As they pulled away from their hug, they stood there in an awkward silence. Pyro had never in her life called him Spot. He was always Conlon to her. He was also pretty sure that she had never thanked him for anything. Spot summed it all up to the fact that she must still have been shaken from her encounter with Oscar. But, it would take more than a run in with Oscar Delancey to shake Pyro's nerves. After all, she did a pretty good job of fighting back. Reaching into his back pocket, Spot pulled out her slingshot. "I told ya to never leave this thing behind." He handed it to her.
Pyro took it from him but with her left hand. She was right handed and always used her right hand for everything. "Yeah, I really could have used that."
Spot raised an eyebrow and took her right hand. It was cut pretty deeply from the broken bottle. A little bit of blood trickled down onto the street. Taking a step closer, he noticed the cut on her cheek as well. "Are you ok?" He looked her over. She was dirty and her red hair was sticking up in various places.
"I'm alright." She shrugged, thinking about what had happened. "But, I would like to go home and get some sleep."
He nodded. "We'll just get you back inside and wrap up your cuts and then we can head back to Brooklyn."
Looking into his eyes, she shook her head. "Just walk me home now. If we go into that lodging house, I am going to be bombarded with questions. And, one thing that irritates the hell out of me more than you do is being bombarded with questions."
Spot opened his mouth to protest but then stopped himself. There was no point in arguing with Pyro. Once her mind was made up, there was no changing it. Stubborn could have been her name. "You're feeling alright to walk all the way back to Brooklyn?"
"I'm not dead yet, Conlon." Pyro flashed a smile and started walking up the street.
The walk to Brooklyn was the complete opposite of the walk from Brooklyn. They did not argue. They barely even talked. Spot could not help but walk extra close to Pyro. He felt as if he even took his eyes off of her for a second then something bad might happen. Pyro walked quickly. She just wanted to get back to the lodging house and have a good night's sleep. The fact that she was almost raped by Oscar Delancey seemed to just be a nightmare and not something that could be real.
Once they were alone in Spot's room, Pyro quickly got out of her dress. The urge to burn it swept over her but she controlled herself. Sitting in just her undergarments on the bed, Spot took a seat next to her and started washing off the dirt and blood. "I'm sorry." Spot whispered, almost inaudible as he cleaned the cut on her face.
Pyro grabbed his wrist and just stared at him. "What?" She asked in surprise. Did Spot Conlon just apologize for something? What was he apologizing for? "I mean… why?"
He sighed heavily. "Why? Because you almost got raped by that fucking jackass. And, it's my fault. If I wasn't such a perverted bastard, you would not have walked out alone like that."
Pyro kept her eyes on his face. He looked sincere and worried. "It's not your fault. The only person to blame for this is Oscar. I would never even think to blame you for this. As much as we argue and as much as I wanna light ya on fire at times, I know you could never do something that malicious." Then she smiled and hugged him. "You're a pretty damn good friend."
Spot smiled as well as he hugged her back. They were having a moment and he wanted to savor it. Inhaling lightly, he took in her scent. "Never thought I'd hear you say those words to me." He laughed as they pulled away.
Pyro just yawned. "Well, they're true." She lay back on the bed. Before he had known it, she was fast asleep.
The next morning, Pyro woke up to find that she was snuggled up against Spot. This was strange for two reasons: she was awake before he was and they were cuddled up together. With a smile on her face, she closed her eyes and went back to sleep.
A few hours later, Pyro had woken up again to find that she was alone. Climbing out of bed, she quickly got dressed and headed downstairs. Mr. Beckett was there sweeping up the floor. Looking at the girl, he smiled. "Glad to see you finally got up."
"What time is it?" Pyro asked, tucking some hair behind her ears.
"Ten." Mr. Beckett replied. He noticed the cut on her face. "Spot said you had a bad night and he figured he could let you sleep in. Did you get into a fight with someone?"
"Yeah, you could say that." She said as she ran out the door to find Spot and possibly kill him for letting her sleep this late.
