Later, I was in bed but couldn't sleep.

"What did you not want Jack to say?" I asked with hope that Elmer was awake. After a minute, when he didn't respond, I assumed he had fallen asleep.

"It's a long story." He said after awhile. His voice was tight, so I could tell that he didn't really want to talk about it. I pushed anyway.

"We have all night." I responded.

"Oh would'ja look at that, I'm asleep now!" Elmer gasped in a near jokey tone and went silent.

"Elmer?" I tried again. He didn't say anything else, so I had to try to go to sleep. I didn't really, just laid in the top bunk with my eyes closed. After a bit, long after Elmer began lightly snoring, I sat back up. I'm gonna go get some air, I decided. I then did my best to quietly climb down the ladder, open and close the squeaky door, go down the creaky stairs, and open and close the weird front door to the Lodging House. It was the sort of door that either doesn't quiet fit the frame or is crooked. Jack says sometimes that an adjustment is long overdue. I don't think he's going to end up fixing it.

I walked a short bit down the side-walk and leaned against a brick wall, looking up at the sky to try clear my mind. 

"What's a thing like you doin' out here so late?" A voice asked loudly.  I looked up and  saw a man with ruffled gray-ish black hair and a gray hat. He was very clearly drunk. 

"Why?" Andrew had told me that it's best to give strangers the vaguest possible answers.

"Answer something when you're asked, kid." He grumbled angrily. 

"I actually gotta go now, so--" I started as I turned back to the Lodging House.

"You leave when you're dismissed." He seethed, grabbing my arm and yanking me back. I bit back a yelp because I was not keen on letting any of the News Boys wake up. I'll just keep the situation level and slip away when I can.

"I got work in the mornin', man." I sighed.

"Yeah, we'll see about that." He shrugged.

"What's that supposed to mean?" My question was veering more towards a demanding tone, which might have been what then set him off. He reared back and slapped me. That sent me down on the side-walk with half of my face bright red. I started to stand back up when he spoke again.

"What's Andrew gonna say, huh?" He demanded. My heart dropped.

"Who are you?" I looked up.

"That don't matter." He shook his head. When I thought he had chilled out enough for me to leave, he began to kick at me. The first blow landed at the side of my face, so that deterred me from immediately trying to escape or fight back. When I came back to reality, he was gone. Before I could even get a good look at his face.

~Elmer's POV~

I woke up in the dead of night to Maize slowly climbing down the ladder. I decided not to let her know that I was awake. After a few moments, the front door of the Lodging House shut. She'll come back when she's ready. When she was out with Romeo at the library and theater, Jack had told me to give her time to adjust to the Newsie life. This might just be her taking a minute alone and recuperating. 

She was gone for just a moment too long for me to comfortably go back to sleep, so I stood up and quickly went down the loud stairs and opened the door of the Lodging House. I didn't see anyone at first. After a second of running my eyes over the dark Square, I saw Maize leaning against a nearby brick wall with her face to the dark sky and eyes closed.

~Cornelia's POV~

"Maize?" I heard someone gasp. I turned to see Elmer standing a few yards away. "You good?"

"Yeah." I nodded, standing up and stifling a wince. 

"The hell happened to you?" He demanded with wide eyes, looking me over. 

"There was a guy." I shrugged.

"What'd he look like?" Elmer demanded as he examined my face. "He hit you?"

"I didn't get a look at him." I informed the boy.

"Let's... Let's go inside." He decided before ushering my back inside and up the stairs. He then flicked the light of our room on. 

"I'm fine." I told him. He was clearly on the verge of freaking out. He sat me down on the bottom bunk and looked me over. The only showing skin was my face and arms, which were laden with mild to borderline ugly scrapes and bruises. It was more bruises than scrapes. "Elmer, I'm fine."

"Maize, you was just attacked." He reminded me shakily. I realized that he had gone into a full freak-out. So, I wrapped my arms around his neck (not in the strangle-type way) and buried my face into his shoulder. He reluctantly embraced me tightly, taking a few shaky breaths.

Colossians 3:8, "But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips."