Later I was wondering how long I had lain in the bed. I knew what I felt
like doing but I didn't have the materials to draw with. I had always liked
drawing since I was very little. It was one of my favorite things to do and
my outlet for creativity. I had always secretly dreamed of one day selling
my art but that day had yet to come.
I looked around the small bare room wondering if maybe there was some stray paper around. I spotted the drawer in the small table and got out of bed and crossed to it. I opened it and thanked the person who had placed the stack of loose paper inside. I pulled out a few sheets and then wondered what I could use to draw with. Then I mentally slapped myself. I almost always had my piece of charcoal with me and I happened to have one in the bundle of cloths I had brought with me. I took it out then flopped back on the bed. I drew for a long time, as I never could keep track of time when I was at it. All of a sudden a hand clamped down on my shoulder. It is amazing how high you can jump when you are sitting down. I managed about a foot in the air and at the same time all the papers I had been holding, at least ten flew into the air landing on the covers, some on the floor. I turned and saw Race laughing at me.
Oh shit I thought to myself. I had meant to hide the drawings before he came back but I hadn't realized he had been gone long enough to finish his selling.
"Whudd were ye doin?" he asked after he had managed to control himself.
"Umm nuthin." I said evading his question and quickly reaching down to gather some of the papers that had fallen to the floor.
"Hea, I got it." he said and reached for one paper that was upside down. I grabbed at it but he snatched it away and gave me a confused look that turned playful. "Aww, were ye writin more love lettas te me? I told ye ye didn havta." he said teasingly then looked at the paper.
"Ha ha." I said, turning bright red, I could feel my face getting hot. I looked at him studying the paper. The one he had picked up was a sketch of him, thumbs hooked around his suspenders, one of his usual positions. To my mortification that particular drawing had "I Love Race" written all along the sides. "Actually its woise dan love lettas." I said turning away from him, embarassement all over my face.
"Hey dis is good," he said sounding impressed. "Whudd are de odda ones?"
"Pretty much de same." I muttered.
He picked up the other drawings and looked at them as well. They were pretty much all of him except for one of the two of us standing hand in hand.
"I like dis one." he told me indicating the one of him and me with another "I Love Race" scrawled above it. There was a pause. I didn't know what to say. I didn't know weither to say "haha I'm obbsessed with you", or what so I didn't say anything. I was still hoping for him not to think me strange and weird because I loved him and I'd only known him for a short period of time. I was confident about many things but I was so sure about love, I needed assurance.
He laughed and I looked up at him. "So de ye love me or not?" he asked still laughing though I couldn't tell exactly why.
Oh boy, I thought to myself, the moment of truth, even though that may seem a little melodramatic. "Well...yea," I said, I couldn't, didn't see a reason, and didn't want to lie to him. I was unsure of what he would say to this so I kept my head down almost not wanting a reply. He grabbed my shoulders than gently lifted my chin so that I would look at him. His face looked so happy and I began to feel a little hope.
"Good." he said softly.
I realized what he said and my face split into an ear-to-ear grin before he leaned in and kissed me hard and long.
"I didn't know if you did," I murmered, "so I didn't say anything." not to mention I had only realized this that morning.
"Well, I caughtcha didn I?" he said with a chuckle.
"Oh my god." I said still embarrassed, covering my face with my hands.
"Whudd?" he asked, looking truly puzzled. "Deyre really, really great."
"Well...thanks." I said after a pause.
"He picked up the one I had drawn me alongside him, "can I keep dis one? I like it."
"Go ahead, ye could have all of em but I don think ye'd want pictures of yeself." I teased.
"Nah, not particularily." he said back to me, "But thanks, an not jus fer de drawin."
"Fer what den?" I asked, puzzled.
"Fer lovin me, an bein so great." he replied, the sweetest look on his face.
"Aw come on, ye know I'm de one who should be thankin ye fer takin care o me an bein so sweet. Not te mention borrowin yer cloths." I protested.
"Hey ye look betta in em den I do." he said laughter in his eyes.
I laughed. "Yea...whuddeva, but seriously I don desoive dis, yer jus too good te me." I really meant every word.
"Oh come on Doodles." he said exasperatedly," Yer de same fer me, an I feel de same way ye know?"
"But—" he put his hand over my mouth to make me shut up.
