CHAPTER 12:

Rain clouds getting darker in the sky, Alyssa thought she could hear footsteps behind her. Footsteps that were very familiar. She didn't turn around, because she thought she was imagining it. It was her mind playing games with her, trying to torment her even more. Right before she reached the bridge she stopped, and closed her eyes to get the noise out of her mind.

But it didn't go away.

Instead it got louder. And louder. And LOUDER.

Suddenly, a tap on her shoulder made her eyes pop open and she jumped. She frantically turned around.

Breathing quickly, she saw the blue eyes. He shook his head and looked away, but then brought his gaze back to her.

"I…sorry bout that." He stammered.

Silence. She couldn't help but feel good to admit that even now, as she stared at him, wondering what made him come here, he looked really good.

"What are you doing here, Spot?" she managed to squeak.

"I just… I…figured we should talk, DeCardo." The name stung her a little, but she was surprised she was glad to hear him say it.

Hell, she was glad he was even there. But she knew it wouldn't last.
Instantly, she began to let out all of her anger.

"Well, Mr. Conlon, I don't want to talk with you." She tried to shoot her best glare at him.

"Look, just a minute. Come on…"

Her anger began to rise, and flood out of her mouth. She could feel her face turning red. Backing up into the street she continued.

"No! I said I don't want to talk, and I mean it! It's too late, I'm gone. You always said what a pain I was, well great! You won't ever have to see me again!"

She thought she heard a noise of stomping coming quickly up the street, but she didn't care. Her mind was racing and she stood in the street yelling at the famous and feared leader of Brooklyn, who stood there, mixing between listening to her rant and trying to make sure he was really hearing the memorable noise he thought he was.

"It will be like I never existed!" Noise growing louder, but she didn't notice.

"Wait…" he murmured…listening closely to the increasing sound.

"You can just go back on with your life as if I was never here!" When the noise was at its loudest, in fact right next to Alyssa, just as she screamed,

"Sorry to have bothered you!" Spot leapt off the side of the road and pulled her arm, which had been outstretched around her during her angry speech, and yanked her away from the source of the sound.

"Hey! Look out!" He shouted as he pulled her close to him.

Alyssa looked back quickly, in time to realize that he had pulled her away from a speeding and careless carriage. Her heart pounding she looked up into his eyes and saw that he had been just as scared for her life as she was now that she realized what he had just saved her from.

"Your foot wasn't stuck this time." He said, with a slight smile, his arms still around her.

Her heart nearly leapt out of her chest as she heard him finally admit to saving her that night in Manhattan.

"It was you…" she said quietly.

She had always known, and so had he, but hearing him say it made her feel like she had won over a part of him. He let go, but he kept looking at her. Not mean, as usual, but the way he looked at her the day they sold together, the day they were almost friends. Finally he said,

"Let's take a walk." It wasn't a question, but she followed him anyway. A slight rain began to drizzle on them as they walked in silence for a while. She stared at him in amazement, thinking about how they hadn't fought for over 20 minutes and he wasn't acting as his usual self. Remembering how she had thought that his pride would never let him love a girl who let her guard down, she finally spoke up.

"I think you owe me an explanation." She said, dragging her feet a bit.

"I guess I do." He said, staring into the distance, his one hand playing with the key around his neck, the other gripping his cane as he walked next to her.

After a moment of silence, Alyssa stopped.

"Well?" she said impatiently. She didn't know what she expected to hear him say. But she wanted him to tell her what he needed to. She would decide, then, if it was worth her staying with him now and looking like a fool.

"Well I guess you knew I saved you in Manhattan." He said, motioning for them to keep walking.

"Yes. But why were you there? I guess you know Handsome talked to me…"

"Yeah, I figured. Well I went to Manhattan to do some business with Jack. Stuff you shouldn't be asking about, because it's none of your business."

Spot said this with a bit of aggression, but she knew it was because he felt like he was losing his tough rep by even following her and still being with her.

