joke. How could people–no, her friends even–possibly think she was sleeping with Bryan Denton? And where the hell did that sort of story come from?

She knew taking that job at the Sun Newspaper was a bad idea. Everyone made such a huge fuss over how she was trying to be better then everybody else. How she was just a lowly street rat, with big dreams that fit her current lifestyle about as well as an elephant in a mouse hole.

But really, all she wanted to do was learn the ropes. Tunes hoped, maybe, that she could someday make something out of herself. After all, one couldn't be a newsie forever. And Denton, a distant and unfamiliar figure up until she began to work at the office, was so kind to her. Like a father, practically. A mentor. A big brother, at least.

This was why she was so upset. She liked Bryan as a friend, and even more importantly, she liked her place at the office. If she lost that…well, Tunes would never become anything worthwhile. She suddenly had a frightening vision of herself, forty years down the road, a tired, overweight, unhappy mother of a herd of screaming children, living in a tiny apartment and working at a factory for 12 hours a day.

No. She could not end up like that. Never.

A rough hand seized her shoulders and forced her to a standing position shattered the picture. Looking up, Tunes came face to face with just the person she was trying to avoid: Skittery.

She knew his temper, and also knew full well that no matter what she said, no matter how wrong the story was, he would believe it. He would believe it and make her pay, because boys like Skittery didn't know how to have faith, or trust, or anything else like that. Tunes began to tremble as his grip tightened. "You whore. You think it's okay to cheat on me? With fucking Denton?" Skittery said slowly, the words low and dangerous enough to make Tunes' mouth go dry.

"Skittery, I didn't-"

"Shut up. I don't want excuses." He shook her slightly, and Tunes glared at him, not able to help herself. No one spoke to her like that.

"Then why'd you come find me, Skitts?" She spat, eyes flashing. In one solid motion, Skittery slapped her hard across the face, sending Tunes crashing to a heap on the cold, wet ground. She let out one surprised yelp, but then fell silent, fury and the slap both turning her cheeks pink.

"To tell ya that I think you're trash. Garbage. Lower then dirt. You're a goddamn whore. And I'm sure I don't even need ta say dis, but we're through. Done." He looked down at Tunes, who had pushed herself up on her elbows and now tried to glare at Skittery with quickly filling eyes. Something inside Skittery fractured then, and he tried hard to keep his grasp on his anger. He might have loved Tunes, maybe, but now was not the time to think such things.

"Skittery, please. If you would just listen..." she said, hating to beg but doing it anyway.
"I've done enough listening for today, Tunes," Skittery said in a tone that was anger edged with a hint of sorrow. Disappointment, at the least. "Listenin' to everyone I see: 'did you hear about Tunes? Cheatin' on Skittery, sleepin' with God damn Bryan Denton'." His voice rose once again, and Tunes cowered against the wall, but he took a deep breath and clamped his eyes shut. He couldn't hit her again. The first time was bad enough. "I'm going back to the Lodging House."

"Your gonna see me sooner or later, Skittery. We live in the same place, remember? Why don't we just-"

"No. I've had enough, Tunes. I'm done." Skittery interrupted, turning to go. He could not bear to be around her anymore. Every time he looked at Tunes' face, images of her and Denton swirled through his brain like a poisonous fog. It was too much to handle. "And if your expectin' a warm welcome back at the House, well, I'd say you're sorely mistaken. No one's on you side for this one, Tunes. No one." With that, Skittery hurried away, jamming his hands into his pockets and trying not to hear the sobs that were rising from the girl still sprawled on the boathouse floor

Tunes watched him go through a veil of tears, trying to process what exactly he had just said to her. No one on her side? Surely he was the one who was mistaken. Her friends would always stand by her. The tried and true ones that had stood by her for just about everything…They would surely understand the absurdity of this whole situation.

Wouldn't they?

Three days later, Tunes happened to run into Bryan Denton, who was rushing down the steps of the main office of the New York Sun Newspaper. She cursed silently, but headed toward him, determined to sort everything out. They had not talked since that awful day when everything fell apart. Tunes hadn't been back to work since.

His head was down, eyes concentrating on the ground under his feet as she approached him and touched his arm lightly. Flinching at the tap as if he had been scalded, Denton looked up, and froze in his tracks upon seeing who had stopped him. "Tunes," he said, more of a statement than a greeting.

"H'llo, Bryan. Listen, I just wanted to let you know-" She stopped suddenly, the expression twisting his face causing her throat to close up. Something was terribly wrong. "What is it?"

"I'm leaving." He said with a sigh, trying his best to avoid her gaze.

"Leaving? W-what do you mean? On a trip? Assignment?"

"No, ah... Permanently. I've been relocated. The Sun has a sister publication down in Baltimore and I'm leaving this evening."

"But…why?" The open confusion on Tunes' face made Bryan cringe. Was she really this naïve?

"My boss confronted me this morning concerning a very shocking allegation."

"Shit," Tunes muttered, finally realizing what the matter was. She didn't think it would go this far, not in a million years. "Shit, shit, shit."

Denton watched her, face blank. A promising job lost all because he was gave some teenager the wrong impression. "My words exactly. Look, Tunes, if I ever said or did anything that might have suggested…"

"No! No," she said, shaking her head adamantly, red hair gleaming in the pale sunlight. "It's an awful rumor. I don't even know how it got started, honestly. I never said anythin' like that to anyone. I never even thought about stuff like that." The words spilled from Tunes' mouth a little to eagerly. She'd had precious few opportunities for conversation in the past few days, what with practically each and every newsie in the Lodging House acting as if she wasn't there. Sure, Crutchy had engaged her in discourse once or twice, but soon even the patient Tunes tired of his babbling soliloquies concerning how people thought he was 'faking it.'

"I trust you, Tunes. You're a great gi-young woman," Denton said, "but the only ones who know this all isn't true is you and me. My boss refused to hear me out. He insisted such relationships were unprofessional and unacceptable in his office, and told me he had witnesses who…" He paused to clear his throat. "Caught us in a compromising situation, if you understand what I mean."

"Oh!" Tunes blinked, utterly surprised. "But we never…"

"I know, but you know how stories get passed around, and events become falsified. Maybe one of those late nights we were working together…" He shook his head quickly. "I don't even want to think about it. The bottom line is, I'm done. Out. Off to Baltimore in four hours."

"Oh, Bryan, I'm so sorry," Tunes mumbled, numb from the shock of what she was hearing. "This was all my fault. I never should have asked for the job."

"Aw, hey," Denton reached up to pat her on the arm, but stopped midway, his hand hovering in the air for a moment before dropping back to his side. Maybe being so friendly right now wasn't such a bright idea. "Don't say that. It wasn't your fault. Gossip spares no one. Who knew we'd be the victims this time?" Encouraged by a weak smile from Tunes, he continued. "Baltimore's a great city. Don't worry about me."

Tunes heaved a shaky sigh, but nodded. "Well, I guess this is goodbye."

"I suppose," Bryan answered. He suppressed the urge to reach out and give the girl a tight hug. It looked like she needed one. Instead, a hand was offered. "Next time I'm in New York…"

"Look me up," Tunes finished, shaking his hand as warmly as she could muster. She wanted to reach out and hug him. It looked like he needed it.

Bryan Denton nodded, and started to walk down the street again, dodging the quickly thickening lunchtime crowd. Tunes watched him until he was swallowed up by the mass of people, then lowered herself on a deserted set of front steps, with nothing to return to but a houseful of hostility and loneliness. She wondered how long it would take for them to start talking to her again, even a little bit.