-1The boys went back to their poker game while Parker and Shay sat and talked on Parkers bunk. Shay told him more about how bad Donny had gotten, Matty's first fight, and about the time Paul got promoted at work, so he was Pa's boss, and Pa beat him so bad he had to quit. Parker just sat in silence occasionally fiddling with his fingers. Shay finally finished her stories and they just sat there, again in an akward silence, Parker not even looking at Shay. He just stared at him hands for what seemed to be an eternity. After sitting quietly for about 5 minutes, he finally spoke.

"Shay, I'm sorry." was all e said. It was all Shay needed to hear. She leaned over and hugged her older brother close.

"Parker I missed you" She said into his chest.

"I missed you to sis." Parker answered, petting the back of her head. It was then that Shay lost it. She totally and completely broke down. She started balling histerically, soaking Parkers shirt with her tears. Parker was a little stunned at first, but he knew that if she was crying this bad, he probably shouldn't ask questions at the moment. So he sat there rocking his little sister back and forth in his arms.

Honestly, Shay didn't know why she was crying either. It had been a long year and a half almost to the day since Parker left and not once had she cried. Not when Pa beat her, or when a drunk Donny called her a no good whore. Not when she caught her eight year old brother drinking , and not when she had found Peters unconscious body, after her father had nearly beat him to death. Not once did a single tear fall from her eyes. But now as she sat with Parker, every bit of that emotion came out. All those months of pain, suffering, stale bread, and the smell of vomit and whisky, all that she had kept up inside of her for so long, came out through her tears onto his shirt.

Blink had told the boys about what happened in the storage room (leaving out the part about how Skittery found them on top of one another, with Shay's shirt halfway off), so they went on with their poker game, not worrying or wondering what he was up to. Almost and hour later they heard Shays cries from the next room. Mush , having a heart as soft as his was, nudged Blink and said

"Hey, Blink, why aint you go and check of Twitch?"

Blink shook his head "Nah, dats what Skittery is in der for, I mean he is her brother after all."

"Well obviously he aint doin such a great job at comfortin her, she been cryin for a good ten minutes!" Mush shoot back.

Blink just stared at his best friend for a moment trying to think of what to say "I cant handle it when dames cry, I get all funky, I freeze up, cant talk. And if I do talk I just end up making it worse!" Blink said as he recived his new hand from Racetrack

"Flash, you're a goyl!" Blink suddenly yelled.

"Well Blink, thank you for noticing!" The girl under Mush's arm that they call Flash laughed.

"I mean" Blink started, turning a little red "I mean, you should go check on her, goyl talk and shit. She wouldn't feel right opening up to a dirty Newsie like us, but youse, youse different."

Flash laughed and stood up from the table "Alright Blink, I'll do it, but youse owe me a visit in Brooklyn for this"

"Yah, yah whatever" Blink retorted, his attention already back to the poker game.

Kleio (which is Flash's real name for those of you who havent read Mixed yet) tried her hardest not to laugh when she walked into the bunk rooms. Her and Skittery had never been real close, but they were still friends, he was like a brother, but one that only stops by o holidays and special occasions. She liked the guy well enough, to know he was horrible when it came to sensitivity, at least with every girl she had ever seen him with. So when she walked into the bunks to see his trying his hardest to comfort twitch, it was really hard for some reason not to laugh

Skittery saw Kleio walked through the doorway, and immediately acknowledged her.

"Hey ya Flash, you need something?"

"Figured your sis might like someone else to talk to. You know goyl talk and shit." Kleio smiled, walking towards the bunk. Skittery smiled a little finally let go of Shay.

"I'll be right in the other room Shay, if you need me, ise there." Shay nodded and wiped some of the tears away from her eyes. Kleio leaned up against the post of the bunk oppisite where Shay was sitting, and waited for Skittery to leave. When he was finally gone she started by saying

"Hey, I'm Kleio, these call me Flash around here though." Kleio extended a hand, and took a step towards Shay

Shay stood up and reached out her own hand to shake as well "Kleio its nice to meet you, my names Shay, but I guess you can call me Twitch."

Kleio smiled and shook Shays hand

"So… you live here to?" Shay asked, sitting back down on Parkers bed.

"Nah, I live in Brooklyn. I got hurt pretty bad a few months back, the Delancys got me pretty good, almost killed my little brother…" Kleio paused for a moment and cleared her throat, not noticing the look of shock that came over Shay's face when she mentioned the Delancys "So, after that Mush found me, and he brought me back here. When I got better, Jack sent me to Brooklyn so I could learn to fight. Just needed to know how to protect myself. I yah know. Ise been livin there about 3 months now."

"Wow, that sounds…" Shay didn't get to finish her sentence because before she could another voice came from the doorway.

"Flash, its time to get back to Brooklyn, Spots looking for ya" A tall, brown haired boy said, leaning against the doorway.

Kleio rolled her eyes and said "Already Rhythm? Ise barely been gone two hours?"

"Flash you better come, bad headlines today, and one of the boys mouthed off at the distribution office. Spots not happy. He founds out your gone, I'm dead and so are you."

Kleio nodded and then turned back to Shay

"Youse wanna come with me? I am sure there is an extra cot lying around somewhere, and you wouldn't have to sleep here with all these smelly perverted boys" Kleio laughed

Shay thought about Kleios offer for a second and tehn answered

"Sure why not? I mean, what could happen ?"

-----------------

Famous last words eh? I am gonna update again today, It was just getting to long to be one chapter. Next one is real good I promise