Hope for Us (NEWT) [COMPLETED]

Ch 21 - Confessions

~Sara~

One particular morning, Sara was getting impatient waiting for Newt to show up. 

They'd usually wake up earlier than everyone to meet in the deadheads and pass the time before the heavy day of work ahead of them.

She heard the rustling of leaves but didn't see anyone when she quickly turned to look in all directions. A sudden fear grew inside her chest, and she was slowly starting to hyperventilate, right on the verge of panicking... which, in fact, she did.

"What do you think you're doing?!"

The scream this girl let out when she heard that voice was far from human as she bent down to pick up the first branch she could find to strike the shucking slinthead who—

"Whoa! Okay, my bad, I'm sorry—I'm sorry!"

Her vision slowly cleared up from the fight-or-flight episode as she stared at a significantly terrified Newt, shielding his face with his arms.

"That's quite a large branch you got there," he added nervously.

"Newt! I could literally kill you right now," she seethed, throwing her deadly weapon of a branch aside.

"With your bare hands?" he asked derisively, and Sara looked at her now empty hands in realization. The look she gave him immediately made him clear his throat. "Sorry, that was really stupid—I didn't mean to scare you that bad," he said, his hands still held out in defense of his poor self.

What did he want—to wake the whole Glade? They should've been safe given the dense vegetation in the deadheads, but one could never be too safe.

After a few seconds of looking at each other and only hearing the sound of their panicked breathing, Newt took a timid step forward.

"So... uh—how you doin'?" he asked, shifting on his feet and ruffling his hair.

"You mean before or after the induced heart attack?" Sara lowered her eyebrows before his mortified look caused her to giggle. "Hey, I'm fine now... did you—um... sleep well?"

"Yah... yah, I did. You?" he asked, switching his gaze to his fidgeting hands. He raised his eyes to her face, then he looked at his nails before bringing them up to his mouth to start nibbling on them. He tried to look back up at her, but his eyes seemingly lowered against his will.

"Yeah, I had a good sleep," Sara replied awkwardly.

Newt was definitely acting odd—aside from the fluster they both experienced from the unnecessary stunt he just pulled. She wanted to think this newfound nervousness was for the reason she hoped, but she wasn't sure.

She gave him an amused look as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Everything okay, Newtie?"

He was taken aback suddenly, staring at her as he stumbled over his words. 

"Yah—uh... why do you ask?" He smiled nervously as he kept messing with his hair to distract his hands.

"Stop doing that, it looks fine," said Sara, reaching out to his hair. She started smoothing the golden tufts out. His messy hair was something she particularly liked to see, but she needed any excuse to keep her from panicking at that point. She could swear she'd never felt like that before in her life.

Newt relaxed a bit, but she felt his burning stare as she concentrated solely on his hair. She felt tense, fearing she'd get hypnotized by his eyes if she dared look into them again.

"Sara," he softly called out to her. She stopped running her fingers through his hair for a moment, but then ignored him as she continued pulling and smoothing the stubborn strands.