The look on Newt's face as he looked around Thomas' room surprised Thomas. The pictures of mazes, a giant poster that says 'THE GLADERS UNITE', old drawings by Minho and Aris hanging on random pieces of wall. Finally, a group picture of their group next to a maze drawing. "Are you obsessed with mazes?" Newt asked, staring at the maze drawing. Thomas laughed. "No, it's just our group mascot." Newt turned around and he had a spark of confusion in his eyes. Thomas was staring at his eyes too often, when he shouldn't be.

"Our group is called "The maze runner" so it was only necessary we have a maze as our main mascot." Thomas explained, sitting down on the edge of his bed, which was blue and pretty plain. Thomas wasn't the most decorative person of his room, and tend to leave it untidy and plain. The posters covered most of the plainness.

"The maze runner? Really?" Newt came and sat down next to him, looking at Thomas like he was going to laugh his guts out. Thomas wouldn't blame him, everyone did it when they first heard the name. "Oh shut up, it's a fantastic name. I came up with it." Thomas shoved Newt a little by the shoulder and making Newt's lips curl into a smile. Newt's lips were thin, and his smile brought out his eyes.

"Of course you did, Tommy." Thomas scoffed.

"Shut up, shall we do this project?" Thomas said and put all their materials on his bed.

"But Tommy..I want to stare at your room a little longer." Newt stood up again and looked closely at all the posters another time. Thomas watched as Newt's hands glided over the maps of mazes. It was fascinating to see Newt so interested in his room, everyone else who ever came inside his room ignored the posters completely. "Why are you so interested?" Thomas was getting more interested in Newt every minute. This boy didn't make him mad or frustrated.

"I am interested in people, Tommy."

Nothing could beat that.

.

"He came over to your house? So?" Teresa slung her bag over her shoulder, her phone in one hand. She was uninterested, she always held her phone in a conversation when she was uninterested. It pissed Thomas off. "He was interested in the posters and drawings." Thomas repeated for the second time. "Good for him. Maybe he wants to join our group. I'm going to Harriet." Thomas saw Harriet behind the both of them, closing the door of her silver car. "Teresa!" He shouted as he walked away but didn't get a reply, Teresa continued to walk.

Then the blond. Newt walked up to Thomas, a friendly smile on his face. It made Thomas smile too, no matter how pissed off at Teresa he was. "Thomas." Newt said. Thomas noticed the uneasiness in his voice and the bags settling under his eyes, a faint bruise on Newt's cheek. Newt must have noticed because before Thomas could say anything, Newt said a quick, "Bye, Tommy." And left. Thomas let the curiosity settle at the back of his mind, it may be nothing.

.

Teresa and Minho were sitting at their usual lunch spot, which was a table in the middle of the large room. All the "gladers" sat there, next to their close friends, talking about things like boys and drugs and the latest gossip. The old glader table was filled with different topics, like games and drawings. Time flashes fast, Thomas can't keep up.

"Thomas!" Teresa said, patting the seat next to her. He stepped back for a moment, placing his tray of lunch on the table and sitting down. Thomas was prepared to search for Newt. He had no idea where Newt was, he hasn't got him in any other classes except Science. His eyes wandering around the room, he settled on a blonde who was sitting at a small table close by. He didn't know why he was so interested in this boy, but he was, so he told Teresa "I'm going to go see if Newt wants to join." And left to talk to the blonde-haired boy.

"Newt?" He said over the noise, sitting down across from him. Newt looked up, still looking pale, and the bruise more noticeable on his cheek. "Hi, Thomas." He replied. The boy Thomas met yesterday was much different than this boy. This boy was much more uneasy, much more secretive. "I was wondering if you'd like to come sit with us." Thomas had the urge to ask about the bruise, but the look on Newt's face was telling him it was a bad idea.

"Is that so? I'm fine here." Thomas shifted uncomfortably, feeling quite ashamed of himself. "Are we going to be working on the project today? Or tomorrow? Whichever is fine. I have some plans tomorrow, actually..but I can ditch them." Thomas didn't want to sound too desperate, but it came out like that anyway. He had fun hanging out with Newt the day before.

"Sorry, Thomas, but I can't do this afternoon or tomorrow." Thomas felt a pang of pain run through him, but he understood. Of course he had plans – he must be a busy boy, and Thomas was too, so he nodded and walked off back to Teresa and Minho, the pain still not going away.

.

Hello everyone! I hope your liking my new story. I'd like to say that my friend, ThePandaQueenGina (I'll link her profile below) is helping me with this fic. She's basically doing all the editing. I extremely appreciate that she's doing this for me. I couldn't of asked for a better person to write a fic with.

I love the follows, favorites and reviews! Keep em coming! (Also, this story is being uploaded to wattpad too, so if you see it on there, it's mine.)

Love,

kittenwriter x

PandaQueen's account: u/6719233/ThePandaQueenGina