My Newsie Baby Too (A Spot Conlon Love Story)

Chapter 7: Your Fault

I ran to Spot despite the boys trying to hold me back. The people on the sidewalks had stopped when Spot was hit. I could hear sirens in the distance coming towards us. I pushed Jack out of the way and collapsed next to Spot. His leg was bent in an old way, his face was covered in bruises and cuts and his torso looked sunken in. I couldn’t stop crying as I looked at him. He wasn’t moving or breathing.

                “Spot…” I touched his face getting the blood spilling from his open wounds on my hand. The other newsies surrounded us; Jack was standing off to the side.

                The ambulance came putting Spot on a cot and taking him to the nearest hospital. I continued to kneel on the ground with Spot’s blood at my feet. Everything was blurry. I couldn’t think of anything else but seeing Spot get hit by that carriage. He had to be ok. He couldn’t be dead. I wasn’t ready for him to die. I felt someone’s hand on my back. It was Racetrack trying to help me up off the ground. I took his hand letting him pull me to my feet. My eyes looked at all the newsies surrounding me until they fell on the person that wasn’t in the crowd…Jack.

                He had moved out the way. He had seen the carriage coming and moved leaving Spot to get hit. He wanted Spot out of the way so he could have me. He planned this. This was his fault. I let go of Race and barged at Jack. I started beating him on the chest. I was stronger than an average prissy girl so I could tell my punches were making an impact as he kept trying to back up.

                “This is your fault!” I yelled through my tears. I pushed him making him stagger back. “Ya saw the carriage comin’.  I saw ya. Ya saw it comin’ and ya didn’t push Spot outta da way! Ya let him get hit on purpose!”

                “I wouldn’t do that!” Jack yelled back, “Spot didn’t see it. I can’t be held responsible for dat.”

                “Ya coulda pulled him wit ya. Ya coulda saved him! Admit it! Ya wanted him outta da way! Ya didn’t help him on purpose!”

                “Ya crazy!”

                “And you’re an asshole! I hate you!”

                The world started spinning. I felt light headed and my vision was going blurry. I heard my name screamed from a number of the boys before I hit the ground in front of Jack.

                I woke up later laying in the Newsie’s Lounge. Someone had put a damp cloth on my head. The boys were standing around me. Jack was leaning against the bed pole. I stared at him with nothing but hatred in my eyes. The more I stared, the more it seemed to hurt him. His eyes were glassy as if he wanted to burst into tears right there.

                “Get him outta here,” I whispered with as much strength as I could, “I don’t want him here.” Jack was about to protest when Kid Blink pulled him outside. I took the damp cloth off my forehead. “I have to…go see Spot.”

                I sat up straight and my head started to ache. I brushed off at the attempts to get me to lay back down. “Ya just fainted, Les,” Race said, “Ya need to rest.”

                “I can’t rest. I can’t until I know Spot’s alright.”

                “Some of the Brooklyn lot went down to da hospital. They ain’t come back yet.”

                “Dat’s good right? If dey woulda come back, it woulda been bad news.”

                “I still don’ think ya should go.”

                “Ya can’t stop me, so ya might as well come wit me.”

                Race rolled his eyes. “Da things I do for you.”

                He followed me outside. Kid Blink and Jack were talking near the stairs. They stopped when I walked out. I gave Jack a death glare then went about my business walking with Race to the hospital.

*Jack’s POV*

                “I didn’ do it on purpose,” Jack explained to Kid Blink.

                “I know,” Kid Blink said, “Dat don’t sound like you, Jack…but it did kinda look like it.”

                “What ya mean?”

                “Ya saw the carriage. Ya were close enough where ya coulda pulled Spot outta da way. But ya didn’t.”

                “I didn’t think about it.”

                “Are ya sure?”

                Jack ran his hands through his blonde hair. “I don’ know, man. I mean, Spot and I ain’t been on the da best a terms lately. But I didn’t want him hurt.”

                “Is this because of Les?”

                “How did ya…”

                “It’s obvious. Ya love her. But she don’ love you. Not like she loves Spot.”

                Jack leaned against the wall. “Now she hates me. I sure made a mess a everythin’.”

                “You expected her to drop Spot for you?”

                “Spot is wrong for her. He’ll hurt her one day. She just don’t know. He already hit her.”

                “It was an accident. And they’ve been dating for a year, Jack. Ya gotta let her go. She’s not gonna come to ya.”

                Jack looked away from Kid Blink and out at the street. Maybe she wasn’t going to come to him, but that didn’t mean he was going to stop trying. He was never one for giving up.