Chapter 13.
Thomas listened with amusement as Minho told him all about how Gally went into the deadheads to explore, got lost, and ran out screaming four hours later.
The others looked impatient, Thomas knew they wanted to hear how the meeting went, but Newt was still sleeping and they would need him for the gathering. Thomas suspected they couldn't wake him up, since he'd seen Frypan poke him several times without getting any kind of reaction.
"And then he told us there were monsters hiding in there," Minho continued the story.
Gally's face was red with embarrassment.
"It was dark, Beetle blades look like monsters when all you can see is their creepy glowing red eyes," Gally said defensively.
"you should have gone in earlier in the day if you were scared of the dark," Minho teased.
"And you should've sent someone after me when I didn't return," Gally retorted.
"We thought you were sulking and wanted to be left alone," Minho said.
"Whatever," Gally said, "now it's my turn to embarrass you."
With that Gally launched into the story about how Minho had decided to catch one of the earlier mentioned beetle blades and failed epically.
After that the others pitched in with stories of their own, eager to make fun of each other, seemingly forgetting all about being impatient.
Thomas sat in silence, content with just listening.
As the gladers talked Thomas realised how close they were to each other, They had all formed a bond from being stuck in the maze, where they'd had to rely on each other constantly.
They were more than just friends, they were a family. Even Gally, despite having had many disagreements with them (not to mention the whole Chuck ordeal), was a part of it
Then there was Thomas. He hadn't had much time to get to know his fellow gladers. He hadn't been in the maze for nearly as long as they had. Most of the gladers had died in the first two trials, which had brought the survivors even closer together.
Thomas was an outsider. He hadn't even know everyone's name before listening to the ongoing conversation (they were nine including Thomas. He already knew Newt, Minho, Frypan and Gally. He'd heard one of the others being called Alex earlier that day, and the other three were called Al, Doug and Niko).
He did have a pretty close friendship with Newt and Minho, but that was nothing compared to what the two of them had with each other.
He decided to give it time, that was probably the only thing he could do. Maybe one day he'd finally feel like he belonged. He knew that putting too much thought into it would only make things worse, so he shifted his attention to the others' talking instead.
His earlier thoughts had been forgotten after a few minutes. He was smiling along with his friends and he would have gladly spent the rest of the day like that, but the moment was disrupted by a loud knock on the door.
The conversation stopped. Minho got up to open (or possibly block the door so he wouldn't have to deal with more WICKED employees), but the door opened before he got close.
The woman standing on the other side was wearing the same armor as the other guards (some of it, anyway), but it looked like it had been put on in a rush. She had seemingly forgotten her gun, she had also skipped the uniform's jacket, wearing only a bulletproof vest that revealed the pink sleeves of the shirt she was wearing underneath.
Her helmet was slightly askew, revealing a mop of frizzy black hair.
She also looked much younger than any other guard Thomas had seen, barely older than he was.
The gladers stared at her in utter confusion.
"Um… hi," she said. Thomas was pretty sure she was blushing.
"I'm supposed to take Thomas to meet with Teresa."
Thomas got up eagerly. As much as he'd enjoyed being with the other gladers, he couldn't wait to talk to Teresa.
"I'll see you later then," he said to his friends.
"If you take too long I'll come for you, and I better not find you two making out," Minho threatened.
Thomas had no desire to make out with Teresa, but he doubted Minho would stop with his teasing either way, so he left the room without responding.
Thomas had no idea where they were going, the only thing he knew was that it took a long time to get there.
The guard stared at Thomas with fascination whenever she thought he wasn't looking. Eventually Thomas got very annoyed.
"Who are you exactly?" he asked. He would normally consider it too risky to ask guards questions like that, but this guard looked about as threatening as a kitten.
"I'm Emma Jackson, I work here as a security guard," she said.
"Aren't you a bit too young to work as a security guard? I mean, what are you, like seventeen?" Thomas must've guessed wrong, because she looked offended.
"I'm eighteen. Two years older than you, I might add."
"How do you know how old I am?" Thomas asked, feeling slightly unnerved.
"You guys are everything anyone talks about around here, and I've lived here since I was a toddler. I know basically everything about you. For example, your birthday is on the twenty-third of January, Newt turned seventeen in April, and Minho turned seventeen in June," she said.
Thomas felt even more unnerved. He realised this girl had probably grown up watching him and his friends from security camera videos. She talked like she knew everyone personally, and she probably did.
"You looked much more intimidating on screen," she said thoughtfully. Thomas scowled at her. She had the nerve to laugh.
