OH MY GOSH I'M SO SORRY GUYS I ACCIDENTLY UPLOADED THE FIRST DRAFT OF THIS CHAPTER TO FANFICTION BECAUSE I'M USING A DIFFERENT LAPTOP NOW! THIS IS THE ACTUAL ONE

I laid my head against the ratty old mattress and closed my eyes.

"You had it coming"

He unzipped his pants

I opened my eyes again and stared at the moldy ceiling.

Rain drops soaked through the roof and fell. A drop had landed on my nose.

The tea pot whined throughout the tiny apartment.

"I'm sorry if you guys like your tea with sugar. I ran out"

Calico said from the small stove she stood over.

"That's Okay" Spot answered from the sofa in which he took off his shoes.

"Violet…Do you also want some soup?"

I didn't feel like talking but I didn't want to be rude.

"No that's okay" I answered.

I could feel their eyes burning into my skin.

"I'm okay, honestly. It's not like he got to do anything" I said and turned on my back.

"Well your tea is right here for when you want it. I'll be right back guys, I have to go and talk to my contact" Calico said picking up her coat from the only chair in the room.

When the door closed the only sound in the room was the crackling of the fireplace.

"Violet… I'm…I-I uh sorry about what happened"

I took a deep breath.

"What you'd do?" I asked.

"What?" He asked.

'Why were the police following you?" I asked finally turning on my other side to look at him.

"They have us Newsies on a curfew ever since the Strike. I broke it and they came after me" He said, avoiding my eyes.

"What about the other guys?" I asked, digging my nails into my right arm.

"I beat them at a poker game"

Anger flared inside of me "I was going to be raped over a game of poker?!"

Spot looked down at his feet "They're not good people"

I stood from the bed leaving my depression behind. "I just hope I never see them again" I said walking over to the table where the tea cup was. It was too hot to drink. I set it down.

"I would avoid Staten and Harlem then" He said

"I'll keep that in mind. Is it sad to say that this wasn't the worst thing that has happened to me?" I asked, turning to look at the fire.

"Really?" Spot inquired, laying his body completely against the couch.

Wouldn't do me any harm if I told someone. If anything it might help and he would get to sit through an awkward conversation.

"Yeah, I was walking home from work and this drunk came at me he uhh…he pushed me against the alley wall and started to feel me up." I blinked back tears "Then this guy came out of nowhere and stabbed him right through the neck. His blood sprayed all over my face, it was wet and warm and I can't forget it. It felt surreal, I felt contagious and fake"

Spot stayed silent, he was looking at the ceiling.

"His name was Toungelicker, I met him at the police station"

"Toungelicker?" Spot asked sitting up, suddenly more interested than he had been all night.

"Yeah" I walked back to the table "You knew him?"

"I'm supposed to find the guy that killed him"

"W-what?" I wasn't sure what shocked me more what I told him or what he told me.

He exhaled "I owe someone a favor. Toungelicker was a foor soldier, a good one, the capo liked him, and so he asked me to find out who did it for them"

"Is…what…" I didn't know what to say. I knew what a capo was, I probably shouldn't but I did.

"I know what you're going to say" Spot said holding up his hands "That I'm an idiot for getting involved with the mafia and I know, but I'm getting older, I need to have good connections if I want to make it here"

I blew out air "You couldn't just work at a factory like everyone else?"

"That's not good enough for me" He said.

"Well just don't turn into a strunz" I said, finally working up the courage to drink up the hot tea.

Spot stared at me "You're mobbed up?"

I sighed "My Mother's side of the family was, she left it but my relatives are still part of it. That's why when my parents died I went to live with my dad's brother"

"Irish or Italian?" He asked.

"Italian" I answered, setting down the cup.

"Which one?" Spot questioned, I knew where he was going so I lied.

"Dunno, my parents didn't want me to have anything to do with it so they didn't tell me much about it. Just enough to understand. I picked up the slang when I went to my grandma's home"

I hoped he had bought my lie. I didn't want to wake up years from now and open the paper to see a picture of a dead Spot, even if it would had been his fault. If he wasn't breaking the law, then the cops would have never chased him and he wouldn't have crashed into me and we would not be having this conversation right now.

"Pity, you could have put in a good word for me"

Knew it.

"Where'd you meet the mafia?" I asked. You didn't just "meet" a mobster.

"I started with bootleggers, just running little errands for them when I was ten. When I got my position as leader I got an offer from an old contact to pull of some small heist at a warehouse. I did it right and caught their attention. I was hoping for the Irish mafia, you know to follow in my father's footsteps but Italian is better than nothing"

It would be better if there was nothing.

"Leader of what?" I asked.

"Brooklyn newsies. Every borough has one" Spot answered

"Ah, that must be why the girls I live with can't seem to shut up about you" I walked back to the bed, when I had finished the bittersweet drink. It tasted a little sweet for having no sugar in it.

"Really?" He said smirking as I passed by him.

I plunked myself on the mattress, the springs squeaked.

"Yep. You should have seen them earlier tonight, they were waiting by the doors for an hour for you to show up"

"But I don't arrive 'till later in the night" He said confused.

"So I heard" I lifted the patched blankets over myself.

"There was this girl, can't remember her name but she would not stop coming to our table and asking if everything was okay. She even tried to sit with us" Spot said, laughing lightly.

"That would be Scarlett, she fantasizes of marrying you" I said.

"She's pretty enough but not my type" He said, laying back down to stare at the ceiling.

"Oh? So you have a type?" I felt like answering my own question with trampy, blond, and heavily endowed in her upper womanly parts but that would have been a tad rude.

"Call me a cliché but yes I have a type" He said, fiddling with his thumbs.

"Mind to enlighten me?" I asked, I found this conversation rather distracting from the impending reality.

"Swear you won't breathe a word?" Spot asked, turning his head to look at me.

"Across my heart and hope to die" I said, making an x over my heart.

Don't roll your eyes at this stupid conversation, he might get offended and kill you.

"I'm not sure why I'm telling you this, of all people, but I want a girl that isn't scared of me"

This pricked my interest.

"Scared of you?" I asked. My head felt funny, it kept buzzing.

"Yeah…on the rare occasion I meet a girl who doesn't want me for my position I tend to scare her away" His voice turned sheepish.

"What do you do?" I asked, leaning against my elbow.

"Doesn't it alarm you that we were more or less strangers over an hour ago and now here we are having deep and profound conversations?" Spot elaborately asked.

"A little bit but it keeps me distracted so go on" I answered, repositioning my body on the bed.

"All right, I have a temper and I get jealous, obscenely jealous. I shout and they leave" Spot said.

"Ok, Spot if you want my help, you're going to have to be more articulate" I told him.

"Shouldn't I be the one giving you the therapy session?" He asked.

"Probably but continue" I answered.

"Well there was this girl, we had been going out for like a week, I was going to go visit her at work for lunch but I saw her talking to this dude, she grabbed his hand and I lost it. I went over and soaked him unconscious. Turned out it was her blind cousin "

"Whoa…that's intense. Were you abandoned as a child" I asked.

"What? How'd you come up with that?" Spot asked sitting up from his place on the couch.

"Well, from what you told me it looks like you fear people leaving you. That's also probably why you sleep around so much, you fear commitment but still feel lonely so-"

"Who told you I slept around?" He asked,

"The girls at medda's told me. Now, the extreme displays of violence and wrath probably come from your own inner hatred, you're extremely insecure when it comes to human relationships and you use something that you know works to cover up for it."

"I better watch what I say around you" Spot said before plopping himself back on the couch.

"So was I right?" I asked.

"Sadly. How do I fix it?"

"Stop being so insecure. Not everyone is going to leave you and if they do then they're the ones with a problem" I answered simply. Why were there purple dots everywhere?

"How do I do that?" Spot asked.

"You could start by cutting down with the sleeping around, it only reinforces the idea that people only want you for what you can give them instead of you" I answered with a yawn. That cup of tea was funky.

"After that?"

"Find yourself a steady girl and put yourself in situations that could make you jealous" My eyes began to close "But keep the beast inside. If she leaves you she wasn't worth it" I yawned again.

"How do you know all this stuff?" Spot's voice seemed far away.

"I'm really smart"

It was getting harder to stay awake.

I didn't hear the next thing Spot said. My eyes had gotten to heavy and I passed out.