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Jack felt the need to look over his shoulder while selling the last of his papers on February 14th. Like most holidays, Valentine’s Day had somehow become a day for pranks amongst the newsies, and Jack had already been the butt of more of them than he’d like to admit. He’d nearly gotten tripped by a bouquet of raggedy flowers dropped in front of him by Swifty. He’d gotten more than his fair share of funny, and offensive, Valentine’s Day cards by the guys, and had even turned down a chocolate in case Racetrack had stuck something nasty inside.
So, he supposed he shouldn’t have been surprised when he nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He was surprised though when he turned about found David, shy smile on his face.
“Jack, hi. Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said, holding tighter to his stack of books. He was back in school now, as promised, so they didn’t see each other much except for after the school day ended.
“Heya Dave, sorry, the guys’ have been a pain today, so what’s new?” he said with a laugh, slinging his arm about David’s shoulders in greeting, steering him back the way Jack had been walking.
“I was wondering if you were still planning on coming to dinner tonight,” David said as they got on their way, Jack stopping to sell his last paper. He looked sharply over his shoulder at David as he did.
“’Course, why wouldn’t I be?”
“Well, I don’t know, I wasn’t sure if you had…other plans or not?” He said, the sentence coming out like a question. Jack fell back into formation with David now, thinking. He always came to dinner at the Jacobs’ on Thursday nights, he didn’t know what David could be getting at. Then he realized again what day it was and looked up at David’s face. He was looking off in the distance, like something was on his mind.
“Oh uh. Well, I don’t know. Do you have other plans?” He asked, suddenly imagining that Dave had asked someone from school to do something for the holiday. He didn’t talk much about classmates but -he looked at David again, all curly hair and blue eyes- it wasn’t out of the question that people would be interested.
David looked at him, caught Jack looking, and just as quickly looked away again.
“Well, I’ve got some homework, but that’s all.”
Jack nodded, stuck his hands in his pockets. He didn’t know what to say now. Was David trying to tell him not to come over? They passed a card shop, the windows done up in elaborate displays of paper hearts and cards, a section of sentimental and lavishly decorated cards next to the ones he had been receiving all day, the cheap, colorful, comical ones, that show exactly what the giver would like to be doing instead of being your valentine.
They both involuntarily slowed down as they passed the shop.
“So, did you get any of those today?” David asked, inclining his head over at the window.
Jack rolled his eyes, boy did he. He huffed out a laugh, wishing he had kept them to show David, “Yeah a few, they were pretty creative this year.”
David shifted next to him, didn’t say anything. The silence hung between them a second and Jack ran a hand through his hair in frustration and confusion. What was up with him today?
“Did you? Get any valentines I mean?”
“No, they discourage it in school, some people gave them after class I think though,” he said, his voice quiet, not looking over at him.
“Okay, well. Um, tell your folks I’ll be by for dinner like usual I guess, if that’s still okay,” he said as they reached the corner they usually parted on. David nodded. They stood there for a second, looking anywhere but at each other.
“Well, goodbye, see you at dinner I guess,” David muttered, looking anything but excited to see him later and turning away. Jack reached out and grabbed his arm before he thought better of it. David turned back to him in surprise.
“Listen, if you don’t want me to come to dinner, just say so.”
David’s eyes burned. “Fine, don’t come. You’re clearly looking for a reason not to,” he said, pulling from Jack’s grasp and stomping off down the sidewalk, eyes locked on the bricks in the front of him. Jack watched him walk away. What had just happened? He looked around behind him like he could pick up the pieces of that conversation and fit them back together in a way that made more sense.
He finally shook his head and turned back towards the lodge house. Maybe David did have a date, some girl from school with her books. A Jewish girl that would understand his traditions and his parents would approve of.
By the time he got back to the lodge house, Jack had worked himself into a foul mood. The lobby was loud and boisterous. Blink and Mush were laughing, half wrestling, and dragged Bumlets into the fray, who had been running around trying to get ready for a date. Jack nodded hello to them and the others, nearly by passing the front desk before Kloppman reached out for him.
“Jack, this came for you this morning, I was going to give it to you at lunch but I didn’t see you,” he said, holding out a purple envelope. Jack barely looked up as he took it.
“Thanks, Kloppman, I’ll be in for dinner tonight,” he said and pretended to not notice as he saw Kloppman double check the day of the week on his wall calendar. Jack climbed the stairs morosely, still lost in thought. He slumped in his bed, dropped the card on his table and fiddled with his cigarette case.
“Hey Jack, where’s the Mouth? I thought he’d come by after school.” Skittery said, inviting himself to lean against the bunk frame and look up at him. Jack shrugged.
“How should I know? Do I look like David’s keeper?” He asked rolling his eyes. Skittery bristled.
