*Thank you everyone for reviewing once again, and favouriting and following. You all make my day:) The cliche factor ups itself in this chapter, so I sincerely apologise for that. (I mean, I was literally banging my head on the table but I'm hoping to redeem myself in the later chapters.)
3.
(155 days ago)
'Hey, greenie!'
She sighed and turned around. 'Will there be a day, Minho, that you will finally call me Romana and not 'greenie'? It's getting kind of old.'
He smirked. 'I'll call you Romana when the new greenie comes on. That won't be long, so you can look forward to that,' he answered, swatting her across the back of her head. 'Aren't you supposed to be working?'
'Aren't you supposed to be running?'
He raised his eyebrows, as if to say 'fair enough'. He sat down next to her as she had her lunch. 'You know, I never got to try you out for running,' he commented casually, and then a frown creased the space between his eyebrows, 'I haven't talked to you since you've gotten close to Gally.'
'Well, I do run fast,' she grinned, purposefully ignoring the latter comment about Gally. 'We could work out a reservation, if you want. Frypan would probably approve. He's not too fond of me, so he'll be glad not to see me for a day or two.'
'Let's all hope it won't be two days, because it'll mean you're dead.'
She scooted closer to Minho, speaking in a lower voice. 'Gally's not that bad if you get to know him, you know. I think you're all being a little unfair to him. He's nice to me. I think it's time for you all to know that,' she said seriously, looking him dead in the eye when the sentence ended.
Minho's expression darkened. 'There are things you don't know, greenie. Things that would make you want to hurl at the sight of him. You don't want to know, trust me. So go ahead and get close to him, you're not my responsibility. But I won't be watching your back.'
'Okay, okay! I'm sorry. I don't know everything, I'll just... go...'
Before she could walk, he pulled her down again. As soon as she sat down, she pulled her arm away from him uncomfortably. Romana was not a tactile person- she didn't like touches, they made her feel awkward. If he was hurt he did not show it.
'So uhh... you get together with the shank?' he asked, scratching the back of his neck.
She flushed. 'No. We're only friends.'
'Good that,' he smiled, obviously satisfied with her response. 'You haven't learned much Glader slang, have you?'
'Never grew on me. They don't sound intimidating enough. I hate practising self-censorship, anyway,' she shrugged. 'So, no, I'm not really a part of you guys. I don't think I ever will be.'
His eyes strayed downwards. 'I think you should change your shirt,' he announced.
He was right. Romana saw that her shirt was completely covered in bloodstains from handling the meat. She chuckled, and stood up. He followed. 'Haven't you got more important, runner things to do other than watch me change?' she asked incredulously.
'Nothing could possibly be more important than that, Romana.'
She rolled her eyes in exasperation. 'You are so frustrating.'
'But worth it,' he retorted.
'Well, we'll have to see about that.'
They stepped into a cabin, and he immediately slammed her against the walls, closing in on her. There was a moment where she was afraid that he would kill her. But as soon as he leaned forwards, she knew that his purpose was simply driven by desire, and not lethality. Before her thought could be completed, his lips were on hers and there was an intensity that she could not describe.
Romana didn't know which was worse- the fact that she was uncomfortable with him touching her, yet still liked the way he grabbed her hips tightly, or the knowledge that this exchange was long overdue. Either way, she wasn't ready for him to pull away from her, so she looped her arms over his shoulders and they somehow found a way to his hair.
As soon as she did, his hands slipped up towards her waist, his grip tight enough to leave a bruise.
When he pulled away, he didn't do it because he had had enough (he hasn't enough), he did it so he could pull her shirt over her head. 'What are you doing?' she asked, out of breath.
He grinned at her as her shirt slipped over her head. 'Being productive- we did come in to have you changed.'
And then he was at her lips again.
It wasn't until they finally had to stop for breath that she pushed him away. Her chest heaved up and down in an attempt to draw in air. Her cheeks were flushed from both the embarrassment and the energy that she had just wasted. To kill the silence, Romana was about to say something smart when his gaze slipped downwards, and his expression completely changed.
'What is that?' he asked quietly (the kind of quietness that was usually accompanied by fury), pointing towards her ribcage.
Her eyebrows pushed together in confusion, just before she looked down, and her entire system froze. The only sound that could make its way from her throat was a strangled, 'oh.' It wasn't difficult to guess that she had known what that was all along.
'Romana, what is that?' he repeated. This time, his tone was higher, and the elevated tone made him sound desperate.
She reached to slip on her shirt. 'Minho,' she whispered, her voice and actions were pleading. 'Minho, listen to me-'
He grabbed her wrist violently in a fit of rage. 'You knew! You knew all along! And yet you never told me? You never shucking told anybody? I trusted you, you shank! I shucking trusted you and this is how you repay me? What does that say? What does that shucking tattoo say?'
'No! No, I knew you- I was scared and I knew you would react this way and-'
'Tell me what it says!' he roared.
It was then that she got properly afraid of Minho. It was then that she realised exactly how much damage he could do to her if he was angry enough, and if he wanted to (and at that moment, he was angry enough to want to kill her). She swallowed a cry of pain at her wrist, and answered him, 'The Contagion.'
