Chapter Three.
I love that I'm getting reviews, weeeee. I just wish I got more! But many thanks to you fabulous reviewing ladies. And with that, I knocked off the insane accents in the last 2 chapters, and shall continue with that, lol. There's a scene with Jack and Race – you'll know it – and I just love it, lol. I enjoy writing this even more than I thought, so with that said, here you go...
- - - - - -
Shine immediately fell asleep when she hit the bed. I could always tell when she was asleep – that's how well we knew each other. In my bed though, I just couldn't stop hearing things. When you sleep by the windows, you hear everything that is going on in New York. Now, people do sleep, but not as much as a newsgirl would want, especially when you have to get up so early.
Also on my mind was how I was going to be treated the next day. There wasn't a lot of time to get any idea of how these boys would treat me, or Shine. Jack told us that we would have to get up really early and use the bathroom first, or wait for everyone to leave, and then use it. Shine and I decided we would do whatever we were awake for first.
Spats rambled on and on about how she was friends with this newsie and that newsie, but no one treated her as a friend. This made me wonder how I would be treated soon after my welcome wore off.
Jack said that if we got up early before everyone else, we'd still be dealing with one of the newsboys – Lack. He was nicknamed for his "lack" of sleep. When we all went to bed, he went to the stairs and sat there, just waiting for something to happen. I wondered what he thought about.
I sighed.
- - - - - -
That night was my lacking of sleep, and I used the bathroom and got ready before anyone else, including Lack, who probably figured it was me in there anyway, and avoided the bathroom for the obvious. There wasn't much to getting ready. I slept in my slip, so all I needed to do was throw my dress over it. Then I messed with my hair a little, trying to get it to sit on top of my head without flailing all over. My hair is dark black, but the sun started lightening it up this summer, and it's fairly short, though not short enough to put up. I had Yellow cut it just a week before she threw me out. As I stared into the mirror, I remembered that evening.
"Loops, you look even prettier with short hair. It fits you just perfect."
I smiled at Yellow. "You think so?"
She nodded, and then cocked her head to the side as she watched me in the mirror in front of us. We had set up a little beauty parlor in an extra room we had for us girls, and Yellow loved it; she loved the idea that we could feel good about ourselves, even if for just a short time, and just in front of the large mirror we had all pitched in to get, and all the little make-up sets strewn along the old table we brought to put in front of the mirror. I was sitting in a chair we had brought in from the lobby of the house downstairs.
Yellow looked at me a lot, but that time it felt different.
"Shine, up so early?" I snapped out of my memories, and Shine was behind me in the mirror, nodding in response. "It's awful early, ain't it?" Again, she nodded, and then confirmed the time with a yawn.
Another yawn over-powered Shine's, and we both looked to see that Kid Blink was awake, and scratching his stomach as he craned his neck and stretched. His eyes were half-open and his lip was curled up, like he smelled something awful. "Ugh, uh, oh, sorry..." Though I'm sure he couldn't see us very well, he stepped back out of the bathroom, as if he had walked in on us naked.
I stepped to Shine and put my arm around with a laugh. "As much as I hate it here, that boy's reaction just made my day." Glancing at Shine, I noticed that she had cracked a smile and that her eyes were almost glowing when I said it. I gasped, "You got a crush on that boy?"
Shine pursed her lips, and then pointed to her eye, closing it. "Kid Blink, yeah, I know his name," I chuckled. She continued to the sink to wash her face, not informing me of anything with any sort of body language.
"Okay," I told her, "I'll set it up where you guys can hang out and smooch, how's that sound?" Her face shot up and she dripped her way over to me, shaking her head feverishly in disagreement. "Continue," I said, motioning for her to go back to the sink.
Walking of the bathroom, I bumped into Racetrack, who could care less whether we were using the room or not. He quickly asked, "You ladies done gossipin'?" and didn't wait for a response as he went to a urinal.
Jack followed in behind, not even asking Shine if she was decent or not, and went to the urinal beside Race. "I had this really weird dream," he informed Race, "and I was – now get this - a nun. N-u-n, nun... with that thing on my head an' all that black, an' everything."
"Hey Cowboy, I don't think newsies can be nuns, since we ain't goin' to church regular-like, know what I mean?" Race inquired.
I piped in, leaning against the wall next to Race, clear of any urinal, "Don't think you can be nuns, figuring that you're boys and all."
I had hoped that I would scare them out of the bathroom area, letting them know that I was standing there with them as they continued to piss, but they didn't even flinch.
"Yeah, I think she's right," Race said with a nod, as he situated himself and left the urinal.
Jack shrugged. "I didn't say I wanted to be one, I just had a dream about bein' one, that's all. Jesus! Race, you're so literal." He left the urinal as well, and I rolled my eyes, feeling left out somehow.
Inside I felt like I could try hard to be like "one of the guy's", but that it would never be, because we were two totally different kinds of beings in almost every sense. Men have absolutely no feelings – this I was sure of. And my attraction toward them had long ago died away with my hope of finding the so-called "knight in shining armor". Now all I wanted was a girl who understood me. She didn't have to have a horse, or wear armor, and fight dragons and such. So why is it that I feel so bad for wanting something that I can't help but think about?
- - - - - -
The last few lines are actually something I got from an old diary I have. So many times I dreamed of a "knight in shining armor", as cliché as it really is. Then one day, I realized that I didn't want that, nor did I want the sort of person I had hoped was underneath the armor. Just giving myself the time to figure out whether I was gay or not was the best thing ever, because it allowed me to really find me! So anyway, thought I'd share that.
Having said that, I always admit that newsboys are my only weakness... lol. R&R, if you please!