Title: Spinster

Rating: T for rare incidents of cursing.

Summary: "He was always good at spinning your little webs of deceit. How do I know that this isn't one of them?" Jack Kelly left New York eight years ago without warning. Now he's back, seeking the forgiveness of an old friend and trying to set the record straight.

Author's Note: I had a really strong impulse to write this fic one day because I was bemoaning the fact that there are not very many fics out there dealing with a post-strike world where Jack actually left. It's relatively short and will probably wind up being no longer than 15,ooo words total. I hope you enjoy it, as my life is rather tumultuous right now and I don't know when anything else new will be cranked out. (Disney owns the characters, by the way.)

Prologue

When you're young, you dream. That fact is obvious to anybody who was ever young and has since grown up. You don't know that it's merely dreaming when you're young- it's just something that you do, and your dreams are as real to you as what you eat for dinner. Those who have nothing dream more than those who have something.

Everybody knew that it was Jack Kelly's dream to go to the West one day. But that's all it was- a childish dream that was cooked up to distract him from the life he was really living, the life that had him scrounging for change even on the best days. Dreams, however, aren't meant to be sought after. Not when you have no money in your pocket, no fallback plan and no idea of what your dream really is.

That's why no one ever thought that he'd go through with it. Jack Kelly, while he was one of the most successful newsboys, had maybe a dollar more than the rest of them. He didn't have any way to return, once he'd gone, if he found the life unsuitable. Indeed, Jack had never really known what he wanted, other than that it was to leave New York City.

The last time I saw him was a cold December evening, the winter after the strike. My father's arm had healed and he'd gotten back a job. Not the one he'd had before- no, I'd been right on that account. The factory never took him back. But there is more than one factory in the city, and he found another place that would take him on for similar pay- a salary that surpassed my income selling papers.That only meant one thing to me, however. I had to go back to school.

School was always a pain for me. I never exactly fit in- too smart for some, too much of a wuss and a momma's boy for others, and too talkative for the rest. It wasn't until I'd found the newsies that I'd had any friends. Well… I'd never found anybody like Jack. Jack was different. He not only accepted me, but embraced me in a way that nobody else ever had.

To say the least, there wasn't anybody like Jack in my life up to that point. And I didn't look forward to saying good-bye to him. Everybody at the lodging house hailed me as I came in that night, walking past pairs of bunks to where Jack was lounging on his bed. His face broke into a grin when he caught sight of me, and for a second, I forgot my purpose in coming. But the lapse of memory was only momentary, and my own smile slipped off my face just as quickly as it'd come up.

"Jack, I need to talk to you."

That was eight years ago. I haven't seen or spoken to him since.