The Newsie

Chapter 16

Avery's POV

I glared at Sarah then Jack and I could tell David was doing the same to Jack. I turned to David to make sure he was okay.

"Hey David yous okay?" 

"Yeah just a little beaten up that's all" He said with a small smile

"Come on David lets go home so we can patch you up. You can come too Jack." Sarah said as she walked over to David to make sure he can walk good.

"Avery's coming too" David said as he looked at me. I didn't disagree because I didn't want Sarah and Jack alone together so we all ended up going to their place. It took a little while to get there since we had to walk slow for David but we finally arrived and the only one home was David's dad. He looked like he had a broken arm so it makes sense that he wouldn't be at work.

"What happened?" David's dad said in a panicked voice. David, Sarah, and Les are really lucky to have such caring parents, if only Spot and I still had ours.

"Just got in a little fight to protect Sarah and Les but I'll be okay it doesn't hurt much." David said still holding onto his arm.

"Here sit down let me see" I said. I have experience with this since I have basically grown up with guys who tend to hurt themselves but guys are guys, that's what they do.

I looked at all of David's cuts and bruises, he had a lot but I cleaned and covered all of his cuts. After I was done we all sat around David's room which was pretty awkward since no one was really talking.

"Wait Jack look at this, its the article Denton wrote about the rally." Sarah said as she got up and went to a dresser to get a piece of pape off of a dresser. She handed it to Jack who read it before looking up.

"We have to go see Denton" Jack said as he got up.

"I'm coming too" Les said and we all ended up following Jack to Denton's. I was in the back with David. Sarah, Jack and Les were in the front till Jack came to the back to talk to me. 

"Hey Davey could you give us a minute?" Jack asked as David nodded and walked to the front with Sarah. I saw that Sarah looked back at us and gave me a glare before turning around again.

"Hey" Jack said while rubbing the back of his neck and I didn't respond, I was still mad about what he did.

"Look I know you are probably really mad at me but I wanted to say I'm sorry. I made a stupid mistake by betraying you guys and I made a stupid mistake by hurting you. I understand if you don't want to take me back or even talk to me but I just want you to know that I'm truly sorry that I made this dumb mistake. You mean so much to me that I don't want to lose you again." Jack finished. I didn't say anything for a couple seconds to take in everything he said.

"You mean a lot to me too but I don't know if I can get hurt again" I said softly and before Jack could respond we arrived at Denton's.

"Do you know which door he is?" Sarah asked and Jack nodded as he lead us inside an apartment building up the stairs towards a door. He still had the pape from earlier in his hand as he knocked on the door. Denton came to the door and opened it with a surprised look on his face.

"Do you mean what you wrote here? About all these sweatshop kids listening to me?" Jack asked showing Denton the piece of pape.

"I don't write anything I don't mean. Come on in, I was just packing a few things" Denton said as we all walked inside. He had a nice small place with a lot of newspape materials laying around.

"So yes I meant it. The city thrives on child labor. A lot of people make money that way. They're terrified the newsies strike will spread." Denton said and he walked over to a small table to continue packing.

"Well there's not much chance of that as long as they got the power" Which Jack was right, the news of the strike can't spread if no papes are writing about it.

"Sometimes all it takes is a voice. One voice that becomes a hundred, and then a thousand unless its silenced" Denton said continuing to pack.

"Why can't we spread the strike? Have another big rally and get the word out to all the sweatshop kids?" Jack asked.

"What are we gonna do put an ad in the newspaper?" David asked sarcastically.

"No we do better than that. We'll make our own pape. Well tell them they gotta join us. Isn't that a good idea?" Jack asked which was kind of a good idea.

"Well what do we know about printing a newspape?" I asked Jack. He looked over at me with a smile before we responded.

"Nothing but our man Denton.." Jack said before David finished for him.

"But I think our man Denton has more important things to do. I mean he's going to be an ace war correspondent. Right Denton?" David said which made me laugh a little by the way David said that.

"All right where do we start?" Denton asked as he cleared the table off so we could sit. I sat in between David and Jack with Sarah on the other side of Jack while Les roamed around the room.

"Wes gotta move fast. We're gonna need the newsies to circulate." Jack said looking at everyone.

"There's something else we need. A printing press" Denton said and he was right, we can't make a pape without a printing press.

"Just so happens I know a guy with a printing press." Jack said. I gave him a confused look on how he knows someone who would let him use a printing press.

"We'll leave later tonight. Let's meet outside the distribution center" Denton said as we all got up after discussing what the pape will have on it.

We all left after saying goodbye to Denton. David and Sarah were going to take Les home and said they would meet us later. Sarah wanted Jack to go with them and I knew it was because she didn't want him to be with me but Jack said he was going to go see the boys. As we were walking to the lodging house Jack spoke up.

"So will you consider forgiving me?" 

"Jack... I'll forgive you but it's the boys that you really need to worry about forgiving you." And as I said that I could see a smile grow on his face. I blushed a little because its the smile I missed seeing and with that he grabbed my hand and held it. I didn't pull away because I missed this. I missed his touch, I missed his smile...

I missed Jack.