Everyone was surprised when I came up in the Box. What was a girl doing in the Maze? Well, I knew as much as they did. In fact, when I arrived I only knew my name, Y/N.
You would expect a little more kindness towards the only girl in the Glade. But they kept on calling me Greenie and treating me like I was worth nothing. Whenever I tried to ask for help or had any questions, the boys usually ignored me or told me off. Except for one.
Newt. ‘The British boy’, as I called him before I learned his name.
From day one, he had been the only one that actually seemed interested in helping a poor clueless girl lost in a world of boys. And the only one that was nice to me, sometimes even flirty. As a matter of fact, they all flirted to me –it was no surprise, really- but he did in a whole different way. He was always a gentleman.
I arrived in the Box a year ago. And we had been dating for a good five months now.
The boys finally started to see me as another Glader when the new Greenie arrived. But I had to make myself respected nonetheless.
Despite that darker time, I was happy in the Glade. As happy as I could be imprisoned in a courtyard surrounded by a gigantic Maze that held hideous Grievers that could kill us all. So I tried to keep those thoughts away, and it was incredibly easy when I was close to a certain someone.
I was walking towards the Gardens, where my boyfriend Newt was working. Frypan had asked me to get some tomatoes from Zart for the supper. And as a Cook, I had to do what my Keeper told me to.
“Hey, Zart” I greeted him when I reached him. He looked up from his work to me.
“Hi, Y/N”
“Fry wants some tomatoes for the dinner”
I noticed someone staring at me, but I didn’t have to look to know it was Newt. He was harvesting something, kneeling in the floor not so far from where we were standing.
“Sure” Zart grabbed a crate that lay next to him and handed it to me.
“Thanks” I carried the crate and started walking back to the Kitchen.
“Here they are, Fry” I announced as I came in.
“Leave them there and start cutting them” He asked me, so I nodded.
I washed the tomatoes, put them on the counter and grabbed a knife. I started cutting them as I hummed a melody that somehow made its way to my head.
Suddenly, I felt two muscular arms wrap my waist from behind. I tried to hide the huge smile that wanted to take over my lips.
“Hi, love” His sweet voice whispered in my ear.
“What are you doing here? You were working in the Gardens just a moment ago” I giggled, trying to get my attention back to the food. But the butterflies in my stomach were making it a hard task.
“Not anymore, I came here to see the prettiest girl in the Glade”
“I’m the only girl, genius” I laughed.
“You would still be even if we were surrounded by thousands of bloody girls”
He leaned his chin in my shoulder and gave me a loud kiss in the cheek.
I put the knife in the counter and turned to him, wiping my hands in my apron to clean them off the tomato juice.
“Alby’s going to tell you off if he sees you stopped working because of me, Newtie” I laughed, placing my arms over his shoulders and hugging him.
He wrinkled his nose when I called him Newtie. I knew he didn’t like it, but I loved the faces he made everytime I used that nickname. He never complained to me, though.
“I’m on my break” He squeezed me against him, and I could hear the smile in his voice. “I’m the bloody second in command after all, love”
I pulled away from him and gave him a peck on the lips. Then I stared at him, his deep brown eyes staring back with a twinkle in them.
“When you’re done in the Kitchen we could take a walk and-“ He was cut by the sound of a loud noise. The Greenie alarm.
We looked at each other in surprise. We knew someone was to come in the Box that month, and that day. But we didn’t expect it so soon. It was only an hour from the wake-up.
Newt gave me a quick hug and a kiss in the forehead before turning around and limping in a hurry towards the Box.
I calmly took off my apron and put it over a chair before I started walking towards the crowd of Gladers that had gathered to welcome the new Greenbean. It was nothing special really, another boy asking what was happening, where he was and why he couldn’t remember anything.
When I arrived, I looked over the shoulders of my fellow Gladers. I could barely see Newt inside the Box, but I couldn’t see the Greenie. He probably passed out on the way up.
“What is it, Newt?” Someone asked him, and I sensed something strange in the environment. Everyone was restless, why? What was different from the rest of the times a Greenie came up?
“It’s another girl” Newt’s voice sounded startled.
