AN: I'm so sorry this took a month. Just one more little wait between this one and the next, then I have a bunch written already and it should go much faster. Thanks for hanging in there! Please review!
It had been a two months, and I was starting to run out of space. If my handwriting was the size of Minho's I would've filled up all the pages in my notebook by now. As it was, I'd requested they send up a new one. Hopefully I'd get it in three days, the next time the Box was supposed to come up.
Worse comes to worse, they had to have an extra lying around somewhere. Still, the fact that I was drawing on the pages I'd already used didn't make it any prettier. Newt looked over my shoulder.
"What's that?" He asked, sitting down with his dinner. Minho looked up from his chicken, then reached across the table and slid the notebook over to himself. I tried to protest, but he leaned back from the table, keeping it out of my reach. I glared at him but he ignored me, flipping through my notebook. I glanced at Newt, who pursed his lips like he was trying not to laugh, something he also did when he was upset. I raised an eyebrow. He chuckled.
"What do you want me to say? I'm sorry you look cute when you're frustrated?" He asked, grinning. He tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. I smiled at him. Minho rolled his eyes.
"This is really detailed, were you sitting in front of the Doors when you started sketching it out?" He studied the drawing. Newt frowned and leaned across the table, reclaiming my notebook. I reached for it, but he leaned against the table, blocking me with his arm. I narrowed my eyes and he chuckled.
"What? I'm looking." Newt looked at it closer. "Minho's right, this is...impressively detailed. How long did it take you?" I shrugged.
"I don't know." I answered. "Sometimes I can't sleep. So I draw." Minho looked at me. Alby looked up from his dinner and took the notebook.
"You did this from memory? In the dark?" He asked. "How good is your memory?"
"I don't know. It's okay." Now all three of them were staring at me. Newt watched the exchange warily.
"Alright, it's hers. Let's stop passing it around like it's some kind of-"
"Really? Because now that I'm thinking about it, you get your maps done a lot faster than Minho does." Alby said, ignoring him.
"I resent that." Minho cut in.
"I guess I do. So?" I raised an eyebrow.
"It's just...I think it's kinda weird, is all." Alby stated. Newt frowned.
"Weird? Why? What's wrong with it?" His eyebrows furrowed. Minho sighed.
"Don't get all defensive boyfriend on me, I just...look, forget it. If I think it's an issue, I'll talk to Sam when she's by herself." Alby turned the notebook back towards him and squinted at the drawing. It was the entrance to the Maze drawn on the back of a conversation from two days ago. Every vine, every twist and turn that could be seen through the Doors, taking up the whole page.
"You make it sound like you want to interrogate her." Newt frowned at Alby, who sighed.
"All I'm saying is we should at least-"
Alby stopped. Chuck had sat down next to me and started eating. He was late to dinner. I bit my lip. He hadn't noticed we were all staring at him, and the tense atmosphere was making me nervous.
"What?" Chuck asked, looking around the table.
"Chuck-" Minho started. I kicked him under the table, glaring at him. Chuck just looked confused. I smiled at him.
"Uh, what's up, man?" Minho covered. He looked around, trying to change the subject, landing on my notebook.
"Man, I swear, it's like a Griever could pop out of this thing." He joked, looking at the drawing and trying to lighten the mood. Newt cringed and pushed the notebook back towards me. Minho looked at him, grinning slightly.
"What are you, shank? Scared of a couple Grievers?" Minho teased.
"Not for nothing, I'm not." Newt muttered, looking over at me.
"I'd fight em off for you." I mouthed, twirling my dinner knife. Chuck grinned. Newt snorted. I set the knife down.
"What?" I asked, indignant.
"Did you just-fight them off? What could you do?" Newt chuckled. "What, I'm just roaming around in the Maze, a bloody griever pops up, but oh no I'm safe. Why, you ask? My girlfriend who is practically half a foot shorter than me and probably fifty pounds lighter has come to my rescue with a butter knife. I'm saved!" He laughed, grinning at me. He could tell I was trying not to smile.
"If anything, I'm only two inches shorter than you." I scowled playfully.
"It's more than that." Chuck put in. I huffed. He's one to talk, I've got at least four inches on him.
"If you say so, love." Newt replied, kissing my temple. Chuck made a face.
"I'm almost not hungry anymore." Minho cringed.
"Almost being the key word there." Newt replied. "I doubt I'd ever manage to do something that would prevent you from eating."
"Well, you can just...just shut up, you shuck." Minho muttered. I snickered.
"Both of you." He corrected. "Can't a guy eat his dinner in peace?"
"Not if it's his fourth." I shot back, grinning. Minho rolled his eyes, but grinned back and shoved down the rest of his dinner.
