When We're Older- The Maze Runner (Newt)

out of the black

   My fingers started to drum on the concrete table, anxiety starting to eat me alive at his words. "Are you saying that someone might die?"

   He shrugged. "I don't know. That's what's scary about this whole thing." I crossed my arms over my chest as he turned his body toward me, leaning on the surface. "I know about your thing, Mae. About not knowing what's gonna happen."

   My head shot toward him. "Did Newt tell you?"

   "Newt?" He scoffed. "No. Anyone could see you have a problem with it. We both do. I've known ever since Ben's banishing... Never said anything because I didn't wanna make it worse." I sighed, relieved that he didn't have to find out from someone else. But I also found myself laughing.

   "I guess I'm really bad at hiding my problems, huh?" We both smirked as he shook his head and pursed his lips.

   "Nah. I think you might've been better if you didn't want anyone to notice it."

   I furrowed my eyebrows at his sentence, not understanding what he meant, but wanting to. "What?"

   He looked away, trying to find the right phrase to explain. "I can tell when you don't want to talk about something. It's like when your mom died."

   "What's that have to do with anything?" I asked, confused now.

   "You get defensive. If you really wanna talk about something, or if something's really bothering you, you try to act as though nothing is wrong. If you don't completely want to be left alone, then you get defensive, which makes people want to know what happened." I stared at him as he spoke, wondering how he cracked the code of pretty much everyone in the entire world.

   "How do you know that?" I spoke, awestruck.

   He shrugged. "It's pretty obvious. I'm not completely stupid, Mae. Only when it comes to you guys."

   I laughed, nodding my head. "So are you calling me out on being an attention seeker?"

   "No. God, no." Thomas was quick to shake his head. "Never. I'm telling you that you're just about the most selfless person I've ever met."

   Suddenly I shut up, wondering what he meant by saying that. Just as I was about to ask him, Thomas gave me a small smile, tapping my shoulder gently before he walked away. I turned around, mouth slightly open, following him with my gaze just as Frypan entered. Thomas walked over to the boy, probably going over his role in the plan before we decided to actually go.

   His words rang in my head like a broken bell as I made my way over to Brenda, who was busy stuffing two pistols into her holsters. I approached her, scratching my head as she looked up and smirked. "Ready?"

   I nodded. "Yeah...just let me get my stuff and uh, talk to Newt quickly."

   She nodded, letting a harsh breath go through her mouth. Brenda turned toward me and placed both of her hands on my shoulders, looking me in the eye while I scoffed at her expression. "We are going to do this. And we're gonna fuck everyone and everything. We are badasses."

   "Fuck?" I asked, never hearing the word before.

   The girl stared at me for a few moments before bursting out in laughter, holding her stomach as she cackled. I furrowed my eyebrows, trying to keep my composure as I watched her and people turned their heads to look at us.

   "Why are you laughing?"

   "I forgot..." She cried, wiping the skin underneath her eyes as she stood back up, starting to calm down now. "I forgot you've been basically living under a rock for most of your life. Oh my." She cleared her throat, taking a deep breath before she talked to me again. "Fuck is basically your version of...what do you call it...shuck!"