Disclaimer: I DO NOT own Newsies or anything about it. The only character I own is Liz, who is a figment of my imagination. Christina and Tag Along are real people and are owned by themselves. Hoodlie (later chapters), Josh (ditto) and Chicken Wing are owned by themselves, but I only own the names. Thank you all and goodnight! ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Hey guys! I did it! Chapter 18 is FINALLY here! Well now I guess I'll do SO's at the end of the chapter (as usual) and I'll let you guys be reading!

Chapter 18: The Hardest Secret to Keep ~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"What? You mean, huh?" Skittery made a distorted face in his confusion.

"No, I'm just sayin' dat why did you do it if it didn't mean anythin' tah you? Did it mean anythin' tah you, Skittery?" Liz asked, wondering to herself it the kiss meant anything to her.

He paused to gather his thoughts for a while before he answered her. "I don't know why I did it, okay. I mean, I did feel somethin' for you once, but I thought dat it was all over, ya know. I mean, I've moved on tah bigger things, but, I don't know. I just got caught off guard, I guess. Liz, I'm sorry dat dat happened, I mean, I don't know what I was thinkin'. But, just don't worry about it, alright. Everythin' will be fine, I promise. Why, did it mean anythin' tah you?"

"I don't know, Skittery. I mean, I just feel so bad about everythin' now, Skittery. I did somethin' dat I promised myself I'd never do! I lied tah myself, Skittery. I lied! God, I feel so horrible! I was unfaithful tah Snitch an' I love Snitch! Oh my God, I was so mad at him for takin' his anger out on someone else an' I go behind his back and do dis! I'm such a bad person, Skittery!" She admitted in a way that made Skittery laugh. She was so naïve and innocent.

"Liz, don't worry about it; it's okay really! I mean, it ain't like we had sex or anythin'!" He laughed!

"SEX! AHHHH!" She screamed, causing not only a scene in the restaurant but also outside.

He turned around to see the people looking at him in puzzlement. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. She does dis sometimes." He explained to the passersby. "Look, how many times do I have tah say dis, don't worry about it. Snitch ain't gonna find out an' if he does I'll tell him dat it was my fault, okay. It was all my doing an' I forced ya, alright. You ain't gonna get in one ounce of trouble, 'cause it's true. Well, not da whole forcing part, but it was my fault. Okay, just leave it tah me an' everythin' will be fine, I promise."

"Yeah, but..."

"No! No and, ifs or buts about it, okay. Nothing! Nada! Zippo! Okay, you are innocent in dis whole situation, alright. Look, dis is like da secret dat you kept for me. Okay, dis is just between us, no one else. No one else is gonna find out about it, an' if dey do you know what'll happen. What'll happen?" Skittery asked inching closer to her, so that he could talk more quietly.

"Snitch will kill me, Skittery! He will! He'll kill you!"

"Ahh! No he won't! For once forget about Snitch okay. He don't own you an' he can't do anythin' tah you. Do you hear my voice, Liz? Are you listenin' tah me? Wake up! Geez oh man, nothin' is going to happen! How many times do I have tah say dat? What do I have tah do? Huh? Write it on my face!? Nothin's gonna happen tah anybody! Repeat what I just said."

"Nothin's gonna happen." Liz repeated.

"One more time, just so you can remember it."

"Nothin's gonna happen."

"Good, if somethin' does happen who'll take care of it?"

"You will."

"Who am I?"

"Skittery." Liz played along.

He smiled in approval. "Alright, I think you got da hang of it now. At least I hope you do. If you don't den you're helpless!" He laughed. "Oh no, we went through dat already. My bad." He smiled. "Just trust me, alright." They did their little handshake thing that they made up themselves. It was a kind of complicated one; something completely unusual and so much different then the one Blink and Mush did with each other. It wasn't very typical for people to have secret handshakes, but it was something that a few kids did just for fun. The handshake was kind of hard to explain, but it was just a slap of hands and they would stop when the fingers curved and held on to each other. Once they both were holding hands they would one by one squeeze the other's hands. They would do a little motion thing like a rock on each other's hands, you know how it goes. Do you know what I'm talking about? They'd make a fist and hit the top of one fist and the next person would do the same thing. Then they would knock knuckles. After they did that they made a motion like they were pulling a cigarette out of their mouth, and put it out on the other person's shoulder. Do you understand the handshake? Oh well, I tried. Ahem, anyway, narrator got a little of track there, but she's back now. "So everythin's alright now?" Skittery asked, just to make sure.

