Love Will Do What It Does

Chapter 16

(A.N. Hey everyone! Surprised to hear from me again? Well here's a special treat for y'all, an extra long chapter! YAY! *throws confetti and newspaper shaped cookies to readers* Thank you all so much for reading my story! It means so much to me that people actually like my gibberish. Anyways, enjoy this chapter. Till next time, remember that the things we do today will be tomorrow's news!)

The long awaited day had come.

Katherine's Birthday Masquerade Ball, as the invitation said, was an extravagant event.

It was held the Pulitzer mansion, the exterior of which held countless different decorations. But it was nothing compared to the interior.

Red tables cloths, white rose center pieces, gold platters with many delicious looking foods, but Katherine wasn't really interested in those things.

Sure they were nice, but she couldn't find the joy in them as the guests did. And there were many guests. It would take her a minute to figure out who was who under the multitude of masks, but eventually she could pick out her friends from her father's friends and their sons and daughters.

When she made her "grand entrance" as the birthday girl, there was a chorus of gasps and awes as she emerged in a Rose colored gown, with her hair in soft curls, a golden mask, and white gloves as well as gold jewelry to match.

Once the crowd had stopped staring at her, the band proceeded to play music.

Her father must have told every eligible (by his standards) man to dance with her become not five minutes after the music started, 6 random guys asked to dance.

The only one she accepted was from a boy wearing a half black and half white mask, black suit, and red tie who was obviously Joey.

He brought her to the dance floor and they joined in on the waltz. "Oh thank you Joey. I thought I would drown in requests." Katherine said as they moved swiftly across the marble floor.

"It was nothing. Beside, I think it would look suspicious if your "suitor" didn't have at least one dance with you." He commented. She laughed. But her happiness didn't last. Soon her face wore a miserable expression.

"Missing him?" Joey kindly asked. "Only every second of every day!" She cried sorrowfully. "I can't take much more of this! If I go one more day without at least seeing him, I'm going to lose my mind!" She stopped dancing as tears filled her eyes and her voice began to crack.

Joey just hugged her. She forced herself to be strong, at least till the end of the party. Clearing her throat, she asked, "Have you seen Alice? I've been looking for her since the Ball began."

Joey scanned the crowd till he spotted those unmistakable blonde curls. "There she is!" He pointed her out.

Katherine sighed and thanked him before running off to meet with her friend.

Running was a bad idea because she tripped over her own foot.

Luckily, someone caught her before she hit the ground. When she regained her balance, she turned to see a young boy, no older than 13, standing behind her.

"Oh, um, th-thank you for catching me." She quickly said. "Oh, well, thank you for bein' a catch." He winked at her through his gray mask.

Katherine choked back a laugh. She was about to make a comeback when she heard, "Hey, get lost Romeo! She's way out of your league."

A sudden voice chimed in from behind Katherine. Her heart stopped. She could have sworn she'd recognized it as that handsome, heroic Newsie she had fallen in love with.

She twirled around to see a young man, in his late teens, walking up to her and the young boy. Katherine's heart dropped.

This wasn't him.

This mysterious man had dark slicked back hair, a black suit with a blue dress shirt underneath, and a dark blue mask, though the room was too dimly lit to tell what color his eyes were.

The Jack she knew wouldn't be caught dead in a suit, much less at a ball surrounded by people who thought they were better than everyone else.

The young boy quickly dashed away before he got into trouble.

Katherine looked back at the young man. From what she could tell, he seemed a decent guy, but her heart belonged to Jack and Jack alone.

"Sorry about that Miss. Kids tend to get themselves into things faster than their heads can catch up." He chuckled. She simply nodded in agreement.

She quickly glanced around and noticed her father's hawk like gaze on her, as well as Morris and Oscar's. She internally groaned.

Sensing her feelings, the young man ask if he might have this dance. She accepted, if only to hope she'd get lost in the sea of couples dancing.

Finally, after a good 2 minutes of dancing, they were in the middle of the floor. The man had a gentle grip on Katherine's waist, which she was happy about, she hated when guys got too friendly and held her in uncomfortable ways. But he wasn't.

Her thoughts were brought to a halt when he leaned towards her and whispered in her ear.

"By the way, you look beautiful Ace."