"Do ye realize how stupid dis argument is gettin?" he asked laughing.
I thought about it for a moment than began to laugh. "Yer right but I'm bad at arguin anyway. I'm mora de peacemaker type."
"I coulda guessed, an dats probaly a good thing. Ye haven't seen a real fight till ye see Bailey an Angel go at it." he said, " Anyways why don we quit wid all de arguin ova who desoives us more..." he paused, a little confused at what he had just said, "or sumthin like dat."
I understood what he meant, "Ok, I could go fer dat." I said happily.
Just then we heard a big commotion from outside. We got off the bed and crossed to the window that looked out over the street. We heard the shouting before we saw them.
"Ye betta tell us where she is or we'll send de Crypts on yer little goilys hea." It was Oscar Delancy standing alongside Morris.
"Ha! We could take em!" shouted a familiar voice. It was Bailey standing with Jack, Angel, and Spot.
I watched Jack grab Bailey's arm and try to push her behind him but she slapped his arm away. Spot did the same with Angel but she didn't protest. All of a sudden Morris pulled out a blade and started towards Jack and Spot. As they were fighting Morris they didn't realize what Oscar was doing. He had gone for Angel. I opened my mouth to yell but Race put his hand over it.
"Dey can't know yer hea!" he said though looking very anxious.
So we watched helpless as Oscar gave Angel a punch to the face. But then Bailey saw what had happened.
"Ye bastard, how dare ye do dat! I'm gonna kill ye!" she shouted and with that she soaked Oscar pretty good while Jack was busy doing the same to Morris.
Spot was seeing to Angel whose nose looked to be bleeding pretty badly.
Just then we heard whistles being blown.
"De bulls!" we could hear Spot saying as they left Oscar and Morris on the street and quickly rushed across the street and to the back of Christina's shop. If the Bulls (well the cops) caught them all the newsies knew they'd probably try to arrest them. They were always after the newsies for whatever they could put them away for. A few seconds later we heard pounding on the stairs so Race and me went quickly from the room and to the door. They burst through and looked a little surprised to see me and Race standing there.
"Are ye alright?" I asked Angel who was still bleeding.
"Well it kinda hoits," she said wryly, "but I'll live."
Spot had taken out his hankerchief to clean up some of the blood. "Did ye see de entia thing?" he asked me and Race.
"Yea," Race said while I nodded. "Did dey follow you?"
"Yea," Jack admitted looking very pissed off. "Dey followed us from de
lodgin house. Good thing we saw dem before we went inta de shop. Den
dey woulda known dat yer hea." he said looking at me. Then he turned
to Bailey who was shaking her hand absently. "Are ye ok?"
"Yea, just dat Osca has a damn hard head." she said and everyone laughed.
"Way to go Bai," I said, "ye soaked im good. He'll think twice before beaten on a goil again."
She smiled looking pleased then saw Jack's worried expression. "Geez Jack, I told ya, I can take care o meself."
"I know...I jus worry bout ye anyways." he said. "Jus be careful."
"Ok, ok, " she said though gave him a peck on the cheek. "Now we gotta teach Ang hea how te fight." she said to me.
"Defiantly." I said. "Are ye up fer it?" I asked Angel. "It really is good te know how."
"Fine, ok." Angel gave in with her head tipped back to stop the flow of blood.
"Yay!" Bailey said happily. "We can give ye some lessons when yer nose decides te stop bleedin."
"Yea at least I can make ye happy." Angel said to Bailey. "Shes been wanting to teach me how to fight for a long time." she said to me rolling her eyes. "Well come on." Bailey said. "Yer always de one gettin hoit but if ye know how te fight, den even if ye do get hoit den atleast ye can hoit someone in retoin." she said logically.
"Dats me bloodthoisty goil," Jack said laughing.
"Jus try not te get hoit ok." Spot said not looking too happy with where the conversation was going.
"Believe me; I don plan dis stuff te happen. It jus does." Angel said.
Just then the door to the apartment opened again and Christina walked through looking worried. "Whudds goin on? Oh! Are ye ok?" she said when she saw Angel.
"I'll live." Angel said again.
"Whudd happened?" Christina asked us.
And so we told her what had happened with the Delancy's and she was not all that surprised to hear it.
"Why don I make us a little something te eat?" Christina said with a smile after we all had finished with the explanation of Angel's bloody nose.
