Undisclosed Desires - Bridget Kathleen (ebooks online reader txt) 📗

her right and saw that Spot had one hand around her. He was still fast asleep. He was shirtless, wearing nothing but his underwear. Sophia was a little surprised that he didn't decide to sleep naked again, like he sometimes did.

The pain in her stomach started up again and she sat up right away, grabbing on to her belly as the pain shot right up her spin and into her chest. She slid off the bed fast, trying not to wake Spot and ran to the restroom. She fell to her knees and rested her hands on top of the tin tub and puked hard. So hard her head started to spin that she was forced to rest her head on top tub for a moment to regain her strength. When she lifted up her head she took in a deep breath and stood up, but it seemed to be too soon and she collapsed, stumbling forward a bit and then hitting her head hard against the edge of the stand that was a few feet away from the tub and passed out.

When she came to, she realized a doctor hovering over her. Shocked by his sudden presence, Sophia jerked back in her and spot's bed, making her head hurt even worse and then remembering what happened.

"Don't move." said the doctor. "You really hurt your head." he told her.

All Sophia could muster out was Spot's name. The doctor inched closer to her. "What?" he asked.

"W-where is S-Spot?" she asked. The doctor put up one finger, as in, hold on, and walked out of the room. Just as soon as he had left he returned, with Spot right behind him. A small smile appeared on her face when she saw him, but then it suddenly vanished when Spot did not smile back at her.

Spot tore his gaze away from her and looked to the doctor. "Will she be ok?" he asked.

The doctor quickly nodded and then brought Spot closer to him and whispered on his ear. After speaking with him, Spot sat on the bed, his hands clasped together, his face looking straight ahead and then it happened: His face turned so white, Sophia thought he would pass out.

"Make sure she gets plenty of rest." said the doctor, looking down at Spot. He then readied his things and left the two. Soon after a few newsie boys walked in, asking if Sophia was ok. Spot looked up at them and nodded twice. The newsie boys kept standing there, as if Spot would tell them more.

Spot then shot them an angry look. "What else do you want me to tell you?" he shouted. The newsie boy then quickly gathered themselves up and left the room as fast as they could.

Spot rose from the bed and said to Sophia without even looking back at her. "You're pregnant?"

Shocked by his question, Sophia slowly sat up and rubbed her head, giving Spot a weird look. "What are you talking about?"

"The damn doc jus' told me you'se was pregnant."

Sophia looked down at her belly and rubbed her right hand over it a few times. "I never thought..." she suddenly stopped. "Oh God..."
Spot finally turned around and looked down at Sophia. "Yeah. "Oh God" is damn roight."

"A few teas formed in Sophia's eyes. She looked up at Spot and said, "What will we do?"

"We'se? Ya mean you'se? I aint doin' nothin'."

A tear fell from one of her eyes and slowly down her cheek. "What are you talking about?" she said to him.

Spot took let out a heavy sigh, took off his hat and ran his fingers through his hair a few times and placed his newsie hat back on top of his head. "I'se hardly makin' a livin' now, tryin' ta support you and me. What make you'se think that I can afford to feed three mouths?"

Sophia found it hard to talk to Spot, finally she said to him the only thing she could say at a time like this. "What should I do?" she said to him.

"Get rid of it." He said in a rather blunt and painful manner.

Sophia was shocked to hear those words come out of Spot's mouth. "What?" she said.

"You'se heard me. I'se just can't do it! Get rid of it Smalls!"
Sophia crossed her arms and laid back down, turning away from Spot. "I aint doin' it!" a rough, Brooklyn accent escaped Sophia's lips.

Spot sighed again. Too tired to argue with her any further. He kicked off his shoes, slipped off his pants, then his shirt and went right to bed. This was going to be one heck of a month for him. He just knew it and it pissed him off yet it worried him all to hell.
Chapter Fifteen: A thousand words of pain.