I opened my eyes wide and made my way to the front to get a better view, pushing the boys that didn’t move.
Then I saw it clearly.
Newt was standing there, looking up at us with a puzzled expression in his attractive face. And lying in the hard metal ground of the Box was a girl, unconscious.
On the one hand, I was glad that a girl arrived. Being surrounded by only males was not always fun. But on the other hand, my instinct told me having another girl in the Glade wouldn’t be a good thing and it would only make things more complicated.
*
Some days had passed since the girl came up in the Box. She had arrived in a coma, but she recovered thanks to Clint and Jeff. But sadly, they weren’t the only ones who were with her all the time. Newt was.
No wonder, that girl was something else.
Her name was Teresa, and her looks haunted me. She was incredibly pretty, with long dark hair that always looked perfect. Her blue eyes were beautiful and her fair skin was perfect as well. Not to mention how fit she was. Teresa was perfect, and I was so jealous of her.
Not only jealous, but self-conscious too. I was so ordinary… I had nothing to do compared with Teresa.
I couldn’t blame Newt for spending more time with her than with me. Why would he choose me over her?
And although it bothered me that all the boys in the Glade seemed to be going head over heels for her, I was afraid to lose Newt.
I was sitting before the entrance of the Maze, staring at its insides in deep thought. A tiny little voice in my head was telling me that it all would be easier if I just ran inside to forget about everything. But the logical part of my brain said it was the stupidest thought that had ever occurred to me, and I decided to listen to this last part.
It was dark, and the Doors would close in around twenty minutes. I stood up, because I knew Minho would be coming back soon and didn’t really feel like talking to him. He was one of my closest friends in the Glade, and would notice something was off with me in a second.
I stood up, my back facing the entrance of the Maze, and started walking towards the watch tower. Being up high made me feel better for whatever reason, so I went there everytime I felt upset or needed to be alone and think.
“Hey, shuck face!” A voice called me, along with the sound of quick footsteps going my way.
“Hi, Minho” I answered, not even turning around to face him.
“I can’t even see your face, but…” Being the Runner he was, he soon caught up with me. He held my arm to keep me from walking any more. “Tell me what’s wrong”
“I’m just tired, I’m fine” I lied, facing him for a moment before trying to resume my way to the watch tower. But he pulled at my arm again.
“No, you’re not. When you’re tired you’re sleepy and cuddly and stuff” He pulled harder so I was looking directly at him. “And now you’re grumpy and gloomy”
Shuck, he knew me so well.
“Did any of these shanks make you upset? Who do I have to kill?” He looked around the courtyard for a moment like he was looking for something. “And where’s the lover boy?”
“I don’t know” I honestly replied, feeling apathetic and sad. “Probably with the new girl”
Not wanting to hear any more questions, I walked away, leaving Minho behind.
*
In the watch tower it was cold. The wind sent shivers down my body everytime it came towards me. But I didn’t really care that much.
I tucked my knees to my chest and rested my chin in my knee caps with a heavy sigh. Those negatives thoughts kept making me sad.
I wanted to hate Teresa, but it wasn’t really her fault that she was prettier than me. She moved and talked gracefully too. And I was a little awkward and clumsy.
I rubbed my arms, trying to warm myself up. It was getting really cold.
Suddenly, I felt a weight on my shoulders and a nice warmth engulfed me.
“You always forget to bring a bloody blanket” A heavily accented voice said, and the person wrapped the blanket over my frame to cover me.
I felt him sitting next to me, placing his arm over my shoulders and pulling me towards him.
I softly pulled away. I didn’t really want to be with him.
“So Minho was right, you’re upset” Newt said, shifting closer to me instead.
I remained silent, staring at a spot somewhere deep inside the Maze.
I heard Newt sigh in annoyance.
“It’s because of that girl, isn’t it? Bloody…” He kept himself from swearing and kept on talking. “Y/N, she’s just another girl. If I spent so much time with her it’s because she might know something we don’t. You know nothing happened between us, yeah?”
“I wouldn’t blame you if you liked her better” I mumbled, feeling tears forming in my eyes. But I wouldn’t cry.
