"Newt!" Someone screamed. "Why am I supposed to wake Minho up?"
"Because you were done eating and Minho is late, Chuck." A British accent sighed.
"Not just Minho."
"What do you mean not just Minho? It's not like he- oh."
Great conversation to wake up with. I kept my eyes closed and tried to fall back asleep since I was tired and in the most comfortable position ever, but Newt and Chuck interrupted.
"Why the shuck are they sleeping like that?" Chuck whisper-screamed.
"I don't know," Newt grumbled. His mood lightened down a lot in just a split second.
"Why is Jane on top of Minho?"
"I don't know." Newt snapped.
Damn. He's quite pissed. Why is he always pissed at me and Minho? Jeez.
"And what happened to Minho's hair? It looks weird." Chuck blurted.
"He didn't put any gel in it."
"Why are they in the same bed?"
"How am I supposed to know that, Chuck?"
"Is this the same thing that you and Jane did the other day?"
"I don't know."
"But Minho's not shirtless."
"Luckily," Newt mumbled.
"And what did you do to your hair?" Chuck asked.
"There's nothing wrong with my hair," Newt replied, offended.
"I'm gonna keep the thoughts I have right now to myself." Chuck paused. "And why won't they wake up?"
"I don't bloody know, Chuck! I told you to wake them up so go shucking do it so we can stop looking at this... this stupid couple who apparently do not hate each other!" Newt suddenly raised his voice.
"Alright." Chuck sniffed. It sounded like he walked closer to me.
"I'm awake." I quickly said.
"Could've said that a bit earlier! Newt started yelling at me!" Chuck sighed.
"Sorry, Chuckie." I opened my eyes and once I looked right into Minho's face, they opened even wider.
"Why are you next to Minho? You called him a dingleberry! You still need to tell me what that means, though. I named Gally a dingleberry, but then he threatened to kill me like he does every day." Chuck blurted out.
The kid kept talking about some other stuff and in the meanwhile, I realized how I ended up in Minho's bed. Dave. His hands. I could feel them on me. My vision got blurred in tears again.
What if Minho didn't show up? Where's Dave right now? Who else knows what happened? Did anyone get hurt?
"Jane?" Chuck lowered his voice. "Are you okay?"
I sniffed and rubbed my eyes, but it didn't work. The tears kept coming. "Sorry, Chuck." I sobbed as I climbed out of the bed.
Chuck watched me in confusion. "Come on. We'll get breakfast. Frypan made pancakes!"
"I'm not really hungry right now," I replied.
"That's fine. Means I have more!" Chuck smiled, but I couldn't. "Are you coming?"
"I think we need to wake up Minho first. I have to run with him today." I explained.
"Just leave it for Newt!" Chuck screamed after he rushed out of Minho's hut to get pancakes.
For a minute I watched Minho sleep. His mouth was slightly open, his hair was very messy and flat, and his cheeks were chubby. He looked cute for such a sassy, strong guy, to be honest.
All my excitement for running was gone. Dave ruined everything. "Minho." I shook the boy's shoulders lightly. He tossed around with his arms in response. "Minho. Wake up." My voice cracked as more tears formed in my eyes.
Don't cry. It's lame.
Minho groaned and slowly opened my eyes, looking into my watery ones. "Good morning to you too." He said.
I reminded myself it took me a while to remember what happened too, so I just had to wait for Minho to fully wake up. Eventually, the boy rubbed his eyes and sat straight up. "You okay?" He turned concerned.
I shrugged. "Where is he?"
"I think Alby took him to the Pit. He was stung."
"Stung?" I repeated, confused already. I didn't remember anyone mentioning it.
"The Grievers can sting you. It makes you go through the Changing and remember everything about your past. Not so much fun. They also start acting weird and aggressive."
"Yeah, I've noticed," I mumbled. "Does he go into the Pit again?"
"We banish him. That's what we do with people. Once you're stung you're already past the gone. We can't let them stay and especially not after what Dave did." Minho explained. I shivered at hearing Dave's name and the word banish. "Are you gonna be alright?"
"Yeah, thanks. I'm gonna get breakfast. I'll see you in a minute." I gave Minho an unsure nod and walked away.
I took a deep breath and rubbed the tears out of my eyes before joining the two boys, Chuck and Newt. "Hey." My voice cracked again.
"Morning." Chuck cheerfully said. Newt mumbled something.
I looked down as I fidgeted with my hair a bit. I worried about everything. Dave. The punishment he would get. Minho and I cuddling while we hated each other. Me cutting the wires.
Oh, no. Now I can't shower, I realized once I thought about me cutting the wires. How am I supposed to get this feeling off of me?
"Frypan!" Someone yelled. "Why the shuck are these pancakes cold?"
"The power is not working!" Frypan announced. "These are leftovers!"
"Now I get why they taste a bit weird." Chuck frowned but kept eating.
How long will it take for us to have power again? I really have to shower!
I felt disgusting and could exactly feel Dave's hands on my skin. It made me shiver and want to cry. I knew I would have to wash and rub my skin dozens of times to get the disgusting feeling off.
"Why were you with Minho?" Newt suddenly asked.
Apparently, he didn't know what happened, but I wasn't ready to explain yet. I couldn't without crying. "Some reasons."
"Why would you sleep next to me and a few days later next to Minho? If you think he's better, you could've just done it the first time too." Newt grumbled.
