His Father Would've Killed Him Anyway

The Natural Sniper

Here's part 2 to that last oneshot, and it's like half as long! I didn't want the first oneshot to be 4600 words, so this had to be done.

Okay, let's get into it.

The following few weeks proved that Jeffrey's thought about the newsboy job being fun was right.

After that first day, he got knit in tightly with Finch and Tommy Boy. Apparently, having birthdays eleven days apart was an automatic cause for friendship for two twelve-year-old boys, and Tommy Boy (whose birthday was in March) was more than happy to accept Jeffrey into their duo, now a trio. They always walked the streets together. Smalls, however, did not keep going with them. Already on the second day she returned to selling on her own, which Jeffrey was informed was the way she usually did it. And he had thought she wanted to sell with him, only because of a few looks. Gullible. Now it seemed more like she'd only gone with them for the prank. But then why had Finch been so against the idea of Smalls coming with them? He was in on the prank; everyone was. Not a lot of Jeffrey's thoughts about Smalls made sense, and he wasn't sure what that was about. Neither could he explain why he felt so happy whenever he saw that she was looking his way, which happened quite often. This he noticed because he looked at her quite a lot too. This was inevitably noticed by Finch and Tommy Boy.

"You definitely got a crush on her," Finch had informed him without being asked.

"An' you just know that?"

"Yeah, I do."

"How?"

"Well, ya look at her a lot."

"Yeah yeah..."

"Ooooh! Jeff's in love!" Finch mocked.

"Shuddup," Jeffrey chuckled.

The whole nickname deal was another one Jeffrey wasn't sure about. He hadn't gotten any nickname better than "Jeff". He wasn't gonna lie, it was quite disappointing, to the point where he'd be fine with almost anything that wasn't his name. But it did appear like he was joining Henry, Elmer and Albert in the club of nickname-less newsies. Hooray.

Finch shot another rock at a tossed soda can on the side of the road. It missed and hit the house wall behind it.

"Are ya gonna come ta Jacobi's this evenin'?" he asked Jeffrey without looking up at him. He was too busy scanning the road around the place they were sitting for more rocks.

"I dunno if I can," Jeffrey answered, not looking up either. He was picking at strings on his pants.

"You ain't been ta any Jacobi nights, ya gotta come this time."

"Look, I wanna, but I don't know if I can. My father-"

"Why's he always the reason ya can't do stuff?"

"'Cause... y'know... I dunno, it's complicated."

Of course he knew. He knew very well why his father was the reason he never could do fun stuff. That reason was nothing Finch had to know right now.

"Come on, man, yer birthday was a week ago, we wanna celebrate!"

"Do all a' youse wanna celebrate or do just you an' Tommy Boy wanna?"

"I bet Smalls does."

Jeffrey looked up. Finch was grinning.

"Shuddup," Jeffrey laughed, hitting his friend's shoulder.

"But I bet if we tell all da fellas yer birthday was last Sunday, they'll wanna celebrate."

Jeffrey couldn't help but smile at that idea.