*Apologies for the long wait! This isn't the best chapter. I'm not really writing this actively right now, so... I know where I'm going with the plot, I'm just not liking it very much so I'm pretty much stuck.
5.
(in the present)
She was halfway across the Glade when she caught sight of him.
He stared unforgivingly into her, and the way that his eyebrows were shaped only made him more frightening. She shuddered, and hurried up her footsteps. She always felt so insecure walking around in the Glade- not only because of Gally, but because most of the boys had an issue with her (due to what she now called, 'The Tattoo Incident').
It also felt insecure because Minho, for the most of the times, was not actually in the Glade, but in the Maze. And she honestly felt that in the whole Glade, Minho was the only one who trusted her (and whom she trusted, of course) enough to protect her and prevent trivial arguments between her and the Gladers before they could get her banished (yet again).
Frypan threw a piece of meat onto her table, without bothering to tell her what to do.
Romana smiled sarcastically back at him. Despite his cranky attitude half of the time, she knew that he harboured a certain fondness for herself. And face it, that was a lot to ask for in the Glade, and especially given her situation.
Suddenly, a loud alarm rung in her ears, and she dropped her knife on the table, immediately running towards the metal box in anticipation.
(That voice she had once heard when she was in the box was completely correct. One of the best things in the Glade was seeing who they sent up every month.)
She pushed her way to the front, earning a few dirty glares in reciprocal. She brushed them off the best she could, storing these memories in the back of her mind so she could cry over them at night. By the time she had arrived at the front, Newt had grabbed the newbie and pulled him up onto the land.
'Look at the Greenbean,' Gally snickered, 'Gonna break his shuck neck checkin' out the digs.'
Romana looked towards him with distaste, and it seemed that she wasn't the only one who disliked his outburst, because Alby immediately told him to shut up.
She wished she knew how to stop the boys' inconsiderate jests, because she knew how it felt to have these voices all around, confusing the hell out of her. Despite this, she felt a very uncomfortable sensation at the new greenie's arrival.
She must have spaced out, because the next thing she knew, Alby had grabbed the newbie by his shirt and the newbie had fallen onto the floor. 'Get up, shank, get up!'
'Jesus Christ, Alby!' she snapped, 'No need to get all up his arse!'
A loud crack resonated and Gally's smack had caused her cheek to snap to the left.
Silence filled the Glade at once.
'Gally,' Alby warned, 'You can't just do that without justification.'
'She was being rude to you,' Gally simply said.
'Like that's ever stopped you from talking back to Alby before,' she retorted, recovering and rubbing at her reddened cheek.
Alby stared impatiently at them. 'You're explaining this to Minho. I'm not going to make up some shuck excuse to him. You know how he gets.'
Romana's cheek went even redder from the statement. 'I don't fucking want that to be the reason why all of you are afraid to lay a single hand on me,' she spat.
'Can we get back on point?' Alby snapped, and turned back to Thomas, who looked positively alarmed at the fact that someone had just gotten slapped but had no response other than frustration. And that she had gotten no serious attention or pity. It just made him more afraid of what this place was, and what the future held for him.
He turned back to Alby, and was about to open his mouth when Alby finally snapped, gripping him by the shirt again. 'Whacker, if we told you everything, you'd die on the spot, right after you klunked your pants. Baggers'd drag you off, and you ain't no good to us then, are ya?'
The Greenbean looked even more confused than ever. 'I don't even know what you're talking about,' he said.
Newt finally stepped in between them, and grabbed Alby by the shoulders. 'Alby, lay off a bit. You're hurting more than helpin', ya know?'
He finally let go and let out a breath. 'Ain't got time to be nice, Greenbean,' Alby started, grunting in frustration. Thomas wondered again, if that also accounted for the girl, because from what he had seen, she had been very forgiving about the slap. Did they do that often? Is it either fight or be beaten in here? Should I put my defences up, just in case?
As soon as Alby had finished his cautionary speech, the boys started headed back towards their station. 'What did I do?' he whispered, 'What did I do- why'd they send me here?'
He didn't expect her to hear, but she did. Turning back, she offered him a smile, the handprint still on her cheek. 'Doesn't it make one think?'
And then she walked away.
He could only stare at her and wonder who she was, and why she seemed to be the only female in this place they called 'the Glade'.
Before night fell, two figures emerged from the Maze. 'New greenie, huh?' the Asian one smirked at him, and slowed down to a walk before heading to the kitchen (which was his favourite for several reasons). Wanting to know more about this boy who had gone out of the Glade, he followed him discreetly to the kitchen and listened to whatever he had to say.
'Gimme some water.'
'Say hi to me first,' a female voice pitched in.
There was a chuckle, and then a brief silence, followed by the boy drinking noisily. He heard glass being handled roughly before the boy from the maze started to yell. 'What the klunk happened to you?'
The girl sighed. 'It's nothing-'
'It's not shucking nothing, Romana. When some shuckhead does this to you, you tell me and I beat the klunk out of the shuck. You don't stand around doing nothing, pretending it's shucking nothing,' he growled.
'Just… calm down, Minho, and stop swearing. I'm all right. I know I make excuses for Gally but I'm justified, okay? I lied to him for a whole month. He's been nothing but a true friend to me for a whole month. Nothing but honest,' she said firmly, and then she turned slightly. 'You can come out now, greenie, we both know you're there.'
Thomas stepped out and into the clearing, following them as they left the kitchen. 'Hey, wait! Romana!'
They turned around, and Thomas flinched back to see an annoyed expression on the Asian boy's face (she said his name was Minho). 'I… are you a runner?'
'Yeah. What's it to you?' he asked rudely.
