girls like me

Dinner

We all made our way out of Medda's theater safely, with all the drunk men singing outside on the streets. I kept close to Les in case he ran off, but it seemed he knew where he was going. Wow, I really cared for this kid. Is this how Jack is when he protecting me from every little thing?

"Hey, are you okay?" Davey nudged me.

"Oh yea, I'm fine. I guess I'm a little tired." 

"You did really good today...I like your voice." He admitted.

"It's nothing really, haha."

We both walked in synced while following a happy Les who was humming one of the songs that were sung at Medda's theater. 

"So, I know two things about you." Dave began, "You're related to Jack Kelly, and you can sing...What else don't I know about you?"

"Why do you want to know?" I ask, "Nothing is interesting here." I confess. 

There's really not. I'm just a short book that nobody wants to read. I'm not one to talk about my past because my heart will tremble and break down. It's why I rely on Jack to tell stories to our close friends like Crutchie or Race about our life story. 

"I disagree."

"Well, we can agree to disagree," I smirk.

"You have a way with words...I like that." 

I look down and blush, but I couldn't let him see. I was scared of feelings that were processing within me. There's not a class about falling in love or how to control your emotions. He makes me so nervous that I talk back to him. 

"You don't hate me, do you?" 

"No! No, no, I just like to annoy people. Or irritate them, sorry I'm rambling." I tuck a hair behind my ear as he laughs a little.

"Just making sure, since you threw a hairbrush at me."

"It was my immediate response, I'm sorry!" I apologized if I actually hurt him.

"No, it's okay! I'm just messing with you," He nudged me.We got ourselves into a nudge war until Les came up to us and tugged on Davey's shirt.

"I'm tired..." He yawned and rested his head on Davey's waist. 

"Awe, little baby. Here, I got him-"

"No, no. If my mother sees you carrying him, she's going to yell at me for having a lady do work."

 "Oh, c'mon. Girls can handle work. Give em here." I open my arms up to Les, but Davey had picked him up and rested him on his shoulder.

"If you get tired, let me know so I can take him," I said.

"It's okay. We're close by, but thank you." 

We approached a set of apartments. I could hear the light snores of a child on Davey's neck. Each step I took, my heart would race 3 times more and possibly even worse than Jack isn't here to tell me to "it's okay." I kept having the thought of free food, but all the other ideas of "What if?" started to cast down on me.

"Alright, we're here." Davey used his free arm to knock. "They'll like you. We're good people." Even with that, my shoulders tensed up, thinking it could be a lie to make me feel better.

"Who is it?" a woman from the other side of the door asked.

"It's me, mother!" With Davey's voice, the doors sound of locked chains became unlocked. 

The door swung open and revealed a pretty woman. I'm sure it was his mom since she looked a bit older, but even for newsies, I never saw her on the street or sold a pape to her.