Newsies' Little Sister

Chapter 17 - What's happening?

A/N New Years was chaos! I hope everyone had a good new years and I'm sorry I haven't updated sooner! I hope you enjoy this chapter <3

Em's POV

I am in no way ready to tell him everything! I guess I'm gonna have to though...Unless...never mind...

I can't stay closed off forever, and Elmer's one of the only two people I trust...

"We can't talk here...where's the safest place you know?" I said, silently hoping we would run into some trouble so I could get out of this! I know it's wrong, but I'm not ready for this...

Elmer looked around a bit, getting his bearings I guess, then pointed over the bridge. He held onto my hand and turned back to me.

"This way." He said. He lead me over the bridge and through Manhattan. I checked every alleyway to see if I could cause a distraction that would make Elmer forget where we were going and why...No such luck...

Elmer kept looking over at me as he lead me through the city, then I worked out where he was taking me...The rooftops where it all happened between us. Oh god, really!? That's a punch to the gut if I ever felt one...

We turned down various streets and the Lodging House came into view.

We were surprised to see a crowd gathered round the front door. As we got closer, we could see people hugging that really tall boy, Davey I think his name is...I wondered what was going on.

I let go of Elmer's hand as we walked towards them. The boy still don't know about us...

"Hey, Finch? What's happening?" Elmer asked. A few of the boys stared at me for a bit, as if whatever happened was my fault.

I just stared right back at them.

"Davey's folks want him to go back to school. So, e's leaving..." I overheard Finch say.

I turned to look at Davey and thought how lucky he is...to have folks who care for him and to have enough money to afford school...

He was standing next to Jack and they held hands for a few seconds then let go, I don't think they saw me looking.

At least it was a distraction for Elmer, maybe he would forget about what I was supposedly going to tell him.

After a few minutes, everyone had said their goodbyes and I saw Jack blink really quickly. He actually looked really sad...and I felt bad for what happened earlier...

Davey walked down the street away from us, waving sadly. All of the boys waved back and I thought I should too, so I did. It's only polite, right?

I kept glancing over at Jack, very warily, to make sure he didn't see me. I was surprised by what I saw, Jack was crying! Well, he kept wiping his eyes and sniffing...I didn't see why people get so upset about it...I mean he's still alive right?! Oh well...

A few minutes passed when everyone was just standing in the middle of the street. Then jack spoke.

"Right ev'ryone! Go carry da banner..." His voice caught in his throat and it sounded heavy and sad...

"He's right, El...We should get goin'..." I said quickly and quietly. I held onto Elmer's hand and let him away from the Lodging House.

~ Time Skip - To the middle of the day ~

All through the day, Elmer didn't bring up the fact I didn't tell him anything...in fact, he didn't really talk at all. I was getting really worried, then I realised why they were all so sad...

That had lost a really good friend, and although he wasn't dead, they wouldn't see him for quite a while...I sighed and looked over at Elmer. 

He was a few metres away, over at the entrance to Grand Central. We had thought up our plan. He would get everyone coming out of the station, and I would pick up everyone going in, or who Elmer missed.

The plan worked pretty well because the station was quite busy today, but I was always looking over my shoulder to make sure no one was sneaking around, looking like they were going to steal our money. 

Elmer seemed quite distracted, so I had to watch his back for him...

By the end of the day, we were both really tired and quite hungry, so after we got food, we went straight back to the Lodging House and didn't talk the whole way...It was quite awkward and uncomfortable, if I'm being honest...

We didn't talk for pretty much the whole day...apart to compare how much money we had made...that was the only thing I knew how to count, so Elmer didn't have to help me. I was quite glad though, because I didn't want to ask him to do something he probably didn't want to do...

It was like a dark cloud had settled over the Lodging House, and everyone just went to bed to get away from the awkward feeling in the main common room...Crutchie tried his best to try and cheer everyone up, but even he gave up after a while...

Yea...that day did not go well...

A/N Oof that was terrible...I'm sorry it was so short...Thanks for reading? <3