Romana frowned at him, but he didn't seem to be the least fazed. Thomas stuttered for a few moments. 'Romana,' he hissed, 'I'm not going to wait any longer. Get lost, greenie.'
'Stop being a shuckhead,' she snapped at Minho. 'If you're going to be like that you're going to have to wait a week or so.'
Minho rolled his eyes, but seemed to heed her advice and keep quiet. 'Hey newbie, listen to my advice- wait for the tour,' she said simply, nodding over at him. 'It's going to save you a hell of a trouble, and you're going to get your answers without the hassle.'
Then both Gladers turned and returned walked towards their cabin. 'So what do you think of the newbie?' she asked casually.
'He interrupted us. I'm not very happy about that,' he grumbled. And he made me realise that you've got me wrapped around your little finger, so I'm not very happy about that either. 'And you've got power over me, I'm not appreciating that either, Romana. I think we should change that.'
She grinned. 'She's the captain's captain*,' she quoted, leaving him to wonder where that came from.
'I think the keeper's keeper would be a better term,' he breathed, before grabbed her shoulders and pushing her towards the wall, trapping her between the hard surfaces, kissing her until she completely lose all ability to breathe. 'But look, who's the keeper now?'
Romana let him have this one. 'I've never doubted for a moment it was you, Keeper of the Runners,' she whispered and leaned forwards to rest her forehead on his. He doesn't have to know who has the real power here.
'Do you think I can have Romana back now?' an annoyed voice yelled outside the cabin. 'Dinner is two shucking hours away!'
Minho pressed his lips against hers for one last time before pulling away. A satisfied smile was on his face, and he seemed to be much replenished in energy now. 'Make sure you return her in one piece- and untouched,' he chuckled, opening the door for her to leave.
She laughed as she followed Frypan into the kitchen.
'Can you not walk off and shuck Minho every chance you get, shank?' he growled at her as she set to work again.
Shrugging, she chopped at the vegetables with ferocity. 'You know if you value your life, you don't just resist Minho's advances right? Besides, I'm not fucking him, we're just innocently kissing.'
Maybe not so innocent, she thought, last night's scene playing over her mind. They kissed- and sometimes their hands wandered, but they had never gone over the line before. In a place like the Glade, one could not effort to be careless, and nobody knew that more than Romana and Minho. Both of them were known for being impulsive but meticulously cautious and aware of consequences.
'What you do behind closed doors doesn't interest me,' Frypan replied. 'All I care about is whether work gets done around here. If you're no use to us, then you might as well be dead.'
She raised her eyebrows, putting down her things roughly and crossing her arms. 'Yeah, well, what are you going to do then? Banish me? That worked well in the past.'
'You've got to stop using that as a threat,' he deadpanned.
Romana rolled her eyes, picking up her knife again and handing the chopped vegetables to him. 'Well, it works every time,' she simply answered. 'Besides, it seems that you like to think of us girls like weaklings who can't fend for themselves. I fought my way back from the maze- I just thought I'd mention that again, you know.'
There was no reply on Frypan's behalf.
'You're not too bad at this either, I must say,' Frypan finally mused, causing a smirk to turn up on Romana's face. 'Apart from the unequally chopped up vegetables and slightly burned meat. You've got pure talent.'
She scowled, thinking that for a moment, he was serious. 'You should ask Newt for a switch. I took you in because I felt bad for you, but you're proving pretty bad at this.'
Romana rolled her eyes. 'As if, Frypan.'
'Are you even listening to me?'
She snapped out of her trance and looked over at Frypan. An apologetic expression came over her eyes, but the spoken apology was lodged in her throat, and she could not really force it out for the love of her. There was an uncomfortable silence- one that even Romana detested.
'Look, can we just get tonight done with?' Frypan said impatiently. 'You can continue making out with Minho later on. Or you can continue fantasising about that later.'
Romana rolled her eyes once more, setting the food on the table outside, watching as the Gladers filled the camp one by one. She didn't exactly dread this 'welcoming party', but she wasn't really one for socialising either. She would choose solitary confinement over this any day- in fact, when they locked her in the slammer, it wasn't such a punishment for her after all. At least she was with the person she trusted the most- herself.
Leaving Frypan by himself, she joined the Runners.
They mostly welcome her, with a few exceptions. Her last stunt in the maze impressed most- if not all of them. She failed to explain that it wasn't all her, that Minho played a part in distracting the Griever as well. But then, she was convinced that escaping the maze made her quite capable already. 'When are you going official anyway?'
She frowned. 'What is this about official?' she asked, sitting down on the floor casually. 'It's not as if we're in a romantic relationship.'
A few eyebrows went up. They weren't outspoken at all, but their opinions showed.
'We aren't!' she protested. 'I don't… love him. It's not like that. It's… mutually beneficiary. I don't really see the need to define it more than that.'
There was silence. Minho was coming; Minho had heard that.
He seemed unaffected by her statement- and if he was, he didn't let it show.
Wrapping an arm around her shoulder, he settled down next to her and before long, they were having their usual fun again.
She wondered if he was only pretending to be fine, or if he was in fact, nonchalant to the whole outburst. He watched the newbie fight Gally, and as he did, Romana watched his jaw clench and unclench. She wondered if she was the cause behind this tension, or if it was merely stress from the Maze.
When Gally fell, Minho raised his eyebrows amusedly, but there was a sort of reservation behind his every expression.
She wished she knew what that reservation was for.
'Hmm, greenie's not bad.'
Romana looked over in surprise. 'Yeah. Yeah, he's not bad.'
*I know. Some of you are not going to like Gally's actions. He's not very sane, at this point of the story. Hope it explains it.