"Just keep talking." She said, letting him know she didn't give a shit about his rep right now.

"Okay, okay. Don't piss your pants." He said narrowing his eyes at her. Then he looked forward again, took a deep breath and continued.

"So I was about to go back to Brooklyn, when I saw you." He paused, realizing what he had just said, what he was slowly admitting. He smiled, saying,

"You was stomping down the street, soaking wet, like you was about to kill someone, cursing like there was no tomorrow." He laughed a little, and looked at her for an explanation.

"I was rained on." She said, matter-of-factly. "Continue."

"Well, I don't know what it was, and don't let this go to your head, but I liked you." His voice got quieter when he said the last part. Her heart started to pound, but she wasn't going to stop him from telling his story anymore.

"I started to follow you," he continued, still not looking at her.

"You went into that restaurant… uh, Tibby's I think? Anyway, I knew I should have gone home, but I just wanted to see you. Maybe find out your name. To be honest, I thought I'd just treat you like any girl I go with. Charm yah, sleep with yah, and leave yah. But I didn't see you for a while because you stayed inside the place. So I waited."

He stopped for a second, to take off his hat and run his fingers through his brown hair.

"I waited longer than Spot Conlon should ever have waited for a girl. For some reason though, you was different. I couldn't leave without at least getting your name, or something. Something to bring home to the boys, you know? So they wouldn't think I'd gone soft or nothing."

Again, his stupid reputation. But she didn't really care. She wanted to hear the rest.

"I don't know when you came outta Tibbys, cause I walked around Manhattan for

a while. Anyway, it was dark so I decided to head back home. On my way, though, I saw someone in the middle of the road, about to get smashed by a dumbass in some carraige. I didn't know it was you. I just thought maybe whoever it was would give me some money or something good for saving their ass. So I helped them out. When I saw who you were, I felt…something changed. I don't know, I just didn't feel like I usually do when I'm around all those other girls who throw themselves at me."

He stopped, and he got cold again for a second.

"Hey!" He said, staring right at her. "Just because I'm telling you this, don't think anything of it, okay? I gotta reputation that I worked my ass off for, and I'm not losing it, yah got it?"

She nodded, resisting the natural instinct to say some wisecrack back to him.

They kept walking as he kept going.

"So I was gonna say something to you for a second after we both got up. But then something in me slapped me across the face, sorta, yelling, 'You're Spot Fucking Conlon! What the hell are you doing? Get outta there!' So I took off. Figured I'd just have to forget about that night, I mean what were the chances of seeing you again?"

Alyssa laughed for a second, but stopped herself quickly. His story was making her feel millions of things. She was surprised that she was hearing this from Spot Conlon, mad about some of his arrogant and womanizing remarks, but mostly, she was anxious to hear the rest.

"When Jack brought you to Brooklyn, first class, I thought someone must be out to get me. I didn't want you to stay, because I thought you might make me feel that weird feeling from that night. And if you recognized me and told people, well I woulda had to do some bad things to yah. I won't go into that, you know, it's leader business."

That was it. She needed to hear the end of the story, or she'd feel like an idiot for staying with him, when she had the dignity to go home and leave the famous leader in the dark night. Backing away, she said,

"I don't care. Look, Spot if you're gonna keep going back and forth between telling me what your deal is with me and reminding me who you are, maybe I should just leave. I know who you are and what you do and if you're gonna waste my time like this I'll just…"

"C'mon, wait!" He said and grabbed her arm, a little too tightly. "I'm not done. If I told you this much already, which I never would do for anyone else, I think you should let me tell you the rest. Then you can leave me here, you can run back to your Blink and Jacky and never see me again, I won't stop you."

His amazing blue eyes looking pleading as they stared into hers.

She looked behind her, then took a small step towards him, and they kept walking.

"So talk, Conlon." She said, trying to hide the excitement in her voice.