"Yeah I guess. I'm still an adulterer though." Liz joked.

"Could we get over da adulterer thing? You ain't even close tah bein' an adulterer, okay. You really think dat what you did today was bad? C'mon Liz! I probably did a hundred an' one things worse den dis in my lifetime, okay. Dis is nothin'! Dis is just a little petty thing compared tah some of da shit dat other people do, ya know. It's just a friends thing, right. I mean, friends kiss sometimes, don't dey?" He asked.

"Yeah sure, I guess dey do." She thought for a moment. "Yeah I guess dey probably could. But, Skittery, you said you wanted tah kiss me right? I thought you were gay."

"I – I thought I was too, but I don't know. I mean, you're right I did want tah kiss you, but I – I don't know what happened." He scratched his head.

"Skittery you just can't be gay for a minute an' da next be ungay! It don't woik dat way, does it? Oh my God, I was kissed by a gay guy! Skittery!"

"I don't know! What are ya astin' me for? Dere's gotta be a name for it. I'm sure dere are people dat aren't completely 100% gay, ya know. I'm sure dere are people who like goils an' boys too, right. Oh my God, I'm talking about gayness in public. Just shoot me right now!" He laughed. "So we're okay, right? You get everythin' I told ya."

Liz nodded and they both went their separate ways. "See ya later." She called out to him.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Meanwhile, back at the Lodging House:

"Just da person I wanna see right now." Snitch jumped up off his bunk, throwing his hand of cards down beside him. He ran over to Liz and smiled brightly. "I just wanted tah say...."

"Snitch before you say anythin' I just wanted tah say dat I'm sorry for yellin' at you an' gettin' on your case dis mornin'. It was wrong of me an' I'm real sorry. I understand why you did it an' I realize dat you were just out tah protect me because you care about me." The secret kept inching its way out of her mouth, but she held it back, fearing that she would eventually let it slip. "Now what is it dat you wanted tah tell me?"

"Um, well, I just wanted tah apologize too about what I did. I mean, yeah it was kinda assholish in a way, but you're right I was jus' tryin' tah protect ya."

"What did I tell ya Snitch, finishin' each other's sentences." Itey butted in as he looked at Snitch's cards.

"What? Wait, I'm confused."

"Don't worry about it, jus' a little conversation me an' Ites had earlier. Anyway, woah, why are you apologizin' so quickly? What did you do?" Snitch was just playing around with her, not actually sensing or realizing that something truly was wrong.

"What? What do you mean? I didn't do anythin', Snitch, honest." She looked away, trying not to make it obvious.

"You're lyin' tah me, Liz. I know it! C'mon, tell me what you did."

"How do ya know I'm lyin'? I mean, you can't read my mind. Can you?"

"I know you're lyin' because your ears turn red when ya do. What are ya lyin' about, Liz? C'mon tell me, seriously. Let's see you must have stolen some papes from da PDC again? Is dat it? Nah, dat ain't what you done. You probably had a secret outin' wid Oscar yet once again. Nah, dat's just stupid." He debated with himself for a while, wondering what she could have done.

Liz watched and listened in silence hoping that the one most obvious thing didn't enter in his mind.

"Let's see, you could have booked a secret trip tah Brooklyn an' hung out wid da Brooky's again...."

"I know what she did!" Itey interrupted, yet again. Snitch turned around to look at him and gave him the 'a' okay look, as if saying 'proceed'. "I saw 'er today. Haha! I saw 'er an' I saw what she did. She was at Tibby's wid Skittery an' I saw what dey did."

"What did dey do, Itey?" Snitch asked.

