New Kid, New Century • A Newsies Fanfic

chapter nineteen.

chapter nineteen.

Later that day, Gracie was being dragged - no, literally dragged - by the hand. "Where exactly is we goin', again?" she asked Davey, trying to pull her hand away.

"To the bar. The newsies are gettin' together there tonight," he responded, still not letting go of her hand.

"Davey, please let go of my hand. This is extremely painful." She could barely feel her hand by that point. To her relief, Davey released her hand.

"Oh. Sorry," he said before continuing to walk, a lot faster than she did. He was way ahead of her, causing things to be awkwardly quiet. Finally, Gracie thought of something to say over the loud wind.

"Isn't you guys not old enough to drink yet?" she questioned.

"No, we're not. God knows that I don't drink. But... newsies like Race, on the other hand-"

"Ah, I see," Gracie said. They both looked at each other before laughing. "Does Les-"

"Fuck no," Davey quickly said. Gracie did an overdramatic gasp.

"Did you just cuss? Did Davey Jacobs, who's always condoning cussing, just cuss?!" Gracie exclaimed, pushing him a little. There was a smirk on her face.

"You literally just asked if Les drinks, so..." Davey shrugged, trying so hard not to laugh.

"No, actually I was gonna ask if he goes with you guys to the bar."

"Same difference," Davey shrugged as they continued walking.

• • •

Once the duo, they realized that all of the newsies were already there and drunk as hell. As Davey opened the door for her, she suddenly had second thoughts. She took a step backwards, shaking her head. Davey closed the door and turned to her. "Hey.. what's wrong?"

"I don't... I don't know if I can do this," she bit her lip. Davey put an arm around her, concern on his face.

"We don't have to go in there if you don't want to," he told her.

"No, no, I wanna go in there... I'se just... I'm nervous..." she said.

"There's nothing to be nervous about. They all admire you. Trust me," Davey said. Gracie breathed in shakily and then breathed out before nodding.

"O-Okay. Let's go in," she said, opening the door.

Inside of the bar, most of the newsies were already drunk as hell. The place smelled of beer and it appeared all worn down. No one even noticed Davey and Gracie's arrival, despite the loud creak of the old, wooden door. The sound of fists pounding on tables and hands clapping together filled the bar with a lively presence. Gracie noticed one of the newsies (Race, obviously) up on one of the tables. He was dancing up on there, and that's when she noticed that all of the newsies were clapping out a beat for him to dance to. He was actually an impressively good dancer, much to Gracie's surprise. She sat down in the nearest chair and watched him, clapping along. No one even noticed her.

For about 30 seconds. JoJo turned around to talk to one of the newsies, and he immediately spotted Gracie. She quickly looked away, and she could feel her hands shaking, and her heart thundering. She bit her lip. She could feel Davey's hand on her shoulder.

Gracie decided that, even though she was technically breaking a law, she'd have a drink to take her mind off of everything. She went over to the bar and got a beer before sitting back down and watching Race. It's just one beer. What harm could it do?

• • •

Well, let's just say that one beer turned into... several.

About an hour had passed, and Gracie had drank about four beers. Davey kept trying to talk her out of buying another beer, but she refused to listen. She'd never had a beer before, and, as messed up as it may have sounded to someone else, she liked how the beers made her feel. It was probably fucked up, but she was too drunk at that point to care.

Suddenly, while in the middle of standing
up to go buy a fifth beer, she heard Race yelling. "Look who showed up!" She looked over at him and noticed him pointing to her. Her chest tightened and, for a second, it felt like all of the effects that the drinks had on her had gone away.

Yet, she found herself waving at everyone instead of running and hiding like she normally would've done.

"What's the girl doin' here?!" Romeo screeched.

"Buyin' drinks, you gotta problem with that?" she retorted, taking a step closer to Romeo with her hands on her hips. He quickly shook his head.

"No," he responded, looking slightly terrified. She laughed.

"Ya know, there's nothin' to be scared of," she told him.

"What do you mean? Are ya implyin' that I'se scared of ya?!" Romeo said.

"No, but it seems like ya are," she commented.

"I'se not scared!" he exclaimed.

"He's totally scared of ya, admit it, Romeo!" Specs yelled out.

"Shut up!" Romeo said back to Specs.

Gracie looked Romeo right in the eye and said, "Why are ya scared?" Was it because of the fight with the Delanceys? That was probably it.

"I'm not?" Romeo said.

She shrugged. "Okay then.."

A sudden noise erupted, and it was a very familiar one. The sound of clapping returned, and Gracie's attention averted to the tables. JoJo and Race were on the tables, having some sort of dance-off. "You guys are gonna fall off!" Davey yelled to them. Gracie didn't know why, but when Davey yelled that, she started laughing and she couldn't stop. She was probably going insane, at that point.

Oh well.

Suddenly, her vision blurred and her head felt like it was spinning and her stomach started throbbing.

Shit.

She dashed out of the bar and started throwing up.

Well, that could've gone better.

a/n: sorry this is so short. the next chapter's gonna be nice and long, i promise!
(that's what she said)
-a. blez