CHAPTER 4:

"No please, please, no" The carriage continued to speed towards her with no intention of stopping. Suddenly, she could hear the footsteps, pulling her out of the ground, pushing her over to the side of the road, and landing heavily on top of her. He got up quickly, and so did she this time. The boy moved into the light and again she could see those incredible eyes. But then he moved forward, and his whole face and body came into clear view.

"Spot!" cried Alyssa. "I knew it was you! But why are you here? Did you follow me? This is no where near Brooklyn…and I don't even know you. How did you find…"

"You're crazy, DeCardo."

"No, I'm not! I knew you saved me, why can't you admit it? I just…"

He stepped towards her, looking frustrated. The eyes stayed icy.

"Get the fuck up, DeCardo. Wake up!"

Alyssa jolted awake. She realized she was sweating a bit from her strange dream. Arguing with Spot Conlon seemed to be just as tiring in dreams as it was in person. Opening her eyes and stretching a bit, she saw Spot over her.

"I don't know what you're dreaming about but if you keep saying my name in your sleep I'm gonna think you want to kiss me or something. You sound like all those girls who want me to…"

"No! I was just trying to tell you that…"

"I don't really care, DeCardo. Get up. We got a lot to do today."

He left and she got dressed quickly and went downstairs to find him. When she opened the door to go outside, she saw him across the street talking to a group of guys. He had his back to her, and the guys were looking at him, with a strange smile on their face. One of the guys looked up and saw her at the door. He nudged Spot and pointed at Alyssa. Spot saw her and nodded, then finished his conversation and headed over to her.

"What was that about." Asked Alyssa when he reached her.

"Nothing, I told you I had some business to take care of."

"So am I your business?"

"You are now DeCardo."

She couldn't tell if he meant that in a protective way, or if he was calling her his property. She decided not to ask, since he didn't have a lot of patience for her.

For most of the day, he took her around to different Newsie checkpoints in Brooklyn. She watched as he took aside about 2 or 3 boys at each stop and talked with them. She couldn't help but admire the way he carried himself, and the presence he had. No wonder he was the leader of Brooklyn.

Around the 4th stop, Spot went over to some boys, and someone came up behind Alyssa and put their hands over her eyes.

"Guess who?" said the voice belonging to the hands.

"I don't know…Jack?"

"Nope!" The hands came off her eyes and the boy jumped out in front of her.

"Surprise!"

"Kid Blink!" She said and threw her arms around him. It felt good to see a familiar face. He hugged her tightly and said,

"I took the day off to come see how yah were settling in. Conlon's not being too harsh on you is he?"

"Well, he's a lot different than you and the Manhattan boys. But I'm so glad to see you! I can't believe you skipped a whole day of work to come see me!"

"Hey, you're worth it." He blushed a little and looked down at his feet. "Actually, Alyssa, I kinda came to ask you something."

"Really? What is it?"

"Well, you see, Medda, that Swedish lady that Jack introduced to you who owns the show hall? She's having a special card and drinks and show night for the Newsies. I was kinda hoping you would maybe be my date." He paused to look at her. "If you wanted I mean."

Kid Blink saying this flattered her, but the entire time she noticed Spot had looked over and was sending one of his glares towards Blink. It was a stare that had hatred stamped all over it. If looks could kill…

"I'd love to! You are so sweet, Blink. I can't wait! When is it?"

"You will? Great! It's this Saturday night. Spot's coming with his boys earlier that day to see Jack, so I'll see you that morning, probably and we can just go together!"

"Sounds great!"

"Well, I gotta get back to Manhatten, but I'll see you Saturday okay?"

"Absolutely." She gave him a big smile and he pulled her into another big hug, and her eyes glanced over to Spot again. He was still staring at them, but his eyes had a new emotion behind them that she couldn't quite read. Jealousy?

When Kid Blink had walked away, Spot came over and grabbed her by the am and said,

"Come on, I'm taking you back right NOW."

They were quiet for most of the walk back to the building and it was a painful silence. Eventually, Spot stopped walking and said,

"What the hell was Blink doing all the way up here?" His voice was tough, but she could hear a bit of uneasiness.

"Excuse me, it's really none of your business."

"If you're living under my roof, then it is my business."

"Well if you must know, he was telling me about this Saturday night at Medda's."

"There is no way he hauled his ass up here to tell you about it. I coulda told you. Tell me the truth, DeCardo."

"Fine, he was asking me to be his date that night. And I said yes."

This hit Spot very unexpectedly. He was quiet for a minute, just staring at her. He looked like his mind was debating on how to react. Finally, he shook his head and kept walking. After about a minute he stopped and turned toward her and said,

"I've decided I don't want you going with him."

"Excuse me?"

"You are not going with Kid Blink."

"Mr. Conlon, I am not your property. Just because you think letting me stay here is paying Jack a favor back, doesn't mean you can act like you own me. And if we're all going, what does it even matter?"

"Yeah, we're going, but I said you can't go with him."

"Why do you even care so much"

"If you keep arguing about it, you won't even go at all. Got it?"

"I can do whatever I want."

"DeCardo, I don't want to have to teach you the hard way that you gotta live by my rules now. Either you listen to me or your out on the streets."

They were at the lodging house building now.

"Mr. Conlon, you need to learn that I am not your property and I can do whatever I want to and you have no say in that. If that's a problem for you, you can just SHOVE IT!"

Without thinking, he slapped her. Not very hard, but hard enough to shock her. It shocked him, too. She took a step back in disbelief, and then turned around and ran up the stairs, to her room. She slammed the door shut then threw herself on her bed. Just when things were starting to look better, he had to go and ruin everything. She decided right then that she would never let Spot Conlon get to her.

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