Sophia woke up that next morning. She could hardly get enough sleep with what had happened last night. She was hurt and confused and it made her whole body hurt even worse. Sophia slipped out of bed, trying not to wake Spot, even thought she felt like taking her pillow and hitting him over the head a bunch of times and giving him a rude awaking. But she thought otherwise and walked over to her suit case, which she had not opened for some time and looked inside at all the things she had brought from New Orleans: Underwear, two clean shirts, an extra skirt and dress, a few penny's scattered on the bottom and a wooden brush. Sophia grabbed for the brush and started to run the brush slowly down her hair. This time was different though. Instead of having to brush all the way down to her mid-waist the brush stopped short at her chin.

It wasn't long till she was done brushing out her hair and setting the brush back into her case and then searching through it again. Suddenly her fingers hit something hard and cold: The blue sapphire her mother had givin her. A sense of happiness reached her and her lips slightly curved into a sweet smile. She hadn't worn it in forever it seemed like. Not since Tommy's death. A single tear fell from her right eye and she quickly wiped it away and put on the necklace. She then got out her only nice dress and put that on. The dress was light blue with white ruffles at the bottom and on the top and at three end of the sleeves. Hand painted white flowers decorated the dress. Her corset on the other hand made her body look more curved in the dress. She hadn't felt so famine in so long she felt a little uncomfortable at first, but quickly adjusted to it.

When she was done dressing, she closed her suit case and slid it back up against the wall. She then walked over to the dresser that stood next to the bed and grabbed for the ribbon Spot had gotten her and put in her hair. Suddenly feeling sick, Sophia sat down at the foot of the bed and held on to her stomach. A slight gasp of pain escaped her mouth, waking Spot up in the process. He mumbled something that Sophia could not understand and sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. When his vision adjusted he saw Sophia sitting next to his feet. "Ya up rather earoily." he said in a tired tone.

"I couldn't sleep." she said to him.

Spot scratched the back of his head and noticed the necklace around Sophia's skinny neck. "Dat soir is a pretty thing you'se got there, Smalls." he pointed towards the necklace. Sophia looked down at it and touched it with her fingertips. "Bet it's woith a lot." he smirked.

Sophia narrowed her eyes at him. "I'm not selling this. It was my mothers. It's the only thing I got left from her."

she explained to her. This didn't seem to reach Spot's ears though. He got up and put on his blue shirt and brown pants. He then slipped on his red suspenders and his shoes.

"Smalls...Sellin' dat necklace could solve all our problems. You'se know dis. Bet it's woith hundreds. No. Couple thousand. Ya neveh have ta woik a single in ya life again. Neither would I. We'se have a good house with running wata all that good stuff that rich folk got."

Sophia shook her head. "No. You don't seem to understand me, Spot. This is all I got left of my family. It's been handed down for gernrations."

Spot rolled his eyes. "Whateveh, babe." he finished putting on his shoes and stood up. "Ya gonna have to think of somethin', Smalls if ya dis ta woik. I can't do everything me self." With that said and done, Spot left the room. He was probably off to go get his papes and sell them.

In the mean time, Sophia didn't feel like staying cooped up in the lodging house all day and figured getting some fresh air would do her some good and grabbed her white shawl on the way out. Even though walking around in Brooklyn wouldn't be so "fresh" she felt as if she really needed it.

By the time she made it down stairs all the boys were gone and only the old man you kept track off all the news boys stood at his desk, looking down at some papers. When he heard her coming he picked his head up and gave her a friendly smile and said, "Good morning."Sophia returned the smile and the good morning. Before she walked out the old man called out to her.

"You be careful now, little missy. You gotta take care of more than just yourself now." he then looked back down his papers, not waiting for Sophia's reply, not like she was or could say anything. Did everybody know that she was pregnant? It hadn't even been twenty-four hours yet.

Sophia stepped outside of the lodging house, wrapping her shawl around her tighter, trying to block out the cold November wind. Everyone looked more busy than usual, hurrying about the city, trying to get their errands done and over with so they can get back home and warm up. She heard some newsie's yelling , trying to sell their papes and even spotted a few in the distance. Sophia then reached into her dress pocket and pulled out the three cents that she had taken from her suit case and decided to get some bread for breakfast.

While she looked at all the bread in the bakery her mouth started to water. She was incredibly hungry and couldn't find any bread worth three cents or less. Finally, at the back of the store at the bottom of the shelf she found some bread or exactly three cents. The role of bread was no bigger than from her wrist to her middle finger. She then walked