The Disgraced Newsie( Rewritten)

Chapter 8: David Jacobs' POV

"So, Les, we are going to have a guest over for dinner tonight, and they might be staying for us for a while"

"Ok, who is it?"

"It is... someone you know"

"Ok...?". Once we arrived back at home, Mom and Dad weren't home, but Sarah and Jack were on the couch. "What is he doing here?!", Les shouted in anger. Yeah, I knew that he wasn't going to be happy about this.

"Well, Jack will be our guest"

"He doesn't deserve to be here! He is a traitor!"

"Les! Be nice!", Sarah scolded him.

"I don't care!"

"Les--". Jack interrupted me before I could tell Les to knock it off.

"Davey, it's fine. It's clear that I'm not wanted here, so I'll just leave. Thanks for letting me stay here though". He was about to walk out the door, but I stopped him.

"Jack, there is no way that I'm about to let you continue to sleep on the streets"

"But--"

"No, you are staying here and that is final"

"But, Davey--"

"Final!". Les just pouted at me, but at least he didn't continue to argue with me. Once dinner time came around, it was mostly spent in silence until Jack decided to speak up.

"... Thanks again for letting me stay here, Mr and Mrs. Jacobs"

"Oh! I forgot that we didn't introduce ourselves. My name is Esther and this is my husband, Mayer. Anyways, you're welcome, Jack. Any friend of David and Les is always welcome at our house"

"He is not my friend anymore", Les mumbled, but no-one, except me, heard him.

"Thanks, I appreciate it, but if you feel like I have stayed here for too long, then just say the word and I will be out of here before you know it"

"Why would we ever want to do that to you, Kid?"

"... Because I'm a traitor"

"A traitor? To who?"

"To every single newsie in New York"

"Why? What happened?"

"It is just... something bad that I did, but I don't really want to talk about it"

"That's okay, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to"

"Thanks"

"So, I have heard a lot about this strike that you had from Davey and Les. I wish that I had done that, I probably would not have lost my job if I did"

"Yeah, the strike really helped out the newsies"

"It must have. Although, I wished that it didn't happen on Davey's and Les' second day at work"

"Yeah, sorry about that, but it had to be done"

"But it seemed to have worked out in the end. Davey told us that Mr. Pulitzer offered you a job as a cartoonist", Sarah added.

"Yeah, I accepted that job, but it doesn't stop me from being a newsie. All I do is collect the headline of the day from Pulitzer's office, then I just draw a picture about it and give it to him at the office. By the way, maybe I'll tell him to mail the headlines at this address, seeing how I am going to be a little bit farther from his office for the time being"

"That is impressive. You must be paid a lot of money for that job. What do you do with all of that money?"

"Well, all of the money that I make, I always intended to give it to the boys, so I just saved it up and put it into a crate on the rooftop"

"That is really nice of you to do that for them. You must really care about them"

"Yeah... I do". Jack started to look a little sad when he started to think about the boys, but he quickly snapped out of it. "Anyways, where can I sleep for the night?"

"Well, we only have three rooms, so I guess you will have to sleep on the couch. Sorry about that, Kid"

"No, that's fine. I can manage the couch. Thank you". Once dinner ended, Jack approached me before I went to bed. "Hey, Davey? Can I ask you something real quick?"

"Sure, Jack. What is it?"

"Well, it is kind of embarrassing, but do you mind if I draw or paint on the walls? Usually, I would draw in my artbook, but... Nevermind about that. Drawing would help me calm down and keep me from stressing out"

"I can ask my parents about it before I leave for work, but I'm sure that they would be fine with that"

"Thanks. Goodnight, then"

"Goodnight". I was tempted to ask Jack about what happened between the boys and him, especially since he was about to reveal something that might have been tied into what happened, but I didn't want to irritate him again. I'll just have to wait until he is comfortable enough to talk to me about it, but it won't stop me from thinking about it.