Serena and Michelle came from the bedroom after Ellen, their eyes wide, clearly spooked. Ellen took a step into the hallway and raised an eyebrow at me, then looked at my friends, from Newt, to Minho, to Frypan, Teresa, Jorge, then back to me.
"Ellen! Why do you have gun!" I shouted, give Newt's arm a squeeze, signaling him to calm down, who went tense at the sight of a gun.
"Uh," she mumbled, looking down at the weapon in her hand. "I heard shouting, and voices, so I assumed the worse, I guess."
"Who are these girls?" Minho whispered in my ear, his eyes not tearing from them.
I sighed and pushed Minho's face away from me. "First of all, Minho, your breath stinks." Jorge snickered at that, which made me smile. "Second, these are the girls that found me after I fell. If it wasn't for them, I'd be eaten by Cranks. Girls, these are the friends I've been telling you about."
"I'm Ellen," she smiled, reaching to shake Minho's hand, who took it with no hesitation. Minho, the ladies man.
"My name's Michelle," the girl giggled. Despite the tiredness that hazed her eyes, she kept her usual enthusiastic personality, and to my surprise, after shaking everyone's hand, she gave Minho a flirtatious wink which made him go red. "That's Serena," Michelle added, jabbing a thumb at the girl behind her, who was clearly ready to go back to bed. She gave the boys a slight wave, then ducked back into the apartment, yawning.
"Thank you so much," Newt smiled at Ellen.
"No problem," she gave them a friendly grin, before giving me a hug. "It was so nice to meet you, Maya. I hope you guys get to where you're supposed to be."
"Ellen," I mumbled, hugging her back. "Why don't you three come with us?"
"I have a job, a life here. And plus, I'm not immune," she gave me a bittersweet smile, and let Michelle squeeze the life out of me. "You have a future. I don't. You need to go and make this world a better place for the next generation."
"Hey, Maya, this might actually not be goodbye. I'd hate to ask this of you Ellen," Jorge hinted, taking a step into our conversation.
"Oh!" Ellen's eyebrows flew up when she realized what Jorge was inquiring to. "You guys need a place to stay! We have room, come in!"
Ellen grabbed a couple blankets and made makeshift beds for the boys in the living room, giving them a few of our extra apples from earlier to munch on, while Teresa came to sleep in the girls room for obvious reasons.
As I was about to go back into the bedroom with the girls after saying goodnight to the boys, someone grabbed my wrist and I turned around to see Newt's face. "Something wrong?" I whispered, and closed the girls bedroom door as not to disturb them.
"Nothing's wrong," he smiled, and looked over his shoulder at the boys who were discussing where Thomas and Brenda might be, and that was when I finally realised they were gone. I was either very tired or just very out of the loop. "Is there somewhere more private in this apartment?" Newt asked, looking back at me.
"Well there's the porch in the kitchen-"
In a matter of seconds Newt had led me onto the porch, the cold one o'clock breeze brushing against my skin, making me shiver, and Newt hold me close to his side. We stood against the cramped porches railing, looking out at the empty streets. The only noises were our heavy breaths and the sudden Crank screeches that echoed through the dark streets from far away.
Newt sighed after a few minutes and I could feel his gaze, so I turned to meet his gaze. "That was a pretty heavy sigh, dude," I chirped, smiling at him.
"Yeah, I know," he replied wearily. His arm that was around my shoulder, let me go, then slipped itself around my waist, and a second later, before I could process what was even happening, his hand grasped the back of my neck, pulled me closer, and he kissed me. On the lips. Very quickly.
My eyes widened when he pulled away, and a nervous giggle escaped my lips while my cheeks turned hot red. "Bloody hell," I chuckled, copying Newts catchphrase and accent before getting on my tippy toes, cupping his cheeks with my hands and leaning in for another kiss which was significantly longer and sweeter than the first one.
"I didn't think you'd actually kiss me again," Newt breathed, after ending the kiss, us both needing air. "I didn't think that would actually work!"
I laughed and leaned my forehead against his chest and I felt his chin rest on the top of my head. "Well, it did. Romance is weird," I mumbled, and I felt the rumble of laughter in his lungs.
"I agree," his smooth British accent purred. I smiled lifted my head to look at him, and when he looked down I pecked his nose, making him scrunch up his face. "You're cute," he whispered. "It's getting cold out here."
"Just a couple more minutes," I muttered and leaned back against the railing, Newts arms still wrapped around me. Occasionally I'd feel his hand reach up to my face and trace along my scar, making me smile.
We stood out there a bit longer, but retreated back inside when we both began to let out huge yawns. Newts bed was on the couch which he had gotten tackling Minho before he was able to get it.
