Secrets | TMR | One

4:2

Adeline had fallen asleep shortly after her confession, leaving Nick with nothing to do other than keep his eyes and ears open for any sign of the Grievers.

He was completely and utterly exhausted.

Every bone in his body ached, and his skull felt as though it were about to crumble. Yet his brain would not allow him to fall into the slumber it longed for.

Instead, it whirled with questions.

Questions about what Adeline had told him. If it were true. If she had been lying to him for so long. Why she had not told him? Did she not feel as though she could trust him with something so important?

Was he not significant enough for her to tell him?

Nick had spent the majority of the next few hours watching the girl. Staring down at her sleeping figure, with his right hand still tightly clutching hers, while his left palm gently stroked her hair.

He thinks of everything that has happened since she arrived. All the laughs they had, all the time they shared, even all the small moments he could have sworn meant something more.

No, all the small moments he knows meant something more.

After a year and a half of knowing the girl, finding out what makes her tick, like the way she goes mad when someone tries to steal food from her plate, or when one of the boys presumes that she cannot do something just because she is a girl.

Figuring out all her quirks. How she can never look him in the eyes for too long before having to flicker them away in another direction - something which bothers Nick to no end.

Memorising all of her mannerisms and exactly what they mean. Knowing that when her tongue is sticking out, that her mind is enthralled, and that he should not disturb her. Her voice raising an octave when she is happy... or angry. The twiddling of her fingers when she knows she has fucked up in some way or another. Then the way she flashes her big doe eyes at him, making him forgive her for whatever she has done every. single. time.

He absolutely adores Adeline. In fact, he would even go as far as to say he...

But then he thinks about the lie.

The secret that she has kept hidden for over a year. Throughout everything that has happened, to everyone in the Glade, Adeline has still stayed quiet.

There must be a reason for it? Surely she would not sit back and allow innocent boys to die just so she can keep a secret?

Quite often, during the hours he had spent with nothing but his thoughts, the boy had ended up in the foulest of moods.

So, to conquer the grumpiness, and the tiny fragments of resentment that swirled around in his brain, he looked down to the girl, only to find his mood immediately lifted.

He should be angry. He should be furious. He should be throwing Adeline from him and walking away, or shouting and screaming at the top of his lungs about how she has betrayed him - betrayed all of them.

However, he simply cannot stay mad at her.

Not when she looks so calm and peaceful.

Not when he...

The sound of concrete crunching and grinding together pulls Nick back to reality. Turning his head up to the sky, he squints his eyes as he notices the sunlight beginning to peer into the maze, illuminating the walls and turning them... well, just a lighter shade of grey.

"Addy" he whispers, looking back down to the girl and shaking the hand that is holding hers on her stomach to wake her. "Addy."

Adeline begins to stir, the back of her head shifting against his thigh, causing her hair to ruffle up on either side of her face.