The Disgraced Newsie( Tommy Boy Alternate)

CHAPTER XXVI

TOMMY BOY'S POV

(TWO MONTHS LATER)

If someone were to tell me that I would ever consider betraying my brothers, getting myself kidnapped by the Harlem newsies after running away from the lodging house, and then having to make amends with Finch, after he pushed me down the stairs, all my brothers who still hated me, I would have called them crazy and ignored every single word that came out of their mouth. But now, it didn't seem so unbelievable as precisely all that happened to me.

It had been two months since I returned to the lodging house, and so far, everything had been pretty easygoing. I managed to make amends with most of the others, though there were still some who looked at me with distrust and annoyance. At least everyone stopped beating me up, so as long as I didn't have to fear for my life around the lodging house anymore, it was more than okay with me. I just needed to work a little bit harder to regain their trust. Another good thing was that I was allowed to sleep in my room, though I felt more comfortable and safer staying on the rooftop with Jack and Crutchie, so I rarely slept in that room. After some time, I finally decided that it was time to talk with Buttons and Henry; I couldn't avoid them forever, as they were more than determined to back me into a corner and force me into a conversation, regardless of how much Jack reprimanded them. It would have been better to speak with them when I had control over the situation rather than them confronting me when everyone else was present to hear it. They followed me to the rooftop, and the conversation seemed to have gone better than I expected. It went something like this:

"So..." I trailed off. Buttons and Henry sat on the opposite side of me, and there was a clear sense of tension and nervousness, but they were the ones who desperately wanted to have the conversation; I just made it so that I would be the most comfortable and have more control over them. "You guys wanted to talk with you, so what do you want?" That sounded harsher than I intended, but they allowed everyone to believe that I was the one who manipulated them into becoming scabs; they made it when I was responsible for the whole mess when they had more than enough free will to refuse the deal. Although, I am no better as the same logic could apply to me. However, at least I accepted the responsibility, mainly because no one would hear me out, and I didn't try to entirely blame it on others.

"Listen, Tommy, about everything that happened..." Henry started to say until Buttons butted in.

"We are sorry!"

"Listen, I can't deny that it was mostly my fault as I should never have dragged anyone into it, but you guys didn't have to listen to me and could have refused the deal. You guys especially didn't have to place the responsibility all on me or say that I 'manipulated' you guys. I only told you guys what the weasel and the Delancey brothers told me, so if anything, they manipulated me."

"We didn't know that you would have been treated that badly, especially everyone beating you up. We didn't even find out until later."

"So? When you both realized that it would happen, why didn't either of you help me? Jack, Crutchie, Davey, Specs, and even Race and Jojo helped me whenever they were there, so what prevented you guys from doing the same thing?" Neither Buttons nor Henry could come up with an explanation. At least they weren't attempting to lie or trying to make up excuses for themselves. "Look, I don't want any more bitterness or tension between us, and I especially don't want you guys to continue following me around and pushing me to the limit by forcing me to have one-sided conversations with you guys, as I am sure you guys are tired about that as much as I am. So how about we just try to move on from all this one step at a time and at least attempt to become friends again?"

"I would like that."

"Me too."

"So would I." And the conversation ended like that; I wasn't sure if that fixed or changed anything, but it left me satisfied enough that we could have a better and much healthier relationship in the future, which was more than I could have asked for.

"So, Tommy, how did it go?" Finch met up with me at Newsies Square, asking me about my conversation with Buttons and Henry. Ever since our long-awaited conversation, and some small talk after that, we gradually started to rebuild our relationship. Although we still had a long way to go, at least there was some significant progress: we often talked with each other more without fighting or screaming at the top of our lungs, hung out with each other more often, and sat together during breakfast, lunch, or dinner sometimes.

"Not bad, but maybe it could have gone better. At least it didn't result in a screaming match, so it was a win/win situation."

"That's good. It is progress, after all." Yeah, even I couldn't argue with that. "So, are you ready to sell our newspapers?" Finch was the one who suggested that we should start selling newspapers together so that we could have some more bonding time and spend more time as brothers. Although, I still sold with Jack and Crutchie from time to time.

"It is what we are paid and forced to do, so yeah. Let's head out and carry the banner." Honestly, in a weird and ironic way, the Harlem newsies kidnapping me and holding me captive might have been the best life-changing event that ever happened to me. Although if I had to choose, I would never experience that incident a second time, however, in the end, if it hadn't happened, then maybe I wouldn't have had the opportunity to reconnect with most of my brothers, especially Finch. I could never change the fact that I betrayed them; it would never go away even if I wanted to, but at least I could have a second chance to make it all right. Yeah, it was great; difficult and problematic, but it was all still good.