Jasper directs my attention to the café where I see Oscar and Lavender and gasp a little. Lavender is basically sitting in Morris's lap and from a distance; you can tell they are both drunk. I groan as Jasper keeps starring at them.
"So Oscar got her back," I mumble. Jasper shrugs his shoulders a bit as I cling to his arm as they start a make out session. Not caring about anyone but themselves.
"How many times have they played in the alleyway?" Jasper starts. He looks down as I give him half of what they made today; he insists I keep most of it. We continue to watch as he runs his fingers through Lavender's loose curls. He smirks as she kisses him, clearly making a scene if his brother comes by. I guess we stared at them to long as Race takes note of this and comes up to us.
"So what are you guys starring at?" He puffs, taking his cigar out. "Oh snap," he smiles and leaves, not daring to make a cat call to them. As newsies, romance stinks if Race cat calls you out in public, but I bet a months' worth of pay from selling Race won't call out a Delancey and his girl.
"Come on," I say gently, leading Jasper away from Morris and Lavender's love scene. It takes him awhile to come back from the thoughts of his mind. Still in a daze, I kiss him on the cheek and smile at his gush he always seems to muster. He finally comes to his senses as he starts climbing up our apple tree.
"So how was the tea party? I mean, before Hype kicked us boys out." He laughs at the last part.
"It was great but the tea tasted amazing. I'm going to have to sell more if I ever want to taste that tea again." I gush. "I also got to sit next to Mr. Snuggles as we played a game called 'I'm going to a tea party' weird game but fun. He cocks his head to the side and gives me a weird look.
"Did he keep his hands to himself?" he asks as he puts his arm around me, steadying my balance on the branch we always sit on.
"You do realize that Mr. Snuggles is one of Lucy's stuffed bears right? She has like a million of them; proof is in the nursery as she claims them to all be hers." I giggle.
"Oh," he whispers in shame as he casts a downward gaze. Cheeks flushed, we sit in awkward silence as I just humiliated him in front of the entire lodging house.
"So I heard Specs got a lover." I say quietly as Jasper slowly meets my eyes with a warm smile. "What's going on in that head of yours?" He sinks his head back to its original downward position and rolls his eyes as we hear him get close.
"Hey Ella, Jasper," Race greets us, climbing up the tree to our location. "What have you been doing?"
"We saw you about five minutes ago, you would know." I say with a nasty edge.
"I have my cigar matches, I can burn down your tree," he smirks.
"That's called vandalism and you could go to jail for it," Jasper states.
"Surprised Jack isn't there yet." Race says as he slowly shakes his head.
"Do us a favor and get a girlfriend instead of being rude and arrogant." I sass. Ouch, maybe I have gotten to hostile at him and I know. To my surprise, Jasper agrees with me.
"Fine," he states as he jumps out of the tree. "But we all know I won't."
"Yea, just leave and bother the world or something and quit making a scene of embarrassing every couple," I scream from the tree. I notice Jasper looks like he's about to jump as I slowly stop him.
"Jasper," I whisper quietly. "What's wrong? Please tell me." He slowly positions himself on the branch again and puts his head in the crook of my neck.
"Every night I go to the lodging house crying because I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see you again." He sighs.
"Jasper, that's very sweet, but I know that's not true, tell me what's really going on." I coax.
"Well," he starts off, "I'm just waiting patiently, but its taking too long."
"For," I press on, holding his hand. He doesn't look at me but he strokes the ends of my braid.
"A few years to go by," he whispers. I rub my fingers through his oily hair and smile. I know what he's talking about and I want to too. But we can't, we need to stay where we are, wherever our hearts take us.
"I don't want to get married here," I whisper as he lifts his head from my shoulders. Looking into my flushed out eyes, I see his sparkle to life.
"I want to get married somewhere that has sweet green grass, just after it rains and the world smells sweet and fresh." He whispers.
"Anyways, want to go somewhere?" I ask him, lightly touching his arm. He gives me a big grin with pearly white teeth, happy he talked about his thoughts.
"Café?" he suggests.
"Sure," I agree, he helps me out of our tree and we see that our heart on the tree bark looks unclear. He smiles at me and roughly traces the outlines again. He starts outlining the heart and I think the knife slips as he accidently slices his finger. I take the knife away from him and carve the rest. He sulks at his little cut, no bigger than a small paper cut but deep. I kiss it gently as he gives a sweet smile. He gestures to himself as he turns around; I laugh and give in as he gives me a piggy back ride.
"Oink oink," I smile as he hoists me up a bit higher.
"Or the zoo?" a laugh escapes as we start in the direction of the café down by the harbor and the salt water scent is a bit over whelming.
"How does Hype and Star do this?" I ask as he sets me down. I look and laugh at his stink face as he opens the door for us and order waters. He sits in a comfortable position as he lets out a light laugh and sighs.
"Did it hurt when you fell from Heaven?" he asks timidly, giving his best puppy dog face and cocking his head to the side.
"Oh my gosh, a pickup line," I laugh, "Really, after almost half a year of being your girlfriend, I think you've picked me up many times before, literally." We sip our water in silence and in less than five minutes we are done. We walk outside and go back to our tree, enjoying the sweet smell the park contains.
"Whatever," he laughs as he holds my hand again, guiding our every step. Six months in our growing romance and we still feel desperate for each other. So, this is true genuine love. I like it.