Spot glared at her retreating figure, picking up his hat resentfully.
"Who was that?" Bullet asked him, eyes going from Snap back to Spot.
"Some girl named Snap. She gotta be new here or something because she was trying to sell in my spot. Plus, she was giving me attitude."
"You mean she wasn't scared of you or nothin'?" Bullet asked in disbelief, shrinking as Spot glared at him.
"No, but I'm going to change that. We can't have some little girl back-talking Spot Conlon. We don't need to give any of the other boys ideas about how they're allowed to act." Spot crossed his arms, and it was obvious that he was thinking really deeply.
"And what are you saying we should do?" Bullet raised an eyebrow.
'First, we're gonna go pay Jackey-boy a visit, ask him if he knows anything about her. And then, I think one of our boys are gonna go have a talk with Snap about why she should be afraid of me."
"Wait, you can't mean that you're sending a guy to soak her!" Bullet half-yelled, and Spot shushed him with a glare.
"Course not. Just maybe rough her up a little to inspire some fear." Spot smirked, but Bullet did not look amused.
"This isn't normal for you, Spot. Are you feelin' okay? You don't usually got any tolerance for guys who hit girls."
"I ain't got any tolerance for little girls who think they're big and bad, either. And I ain't gonna tell him to hit her."
"Maybe I should go talk to her. You know how the boys are, they ain't gonna pass up a chance for a fight. And after seeing how she talked to you, I'm guessing she ain't either." Bullet tried to reason with Spot, who was allowing his contempt for the girl to cloud his decision-making.
"It'll be fine, don't worry, Bullet. Now, we gotta head over to Manhattan." Spot started walking, and Bullet followed behind him, shaking his head.
____________________________________________________--
30 minutes found them standing outside the Manhattan Lodging House surrounded by the Manhattan boys. They were all laughing and joking around, waiting for Jack to get home from his girlfriend's house.
Snap had gotten back to her apartment, changing back into girl's clothes before going out to explore the city even more. She changed from her newsie clothes into a light blue dress with a wide neckline and long sleeves. She looked in the mirror and bit her lip with a grin. She always loved this dress-she looked like a princess. But she had been scared to wear it outside of the house in Chicago, because you never knew what might catch someone's eye. She sighed as she remembered Chicago and tried to distract herself by humming. She could hear the mob of newsies outside laughing and decided that it was time for her to introduce herself to the newsboys.
She leaned most of the way out the window, looking into the crowd in the square outside her window. The breeze she had loved that morning hadn't died, and blew her hair around her shoulders. She smiled, and as she scanned the crowd of boys, she locked eyes with none other than Spot Conlon. His smirk appeared, and he gestured for her to come outside. She shook her head just to spite him. As quickly as his smirk had appeared, it disappeared again. He broke through the sea of people before him and walked up to her apartment building, yelling up to her.
"You can either come outside, or I can come up. Your pick, Princess." He chuckled.
"You can come up, but you ain't getting in." She leaned her elbow on the windowsill, propping her chin up on her hand.
"I'll break down the door." Spot threatened.
"And I'll break both your arms." Snap shot back, and all the newsies(who had been watching their whole exchange) broke into raucous laughter.Spot glared over his shoulder, and they all shut up, snickering behind their hands.
"Time for a talk." Spot did not sound happy at all as he entered her apartment building. She could hear him stomping up the stairs to the second floor, and covered her mouth to stifle her laughter as she heard him pace around the landing, trying to figure out which of the six doors was hers. A minute later, he pounded on her door.
"Open up, Snap."
Snap grinned wickedly before disguising her voice and yelling at him in Gaelic, her first language. He stopped pounding on the door, but then took it back up again a moment later.
"You have two seconds, Snap. Open the fucking door." Spot hissed through the door.
Snap giggled, placing herself in the rocking chair by the window and watching him try to break into her apartment. After he had made a few attempts to knock the door off it's hinges, Snap finally told him that the door was unlocked. She heard him growl before slowly turning the knob and walking into her apartment, closing the door behind him.
He looked over at her, and Snap could see that he was livid.
He slammed her window shut, before he finally gave her all of his attention.
"You have no idea how close I am to killing you right now. No one is allowed to act like that towards me. No one." His voice was dangerously low. It wasn't until then that Snap realized that she had crossed some major lines.
"Kill me, please." Snap rolled her eyes, standing up from her chair.
Spot took two quick steps toward her, slamming her against the wall with a hand on her collarbone, the other resting on the wall next to her hip. "Do you think this is a fucking game? I've killed people, and I sure as hell ain't afraid to do it again."
"I know you hate to hear this, but I'm not scared of you, Conlon."
"You should be scared of me. You know what I usually do to girls like you?"
"Girls like me? What's that supposed to mean?" Snap asked, narrowing her icy blue eyes.
Spot's hand that was on the wall slid onto her hip, and she pushed against his chest roughly, with an angry laugh.
"'Let's make a deal, Spot. If you get out my house, I won't soak you."
"You couldn't soak me if you tried, sweetheart." Spot laughed condescendingly, and he barely caught her fist before it slammed into his jaw. Spot thought he was successful, until her other fist came up, clocking him in the jaw.
"That's gonna leave a pretty shiner, Conlon." She laughed, and Spot grabbed both her wrists, tight enough that there were going to be some serious bruises when he let go. Again, he slammed her against the wall, this time showing no mercy and throwing all his weight into it. He was satisfied with crack her back made as it hit the wall, and he knew that her head had also cracked against the wall.
'Listen to me very closely, Snap. Next time you come around causing trouble, I'll-"
"You're the one who broke into my apartment and started yelling at me!"
"Shut up, woman! You can't get away with this shit so easy. Next time you come to Brooklyn and disrespect me, you might just end up with a bullet, right here." His finger hovered over her heart, and by the look in her eyes, he knew that that had broken her.
The fearlessness and power that had been in her eyes had disappeared, replaced by something else that Spot couldn't recognize. He had released her wrists, and she sank to the floor, arms wrapped around her knees.
"Afraid of me yet?" He knelt in front of her. She aggressively shook her head.
"Then, what's wrong with you?"
"That's how my brothers died. Both of them. Shot through the heart. And it's funny...because both of them were murdered in Brooklyn."
