The Brave and the Broken

The Bonfire

     "You know it," Gally responded, winking at him. We laughed again. The sun could now barely be seen over the horizon. I looked over at it, realizing that it didn't hurt my eyes as I did so, though it should. I contemplated it for only a couple of seconds before I was brought back to reality by hearing my name.

     "Yeah?" I said in response, turning my head to see who the voice came from. It was Ben. He was again with the quiet seeming brown-haired boy whose name I still did not know.

     Ben smirked. "Glad to see you decided to join us," He said.

     "I don't need your snark, Ben," I chided, rolling my eyes.

     "Yeah," added Minho, "I'm supposed to be the sassy one." I laughed and rolled my eyes again. Everyone else laughed, too, but there was one distinct laugh missing from the bunch. I looked around and realized that Gally was no longer sitting next to me. I hadn't noticed him leave. I looked around for him but didn't see him with any of the others that had gathered around the fire either. But Gally was his own person and could go wherever he wanted to go in the Glade. It still didn't keep me from wondering, though.

     I again had my attention snapped back into reality by the sound of my name. I looked over at Newt, who was the one who had mentioned me.

     "Huh?" I asked, looking around at the others. No one answered at first. They seemed to have not been speaking directly to me and had just mentioned my name. I could tell that I had missed part of their conversation and I was slightly confused as to what they were talking about. "Wait, what?" I asked again.

     "Oh," Newt said, "I was just saying how I was planning on showing you around and letting you meet some of the others since you didn't get to do that before."

     "Oh, Okay," I said, still slightly lost as to how exactly they had gotten on the topic but it didn't really matter so I let it go. "Good that," I said. "Where to first, then?"

     Some of the boys snickered. "Oh, I didn't really mean right now, exactly but if that's what you want then okay." I felt slightly embarrassed for misinterpreting and looked away so no one realized how red my face had probably gotten.

     "Okay," was all I said.

     "Okay then," Newt said. "Well, first thing's first, I guess. I'll take you around to meet some of the others." He looked around. "I assume you've already met everyone here," he added.

     I looked over at Ben's friend and smiled at him. He hadn't said a word to me yet but he seemed nice enough. "Not everyone," I said.

     Ben smirked. "This," he said, "is Leo." I looked back to Leo and he smiled shyly at me and I smiled back at him. This seemed to have pleased Ben, for some reason. "Y'know what?" He said. "How about Leo shows you around instead of Newt?"

     Leo's eyes widened and his face flushed. He looked back and forth between me and Ben. "Oh, I—uh, I—" He couldn't seem to form a sentence. He stopped talking and instead looked at Newt with pleading eyes. I wasn't sure whether to take that as him wanting to show me around or not wanting to.

     Newt looked first at Alby, then to Leo and me when Alby nodded. "It's fine with us if it's fine with both of you. I don't bloody own her."

     I looked over at Leo and shrugged, "I'm fine with it if you are."

     "Um, okay," was all he said.

     "Okay," I said back, flashing him another smile, "good that."

     Ben nudged Leo and the latter gestured to an area where a few boys were and we started walking in that direction. I was relieved that he chose to go there first instead of a larger group.