FOREVER. newt

five. the banishment

I open my eyes.

I really wished that I'd do something different instead. My head felt like it was constantly being slammed into a wall, sounds that I was pretty sure weren't present at the moment kept on ringing in my ears like some sort of alarm that would force anyone to wake up by how loud it was.

Deciding that the pain that I was feeling wouldn't really subdue if I kept on laying on my hammock, I brought up my legs and stood up. Everything was still quite blurry, but as I blinked my surroundings started to become clear.

The thoughts of my headache are immediately halted as my brain struggles to register my surroundings, eyes darting around until they adjust to the bright light coming out from the window in my hut. Reaching a hand to my face to yawn, I let out a quiet gag as I realized that the smell of alcohol was still fresh.

"Oh look, you're awake."

Not expecting the accented voice to come out of nowhere, I jump slightly. Looking behind me to see where his voice had came from, I see Newt in the corner of my hut. His hair was still sprawled up in different directions as he rubbed his eyes. It looks like he too, had just woken up.

But that doesn't answer the question on why the hell he was in my hut.

"What are you doing here?" I whisper softly, as if people could hear us talking. It takes Newt a few seconds to get a grip on reality, but the boy eventually blinks twice and stands up so he could face me.

"You went bloody crazy last night." he explained, although no matter how much I tried to think, nothing came in mind. "Long story short, I had to bring you to your hut since you went really close to challenging Gally to a fist-fight."

The moment I hear this, soft curses went out of my mouth. People here rarely took me seriously; and now that I've embarrassed myself for the night they'll use it as a chance to taunt me. And tease me.

Newt's sleepy eyes suddenly changed. He looked concerned- no, he looked guilty.

"I mean Nini, it wasn't really that bad—"

"It's okay." I say softly, although I knew that the frown on my face made it seem like I was still upset. In fact, I was- but Newt didn't need to carry the burden of that. It was my fault for not controlling myself, after all.

When I see him with the same look on concern on his face; I try to offer him a small smile. "No really, Newt. I'm fine. Thanks for dealing with me last night. Now if you'll excuse me.." I start, grabbing the towel that was at the corner of my hut. "... I need to get this smell off me."

-

Taking the towel and wrapping it around my hair to dry it, I let out a sigh of relief. The Glade had had "showers" but it was just rinsing your body with water and scrubbing your skin with old rags; but it was fine enough for me. Anything would be better than smelling like alcohol the whole day.

When I look up, a small squeak came out of my mouth as I saw Ben standing right in front of me. I let out a loud curse, thankful that I've already dressed up before the boy had arrived. "Ben, what the hell are you doing here?"

Ben, just stood there panting. His face was covered in black veins, his irises circled in red, and that's when everything started to dawn on me.

Ably had told me this on my first day. He explained the process, the cause, the symptoms, everything.

Ben had been stung.

Gently folding the towel and placing it on a piece of wood, I slowly back away from the panting boy. "Ben, calm down... it's me.. it's Nini." My words slipped away when his panting turned into seething and he looked at me with rage. "I can help you, okay? Just calm down, I'll bring you to the Med-jack hut."