'That's enough,' he had regained that deadly calming tone again, 'I've had enough of the lies, greenie. I think it's time you come clean about it.'
At that, he started to yank her out of the cabin and into the clearing.
'No!' she yelled, panicking. 'No, you have to trust me, Minho! Please, you have to… you can't… they'll kill me! You can't do this to me! They'll banish me, please, Minho!'
'Slim it, slinthead,' he snarled, tugging so hard on her arm that she almost felt it falling off.
Gladers were closing in on them the moment they saw Minho angrily dragging her across the Glade. Among them, Gally was the most concerned. 'Hey, what are you doing? Minho, you shank, let go of her this instant!'
Minho turned to face Gally. 'If you want to know what's going on, Gally, maybe you should ask greenie. She seems to know a lot of things- and she's been very covert about them as well. I think it's time she reveals them.'
Alby and Newt pushed to the front, standing in front of them.
'What's this about, Minho?' Alby asked, crossing his arms in front of his body, unamused by the disorder that was currently happening in the Glade.
'Romana has something to tell us all.'
She kept quiet.
'Well?' Alby asked impatiently.
'If you expect me to just tell you everything, I suggest you try harder,' she mumbled, which only managed to anger Minho more. He grabbed her by the front of her shirt, and went up in her face.
'Do you want to see how angry I can get, shank? You feeling lucky?' he growled, and then he released her. 'Fine, then. I guess we'll just shucking show them, won't we?'
She tried to fight him, but before she could raise a fist, Newt had yanked her arms behind her back, and Minho had pulled her shirt up to expose her tattoo. Alby moved forward to have a look, and Romana looked away, tears filling her eyes in fear of what they would do to her after they found out. What if they found out all of it? What if they found out everything?
'The Contagion,' Alby said, straightening up and looking at her right in the face. 'What does that mean, shank?'
'I don't know,' she answered firmly- and truthfully, she had no idea.
There was a sharp clanging sound, and Minho's knife had found its new home against her neck. She looked at him in disbelief. 'You wouldn't do that,' she said quietly, mostly to try to convince herself, which was not doing very well at the moment.
'Believe me, there are very little things I wouldn't do at this moment,' he said.
'I don't know what it means, I'm being perfectly honest,' she pleaded.
Minho stepped closer to her. 'Like you were honest with me all along? Like how your accent has suddenly changed?'
'I never meant to lie to you!' she yelled, the tears streaming down her face. 'But I swear, I don't know anything about the tattoo. It's been there since I've arrived. And as for my accent… it's just coming back in snippets. Most of the times it doesn't come out. I don't know where this American accent comes from, Scottish has always… dominated my tongue.'
From their expressions, they had no idea what she was talking about.
'You know other things. No one here knows what American or Scottish is. You're keeping a lot of things from us, greenie,' Alby snarled. 'You better come clean right now or I can't guarantee what will become of you.'
She looked at Minho again, who was not being forgiving at the moment. She turned to look at Gally- he looked betrayed and angry. He wasn't being sympathetic either.
Taking a deep breath, she started launching into her story. 'About a few days after arriving, things started coming back. My memories started… refilling. Bits and bits came back into my mind, I started remembering things. My name… Things like how you all think I'm 15 but in fact I just look young and I'm actually 17. My favourite colour, my hobbies… things like that…'
The knife dug a little harder against her skin. 'Why were you sent here? What's your role in all this? What do you know about the Creators or the Glade?'
'Nothing! I swear, I know nothing! With all my life, I swear I know nothing at all! I just know my life story from beginning to now! Please, I swear I'm not here to… betray you all!'
Newt spoke up. 'I don't think she's lying, Alby.'
Romana let out a sigh of relief.
'But how did you find out about the tattoo?' a voice asked.
Minho looked over at that person. 'We were getting to know each other better in the cabin. In that process, she started losing clothes,' he answered simply, causing Romana to flush.
'So what should we do with her?'
Alby turned to Clint. 'I say we banish her.'
Romana's throat tightened until she couldn't breathe at all. She tried to swallow the fear that was threatening to burst out of her but it just grabbed her throat and squeezed harder. The discussions faded in and out of her line of hearing, but she knew- she just knew that it was not going to be in her favour.
'All right, it's time for a vote. Keepers, what do you say? Gally?'
'I say we banish her. She kept this from us for three weeks. If Minho hadn't found out, then she wouldn't have revealed a single word. And I think she knows more. If she won't tell us, then she holds as a threat to us.'
If Romana could take back all her trust and simply instill them in herself, she would do so immediately. She knew trusting anyone at all was risky, she just didn't know it would lead to her death as well. She tried to hold herself up despite all the pain that was accumulating in her chest.
'Good, Newt?'
'Banish her in the day time. There's no way we can ensure her truthfulness. If she finds her way back before day time, we let her be. If she doesn't, then… that's her problem.'
She had closed her eyes and refused to listen to them until Minho opened his mouth. 'I agree with Newt. I say we banish her.'
With that, Romana had lost all faith in humanity.
'Tomorrow by sunrise,' Alby announced, and grabbing her by the arm, locked her into the slammer for the night.