He sighed heavily, shaking his head, then said,

"DeCardo, DeCardo. You're driving me crazy. Anyhow, I let you stay since I did owe Jack a favor, and also because I'd have tons of people asking me why I turned him down and then the truth would definitely come out. So I handled it the only other way I could: I was tough on you. I treated you like my boys, no mercy. I guess it was harsh, but I had to hide that… that…"

He paused and she jumped in.

"That what?"

"That it was hard living with you when that feeling just wouldn't go away." He said, almost in a whisper.

"And… and…and that it was really extra hard seeing you with Blink. I mean, I know all about him. He's not an ugly guy, the girls like him just as much as the next guy, so I knew you wouldn't be any different from those girls when he admitted he liked yah. But I didn't want you being with him. Not him. When you kissed him, I… I… and the glass... and I…"

His face was red and his grip on the cane could have broken it if it was any tighter. He closed his eyes for a second, to calm down before he could keep going.

"I better get to the end, cuz you're probably gonna start bitching that I'm taking too long again."

She smirked but waited. She just wanted to hear him tell her what she came back for in the first place. Or at least tell her what he really thought of her now.

"Anyway, when you left, I didn't know what to do. If people thought I kicked you out, I'd look like a jerk. If people knew that I was upset that you left, I look like I was losing my rep. So I just took it out on my boys. I didn't mean to hurt Handsome, by the way. I just needed to take my anger out on something, because I knew I was losing yah. I didn't know you were gonna take off so quick after that, or I probably wouldn't have punched him. Well maybe no so hard anyway.

"The boys were starting to get confused. They kept asking me why I wasn't bringing any girls over to the lodgin house for such a long time. I know Handsome knew something was up. I guess some of them sent that girl over tonight. Anyway, I was trying to tell her that I wasn't interested in anything tonight, but she kept trying to convince me that she would make me feel better. I didn't even care what the fuck the guys thought, I told her no, but she kissed me. I guess you know what happened after that."

Alyssa nodded. They were both quiet. After a moment, he said,

"You know, I heard you."

She looked at him, hoping he didn't mean what she knew he did. She played dumb.

"What do you mean, 'you heard me'?"

"I heard you say you loved me."

Deadly silence. She stared at him while he looked right into her eyes. For the first time, she honestly couldn't read them. He took a step closer, and the sky started to rain a bit harder, enough to make them both start to drip with water. After what seemed like hours, Spot looked right into her eyes with his breathtaking ones, and asked,

"Did you mean it?"

Alyssa didn't know what to say. She was shocked, but also mad. His story hadn't led to anything. Maybe she was wrong. Maybe he just wanted to make her look foolish.

The rain started to fall harder, so much that they were both soaked quickly but neither one moved. She squinted angrily at him, and realized that maybe she was falling into the pattern of every girl whose heart he broke. Tears stung her eyes, and she was happy the rain was camouflaging it, as she stepped back and practically shouted,

"Why didn't you kiss me that night?"

Spot's face changed, as he remembered the night at Medda's when he had cornered her and had come closer than anything to kissing her. And she hadn't stopped him. Alyssa couldn't believe the words had left her mouth, but she waited, impatiently for his answer.

"I… I … I don't know." He stammered.

They were dripping now, the rain wouldn't let up.

"No, I know you had a reason. Tell me."

"I guess… I thought you would think that you were just like ever other slutty girl who was there that night. That it was just part of my way with girls."

Now she didn't know what to say. She felt warm tears fall down her face and she looked away, but she had no clue where to go from that.

"I thought you would think that it didn't mean anything to me." Spot said suddenly. She looked back. His eyes were locked with hers and they looked completely unpredictable.

He moved towards her, yelling over the rain's noise.

"Did you mean what you said tonight?"

The tears were falling as hard as the rain now, but she did the best she could to hide it. A lump was in her throat and she knew that the next word out of her mouth would change her relationship with Spot Conlon forever. Well, whatever relationship they had.

