Aversion (The Maze Runner, Newt / Sequel to Violation)

8 - Changes

Newt was in love with the memories, not with the girl.

Yet, he continued to doubt that fact when he found himself looking over at Isabella to see if she was awake more times than he made sure Wendy was still asleep.

"You can't do this," he repeated in his head as the wind above them picked up. "Stop thinking about it. You've got more bloody problems than this." he hissed to himself, well aware that Wendy was bleeding out from her wounds right next to him. Shifting his mind, the worry he felt crashed into him and he found himself pulling Wendy into his embrace, the younger girl shivering before she hummed sleepily and welcomed the new blanket of heat.

Just like that, did his mind finally shut up and let his heart take over.

He felt at home with Wendy, like everything was shit all around him, but she managed to make it a tragic paradise. She felt safe, she felt like a part of him now, she felt like home.

He had known her before the Maze, obviously, and obviously it was more than a friendship when they did. Wendy wouldn't lie to him, but it wasn't her reassurance that he believed, it was the fact that he himself knew. He felt it when he was around her, a soft and sweet reminder of what they had before. Wendy was like a memory itching at the back of his head before she arrived in the Glade, and now that they had been reunited, he knew that this—what they had—was enough to keep him going for the rest of whatever laid ahead.

Yes, Wendy was far more than enough.

•
•

Wendy felt like shit.

Around dawn, had they begun walking again. She felt sore and utterly tired, and the wounds she had acquired had definitely not bettered the situation. Cuts and bruises littered her pale skin, and she still felt a stinging pain across her cheek from where Bella had slashed her with her decorated blade. Of course, she was still confused about the whole situation, but at least she knew was going on. Wendy still felt angry though, especially at the gladers, for not telling her that Bella had once been with Newt before, and was still alive after supposedly "dying". It would've been good information to know, especially because she wouldn't have been so misinformed when Bella had tried to kill her just the night before.

What she couldn't seem to grasp, though, was what Bella had said.

Isabella had at first told them that she was going to kill Wendy because she thought that Newt hated her, but then shouted that she didn't mean to and that this crank, Luke, had given her wrong information. Piece by piece, Wendy had put it together, and explained it to Newt, Minho, and Thomas that morning.

Luke, Bella's friend, had told her that Wendy and Newt hated each other and wanted each other dead, which used to be true according to the second in command himself. Yet, he had managed to leave out the fact that things might've changed, and Bella had seemed to be tricked into almost killing Wendy. But even with that excuse, they all saw that the blonde still wanted to kill her. Wendy could see it every time the two girls made eye contact. It was both frightening, yet enjoying. The girl did try to kill her, couldn't Wendy at least enjoy the sight of her being dragged through the sand?

Though Wendy would've loved to watch, her focus was set on Newt.

Just by his expression, she could tell that he was battling himself. He seemed off as he gazed into the dusty horizon and fiddled with the sheet above their heads.