"Goodnight, Newt," I whispered, skipping over a loudly snoring Minho.
"G'night, Love," Newt muttered back from the darkness, and I hobbled into the girls bedroom.
I was about to get into my sleeping bag, but I stopped halfway in, and pulled my knees to my chest, beaming happily, the reality of what had just gone down, washing over. I never thought I'd kiss another person again after what happened to John, but I was wrong. The feeling I got when I replayed the memory was nothing but sheer happiness. I couldn't believe I was thinking it, but being with Newt made me happier than it ever did with John.
With that, I got up, snuck out of the room and crept over to Newt, who was already sleeping. "Hey," I whispered, flicking his forehead. His eyes shot open, then squinted.
"What're you doing?" he mumbled, and I rolled my eyes.
"I wanna cuddle, now scooch," I hissed and pushed him over. He laughed quietly and moved over, letting me slip under the blanket and bury my face in his chest. His arms wrapped around me, holding me close.
I woke up to the sound voices chattering. I groaned and opened my eyelids, the sunlight stinging my eyes, and I blinked rapidly, slowly getting used to the brightness. The first thing I saw was the ceiling, then I turned my head to the right and saw Minho talking to Michelle while he ate an apple, sitting on the armchair. Then I shifted to the left and stared at Newts peaceful, sleeping face, smiling.
"Newt," I whisper, poking his nose. He twitched and mumbled something, but didn't wake. "Wake up," I groaned, and kissed his cheek, and his eyes fluttered open.
"You're breath stinks," he moaned, giving me a tired smile.
I flickered his forehead and rolled my eyes. "We both have morning breath. Get over it and get up, I smell coffee." I did smell coffee, and I was desperately craving it. I through the blanket off of us, and got up, stretched my limbs out as Newt did the same behind me, still laying on the couch. "Seriously Newt, c'mon." I turned around and offered him a hand, which he took against his will.
"Fine," he mumbled and he stood up, wrapping an arm around my waist, supporting my stupid injured ankle as we staggered off.
Ellen and Frypan were chatting up a storm in the kitchen, both holding hot, steamy mugs, but when me and Newt stepped in, they stopped all conversation, and stared at us, smirks growing dramatically.
"Good morning!" Frypan exclaimed, hiding his sneer behind his mug as he took a long sip. "Did you guys have fun last night?" he sneered, and I looked up at Newt, whose face was slowly turning red, and I assumed mine was as well.
"What are you talking about? Nothing happened last night!" I snapped, pouring myself some coffee, and giving Fry a hard stare.
"Trust me," Ellen snickered, leaning against the counter. "No one was surprised when we found you two on the couch together."
"Bloody hell, we were just sleeping together! That doesn't mean anything happened." Newt sighed and gladly accepted the mug I handed to him. "All you shanks are so immature."
Newt and Frypan left to go get ready for the day after a hearty conversation which was more like an argument. After they had left, Ellen's smirk had melted into a sweet smile. "You two are really great together, you know?"
I took a sip from my coffee and nodded. "Yeah," I mumbled, staring off into space.
"I mean, you can tell that guy's been through a lot. I only noticed his limp now," she spoke.
I pretended to not know what she was talking about, and tried to change the subject quickly. "Probably happened in his Maze," I mused, and Ellen shrugged, then finished off her coffee. "Hey, Ellen?" I called before she left the kitchen.
She turned around and gave me another questioning look. "Yeah?"
"Thanks so much."
She smiled and gave me a pat on the shoulder. "Thank me when you have to go. Not now. It'll make it seem like we're saying goodbye now."
We spent another half hour in the apartment, getting our stuff together, helping clean up the boy's beds, and just chatting in general. Jorge called us all together in the living room to say our final goodbyes.
I wished Michelle, Serena and Ellen luck, and thanked them each individually same with Frypan, Newt and Jorge, while Minho had his own way of saying goodbye. Apparently something had happened between Minho and Michelle, and when they said goodbye, they actually kissed. Everyone in the room watched them, and tried their best to hold back their laughter, but Newt failed and just ended up snorting rudely, making the room erupt into laughter, startling the two of them.
As we were walking down the hallway to the elevator after our goodbyes, the only thing we talked about was either taunting Minho or just laughing. Minho stayed quiet the entire time, for once in his life.
"Okay guys," I sighed when made in out of the apartment building, and were standing on the sidewalk. "We need to do something other than make fun of Minho, like try and find Thomas and Brenda."
"Maya's right," Frypan began, shoving his hands into his sweater pockets. "We were talking last night, and Jorge says that he might know where they've headed, right man?"
Jorge nodded. "Right hermano. They'll be at Marcus'."