"Sounds good te me!" I said glad to have more company now...though I blushed when I thought to myself "Bein with Race isn't bad at all...."
I looked around the small bare room wondering if maybe there was some stray paper around. I spotted the drawer in the small table and got out of bed and crossed to it. I opened it and thanked the person who had placed the stack of loose paper inside. I pulled out a few sheets and then wondered what I could use to draw with. Then I mentally slapped myself. I almost always had my piece of charcoal with me and I happened to have one in the bundle of cloths I had brought with me. I took it out then flopped back on the bed. I drew for a long time, as I never could keep track of time when I was at it. All of a sudden a hand clamped down on my shoulder. It is amazing how high you can jump when you are sitting down. I managed about a foot in the air and at the same time all the papers I had been holding, at least ten flew into the air landing on the covers, some on the floor. I turned and saw Race laughing at me.
Oh shit I thought to myself. I had meant to hide the drawings before he came back but I hadn't realized he had been gone long enough to finish his selling.
"Whudd were ye doin?" he asked after he had managed to control himself.
"Umm nuthin." I said evading his question and quickly reaching down to gather some of the papers that had fallen to the floor.
"Hea, I got it." he said and reached for one paper that was upside down. I grabbed at it but he snatched it away and gave me a confused look that turned playful. "Aww, were ye writin more love lettas te me? I told ye ye didn havta." he said teasingly then looked at the paper.
"Ha ha." I said, turning bright red, I could feel my face getting hot. I looked at him studying the paper. The one he had picked up was a sketch of him, thumbs hooked around his suspenders, one of his usual positions. To my mortification that particular drawing had "I Love Race" written all along the sides. "Actually its woise dan love lettas." I said turning away from him, embarassement all over my face.
"Hey dis is good," he said sounding impressed. "Whudd are de odda ones?"
"Pretty much de same." I muttered.
He picked up the other drawings and looked at them as well. They were pretty much all of him except for one of the two of us standing hand in hand.
"I like dis one." he told me indicating the one of him and me with another "I Love Race" scrawled above it. There was a pause. I didn't know what to say. I didn't know weither to say "haha I'm obbsessed with you", or what so I didn't say anything. I was still hoping for him not to think me strange and weird because I loved him and I'd only known him for a short period of time. I was confident about many things but I was so sure about love, I needed assurance.
He laughed and I looked up at him. "So de ye love me or not?" he asked still laughing though I couldn't tell exactly why.
Oh boy, I thought to myself, the moment of truth, even though that may seem a little melodramatic. "Well...yea," I said, I couldn't, didn't see a reason, and didn't want to lie to him. I was unsure of what he would say to this so I kept my head down almost not wanting a reply. He grabbed my shoulders than gently lifted my chin so that I would look at him. His face looked so happy and I began to feel a little hope.
"Good." he said softly.
I realized what he said and my face split into an ear-to-ear grin before he leaned in and kissed me hard and long.
"I didn't know if you did," I murmered, "so I didn't say anything." not to mention I had only realized this that morning.
"Well, I caughtcha didn I?" he said with a chuckle.
"Oh my god." I said still embarrassed, covering my face with my hands.
"Whudd?" he asked, looking truly puzzled. "Deyre really, really great."
"Well...thanks." I said after a pause.
"He picked up the one I had drawn me alongside him, "can I keep dis one? I like it."
"Go ahead, ye could have all of em but I don think ye'd want pictures of yeself." I teased.
"Nah, not particularily." he said back to me, "But thanks, an not jus fer de drawin."
"Fer what den?" I asked, puzzled.
"Fer lovin me, an bein so great." he replied, the sweetest look on his face.
"Aw come on, ye know I'm de one who should be thankin ye fer takin care o me an bein so sweet. Not te mention borrowin yer cloths." I protested.
"Hey ye look betta in em den I do." he said laughter in his eyes.
I laughed. "Yea...whuddeva, but seriously I don desoive dis, yer jus too good te me." I really meant every word.
"Oh come on Doodles." he said exasperatedly," Yer de same fer me, an I feel de same way ye know?"
"But—" he put his hand over my mouth to make me shut up.
"Do ye realize how stupid dis argument is gettin?" he asked laughing.
I thought about it for a moment than began to laugh. "Yer right but I'm bad at arguin anyway. I'm mora de peacemaker type."