It was not hard to find Spot. It was obvious that he would be at the docks like he always was after he had finished selling his newspapers. As she approached the docks, Pyro could see him standing there and talking to one of the other guys. Walking briskly, she pushed the guy out of her way and just glared at Spot for a second. "Conlon, why the fuck didn't you get me up? I need to make money you know."
Spot let out a frustrated sigh. "First, you complain about when I do get you up and then you complain when I don't get you up. Is there any pleasing you?"
"Just answer my damn question!" Pyro demanded.
"I just thought you could use a day to sleep in." He looked at her. "After what happened last night, I thought that maybe you'd appreciate a little bit of rest."
Pyro's expression softened. Sympathy from Spot Conlon was not something she was used to. "Oh. Thanks." That's all she could manage to say.
"But, I can tell that you're still your same old self." He smirked at her. "So, it's back to selling tomorrow."
"I'll do whatever the fuck I want." She grinned.
Both Spot and Pyro knew that they were acting just to keep people from questioning their behavior. On the inside, they both felt a strange new feeling towards one another.
The next few days were terribly irritating for Pyro. Spot followed her everywhere. She knew he was just being overprotective of her. He was just making sure nothing else bad would happen. The poor girl could barley go pee on her own without Spot two steps behind her.
Finally, late on Thursday night, Pyro knew she had to confront Spot and tell him to stop following her and worrying about her. With her journal and a pencil in her hand, she headed up to the roof to do some writing before she had to confront him. As she stepped out the window, Spot came into the room but she did not notice him. Climbing up the fire escape, she was followed by him. Taking a seat where she could see the stars the best, she opened her journal and began to write, still unaware of Spot's presence.
June 8, 1899
Something terrible almost happened to me on Saturday night. We went to Manhattan for poker night. I got to drinking and started going on about my problems. Before I knew it, I was fighting with Conlon (no big surprise there). Too angry to deal with him, I walked out of the lodging house.
While I was walking down the street, I get approached by this dark figure. Who is this person? Oscar Delancey! He dragged me into an alley and tried to rape me. I fought back of course. I finally stuck a broken bottle in his back and that got him down good. But, when I went to grab my lighter, he grabbed my wrist. That's when it happened.
With Oscar's hand on my wrist, I felt someone wrap their arms around my waist and pull me away. The alley was dark and I didn't see who it was. This person kicked Oscar and then spit on him.
When we got out into the street, I noticed who had saved me. SPOT CONLON!
Ever since then, things have been weird. We still argue but I feel like it's more just to keep everyone from questioning our behavior changes if we were not arguing. The only problem is that he is now following me everywhere to make sure nothing bad happens again. It's sweet and all but it's also a bit frustrating. So, now I have to tell him to stop it.
I'm kind of scared to tell him. I'm not afraid of him. I just don't want him to think that I'm ungrateful. Normally, I would never even care what he thinks about me. However, now I do care. I don't know what's happening to us. Maybe, I have feelings for him… NO! I can't have feelings for the biggest egomaniac in the world. Can I?
"What are you writing about?" Spot asked from behind Pyro.
At the sound of his voice, Pyro slammed the book shut and stood up. "You." She glared at him. "Nothing good though."
"You don't have to act." He told her. "We're alone up here. Things have been changing between us."
With a sigh, she said, "I need to tell you something and you may not like what I'm gonna say."
"You got a boyfriend or something?" He raised an eyebrow.
Pyro shook her head. Then, with a deep breath, she told him what she needed to tell him. "I know you're worrying about me because of what happened the other night. But, you need to stop following me everywhere I go. Don't get me wrong, I really appreciate you looking out for me but you can't be by my side every single hour of the day."
Spot just stared at her for a minute. He never realized that he was even following her. Suddenly, it was all adding up to him. Then, he just sighed. He could not think of something to say. It was very uncharacteristic of him to even admit to something that Pyro had pointed out of him so he was not going to do that. He could deny it or get mad at her. What was a guy to do? "I haven't been following you. I don't know where you got that idea from." Deny it.
Pyro shook her head. "Typical." Then, she smiled. "I'm going to Sheepshead tomorrow with Race." Her eyes fixated on his. "You're not invited." With those words, she turned and walked away.
"That's what you think." Spot said to himself as he watched her walk away.