Brooklyn // Racetrack Higgins

Chapter Twelve

I pace back and forth in my room back at the lodging house. Race sighs as he's laying on his bed. "Brooklyn, please! Will you stop walkin' back and forth so much?" He requests. "You're drivin' me crazy."

I shake my head. "Jack should be back by now. If he succeeded, he should be back."

With a soft groan, Race sits up. "C'mere." I stop pacing, then oblige. As I sit on his bed, he drapes an arm around my shoulders. "Now, why're you so upset?"

"After we got Jack," I start, taking a deep breath, "he went to Pulitzer's office. To try and talk him down from the prices, so we can officially go back to work."

"And he's not back yet," he clarifies, and I nod. "Maybe he's havin' a hard time gettin' the man to lower prices. Pulitzer is high maint'ence." He shrugs.

"Maybe," I agree, leaning into him a bit. Normally I would protest, but no one is around. I sigh, and he rubs my arm.

"Cheer up, Annie. He's bound ta' be back soon. In the meantime, I know what we can do to pass the time." I look up and find another one of his smirks on his face.

I scoff and push him away from me. "It was one time, Racetrack Higgins!"

"Oh, so now we're usin' full names? In that case, Annalise Conlon, you know you want to." He wiggles his eyebrows at me as I gasp.

"Who told you? How do you know my full name?" Spot's the only one who's ever called me Annalise. He just grins, and I swat his arm. "Tell me!"

"I happen to like your name. Annalise. It's very pretty," he compliments.

"You can't distract me from my question, Blondie." I reach up to ruffle his hair but he slaps my arm away with narrowed eyes.

"Fine. It was Albert, who heard it from Jojo, who heard it from Specs, who heard it from Tommy Boy, who heard it from-"

I cut him off by placing my hand over his mouth. "So I take it pretty much everyone knows now?" He just nods, and I remove my hand.

"Maybe not everyone. I don't think Elmer was there when-"

"When what?" A voice cuts off Race. It's Elmer, standing in the doorway. Speak of the devil, and he doth appear, I guess.

"When Les told everyone what Brooklyn's full name is," Race answers.

"What? I want to know," Elmer says, crossing his arms.

I shake my head. "You won't. You'll never know."

"Annalise Conlon!" I hear another voice boom from outside the room. I jump, Elmer grins, and Race sits up straighter.

Spot appears in the doorway, looking furious. I jump away from Race as quickly as I can. Elmer's eyes widen, and he leaves just as quickly as he came. Spot points at me. "We need to talk." He gives Race a deathly glare. "Alone," he adds. Race suddenly understands. He gets up and leaves the room, closing the door.

"Hi, Spot," I begin weakly, but he cuts me off, like I thought he would.

"You snuck out, after I specific'ly asked you not to. You joined the strike, after I specific'ly asked you not to. The bulls show up, and beat them strikers to where they can't hardly even move!" Spot roars.

"Lighten up, no one died," I say, stealing Davey's line from earlier.

"No one died? Really? I can't-" He groans, pacing back and forth just as I had done a few minutes earlier. "Who were you sitting with before I came in?" He asks suddenly, just remembering.

I blink. "Just one of the boys. No one special," I answer quickly.

He lets out a laugh of disbelief. "No one special? Right, because you sit that close with any of your friends. What's his name?"

I shake my head. "I don't know why you're so caught up on this, Spot. It's not a big deal."

"His name?" He demands. "Or I will go find out myself." He gestures to the closed door.

"His name is Race. He's my friend," I answer, taking a step toward my brother.

He scoffs and crosses his arms. "Yeah, a friend. I saw how he was lookin' at you. Don't think I believe you one bit!"

"I'm tellin' you the truth, Spot!" I say. "Believe it!" I bite my lip.

"No, you're not," he says in a low voice. "I know you, Annalise. I've known you my whole life. And when you lie, you bite your lip."

"I wasn't-"

"Do not even think about tellin' me that you weren't. I saw it myself."

"Fine!" I throw my hands in the air. "Fine! Fine, we...he...I might want to be more than friends. Is that what you wanted to hear?"

He looks at me, his eyes full of anger. "I figured somethin' like this would happen eventually. Annalise, I told ya these boys are nothin' but trouble. I mean it. I don't want you seein' him no more."

My eyes widen. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me," he snaps, implying that I can't argue my way out of this one. "We's goin' to the rally, then you's comin' home. For good."

I stalk past my brother, leaving him standing alone in the room. Race looks up when I leave the room, and he comes over to me.

"You okay?" He asks, placing a hand on my arm. I pull my arm away, don't reply, and go up to the roof. I need time alone to think.

Once I climb the stairs, I begin pacing back and forth. I toss my cap to the side and run my hands through my hair. Who does Spot think he is? This is the most he's ever tried to control me. He thinks he can tell me who to be friends with? Who I can want to be more than friends with? I can't believe him. First he tells me I can't be in Manhattan, then he tells me I can't stand up for what I believe in, then, to top it all off, he thinks he can tell me who to like.

I don't know how long I'm up there before Kit, one of the Brooklyn newsies, comes to find me. "An, we're leaving for the rally."

I take a deep breath and nod. The rally is more important than my love life and the drama with my brother. Or, at least it is at the moment. I need to act as if nothing happened and not draw attention to myself. "Okay," I say, turning to face the boy. We walk down together. I ignore Spot and go with the Brooklyn newsies to the theater.

~~~~~

hello! thanks for reading! feel free to leave a comment with some feedback!

on another note, I busted my lip two days ago. how? I accidentally smacked myself in the face in the process of freaking out over Ben Cook's eyes...my sister was a witness

anyway, stay safe and stay healthy!
edit: wOAH I just hit 200 reads! that's insane!!! thank you so so much for reading my book!! I'm blown away at how fast that happened. :)