"I coulda guessed, an dats probaly a good thing. Ye haven't seen a real fight till ye see Bailey an Angel go at it." he said, " Anyways why don we quit wid all de arguin ova who desoives us more..." he paused, a little confused at what he had just said, "or sumthin like dat."
I understood what he meant, "Ok, I could go fer dat." I said happily.
Just then we heard a big commotion from outside. We got off the bed and crossed to the window that looked out over the street. We heard the shouting before we saw them.
"Ye betta tell us where she is or we'll send de Crypts on yer little goilys hea." It was Oscar Delancy standing alongside Morris.
"Ha! We could take em!" shouted a familiar voice. It was Bailey standing with Jack, Angel, and Spot.
I watched Jack grab Bailey's arm and try to push her behind him but she slapped his arm away. Spot did the same with Angel but she didn't protest. All of a sudden Morris pulled out a blade and started towards Jack and Spot. As they were fighting Morris they didn't realize what Oscar was doing. He had gone for Angel. I opened my mouth to yell but Race put his hand over it.
"Dey can't know yer hea!" he said though looking very anxious.
So we watched helpless as Oscar gave Angel a punch to the face. But then Bailey saw what had happened.
"Ye bastard, how dare ye do dat! I'm gonna kill ye!" she shouted and with that she soaked Oscar pretty good while Jack was busy doing the same to Morris.
Spot was seeing to Angel whose nose looked to be bleeding pretty badly.
Just then we heard whistles being blown.
"De bulls!" we could hear Spot saying as they left Oscar and Morris on the street and quickly rushed across the street and to the back of Christina's shop. If the Bulls (well the cops) caught them all the newsies knew they'd probably try to arrest them. They were always after the newsies for whatever they could put them away for. A few seconds later we heard pounding on the stairs so Race and me went quickly from the room and to the door. They burst through and looked a little surprised to see me and Race standing there.
"Are ye alright?" I asked Angel who was still bleeding.
"Well it kinda hoits," she said wryly, "but I'll live."
Spot had taken out his hankerchief to clean up some of the blood. "Did ye see de entia thing?" he asked me and Race.
"Yea," Race said while I nodded. "Did dey follow you?"
"Yea," Jack admitted looking very pissed off. "Dey followed us from de
lodgin house. Good thing we saw dem before we went inta de shop. Den
dey woulda known dat yer hea." he said looking at me. Then he turned
to Bailey who was shaking her hand absently. "Are ye ok?"
"Yea, just dat Osca has a damn hard head." she said and everyone laughed.
"Way to go Bai," I said, "ye soaked im good. He'll think twice before beaten on a goil again."
She smiled looking pleased then saw Jack's worried expression. "Geez Jack, I told ya, I can take care o meself."
"I know...I jus worry bout ye anyways." he said. "Jus be careful."
"Ok, ok, " she said though gave him a peck on the cheek. "Now we gotta teach Ang hea how te fight." she said to me.
"Defiantly." I said. "Are ye up fer it?" I asked Angel. "It really is good te know how."
"Fine, ok." Angel gave in with her head tipped back to stop the flow of blood.
"Yay!" Bailey said happily. "We can give ye some lessons when yer nose decides te stop bleedin."
"Yea at least I can make ye happy." Angel said to Bailey. "Shes been wanting to teach me how to fight for a long time." she said to me rolling her eyes. "Well come on." Bailey said. "Yer always de one gettin hoit but if ye know how te fight, den even if ye do get hoit den atleast ye can hoit someone in retoin." she said logically.
"Dats me bloodthoisty goil," Jack said laughing.
"Jus try not te get hoit ok." Spot said not looking too happy with where the conversation was going.
"Believe me; I don plan dis stuff te happen. It jus does." Angel said.
Just then the door to the apartment opened again and Christina walked through looking worried. "Whudds goin on? Oh! Are ye ok?" she said when she saw Angel.
"I'll live." Angel said again.
"Whudd happened?" Christina asked us.
And so we told her what had happened with the Delancy's and she was not all that surprised to hear it.
"Why don I make us a little something te eat?" Christina said with a smile after we all had finished with the explanation of Angel's bloody nose.
"Sounds good te me!" I said glad to have more company now...though I blushed when I thought to myself "Bein with Race isn't bad at all...."