"I'm gonna take this back to the kitchen." He said, standing up with his plate. "I'll see you guys tomorrow."
The three of us were the only ones left. We felt bad letting Minho finish alone. We watched him walk towards the back of the Kitchen, then Newt and I headed upstairs.
I was dreaming, and a barrage of disturbing images flashed through my mind. A grown man bleeding and holding a knife, snarling like an animal from behind a rusty set of bars. Then it changed, and Gally drowning and screaming, pounding his fists on a glass wall. A different scene flashed through, a girl stared through a digital screen, grinning as she talked to a tall boy with dark hair, one I hadn't seen before. I watched as she scanned images, files. Some faces I'd seen, some faces I hadn't. Then there was Chuck at a computer, looking through a series of video feeds and standing next to the boy from before. He was laughing, and I felt like I'd seen him before, before all of this. Then the same boy was on an operating table, and Newt drowning in a glass tank. It was confusing and I couldn't think clearly. Then I was the one drowning. And they watched. And then I was falling.
I lurched awake, feeling like I was about to be sick. I swallowed hard and took a deep breath, trying to calm down. It was important. That much I know. But the dream was fading, and I was almost ready fall asleep again. I willed myself to stay up. I swallowed again.
In the darkness, I reached around on the side table. I'd decided that if a dream or something of the like seemed as though it could be a memory, I'd write it down as well. It was no wonder I was running out of space. Everything that wasn't a conversation was in the back of the book, of course. I didn't want it to get in the way of what the notebook was actually for. I blindly reached for the pen and it rolled off the table, clattering loudly to the floor and rolling under the bed. I cringed and glanced at Newt sleeping across from me, hoping the noise hadn't woken him up. Thankfully, it seemed he was sleeping as soundly as ever. I smiled softly.
Carefully, I edged off my bed and got down to get a better look, pressing the side of my head to the floor as I looked under the bed frame. I caught sight of the pen and reached for it, then noticed something else. Something I'd forgotten about. My bag, the one Newt had given me on the first day.
"It had a note that said it was for you, so...here." Newt held it out. I took it and placed it at the foot of the cot.
It must've fallen under the bed. Grabbing the pen and the bag, I pulled both out from under the bed then set them both on top of the mattress. Shifting out from my position of being partially under the bed, I quietly got up and moved back on top of the mattress. I set the pen and the notebook on the side table, then looked in the bag.
There wasn't much, to be honest. An extra set of clothes, hair ties...a notebook and a pen, which meant my initial complete lack of communication was entirely my fault. I sighed and looked through the rest of the bag. To be honest, there wasn't much else in there. I moved to shove it back under the bed when I noticed a piece of paper in one of the pockets. I pulled it out, then sat up and, without thinking, turned the light on to read it. Newts eyes blinked open and I shoved the paper in my pocket. He groaned and looked over.
"What time is it?" He asked hoarsely. Then he looked at his watch and groaned again.
"Why?" He buried his face in his pillow. I turned the light off, then realized he needed to see me so I could apologize and I turned the light back on. He cringed, then gave an exasperated sigh and rolled back over to face me.
"I'm so sorry I woke you up, I woke up and I knocked some stuff over and I needed to get it out from under the bed and I couldn't see so I turned the light on but I forgot you were in here because you don't really make any noise when you sleep and I-"
"Could you go slower, love." He muttered, sitting up. "I'm still adjusting." He blinked, squinting. I cringed.
"I'm sorry." I tried again. "I was looking for something." Newt shook his head.
"S'alright." He managed. "D'you-Did you find what you were...what you were looking for?" I nodded.
"Good that." Newt muttered. I reached over and turned the light back off. It was quiet for a moment, then I heard him flop back down on his bed and move over to pulled the blankets back up. Newt stopped moving, then he muttered something I didn't hear and turned the light back on. He turned and looked over at me.
"Any chance you want to sleep over here?" He asked quietly. "I...I'm cold." I bit my lip, fighting back a laugh. It was the cutest excuse I'd ever heard.
"Only because you're cold." I grinned.
"Completely freezing." He replied, grinning back. Newt moved over to make more room in his bed, then pulled the covers back and let me slide in under the blankets. I laid down next to him, not wanting make him uncomfortable. True, he had asked, but I didn't want to overstep some kind of unspoken boundary. He chuckled.
"I wasn't lying, I really am cold, love. Come closer, will you?" I could hear him smiling. I turned and laid my head on his chest. I felt him relax and he wrapped his arms around me, pressing me into his chest.
"Goodnight, love." He said softly. I leaned up and kissed his cheek, then closed my eyes and listened to him drift slowly off to sleep.