"Well it started out when Skittery leaned in an'....." Before Itey could finish, Liz ran over to him and covered his mouth with her hand. Itey still continued to talk even though he was being silenced. He mumbled an incomprehensible, "kissed her."

"Kissed her? HE DID WHAT?!" Snitch's eyes got huge like a frogs as he screamed.

"He um, missed her. Yeah, dat's what he said. See we were dere an' we ordered all dis food an' crap. Ya know like hotdogs an' coffee an' some other stuff an' we had dis big food fight thing and he was throwin' it at me an' he missed me. See get da whole 'missed her' part. Why da heck would Skittery kiss me? What are ya thinkin' boy! I wouldn't do anythin' like dat. What do ya mistake me for, huh? Some kinda adulterer?" Liz gave some fake laugh and looked away. "Ahem, anyway, I jus' wanted tah come an' say I'm sorry an' I did. I was wonderin' if you would wanna jus' like hang out or somethin'. Ya know, I think we need tah talk 'bout some things dat have been goin' on lately." She explained.

"Sounds good tah me. Itey you win, okay man."

"YES! FINALLY!" Itey yelled in triumph.

Snitch rolled his eyes as he linked his hand with Liz's and walked out of the LH.

"Pssh. No matter how long I live, I'll never understand love or lovers for dat matter. Dumb!" Itey complained to himself as he dealt out one more hand for himself and the invisible person that he's supposedly playing against.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Wow! Isn't it a miracle that I finally got this chapter out?! I had it written for a few weeks, but I just wasn't liking it much. I'll admit, I think this is one of the harder chapters to write. So, I'm just really glad that I have it out finally.

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SO's!

~~ Splashey ~~ LOL I'm glad you liked the 'adulterer' part. I found it pretty funny myself and I just HAD to put it in, because it was just really funny to me. Good observation about the Quasimodo thing. It could mean what you said as him being a nice, sweet guy or it could me what I was intending, ugly, stupid, ogre type dude, which Snitch was referring to, but again it could mean both. Good observation! *high fives* Thanks so much for reviewing!

~~ Blue Boxer ~~ You can't slap Snitch! He's just tooooooooooooooo cute to slap! What exactly did you mean by "waling" him? Yo no comprendo! Hehe Oscar is a bit of a cutie in my last few chapters! *winks at Oscar* Hehe, 'nuff said. Aww *hugs Oscar* You're so cute! *pinches cheeks* Okay, I'm done now. You want to have an affair with Oscar? I don't know about that one, it's gonna be too farfetched, but I think I can work it in. J/K. That's a pretty good idea...LOL I like! J/K. Thanks! Love ya!

~~ JustDuck ~~ Aww everyone is now hating Snitch. *turns to Snitch* What have I done?!? *slaps herself* Okay, I'm better now. He's not THAT much of a slug, do ya think? Well, by the end of the story, you won't think he's the slug. *wink wink* Skittery with wings. *imagines it* I can see it...aww he is soo cute isn't he? Hehe! And Liz is awesome! Wow thanks! *high fives Liz* Thanks so much for reviewing!

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What's next in store? Well, I don't know. Let me search my memory and see if I can come up with any thing that I can tell you.

~~ Does anything ever happen between Blink and Christina again?

~~ What goes on when the couples (and some uncoupled up Newsies) go to Medda's for a little "party"?

~~ Will Blink's love for Christina ruin his and Spot's friendship?

Okay, I don't know if all of those will be in the next chapter, but they're just some things that are going to come up sooner or later. I'm not really sure about this next chapter, I haven't had any planning for it yet, so there isn't anything that I can definitely tell you about it. So, basically it's just a spur of the moment sort of thing, ya know. But, this story is coming to a close soon, well it all depends on what I choose to add and what I choose not to add. If I can think correctly I think I have maybe two or more pretty big things to go through before the HUGE climax thing and then after the climax I think I'll have maybe like 3 to 5 chapter after that, so you're looking at possibly ending this fic at like the 25 to 30th chapter. I'm not really sure. Anyway, I just wanted to let you guys be aware of that and thanks for reading.

You know the drill, please review! If you do I'll love you so much more then I already do now! Love you all and peace out!