Only Girl. - TMR

Chapter Eleven

At dinner, I avoided sitting with Newt, and since I had no friends outside the people he was sitting with, that meant dinner would be spent with Chuck. 

I quite enjoyed talking to Chuck. He represented everything good and sweet and innocent in the Glade. He was easy company. 

‘Hey, Chuck,’ I said, taking a seat beside him. 

‘Wow, what did you do that was so bad that you have to eat with me?’ Chuck said, jokingly. 

‘I just thought that it be awkward to sit with Newt, we had a spat today.’ 

‘Already?’ he said, rolling his eyes. I gave him a look and he snapped out of it.

‘Got it.’

Another thing I like about Chuck - he’s not nosy. 

We chatted for a while, until we’d both finished eating, gone were the days when I turned my nose up at Frypan’s meals. 

‘Sorry to hear about you and Newt, by the way,’ Chuck said. 

‘It’s fine Chuck, it was my fault. I screwed up.’ 

Chuck just nodded. 

‘Good luck.’ 

I was lying it bed, it was late, but I could Newt was still awake across the room and I wanted to talk to him, badly. 

When I finally gained the courage to go over to him, it was at least midnight, if not way past. I really had no idea of telling in the Glade. I grabbed the gauze from under my pillow before I left - a crucial 

ingredient in my plan. ‘Newt,’ I called softly into the darkness. Thankfully, Newt’s bed was directly under a beam of moonlight, and I found him.

‘Lia? Why are you still up?’ He said distantly. 

‘Um, I remembered that you didn’t put on a bandage, uh… earlier,’ I said, not really answering his question. 

‘Oh, yeah,’ 

‘And I also…’ I began, feeling nervous. 

‘Yeah?’ He was playing games with me, he knew what I was going to say. 

‘I wanted to say that,’ I took a deep breathe, ‘I’m really sorry about before, I was being stupid. I really, really like you.’ I blurted it out all at once, and then retreated to the shadows a bit, out of breathe. 

There was silence for a bit. 

‘Lia… we can’t.’

‘What? I - I don't understand…’ I breathed. 

‘This is the Glade. I can’t have a girlfriend or whatever you are. There are more important things - liking getting out. And don’t argue because I know that you’re not sure as well.’

I was in shock. This what definitely not how I thought things would go. 

I threw the bandage down on his bed and stormed off. ‘Do it yourself.’ 

I lay in bed for at least another hour after that, tossing and turning, unable to sleep. Newt had struggled putting on the bandage at first, but after about ten minutes the occasional swearing and movement from across the room subsided and I assumed he had managed to tie it off. 

The next morning I was up early, through the showers and at the benches before anyone else was. I enjoyed the silence of sitting there alone. It was strange though - to see the hall so empty when I was used to the loud chattering of fifty or so boys.