Dissension: disagreement that leads to discord
I woke again on the small bed in the small wooden room. This time, though, the door was open and Jeff was standing in the corner of the room, looking anxious. Upon seeing me awake, he left the room, leaving the door open behind him. I didn't even try to get up this time, fearing the same results as last time. Jeff returned a moment later with Clint.
"Where's Newt?" I asked as soon as they walked back in.
"What? Why?" Jeff questioned.
I didn't have the time or patience for this, I needed to talk to Newt about what had happened. "Where is Newt?" I asked again.
"Slim it," Jeff said. "He's fine. What do you need him for?"
"I need to talk to him," I said, annoyed that he kept asking questions rather than just going and getting Newt like I obviously wanted him to. "If you don't go get him, I will," I added, starting to get up and wincing slightly at the pain but trying not to show it. I was hurting but I needed to talk to him. We had to discuss what had just happened. I wasn't even sure what had just happened. I stood and left the room, despite the many protests coming from Jeff and Clint and, not to mention, my pounding head.
The room spun as I looked around. The rest of the building looked as poorly built as the small wooden room. The walls were covered in ugly dark-brown wallpaper. I walked, the floorboards creaking beneath me, and checked the doors on either side of the narrow hallway. Most of the doors were open, their lights off. One, however, was closed, but there didn't seem to be a light shining under the door. I opened it, anyway, and went quietly inside, leaving the door open behind me. It wasn't too dark in there that I couldn't see anything; it was bright enough to see the silhouettes of things. I walked over to where the bed was and checked it to see if Newt was in it. He wasn't, no one was. I walked out of the room and turned right, away from the way which I had come.
I came to a stop at a set of wretched-looking stairs. I gripped the railing and went slowly down the steps, wincing at the loud creaking sound each step made. I counted the steps as I made my way down, twelve in total. They led down to an open area at the bottom. A few boys were spread about the room, talking among themselves. I kept my eyes glued to the floor and walked quickly past them, silently praying that none of them would notice me.
"Hey, Greenie!" I heard from behind me. It wasn't a voice I recognized, so I kept my eyes down and continued walking, hoping whoever it was would think I didn't hear him. "Hey, Shuckface, I'm talking to you," he added. I felt a hand on my shoulder and I whipped my head around quickly, simultaneously shoving his hand off of my shoulder. I swayed slightly on my feet in response to the sudden movement and my vision blurred for a moment. I tried to ignore it and not show how disoriented I was.
"What do you need?" I said, not wanting to stay in this building a moment longer.
The boy just smirked smugly at me, seemingly unfazed by my small outburst. He was tall and scrawny with messy blonde hair and pale blue eyes.
"So," He said, "You 'n Newt, huh?"
"Me and—What are you talking about?"
"Oh, did you really think people wouldn't notice how buddy-buddy you shanks have been? It's all anyone's talking 'bout."
"I literally just got here, hun."
"And you've been with Newt most the time you've been here, hun."
"Whatever, I need to go find—" I stopped myself, trying not to prove his point. "What did you say your name was?"
"It's Ben," he answered, winking. "See you around Greenie."
I now had even more reason to find Newt. I rolled my eyes at him and ran the rest of the way to the door, not wanting to be stopped by anyone else. I got to the door and turned its brass knob. I looked around, wondering where the boy could be. I didn't see him but spotted Gally and started walking over to him.
"Hey, Captain Gally," I said as I got closer.
"Hey, Greenie," He replied, chuckling. I rolled my eyes but didn't correct him; I had more important things on my mind.
"Any idea where Newt is?" I asked.
"Your new boyfriend?" He asked. I rolled my eyes again and he smirked. "Yeah, he's over there," he said, nodding in the direction of the gardens I saw earlier.
"Good that," I said as I started walking in that direction. It was the least weird of their unique vocabulary and I heard Newt say it all the time. I figured that if I was going to be staying here for some time—and it seemed I would be—then I might as well adapt to the way they talked. I looked back at Gally, only to see him looking at me as well. I turned my head back around and continued my walk to the gardens. As I got closer, I saw Newt tending to some type of plant.
"Hey," I said, coming to a stop near him.
"Hey," he replied, wiping sweat off his forehead.
"We need to talk."
"Do we now?" The sarcasm was apparent in his voice.
"Yes," I rolled my eyes, "we do."
"Well then," he said, pulling me aside, "what exactly do we need to talk about?"
"I think you know exactly what we need to talk about." We started walking as we talked.
"Well, which one?"
I sighed. "Good point. First and foremost, I guess, apparently people think we're a 'thing'" I put as much emphasis on the word as possible.
"Don't you think I bloody know that already? Every boy in the buggin' Glade is talking about it."
"Yeah," I replied, "Which is ridiculous, right?" I looked over at him.
"Right," he answered.
"Good that," I said.
"Good that." He smirked. Glad that we got that out of the way, I decided to switch topics to the more pressing concern; whatever the heck it was that had happened last night.
"Okay, now we need to talk about last night," I said.
"And you wonder why they think we're together." He was obviously joking but the smile had left his face. He was avoiding the topic. That just proved even more that we need to talk about it. We walked over to the nearest building and stepped inside. It seemed to be a washroom of some sort. I ignored the change of scenery and got back on topic.
"Newt," I prompted.
"What?" He asked. "It was a dream!"
"That we shared?"
"What are you on about?"
"I may have lost my memory, Newt, but I am no idiot. People don't just share dreams. That's not how dreaming works, Newt, and you know it! That wasn't just a dream. I know you know that. Why are you so scared to admit it?" I was almost yelling now. I took a deep breath to calm myself down then started again. "You know you can talk to me, Newt, right?"
"No," He replied, "I don't. You know why? Because you just bloody got here shank. You don't know nothing 'bout this place or how hard it is to pretend you're okay when you're not." He sat down on a bench that looked like it could collapse at any moment, but it stayed put.
"Yes, I do!" I took a deep breath. "You're right, I haven't been here very long. And I sure as hell don't understand anything about this place or why I'm here. But if you really think I don't what it's like to hide my feelings, you're wrong. What do you think I've been doing from the second I got into this place?" He put his head in his hands. "Look," I continued, "I'm not going to pretend I have any idea what exactly you're going through and why, but I do know what I saw last night. And I do not think that it was just some coincidence and I don't think you do either." He didn't say anything. "Newt," I prompted. No response. Then it hit me, "Wait, that was what really happened to your leg, isn't it?" Still no answer. It was. "I'm so sorry, I—I didn't know, I—" I said, realizing the gravity of the subject.
"Now you do," was his only response. He took a deep breath then stood, wiping his face.
"Where are you going?" I asked.
"Well, some of us actually have to work around here," and with that, he left.