you can't outrun it

Chapter 26

Emma still worked at the theatre, and all of us newsies went to hang out with her after selling. We'd take it in turns to go spend the afternoon with her, not wanting for her to be alone after everything. Me and her got really close, I'd never really had a girl friend before, and I guess I never knew what I was missing, which was a lot. Not surprisingly Jack spent the most time with her and when he came back he always had a smile on his face, a smile I had never seen when he was with Sarah.

One morning me and Jack decided to sell together and of course he wanted to sell near the theatre in case she came out, and she did. she was on her way to the market when jack ran up to her.

"i want to ask you something" he spoke softly

"anything" emma urged

"would you erm, would you like to erm go on a date with me?" he asked, i'd never seen my brother so nervous before, not even when we were going head to head with Pulitzer.

"of course" she replied happily. their date was after work that evening, they went to the theatre, it confused me that they'd go to the same place they go all the time, but they both insisted.

They took their seat on the balcony, having a great view of the stage below them. They sat silently as they watched the acts, but between them they chatted casually about their lives. They both had quite interesting lives for only teenagers, they weren't good, but they sure were good stories. Jack told her all about the strike, about our father, he told her pretty much our whole life story, she did the same. Her life started off pretty well, like ours did, then her father stopped being the caring man she loved and turned into a monster, like ours did, her mother died, like ours did, through their conversation Emma and Jack really started to notice how scarily similar their lives were, of course it all happened to us a long time ago, hers being more recent, but that meant Jack knew that the dark tunnel that Emma was currently in, had an end, a light, there was hope. It seemed that Jack knew all the right things to say, I guess that was why he led the trike, he'd always been good with his words, telling me stories to distract me from my raging father, or singing me sons to help me sleep. As the night progressed, the two became more comfortable with each other, and even managed to score some whiskey, so at the end of the night, there they were, at the heart of the dance floor, their arms flailing and their minds racing. My brother has never been the best dancer, but they were having fun, they weren't worried about the many problems in their lives, for the first time in weeks Emma wasn't thinking about her mother.

When Jack got home that night, everyone else had gone to sleep, just me and Race sat on his bunk, playing poker. I usually sleep in Brooklyn, but I wanted to see Jack after his date, see how it went, and seen as I shared a bunk with Jack, I figured no one would mind, I wouldn't have to take someone else's bed. We heard the door slam downstairs, Kloppmann was asleep, he had given Jack the key as he had predicted his late return. A few seconds later Jack stumbled into the room, he couldn't walk in a straight line, having to grab at the bunks to stable himself.

"He can't sleep on the top bunk" I whispered to Race, who nodded, clearing away the cards and helping Jack onto the bottom bunk, where Race usually slept. Jack instantly fell asleep, dropping the key to the floor. "I'm going to take a guess and say he didn't lock the door" I wager, crouching down to get the key, running downstairs, as I had predicted the door wasn't locked, it actually wasn't even shut, making me shiver as the cold night air hit me. I closed the door quickly, locking the door and putting the key in Kloppmann's box behind his desk. I ran back upstairs, seeing Race trying to turn Jack on his side, so if he was sick he wouldn't choke. "You're a good fried Race" I smile at him. He slung his arm around me and we looked at Jack

"I'm guessing he had fun" Race chuckled and I nodded, resting my head on his shoulder. Jack was my brother by blood but to me, all the boys in there were my brothers. Me and Race slept top-N-tail on the top bunk, which inevitably meant I woke up with his manky foot in my face. Jack was evidently hung over, he winced everytime someone shouted, which was quite often, and he only bought 50 papes, retiring to bed as soon as he had sold them. Emma didn't perform that day, for obvious reasons, she stayed in bed, her head pounding and her stomach lurching. After the fact she apologised to Medda prefousley, but Medda didn't mind, she was happy to see her happy, she didn't care about one day off of work.

Jack and Emma started officially dating a few days later, and we couldn't be happier for him, it was lucky we all liked her because Jack cared about all of our opinions and I don't know what he would've done if we didn't. He saw Sarah one day, with her new boo, and funnily enough Emma was there, along with me and Spot. We were just walking through 'hattan, chatting as usual when Spot walked straight into this tall, dark haired boy. I looked at him closely and started to see how much he looked like Jack, Sarah really had a type. The interaction was awkward to say the least, exes meeting the new partners, not an ideal situation, but it was great for me and Spot, it was hilarious. Emma and Sarah's boyfriend had a friendly conversation, whilst Jack and watched Emma admiringly and Sarah glared at her. I didn't exactly understand why she looked so jealous, she broke up with him. But eventually we parted and as soon as they left we all burst out laughing, acknowledging the clear jealousy Sarah was feeling.

A/N Oh my lordy, this has been a long time coming and i deeply apologise, I've been working on a new Draco fanfic. This is the last Jack chapter so if I do decide to continue (i probably will i have ideas) it will be about Cameron and Spot. Love you, sorry for the wait.