I had only cried two times during my stay in the Glade.
One was during my first night, because I was so afraid that I knew nothing, not even my last name. And the second one was a month before Newt and I started dating, because I felt so helpless when I finally realized that we were trapped for good, that there was no hope, that we wouldn’t find the way out.
And I wouldn’t cry a third time. And not for something stupid like that.
Yes, it was painful that I felt like I was losing Newt for someone who was better than me. But maybe it was for the best.
“What?” He softly whispered, startled.
“Have you seen her, Newt?” I hid my face in my arms that rested in my knees. My voice sounded muffled, but I didn’t mind, I just didn’t want him to see me feeling so miserable. “She’s so special, so pretty and classy. I can’t compete with her. I’m just an ordinary girl”
To my surprise, Newt laughed. That made me look up at him.
“This isn’t funny, you shank!” I exclaimed, getting mad at him.
“Bloody hell, Y/N…” He shook his head with a smile, like he didn’t believe me. “That’s what it was all about?”
“Yes, Newt, it is. Ever since she arrived, she got the boys attention almost instantly. And yours too, and when I came here it was different, I had a hard time in here for so long. And you spent so long with her that I’m afraid that you’re going to fall in love with her and I’m going to lose you, Newt. And I just couldn’t-“
Newt grabbed my face and sweetly but urgently put his warm and soft lips to mine. That sure shut me up, because I was starting to get anguished.
I relaxed in the kiss, closing my eyes, and moved my lips in sync with his, enjoying the nice feeling and taste of his mouth.
He slowly pulled away and I opened my eyes to look at him. He smiled at me and I felt myself doing the same in spite of myself.
“You’re right, love, with you it was different. Because you are different” He took my little hands in his warm ones and gave them a light squeeze. “You are so bloody special, love. She’s just another girl, and she can’t compare to you. And you will never lose me, not to her, not to anyone. Ever”
“But…” I frowned, still feeling a little uneasy.
“Y/N, no” He interrupted me. He drove my hands to his lips and gently kissed my knuckles. “Remember your first night in the Glade?”
I was so restless inside that I felt the tears escaping my eyes even if I didn’t want them to. I didn’t want him to see me crying, so I stared at the wooden floor of the watch tower.
“Yeah, I was so…” I sniffed, trying to keep my sobbing at minimum. “Feeling so lonely and terrified”
“Yeah, and when I went to check on you and saw that you were crying I stayed the whole bloody night with you to keep you company and make you feel better”
I smiled a little at the memory. That was the moment I started to very slowly but surely fall in love with him. He was so caring and patient with me, so sweet.
“I know” I sobbed, feeling my hands shaking in his. I was starting to feel better, and I even felt a little silly because I knew how much Newt loved me. How could I think all those things?
“And when it finally hit you, the day you realized, I bugging slept with you in your hammock because you had been having nightmares, yeah?”
I just nodded, not feeling like talking anymore.
He held both of my hands in one of his and used his free hand to wipe my tears and hold my chin up so I held his glare.
“Do you think I would do all those bloody things if I didn’t love you? Do you think I would do all of that for that… bloody girl?” He told me, making me smile.
“No” I let out a shaky laugh, feeling so much better.
“Then don’t ever think all that bloody klunk again, love” He sweetly put my hair behind my ear. “Because you’re perfect just the way you are, and you’re mine and I love you”
I looked away, blushing. But he held my chin again so I would look into his pretty brown eyes.
“And I will bugging throw into the bloody Maze myself anyone that makes you think otherwise “
“I love you, Newt” I said, hugging him tight, hiding my face in his chest.
He sighed in content and held me just as tight, rubbing circles in my back sweetly.
“I love you too, Y/N” He kissed the top of my head and I closed my eyes as I let out a sigh.
All of my worries disappeared as I felt him pulling me even closer to him so our bodies didn’t have any space between them. I completely relaxed as I felt his serene breathing and his chest rising up and down.
That moment felt perfect, and I don’t really know how long we were up there holding each other in silence, too comfortable and cozy to move until we lied down in the floor and happily fell asleep in each other’s arms.