Bitter left the sleeping boy to his rest while she went to the bathroom to bathe, trying to rid herself of the splitting headache she had achieved thanks to the whiskey she consumed the night before. She pulled herself out just in time, for the first few newsgirls were wakening. Almost running over a dark brown haired girl, a few years younger than herself, she muttered an excuse me. She found the piercing green eyes of the skinny girl dance as she smiled, illuminating the many freckles scattered on her face.
"I'se Spunk!" she said, smiling broadly and holding her hand out.
"Bittah… but you probably already knew that." Bitter's voice was tired and unpleasant and she sauntered away without shaking the girl's hand, holding her head as it began to ache more.
Ignoring the rest of the happy newsgirls that passed, Bitter made her way back to the room she spent the night in. Spot had disappeared, but she couldn't care less at that moment. She curled up on the end of the bed and attempted to sleep off her hangover.
Snitch disappeared before Irish awoke, leaving her to herself for a few hours. The only one left in the girl's bunkroom was the tall gypsy girl, who Irish had come to know as Gip just from conversation. A pair of arms was wrapped around her waist and the rest of Spec's body was only revealed a minute later when he reluctantly left his beautiful gypsy girlfriend.
Irish found Gip's illuminated blue eyes upon her, cheeks flushed from her previous activities. "Irish right?" she asked.
A nod from Irish and Gip continued. "I'm Gip, but you probably already knew dat. You gonna sell today, cause I wouldn't mind your company. It's not that I'm trying to be nice, cause I'm not like that. Just figured we might get along…" Gip's face was lit up in a genuine smile and she walked towards her, holding out her hand.
"Sure thing, let me grab me shoes," was Irish's reply.
The day was bright, glaring against the dark clothing of Irish's clothes. It was just about noon, and a bad time to be getting started, but neither cared. Gip said she had someone buy her papers earlier and knew where she would be. Up on the corner by a bakery and a flower shop, stood a tall dark skinned girl, her glasses glinting in the sunlight, hiding her brown eyes from being revealed. Her dark brown hair fell past her shoulders. A line of sweat lined her forehead as she hawked the headlines. Her black pants were rolled up to her knees, her blue gray shirt unbuttoned and the long sleeves of her gray undershirt were rolled up past her elbows.
"Hey Lavender, how's selling goin?" Gip asked as they approached her selling spot.
"It's alright, but is sure is hot out taday," Lavender said, taking a moment to wipe the sweat off of her forehead with her ink stained hands. "Reminds me of last summer when me an' Skitts started being sweet on each other," Lavender smiled to herself as she remembered fond memories of last summer's fling.
Remembering why the girls were there she counted 30 out of her stack of papers and handed them to Gip. She turned her attention to Irish for a moment. "So you an' dat fiery blonde stayin' in Manhattan for a while?" she asked, curious to know if the rumors were true.
"Yeah, most likely… we'll see…" Irish spoke uncertainly, she hadn't really confirmed with Bitter just what exactly they were going to be doing here and how long it would be until they were to leave.
Lavender shrugged. "Well maybe we'll get a chance to see more of each other than… if you ain't too busy with Snitch," Lavender said with a wink. All three of them laughed at that.
"We'll see ya latah Lavender," Gip laughed, pulling Irish all the way to Central Park.
"You kin just owe me," Gip said as she divided up the papers. They both took a moment to scan the headlines before separating, hawking exaggerated phrases as they both made their way to different parts of the crowded park.
It was only an hour or two until the girls were out of papers. The day was sweltering with heat, and the two sat down under a large oak tree. "What now Gip?" Irish asked, wiping the sweat off of her forehead.
"Let's get some lunch, I know this decent place a few blocks away, not too far," Gip suggested, getting up and stretching her tall lanky body.
Irish scowled at the thought of trudging back out into the heat and reluctantly rose from her sprawled position on the soft grass. "Lead the way…" Irish said, her voice anything but enthusiastic.
Night had fallen rather suddenly, cooling the day into subtle, but windy warmth. It was Corduroy who found Bitter sleeping in the side room, her grey eyes glowing with amusement as she tried to wake the grumpy, hung over girl. She had to dodge Bitter's quick arm, attempting to swat the girl away.
"Bittah…" she sung softly.
"Leave me de fuck alone," Bitter muttered into the bed. Her short blonde hair was a mess of tangles and there were red wrinkles on the one cheek exposed from her disgruntled sleeping.
"Don't be an ass, get the fuck out of bed," Corduroy grabbed her by the foot and dragged her out of the bed. Bitter landed with a 'thump' and a groan was elicited from her lips.
"Now get your hungover ass out of bed and take a cold shower," Corduroy could help but smirk as she lifted the girl to her feet and gave her a push towards the bathroom.
Corduroy couldn't help but making things worse for Bitter, hollering for her to hurry up every five minutes that passed.
"Where de fuck is Irish?" Bitter scowled as she exited the bathroom to find an amused Corduroy sitting right outside the door.
"Well she was sellin' with Gip I think, but nobody has seen the two except Lavender, who saw them around noon," Corduroy said as she looked around. "Spot's gone too, but I figured that would happen pretty quickly. He's out with Jack, looking for someone … I hoid a few things but I don't know if theyre true or not..." Corduroy paused to see if anyone was around.
"A gang or sumthing…" she whispered.
Bitter nodded and started to head down the stairs, ready to search all of Manhattan for that gang herself. Her plan was foiled, or at least put back, for the moment she opened the door, a bruised, bleeding and barely conscious Gip collapsed through the doorway.