The Disgraced Newsie( Rewritten)

Chapter 5: David Jacobs' POV

This is weird. I haven't seen Jack in a few days and I am kind of starting to get worried about him. Normally, Jack wouldn't sell newspapers for a couple of days, but this time, it was kind of excessive, even for him.

I've tried to talk to the other boys and ask them if any of them have seen Jack anywhere, but all of them avoided or ignored the question. I have also tried to ask Race about his black eye, but he never responded to me about that. I'm certain that it doesn't have anything to do with Jack or what happened to him.

Regardless, I headed toward Jack's usual selling spot. He might have already collected his newspapers and started selling them. I figured that Jack could use a friend to sell with since everyone was still mad at him. Besides, Les and I aren't on the best of terms right now since he is still upset with Jack and I am attempting to still be on good terms with him, so he doesn't want to sell with me anytime soon.

As soon as I reached Jack's spot, I saw that he wasn't anywhere near here, so I decided to turn back toward my usual spot until I noticed a familiar person in the alleyway. Wait? Was that Jack? I started to walk closer toward the person, who was most likely asleep, then I noticed that it was Jack. What is he doing here?

"Jack? Jack, wake up!", I called out to him as I started to shake him awake. He flinched and crawled away from me, but then he relaxed a little bit once he realized it was me.

"Oh, Davey. It is just you. I thought I said in my letter that I didn't want to be found"

"What letter? What are you doing out here anyways?"

"It... it's nothing. And don't worry about me. I will be fine"

"But, Jack, I haven't seen you in a few days. Why aren't you at the Lodging House?"

"That doesn't matter anymore. I am not a newsie anymore, and they don't even care about me anymore anyways"

"Jack, no-one said that"

"Well, they didn't have to"

"Well, since you clearly don't want to return back to the Lodging House, why don't you come stay with me and my family for a while?"

"No, Davey. I couldn't do that to you or your family. Besides, I deserve to be on the streets anyways"

"No, you don't, Jack. And you know that. And, come on, my family would be more than happy to have you stay with us"

"What about Les?"

"Nevermind about him, Jack. He is just upset, but he doesn't hate you"

"That's debatable"

"Jack. Come on, I don't feel comfortable leaving you here when you've implied that you don't want to go back to the Lodging House"

"I won't even be here the next time you come here, so don't worry about it"

"... I am not leaving until you agree to come with me"

"But what about your papers? Don't you need to sell them?"

"I'll sell them after I take you home with me. And even if I can't, Mr. Pulitzer will just buy back the ones that I can't sell"

"I guess"

"So, now will you come with me?"

"... Fine! I'll come with you!"

"Great! Let's go". Jack tried to stand up, but he immediately collapsed onto the ground, clearly in pain. "Jack! What's going on?! Are you okay?!"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just... ran into a problem. It is not that big of a deal". He is not telling me the truth at all, but I'm not going to force it out of him right now.

"Do you need a hospital?"

"No, I will be fine"

"... Ok. Come on, then". I noticed that Jack still couldn't walk properly, so I went over to him and put my arm around his shoulder, and supported him toward my house.

"Davey, you don't have to help me. I can handle myself"

"You and I both know that you can't. Jack, just let me help you for once"

"... Fine". I wonder what happened with Jack. I know that the boys were upset with him for what happened at the rally, but there is no way that they could be upset with him that much to hurt him, right?