"How much longer do we have to walk?" Thomas asked, eager to meet Teresa and perhaps even more eager to get away from the weird guard.
"We'll get there in like a minute or so," the weird guard responded, then she smiled, as if she was remembering something funny.
Thomas raised his eyebrows at her questioningly.
"I used to hope you and Teresa would get together, before that whole disaster in the scorch."
"Excuse me?"
"I think you would have made a cute couple, that's all," she said, "but that was like, way back. Until you went and got a crush on-" she stopped herself before she revealed whom exactly Thomas had gotten a 'crush' on.
"You know what? I think I'm just gonna let you figure that out for yourself, you oblivious shank."
Thomas glared at her. She had no right to use the gladers' slang. The word sounded wrong when she said it.
Thomas didn't ask her anything else. They walked in silence until she stopped in front of a half-open door.
"She's in there, do you remember the way back?"
Thomas nodded.
"Great. See you later then," she said before turning around and walking away. Thomas hoped he wouldn't see her later.
He pushed the door open and he saw her, Teresa.
She had been reading a book, but she looked up at the sound of the door moving.
She threw the book aside. It landed on the floor with a thud, but she didn't care. She stood up from her chair and rushed over to Thomas.
It looked like she was going in for a hug, but she hesitated at the last second, pulling back and looking somewhat embarrassed.
Thomas felt confused. Did she think he'd push her away or something? Thomas wrapped his arms around her instead. She returned the hug, but it felt awkward.
Thomas stepped back, and suddenly he didn't know what to say to her anymore.
"Hi," Teresa said uncertainly.
"Hey," Thomas replied, just as uncertainly, "so…um…thank you for saving my life I suppose." Thomas cringed inwardly at how stupid he sounded.
"Yeah, about that," Teresa looked up at him, her normally pale face was flushed red, "do you remember what I said to you?"
Thomas nodded, he would never forget what she'd said as she lay dying. 'I only ever cared for…'. She hadn't gotten to finish the sentence, but Thomas assumed the last word was 'you'.
"Well, I'd like to explain what I meant, so there's no misunderstanding. It's true that I only ever cared for you, it's just that I don't feel like that anymore. I did love you, in the maze, and maybe before that, but then things just got so complicated, and I'm not sure if I even want to be in a relationship at all right now. I'm sorry Tom. But I'd still like to be friends with you, if that's okay," she looked at Thomas, waiting to see how he'd react.
Thomas smiled in relief.
"You don't have to apologise for anything, I feel the same way, and of course I want to be friends with you. Just don't sacrifice your life for me again,"
She returned his smile.
"Don't worry, I will certainly not do that again, getting crushed by a rock hurts."
The tension had disappeared, to Thomas' relief.
"Oh, I almost forgot," Teresa said, "they gave us food," she gestured at a small table behind her. The table was made up fancily, and the food even looked edible. There were two chairs on opposite sides of the table, one of which Teresa had been sitting in when Thomas came. All in all it looked like someone had organised a date for them.
"I think they're trying to set us up," Teresa said.
"You're probably right," Thomas agreed, "I met this weird guard earlier, and she said she used to want us to get together."
"So either they want us to like, fall in love so they can get some kind of reaction, or they just think we look good together," Teresa speculated, "at least it looks better than breakfast."
"Speaking of breakfast, where were you? Harriet and Sonya told me a guard came to get you, what did they want?"
Teresa shrugged.
"I'm not entirely sure, some sort of brain scan I think. Didn't they do that to you too?"
"No," Thomas said with a frown.
Neither of them fully understood the logic of how WICKED operated and, deciding to drop the subject, they sat down to eat.
It was actually kind of nice. They shared some small talk between bites. Thomas asked her about the book she'd thrown on the floor and she explained that it was about how the human brain functioned. He supposed a bit of extra knowledge couldn't hurt.
They sat and talked a few minutes after they'd eaten, then Thomas got up.
"We should get back to the others," he said.
"Are you sure you want me to come with you? The others don't like me all that much," Teresa sounded uncertain again.
"Then maybe it's time they actually get to know you, don't worry, they're good people, you just made a bad first impression,"
"Fine, but I hope you know the way."
Thomas grinned as he led the way. It was true that the other gladers weren't particularly fond of Teresa, but he hoped they could change their minds.
"Tom?" Teresa said.
"What is it?" he asked.
"I'm glad to be friends with you again, I missed you."
"I missed you too," Thomas said. And he had, he just hadn't realised it until then.