Queen of New York {Newsies Fanfiction}

~ Eight ~

We ascended the spiral staircase, hand in hand. Opening the window and into the busy, afternoon noise of Manhattan.

"So, uh, look, I know you had better things ta do than serve me an' Kat all day, like bein' with Davey, or doin' whatevah girls do." Jack sat on a chair in the corner.

"Lemme guess, Katherine talked you into apologizing to me?" I crossed my arms as I sat down next to him.

"What? I-" I raised an eyebrow at him. "Yes. But how could anyone say 'no' to that beautiful face o' hers?" I rolled my eyes and chuckled a little bit.

"Jack, you don't have to apologize. I know how you feel about Katherine, and I'm fine with it. So what if you asked me to get you a piece of bread or a towel? That's nothing."

"You sure?"

"Yep," I nodded. "And, Jack?" He turned around. "I'm used to all of this. I've been through it before. And seeing a stranger with a best friend of mine is, well, not normal, but I can deal with it. Okay?"

"Okay, Cory." He wanted to get back downstairs. But I didn't want to go back down. I wanted to stay here with him. Just like we used to. "But I hope you really are okay with me and Katherine. Because, I know you said that you were fine wit' Jared and some o' them girls he brought-"

"Jack. Really it's alright." I gulped.

"For sure?"

"For sure." I leaned on him and let him put his arm around me. We sat for a little and then, it...

"You and Katherine. You two gonna last?"

...just slipped

"Prob'ly. I think she could be da one. Ya know?" He shrugged.

"Cos I mean, you don't usually stay wit' some of the girls you say that you like, so,"

"What makes you think that we ain't gonna last?"

"I dunno. It seems like you guys are jus-"

"What? Just a couple a kids playin' around? It's not like that, Cory." He took his arm off my shoulder and turned to face me.

"Alright. I'm sorry," I put my hands in the air, surrendering. "You can do better." I mumbled and swung my feet back and forth.

"What'd you say?"

I decided that I could say it to his face. He can take it, right? "I said that you can do better than her, Jack," I began to raise my voice a little. "You deserve better. Katherine is just another passing girl. Think about the other girls around you. Or maybe even the girl in front of you. Don't you see how much you're hurting her?"

"Hurting you? How?"

I stopped. I know that I can't tell Jack how I feel about him, so I pulled the Jared card.

"You don't see it? You bring in girls who no one knows all the time. Send me to get stuff for you in the morning." He shook his head. "You just bring back memories from when..."

"Cory, whatdoya have against Katherine, huh? She's a great girl!"

"You are just like Jared, Jack!" I stood up and shouted at him with my eyes slammed shut.

"How could you compare me to Jared? He was never good to you, or anyone, after his drinking problem started. He was a terrible person, and you know better than anyone that..." He stopped. "He forgot how tah even screw a top onto a bottle!"

I slapped him.

I slapped my best friend in the face.

He spoke the truth. Jared couldn't put his flask down. But he was my brother, I can't just agree that he was a bad person. I knew that this was true, but I couldn't stand there and let him say things like that about Jared.

"You have no idea how good he was to me," I almost began crying thinking about him. "He was only twelve years old when my mom died and my dad started his drinking. We were taken away from him, and we never saw him again. We were just kids when we'se became Newsies, Jack. We were sent to the refuge when you and me were only seven. Jared was the best brother anyone could ever ask for, you don't know the first thing about Jared, about the REAL Jared. He took care of me on the streets when he was barely thirteen. Jared was my only family. Jack, even you looked up to him. You can't say that he didn't care about you. He did. Jared always wanted a brother. You were his little brother. Jared loved you so much, even more than he loved me. When he left, I was heartbroken. My only family, out the door. I loved Jared with all my heart. How dare you stand there and say that he is a terrible person." We were both silent.

"Cory, I did love Jared. You know that. I looked up to him, but he brought girls here to the rooftop, he went out almost every night, and he drank all of his problems away. I don't see at all how I am anything like Jared."

"No, no. You are even worse." I looked at him and narrowed my eyes.

"Cory, I would never run away. Jack Kelly don't care 'bout no one but him and his Newsies." He gently took my by the shoulders and assured me of this.

"I wish I could make certain of that." I looked down and shook my head.

"What's that's s'pposed to mean?"

"It means that you looked up to Jared. And I'm praying to God that you don't follow in his footsteps." I stormed back downstairs, with him following.

"Hey, Cory. I was just talking to Katherine. Should we all go out on the town tonight, or what?" Davey put his arm around me, and I leaned my head on his shoulder.

"That sounds great, I would love to get to know Katherine a whole lot better. I have a feeling she'll be around for a while," I plastered a fake smile across my face.

"Great! I have a First Class spot for Vaudeville reviews at any nightclub in Manhattan, take your pick." Katherine smiled.

"Anywhere with you, Kat." Jack kissed her lips passionately for what felt like forever.

"I'll get my camera and my pen, and we can get ready to go." The reporter hiked up her skirt and ran upstairs quickly. And we were off.

~*~

We made it back to Katherine's apartment, I looked at Jack and Katherine and they were kissing. Just like they did at every second of the show. I kissed Davey's cheek at the door when we reached the Jacobs apartment, and Jack and I walked back to the lodging house together.

I apologized to Jack as we passed the closed supermarket. "Look, I'm sorry about the things I said this afternoon. I was a little-"

"Jealous?" Jack teased.

"Not what I was going for..."

"It's okay. I know that you and Davey wish that your relationship was as good as mine and Kat's." I started to explain how I wasn't jealous, but my voice got all high and it was very embarrassing for the both of us.

We reached the lodging house and we shared a piece of bread and went to bed afterwards.

I sat in the dark and the silence of my closet. Thinking about my brother. I miss him so much. I felt a pain in my chest when I replayed that night in my head. I thought about what Jack said. He was a horrible person.

But I loved him with all my heart.

❤️ 📰 🎵 ❤️ 📰 🎵 ❤️ 📰 🎵 ❤️ 📰 🎵

-Lemme just say, I'm very happy that school's over. Because my brother's home from college!!

-Also, we're going to do a duet on my YT channel, Little Miss Broadway ❤️, soon. So stay tuned for an update on that. 👍🏻

-QOTD: What is your favorite male x female duet (romantic or nahh)?

-AOTD: I LOVE You're the Top (Anything Goes), Falling Slowly (ONCE), Something to Believe in (Newsies), Anything from Bonnie & Clyde, Private Conversation (Side Show), I Turned the Corner (TMM), and There Once Was a Man (Pajama Game) I have a lot, so I'll stop there.

-Thanks for reading this chapter of Queen of New York. Stay tuned, it's about to get interesting. 😏😏😏😏

-I love you all, so, so much, have an awesome weekend!

Stay Musical. Hayden Beth 💙🐢