FAMILIAR | Spot Conlon

Chp. 3: New Clothes

"WAKE UP" Spot yells. This jolts me awake. Spot ducks and I roll right over him and out of the bed into the floor. The hard floor.

"Ow, what was that for?" I look at my leg because I landed on it hard. This just amplifies thepain from the theon bush. I see it's exposed and you can see all the thorn cuts and bruises on it. I quickly sit up and try to cover it but Spot notices and stops me. He looks at it and looks confused.

"What the hell did ya do to this Camryn" I prop myself up against the doorframe. He grabs my leg pulling me with it.

"Hey, be gentle!" I try to yank it away but his grip is too strong.

"I fell into a thorn bush, okay" I admit and look at my hands playing with my fingers.

"A thoin bush? Wow yous is pretty stupid" He says that last part under his breath. He chuckles. It's hard to understand his strong accent but I manage to hear him say it anyway.

"That's rude." I punch him in the shoulder and we both let out a laugh.

"Come on, I'll fix you up" He helps me up and we walk into the bathroom that stems off my room in the cabin. It's pretty nice that me and Jess have our own bathroom. Not sure why but I'm not complaining.

He goes through some cabinets and finds a first aid kit. He takes out some alcohol and a washcloth.

"This is gonna hurt so trys not to scream bloody murder" He puts the alcohol in my cuts and I scream.

"Your not good at listenin' either. What are you good at, Princess?"

"Stop calling me that. And I don't know. I guess running, yelling, getting dirty, pretty much anything unladylike" No matter how hard my mom tried she could never get me to be a lady.

"Yous would be a great newsie then " Spot says. He finishes with my leg and wraps it with some gauze.

"A what?"

"A newsie. You know, sellin papes and makin money" He goes on and on about newsies, how he's the leader of the Brooklyn newsies, how each borough has a group of newsies, and various other things.

"That actually sounds really fun. How do I become a newsie?"

"First yous is gonna need new clothes" He looks me up and down and I realize I'm still in my pajamas. My cheeks turn red and I hide my face as best as I can.

"Let's go into town and see what we can get ya" I grab a few dollars because I'm not sure how expensive they'll be.
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"So, how'd you end up here" He says to break the awkward silence. I'm happy he does. 5 more minutes and I would have gone crazy.

"I um, I ran away" I say sheepishly.

"Ran away? Why?"

"Does it matter?" I snap back. His gaze turns hard.

"I guess not, I was just curious" I look at him and feel bad for being so snappy.

"Sorry, I'm just not really an open person. Every since my dad~" Oh no, I've said too much. He looks at me confused and I look away.

"What about your dad?" He actually seems like he cares. I don't know why but I feel myself telling him everything.

"My dad was in a string of con artists. They would find rich families and work their way in then steal everything."

"He came into my mom's life and they eventually got married and had me. One night when I was 6 years old I went downstairs late at night and saw my dad. I was too young to understand what was happening at the time."

I feel tears threatening to fall but I hold them back.

"The next morning everything was gone. Our savings, silverware, valuables, jewelry, really anything he could take easily. We luckily had most of our actual money in the bank but we lost a lot." He stops me and does something I never expected. He hugs me. I don't pull away but instead I hug him back. We stand there for a little bit.

"We's here" We pull away from the hug and go inside a store. I find some things and try them on until I find something I like. I find a light blue button down shirt, beige suspenders, and some black jeans.

"Wait you forgot this" He pulls a hat off a rack and puts it on the counter with the other things.

"What's this?"

"The most important part of a newsies outfit" I look at the hat then back at him. I take his hat and put it on my head.

"But Is got this one right 'ere" I imitate his accent and point at it. We both laugh.

"That'll be .98 cents ma'am" I take out a dollar
and she gives me 2 pennies back.

"No, keep the chance" She smiles as me and I smile back. She hands me the clothes and hat. Spot and I walk out.

"That was awful nice of you"

"Oh, well she probably needed it more than me"
We continue our walk back to Brooklyn. I only notice when we get back but I'm still wearing his hat.
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Ooh they went into town together ;) I thought the hat thing was pretty cute. I also posted her outfit as the chapter pic. This chapter was longer than the others. I'll probably make the rest at least this long. So the next chapter is going out Saturday so make sure you watch out for it.