Several days pass by with the same routine; Thomas wakes up, goes to school and desperately tries to talk to Newt to apologies. He simply could not because, most of the time, the blonde was accompanied by Gally and the other Runners, that are still glaring at him angrily in the hallways when they noticed his presence.
On his side, Minho is too busy trying to befriend Thomas to keep being angry at him like his teammates. He really finds the brunette sympathetic, even if he does not really talk about himself and keeps ignoring Minho every time he calls him his friend. The Asian boy really likes to tease Thomas about how he could charm every girls of the school with his mysterious looks. Thomas has not yet found the courage (or felt the need) to tell Minho about his sexual orientation.
After observing Thomas' attempts to apologize to Newt, the runner notices that his new friend keeps failing miserably. He was annoyed by that because Thomas did not seem to be trying particularly hard to solve the problem. The Asian boy wanted to help the brunette; he truly cared about him after spending quite a lot of time with him since they shared several classes, but Thomas was not making the task easy.
Minho finally decides to do something just like he promised to his new friend. During a break, he shows him exactly where Newt's locker is and explains to Thomas the plan he concocted the night before; Minho will have to distract Gally the next morning for as long as he could to give Thomas some time so he could finally apologize.
When he arrives to school the next morning, Thomas can not help but feel nervous. He refuses to admit it to himself, but he fears the fact that Minho's plan might not work. He is actually quite scared of Gally and he wishes he will be lucky enough this time to fix what he has done. He quickly walks toward Newt's locker; he remembers the way by heart now. He turns the corner of a row of lockers and sees Newt with his chemistry book in his hands.
On his side, Newt closes his locker and turns around, ready to leave for his first class of the day. That is when he notices Thomas walking in his direction with a nervous look on his face. The blonde clearly remembers what he had told him the other day when they first met, but he is not sure if he has to be angry or not at the greenie. There was still a possibility that Thomas was not even aware that his limping leg was a taboo subject among the group of friends.
Newt had also observed the strange behaviour of the young man. During the entire week, Thomas approached him, as if he wanted to tell him something, but always ended up walking away. That is the reason why the blonde feels surprised when Thomas addresses himself directly to him.
-Hey, Newt… Could we talk for a second? Thomas asks.
Newt prefers to ignore the brunette, he does not wish to get in trouble and involve the greenie in the complicated situation that is his social life. Even if Gally said that Thomas acted like the shuckiest shuck-faced shuck that ever was, the blonde still thinks otherwise; the insults and the sarcastic comments were probably the only way for the young man to prevent himself from being crushed and oppressed by this new environment.
On his side, Thomas sighs deeply. He expected to be ignored by the other teenager, but it still pisses him off anyway. He passes a hand through his short hair, asking himself how he is going to make Newt listen to him.
-Listen, I understand that you don't want to talk to me, but just…. Please. I'll leave you alone after that, I promise but just listen to what I have to say. Thomas tried desperately.
-Alright… You have three minutes. Newt declares with a sigh.
The brunette smiles gratefully; even if the blonde does not look too happy to talk to him, he will be listening to what he has to say.
-I want to apologize for what happened last week. I was extremely rude to you; I shouldn't have made that comment on your leg. I simply shouldn't have insulted you. Chuck had told me that your limp was a sensible subject and I understand you though that you were doing the right thing when you intercepted Gally and all that but… I just don't like it when people are trying to get involved in my things, even if they want to help me… I hope you'll forgive me anyway…
Before Newt could open his mouth to answer, his boyfriend arrives. He takes him by the waist and glares ferociously at Thomas.
-Why are you talking to this shank? Gally says arrogantly to his boyfriend. You want to hang out with a slinthead who insulted you?
-Fuck off, shuck face! Thomas replies.
After spending so much time with Chuck and Minho, Thomas had quickly understood that some of the slang words from the school were insults. For him, it was not that much of a big deal to be called a slinthead or a shuck face, but he knew it really insulted some of the other Gladers.
-No, you shuck off and don't ever talk to Newt again.
-He can talk to whoever he wants! By the way, I was trying to apologize before you arrived and started whining like a jealous bitch!
-He doesn't care about what you have to say! If you ever get close to Newt, you're going to regret it, am I clear? Gally menaces.
The blonde does not say anything during the whole exchange between the two other teenagers. Gally ends up walking away, dragging his boyfriend along with him. Thomas looks them leave and he starts wondering why Newt is dating a dumbass like Gally. With his weird shaped eyebrows and his shitty mood, the brunette seriously asks himself why he is still single when Gally has the chance to be in a relationship.
-Teresa would say that it's because of my bad habit of getting in trouble. Thomas thinks.
The brunette walks away and he does not notice Newt who turns around to look at him, wishing he could have had the chance to listen to what Thomas had to say.
At the end of the day, Minho meets Thomas so he can tell him how it went with the blonde. He walks toward the greenie's locker with a smile on his face. The Asian boy quickly arrives to his destination and sees Thomas who is packing his stuff. Minho guesses something wrong must have happened that day when he notices the brunette exhausted look.
-Hey, Thomas! You finally talked to Newt? I hold Gally back as long as I could, but he was starting to get pissed at me and I kind of ran out of discussion subjects at some point.
Thomas closes his locker and puts his backpack on his right shoulder, walking toward the school's exit.
-Well, he ignored me at first, but I still told him I was sorry. It's at that shucking moment that Gally showed up and started to tell me that if I ever talked to his boyfriend ever again, I was going to regret it. Seriously, what's this shank's problem? Is he jacked or something? The greenie exclaims as he and Minho exit the school.
The Asian boy holds back a small laugh when he hears Thomas uses the school's slang words. At first, he noticed how the young man was saying them only to put emphasis on what he had to say, since he knew the slangs had a bigger impact on the Gladers than normal slang words. But after a few days spent with him and Chuck, the brunette always corrected himself whenever he did not use the slang words on purpose. By now, Thomas was almost using them as any other Gladers would at West Coast high school.
-Gally always overreacts when someone mentions Newt's leg after what happened two years ago… Minho says suddenly with a sad look on his face.
-What happened? Thomas asks, looking confused.
-Ah, sorry. I shouldn't have mentioned that. If you really want to know the story, you should go see Newt. Though, I can guarantee he will answer all of your questions… It's kind of a taboo subject, The Asian boy replies.
Thomas simply agrees with a short nod; he knows he will not get any answer if he insists. He then reaches for his cell phone in the pocket of his jacket to text Teresa so she can come and pick him up. When he finally gets it out, Minho steel it away from him, quickly typing something on the screen.
-What are you doing?
-Here, I'm giving you my cell phone number… Just in case you need anything.
-You mean just in case you don't understand the homework Mr. Janson gave us during today's math class. Thomas replies sarcastically with a smile.
The Asian boy laughs. It was true that he was not especially talented in solving mathematic problems. He then looks at his watch and a terrified expression spreads all over his face.
-Shuck, I'm going to be late for tonight's training. Jorge's going to kill me!
-Run, Minho, run! Thomas says, parodying the famous movie quote.
Minho laughs once again and leaves as Thomas walks toward the parking lot where his twin sister will pick him up. He suddenly stops when he sees a tall blond man of his age angrily staring at him from a few meters of distance. On his side, Minho stops running when he hears Thomas shout and turns around to look at what is going on behind him.
-Ben?!
The brunette knows that something bad is going to happen.
I love cliffhangers...
Thank you for reading this chapter,
see you next month.
