Title: One Year Anniversary
Author: Stress
First written: April 18, 2002-May 12, 2002
Edited and replaced: August 9, 2005
Summary: Part III of the Soul Mates Series; When Jack and Stress reach their first year anniversary, Stress tells a friend the story about how they almost didn't get together at all.
. August 4th 1899 .
At the DistributionCenter
Like every other normal day all the newsies lined up outside the distribution center to buy their papes. What made this day different from every other normal day were the groups that left the center to sell their papes together. Before Stress had gone to Queens, all the girls would set out with their respective boyfriends to sell, the "Singles" would split up amongst themselves and the single newsboys, and Stress and Jack would sell together. While Stress was in Queens the pairs were pretty much the same except Jack paired off with David. Now, though, the pairs were all screwy.
The "Singles" still split up amongst themselves -- Midnight, Holiday and Reeny went with Boots, Itey and Swifty to the harbor while Bittah and Gip headed to Bottle Alley with Crutchy, Pie-Eater and Snoddy. Blaze and Bumlets, Slash and Dutchy, and Wish and Skittery all split up and went their separate ways, like usual. Stripes and Martini grabbed Grace so they could work on their plan some more while selling. For the same reason Mushie and Bookie set off together. Stress and David headed off together, hand in hand, leaving Jack behind. Race and Mush tried to get to Jack first but Blink and Spot invited him to sell with them seconds before Race got over there. Upon a disappointed look from Bookie, Race quickly invited him to lunch at Tibby's after he had finished selling his papes. After Jack agreed, Race and Mush left together to discuss what they were going to tell Jack later that afternoon.
Downtown Manhattan
"So, Jacky-Boy, how ya been? I haven't seen ya in quite some time," asked Spot, starting up a conversation.
"I'm good Spot."
"How's Sarah? She treating ya good?" Blink added. "Might as well get straight to the point," he thought to himself.
"Sarah's good too, Blink."
It was going to be tougher than they thought to get Jack to talk to them about what he was feeling. He was being extremely tight-lipped.
Spot tried again. "So was that the 'Walking Mouth' I saw Stress leaving the distribution center with?"
This time Spot succeeded in touching a nerve. "Yeah, that lousy scabber just went up and stole me g-- me best friend. Can ya believe that?" announced Jack.
"Well Jack, ya see, those two are a couple now. Of course they're gonna wanna spend some time together," Bllink said as he tried to reason with him.
"But she's me best friend. She's been back for over a day now and I only got to talk to her once when we all was at that Jacobs's for supper yesterday," he said as he tried to explain his jealousy to his friends.
"Oh, really? How about when ya introduced her to your girlfriend?"
Jack blushed. "So, you two know about that, huh?"
"Yeah, we know. I'm surprised Stress didn't slug ya right there," stated Blink as he fixed his eye patch so that it was straight.
"Well, to be honest with you, me too. I've never seen Sarah act so superior to anyone before," Jack said, looking puzzled.
"Ain't it a shame that Stress had to find out that way? I'm sure ya didn't make her feel too good."
"Ya know, Spot, I think that Dave's gonna make her feel all better." Jack said bitterly as he recalled her words at supper the night before. "Oh, Dave. I'm sorry. I just have had a bad couple of weeks. But I'm sure that someone will make me feel all better." He got all hot with anger, like he did last night, whenever he saw Stress fawning all over a guy, especially one of his friends. He wasn't able to handle it last night so he had left. In fact, he still couldn't handle it and it showed in his expression.
"Whatsamattah Jack? You'se don't look so good. Is there something that ya wanna tell us Jack? C'mon, we're your pals," Blink said, trying to wheedle the information they needed out of Jack.
"Yeah Jacky-Boy, you know that you can trust us."
Jack thought about it for a second. It might help him to sort out his feelings if he talked it over with someone. Since both of his best friends were not available to talk to at the moment, and most definitely would not be able to help him with this problem, then the next best thing would be to tell Spot and Blink.
Taking a deep breath, Jack began to talk, to the pleasure of the other two boys. "O.K. fellas, this is it. I've known Stress for over four years now. During that entire time I knew that I had something special but being the bozo that I am, I never said anything to her about me feelings. I had spent this past summer going back and forth with me heart and me brain. Me heart keeps saying go for it, but me brain keeps telling me to keep me trap shut unless I wanna be rejected and lose me best friend at the same time. I figured that having her as me best friend was better than not having her at all. Then, when she had to go away this past month, I was lost with out her. But then we had the big strike and I had something else to focus on. Then I met Dave, Les and, most importantly, Sarah. The Jacobs' were like the fam'ly I never had. An' Sarah, Sarah was not shy about telling me she liked me. An' I made the mistake of thinking that the feelings of friendship I had toward her were something more. There's only one girl that I love, at least I think I love, and it ain't Sarah. But what can I do now? I don't wanna hurt Sarah and besides, Stress has herself a guy, a good guy that she seems to have fallen in love with, so what good would anything do anyways?" Though Jack looked very lost and confused, he also was able to smile. It felt so good to get that off his chest.
Spot and Blink, on the other hand, were stunned. They did not expect Jack to come out and tell them everything that he was thinking.
Spot recovered first. "Wow, I had no idea. But let me ask ya a question. Do ya honestly think that Stress loves Dave the way that ya love her?"
"I don't know what to think anymore."
"Yeah, Jack. I can honestly tell ya that Stress loves you as much as you love her. This thing with Dave is just a fling, I tell ya. It's a way for her to hide the hurt that you caused by springing Sarah on her," Blink added.
Again, Jack blushed. He felt incredibly guilty about any unintentional hurt he may have caused Stress. "I never want to hurt Stress," he said shyly.
"Yeah, well at this rate you're gonna end up hurting Stress and Dave and Sarah," Spot pointed out.
"I know, I know." Jack was beginning to see what he was going to have to do. He shook his head from side to side in order to clear it. He would worry about that later. "C'mon fellas, we've got work to do."
He started to pick up his pace hawking his headline ("Cow saves man from burning barn in Jersey!") leaving Spot and Blink a few steps behind.
The two boys shared a conspiratorial wink. As they picked up their step to catch up with Jack, Blink smiled to himself. He and Spot had done good -- the girls were going to be very proud and happy at the information that the boys would give them later that evening. "For once, one of the girls' plans is gonna work," he said to himself before shouting to people to pay "A penny a pape."