“Well you’ve got a card from him so I figured you’d seen ‘im today, sheesh,” he said, pushing off the bunk and walking away. Jack looked up at that. A card from David? He looked down at the purple envelope on his table and scrambled out of his bed, picking it up so fast he dropped it on the floor and had to stoop to fish it out from below the bottom bunk.
There, clear as day on the other side of the envelope read, “To Jack, From David” God. How had he been so stupid to not even look at the envelope?! He had figured it was another gag valentine from one of the guys.
He ripped open the paper and dumped the little card into this hand. It was flowery and blue and purple and when he opened it, the pages seemed to expand outward to reveal two hands holding each other from opposite sides of the card, surrounded by flowers. He examined the little card for a while, closing and opening it and peering between the folded bits of paper. You could only see the hands of the people, not the rest of their bodies, not even a scrap of clothing on their wrists to determine what they were wearing. It had no note, only the hands and flowers. He wasn’t sure exactly what it meant. It wasn’t some great declaration of love. Or… was it? Were the genderless hands holding on to one another supposed to signal something?
Jack paced a little, wishing the image would divulge its secrets. He hadn’t ever received a serious valentine. Last year a girl he had seen a few times sent him a paper flower but that was all. This was… different. This had meaning, even if he couldn’t distinguish it or exactly why he thought so.
And God, he felt like an idiot! Kloppman said it had been waiting for him before lunch. Jack always came back to the lodge house in the middle of the day and David knew that. The only reason he hadn’t come back today was to avoid more stupid pranks from his friends. David had probably assumed he had seen the card and was rejecting him. Jack mentally kicked himself, running a hand agitatedly through his hair. What. An. Idiot.
He quickly scooped up the card and ran back down the stairs.
“Sorry, Kloppman, change of plans!” he said, waving the card at him as he raced out the door and into the cold February evening. He had to fix things.
A half an hour later he sucked a breath in as he ran up to David’s fifth floor apartment, the dark hallway giving way to light as people moved in and out of the rooms, cheery talk filtering between the walls in different languages, mostly what Jack had come to recognize as Yiddish. He wished he had thought to comb his hair, or even to put on his good jacket before racing out of the lodge house like he had, but it was too late for all of that now.
He knocked on the Jacobs’ door at a quarter past six, fifteen minutes earlier than he normally showed up to dinner. Esther answered, just as he hoped she would. He beamed a smile at her despite his nerves.
“Happy Valentine’s Day Mrs. Jacobs,” he said as she smiled at him in surprise.
“Jack! I didn’t think we’d be expecting you tonight, David said you had other plans,” she said smiling with no ill will, clearly not having heard the venom that must have been in David’s voice when he relayed that news.
“Nah, I’d never make plans over your dinner Mrs. Jacobs, you know you’re the best cook I know. Is David ‘round?” He asked, careening his head around the corner of the apartment door.
“He’s on the fire escape, I’ll call for him.”
“No, no that’s okay, I’ll get ‘im.”
Jack walked through the Jacobs’ familiar apartment and said hello to the rest of the family. Sarah was a little cool towards him which made Jack think David had already told her about the valentine incident. He tried to put it out of his mind as he walked to the window, closed against the cold.
There though, was David. He leaned, arms braced against the railing, looking out over the city. He didn’t move and Jack didn’t open the window. He just stood there for a second, watching him. If David didn’t mean what Jack had thought, he could screw up their friendship forever. Things would be different after tonight, one way or another and Jack wanted to stand there for another few seconds, when him and David were just friends, before Jack tried to bridge this seemingly impassable divide.
He pushed up the window, ducked through it as he saw David turn towards him. David’s face was confused and guarded and now that Jack knew why, he couldn’t blame him. He thought about everything he wanted to say.
“I didn’t go back for lunch today.” That wasn’t it. He rang the back of his neck with his palm. Okay. Start over.
“I mean, I didn’t go back to the lodge house until after we talked.” He held up the now messy valentine, its blue ribbon out of its perfect bow.
If anything, David was looking more confused. Shoot, what if it wasn’t from him after all? He looked down at the card again.
“What I’m trying to say is that I’m sorry about when we talked earlier. I shoulda sent you a valentine. I was caught up in the guys’ stupid games an I forgot people actually do things today,” He looked up at David’s face, wary now, but not as upset or confused.
“There’s a Valentine’s Dance at one of the halls by Newsies Square.” Jack said. David still didn’t say anything.
“Your nickname’s Mouth, you wanna live up to it now please?” He asked, throwing his hands up exasperated. David smiled at his joke, looking out over the fire escape for another second.
“Are you asking me to go to a dance with you on Valentine’s Day?” He asked finally. Jack relished in the sound of his voice.
“If you’re interested. Blink and Mush will be there though, and probably a few other of the guys so this wouldn’t be no secret,” he said, suddenly worried the public-ness of it would make David change his mind. David smiled, a grin that crept up his face and lit up his eyes in a way that made Jack smile back, without even meaning to.
“I’d never want to keep you a secret, Jack Kelly.”