She looked back at him and his eyes didn't move. Catching her breath she knew it was now or never.

"Yes." She said looking him right in the eyes.

She waited for him to do something. Run away, kiss her, smack her. ANYTHING. But he didn't move. He just stood there, letting the rain fall off his gorgeous face. Alyssa got frustrated.

"Could you say something?"

"DeCardo…Alyssa, there are lots of things I could say or do right now. But I just want you to know something first. Anything you heard about me, forget it. Anything about me and those other girls, forget it. Anything I did to you, smacking you, embarrassing you, fighting with you… I'm sorry, okay? I did all of that cause…cause…"

He moved even closer to her now.

"Because you're not like those other girls. And you deserve way better than a jerk like me. Kid Blink is a nice guy, he's not gonna put you in danger of getting your heart broken. I can't promise anything with me. I don't know I'll ever be any good for you, but

I do know that… I love you."

With that, she grabbed his faced and kissed him. At first, he didn't do anything, since he hadn't expected that. But quickly he wrapped his arms tightly around her and added all of those passionate emotions he had been holding up for so long into the kiss. The rain was falling off of them and they were soaked to the skin, but that one kissed lasted for what seemed like forever.

When they finally broke apart, they both looked at each other and laughed, still holding onto each other. Spot wiped the rain and tears off her face then said,

"Do you know what you're getting into, Alyssa?"

"I don't give a fuck." She said smiling and kissing him again. She pulled away for a second to add,

"And the name's DeCardo." She winked at him and he smiled a dazzling smile, his blue eyes twinkling in the glow of the moonlight and the rain that was beginning to slow.

"What about Blink?" he asked.

"I think Blink knew this was going to happen." She said. "He'll have to understand, but I'm not worried about him."

"Are you worried about my reputation with girls?"

"If you can promise me that I don't have to be, then I trust you."

He loosened his grip on her for a moment, saying,

"Look, I gotta be honest. I promise that as long as you're around, no other girls will get in the way. You don't have to worry about that at all. Trust me. But I still gotta be the Brooklyn Leader, and that comes with a rep and responsibilities, yah know? I'm still gonna be a jerk. To everyone, and maybe even sometimes to you."

He waited for her to leave or get mad, but instead, she looked up at him and said,

"I wouldn't love you if you changed, Mr. Conlon."

They kissed for a while longer, but soon Spot said,

"So are you staying?" He looked hopeful.

"Do you want me to stay?" she asked.

"Look, DeCardo, you got enough love-dovey outta me for one night. Are you staying in Brooklyn…with me…or not?"

"Well," she said, teasing "…I've always liked being a Brooklyn newsie. I met some of the cutest and nice boys here…"

"DeCardo…"

"Conlon…" They laughed. Alyssa looked up at the sky, and then back down at him and said,

"Let's get the hell inside." They kissed one more passionate kiss, then walked together to the lodging building.

Alyssaa didn't know where things would go from here, but right now she didn't care.

Spot Conlon told her he loved her, 3 words she would never have expected to hear out of him.

She knew she loved him, so she was ready for whatever the hell this would throw at her. He said he wouldnt' break her heart, and for some reason, she trusted him. They went inside, and she didn't care what anyone said to her. On the way up the stairs, she thought,

Things are gonna get... crazy now.

And I can't wait :)

Hey guys, sorry it took so long.

Hell, sorry it IS so long haha. But this is the end! SO PLEASE TALK TO ME! :D

I hope you like it. If you don't, review or message me and I'll change it.

Right now I'm not sure if I love it, but R&R and let me know!!

Don't worry, I got another story in the works, so keep your eye out for the Spunkyy7 story! :D

It's on its way, but give me feedback in the meantime.

I'm not planning on a sequel to this one, but anything's possible.

Thanks, you guys are great! Love yah! –Spunkyy7