"That's not it," I mumbled, not feeling like talking at all. Newt getting mad at me or whatever he was doing didn't help me very much. I felt more desperate and horrible by the second.
"Do you know how many guys would kill to share a bed with you? You're making yourself a shuckin' target! And why would you sleep next to Minho anyways? Y'all hate each other!"
Finally, I looked up at Newt for the first time that day, then almost gasped. His hair was wet and in a different shape than usual. I didn't really know what to think of it. It was... different.
"What did you do with your hair?" I weakly asked.
Newt ran a hand through it. "It's wet."
"We can see that, Newt," Chuck said. "Please don't do that ever again. Just dry it next time. You're not Minho!"
Wet? Just like yesterday. Did he shower again? It doesn't look as good as yesterday though. Chuck is right.
Newt ignored Chuck and instead, looked at something behind me. His facial expression changed. Eyebrows deeply furrowed and lips pushed into a line. I turned my head to see Minho walk over to us, clean clothes, hair styled, and less sleepy.
Newt gave him a very nasty glance as he sat down. Minho gave me a quick nod but didn't say anything else yet.
"Slept well?" Newt asked, making it very obvious he was sarcastic.
"It was fine." Minho shrugged. I appreciated him for not telling everyone what happened and for not acting mean.
"I'm sure it was." Newt snapped. "Especially cuddling with Jane was fun, right?"
Minho's soft eyes changed into fire in just a second. "What is your problem, man? Jane just needed some shucking support for a second, so stop being so jealous."
"I'm not jealous!" Newt raised his voice. "Some support? For what? Fighting with you all the time?"
Just when Minho was about to say something back, I felt a hand go on my shoulder. I flinched and hit the person in the face before turning around. Oh shit, it was just Alby. The leader rubbed his cheek and glanced at me.
Upset I looked at Alby. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to! Just a reflex after-."
"It's okay, Jane." Alby quickly interrupted. "Minho." He looked at the boy. "Mind coming with me for a second? About last night."
Minho nodded and followed Alby. I was left alone with the moody Newt. Amazing.
"Yesterday you said you were going to your corner and would see Chuck in a minute. How come you go to Minho's hut? Was it planned? I bet it was." Newt grumbled.
I got more upset about the way he started acting, so I looked at the ground again. "It was not planned."
"Was Minho like, 'Hey Jane, wanna come over? We can cuddle.' Was it like that?" Newt growled.
"Please stop talking about it, Newt." Tears burned in my eyes.
"So now you feel guilty?" Newt snapped.
What is his problem? He doesn't have to overreact like this. It's not even his business!
"I thought you hated Minho," Newt added. He really had to stop now. I couldn't take it. It made me feel lame when I cried the whole time, but I couldn't stop it, and Newt getting angry didn't work either.
"Newt, stop," Chuck commanded once he saw my tears dropping onto the ground.
"I ain't listening to you, Chuck. I just want a shuckin' answer from Jane!" Newt raised his voice.
"I won't tell you with Chuck around." I quietly said.
"Why not? Did you and Minho do some inappropriate stuff you don't want Chuck's little ears to hear? Hmm?" Newt barked.
Finally, I looked up and met Newt's eyes. His eyebrows scrunched for a split second once he saw me crying.
"No, but someone else did some inappropriate stuff to me, which I didn't do voluntarily. So if you would just shut up about it that would be very nice, Newt! You- you-." It all turned into a hurtful sob.
There I sat, the second week I was in the Glade, crying at breakfast in front of two boys because someone touched me. Awesome!
Newt stared at me in disbelief.
"Minho just did the exact same as you did when it happened for the first time." I snapped.
Newt's eyes moved around for a bit until he looked down, face full of hurt. He cleared his throat lightly and rubbed his chin. A habit I noticed he had. "I'm sorry." He apologized. "I thought you..." Newt trailed off.
I ran a hand through my hair and looked down for the thousand time that day. The embarrassing silent made me cringe and bite my lip. Newt was about to do something, but Alby interrupted.
"Newbie, can you come with me for a bit?" He asked. I nodded and followed Alby toward a wall of the maze. "How are you feeling?"
I sighed. "Could've been better."
Alby talked formally, not asking too much. I couldn't decide if I liked that about him or not, but he was nice. "Dave will be banished and we decided that it's better for you and Minho both to not run today.
I was disappointed, but maybe it was good I didn't have to work right away and could just calm down after what happened.
"And since you've been here more than a week. You can crave your name into the wall."
Alby motioned at the wall with dozens of names carved into it. I moved my hand over them. Some of the names were crossed, and others were in the middle, carved big, like Alby and Newt their names.
"Why are some crossed?" I wondered out loud as Alby handed me a knife.
"Dark times." Alby sighed. "But now we got three proper rules, things are going better. First, do your part. No time for any freeloaders. Second, never harm another Glader. None of this works unless we have trust."
"But I hurt Minho."
"The first time you did it was just a little accident. You know y'all had to stay in the Pit one night when it happened again, so that was your punishment. But Dave threatened to kill you and he's been stung, so he'll get banished." Alby paused. "And most importantly... never go beyond those walls unless you're a Runner. These rules have kept us together."
~
A/N: Do you think the way Newt acts is fair? And should I ask more questions like these at the end of chapters? Let me know! ❤️
And happy birthday Thomas-Brodie Sangster!! ILY xx