Lights, Cameras, Maze Runner! (completed)

eight (part two)

"So, Thomas, what should we talk about on our journey for frozen dairy treats?''

"Let's talk about our passions," he suggests, not missing a beat.

"This is an easy topic. My passion is poetry."

"What do you write about? I know you like Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson in terms of poets, but what is your style?"

I shrug. "I don't really have one. If I feel like I have something I want to say, I write it in a poem. Sometimes I'll do an audience interpretation poem, where I write something really vague and just leave it up to whoever's listening to decide what it means. I don't rhyme too often; I write a lot of free verse," I explain.

"Do you share any of your poetry, my love?"

"Sometimes, if I have nothing going on, I'll get in my car and drive over to a small poetry bar about twenty minutes away from my house in Vermont. They have open mike nights with poetry every other Thursday, so if I'm not working or spending time with my family or friends I'll go and share something. I share under a fake name. I like being a mystery to these people."

"Ah, I have me a mysterious girl!"

I giggle. "No one but you knows about my love for poetry! Not even Mallory or my parents!"

Thomas grins, looking down at me. "Speaking of your best friend and your parents, when am I going to meet them?"

"Well, they're not coming down to visit me while I'm here, so you'll have to come to Vermont and visit when filming's done." Thomas would get along great with my family and Mallory. He is everything my father describes as the "perfect young man" to bring home.

"Then I'll have to get a plane ticket to Vermont. But Wes told me today that we're expected to be finished filming on July 12, which is thirteen days away. We're having a little party on the night of the thirteenth, and me and the cast have an interview over in Baton Rouge for some afternoon television program with the cast on the fifteenth. Then, I leave here to go home on the sixteenth."

My heart sinks. "Seven days left of filming? How is that possible? It feels like I just got here twenty minutes ago! And I fly back home on July 14! I booked my flight yesterday!"

He laughs. "I know, love. But we're all going to spend time together even after the filming for this movie ends, whether it's here in America, over in London or on Skype."

I sigh, still feeling a little bit sad that I only have nine days left here in Louisiana. "Of course, Tom. I just don't want to leave this place. I love it here."

We've turned on the road to the ice cream shop. "So do I, love. This has been the most fun I've had in my entire life." He lets go of my hand and instead links his arm with mine.

"So, Sangster," I begin. "Let's discuss your passion next."

He raises an eyebrow when I address him by his last name, but he smirks as he responds. "My passion, love, is animals. I grew up volunteering at the animal shelter with my sister and father, starting when I was seven. The three of us still do it at least four times a month to this day."

I smile. I didn't know Thomas had a soft spot for animals. "Your mother didn't join you?"

He shakes his head, grinning. "No. My mother loves animals to death. She hates seeing them without homes in shelters. She would adopt every animal in the shelter we volunteer at if she could. My father doesn't allow her to come with us anymore because one time he couldn't make it on the day my sister and I were supposed to help, so she tagged along and took his place. We came home that day with two dogs, four cats, and a bunny rabbit, all adopted in my mother's name. My father just about had a bloody coronary when he came home that day and seven new family members greeted him."