{Insert Title Here} (a newsies fanfiction)

Chapter 7

{Jack's Perspective}

I escorted Katherine and Crutchie home. I just needed a little time alone. I had to think. Lumbering down the street, a drop of rain fell upon my vest. "Oh come on. Not now." I groaned, as the rains began to pour. I shuffled into an alley and hid under the siding of the building. "Jack Kelly, why are you such an idiot?" I asked myself, taking my hat off and flinging it on the ground. I didn't deserve to wear it. I had betrayed my best friend. I wasn't even fit to be a street rat. I sighed, and the breath that escaped from my lips blossomed in the air. Maybe I should leave. I mean, at least before I had a family. Now even if Crutchie and Katherine trusted me, I knew the Jacobs would find it difficult. And even before I had a family, I had a dream. Stupid Santa Fe. But at the moment, Santa Fe didn't seem so stupid. Maybe... I pulled the ticket from the place I always kept it, inside the bottom of my shoe. I had a ticket to Santa Fe. I could leave tomorrow. I could leave all of this behind, forget. Forget what I had done.
I stood up and ran to the lodging house. Everyone was sleeping soundly. I grabbed my pencils and a paper and wrote my farewell.

"Dear newsies,
I'm afraid that I will never see you again. I'm going to Santa Fe. I simply can't live with what I've done, and if I stay one more second I might explode. I'll miss you all so much. You're my brothers. But it's what's best for you. I'm sorry. So sorry.
-Captain Jack"

I scrawled the note quickly. I looked around the room at all of my brothers. "For once they're quiet." I whispered to myself, laughing. I began exiting the room when all of a sudden the door banged open. Les stood there, tears streaming down his face. "T-they've taken D-d-Davey." he stuttered. My eyes widened in shock. "Who's taken Davey?" I asked. "T-two mean boys. But they aren't Oscar and Morris. They're worse." he whimpered. I picked up his note, looked at it for a moment, and then crumpled it and slid it into his pocket. "Let's go get your brother back." I smiled. "Boys! Wakey wakey!" I shouted. "We've got a Davey to savey!"