REMEMBER THE NIGHTS | newt

eight - saturday

wc ; 1,546

Ever since your trip to New York a few weeks ago, your mind has felt a little... scrambled. The feeling of being able to see your friends again, to spend the afternoon with them and to share some of your favorite things about the city with Newt was ecstatic.

You were happy to come back to your everyday life, though. The Monday after your return, a group assignment was announced in your photography class. It wasn't too difficult. The pairs were drawn up by Ms. Porter, and gave everyone two weeks to finish it. All you and your partner - who, almost coincidentally, was Sonya - had to do was research a type of photography and do a photoshoot, ending with at least four properly edited photos to submit.

That led you to today, as you stood on the front porch of Sonya and Newt's house, knocking on the door. You both agreed that today would be strictly for research and making an inspiration board, so it was safe to say that yours and Sonya's weekend would be pretty relaxing.

Speaking of, the girl opened the door with a smile on her face, beckoning you inside. When you stepped past the threshold, you noticed how quiet it seemed to be. As Sonya led you through the house and into the living room, she told you, "We've got pretty much the whole house to ourselves. My mom's working a shift at the hospital until 7, and Newt's still asleep."

You nodded. You'd almost forgotten that their mother was a nurse at the hospital, but the siblings had only ever mentioned it once or twice. As for Newt, you weren't surprised. According to Thomas, his sleeping habits were the reason why he didn't hang out with the others before the late afternoon during the weekends.

As you sat down on the surprisingly comfortable couch, placing your school bag by your feet, Sonya told you that she'd be back in a few minutes with her laptop and a few snacks. Their house had a similar layout to yours, with a kitchen off to the left of the front door, the living room on the right, almost all open concept. Instead of the stairs being beside the kitchen, they were against the back wall, and you could see a back deck outside the sliding door similar to Brenda's.

You figured you'd at least get started, pulling out your laptop and letting it load before grabbing a notebook and a pen to make your planning easier. As you flipped to an empty page and opened the search engine, Sonya came back in, carrying two bowls of fruit, her laptop tucked under her arm. You noticed her slight struggle and took the bowls from her hands, placing them down on the coffee table before snagging a piece.

Sonya put her laptop on the couch beside you and jogged back into the kitchen, returning with two water bottles. After cracking yours open and taking a sip, you put it on the coffee table near the fruits and turned to the blonde girl.

"I was thinking we could pick out a few of our favorite types of photography and then narrow it down," Sonya suggested, "we'll just take a look at some photos from each one for inspiration, and then go from there."

You nodded, writing down her idea just in case you forgot. "Sounds good. We could start with nature photography. It's one of the easier ones, since we have so much of it around us."

With confirmation from the girl, you opened up a doc on your computer. The two of you gathered a bunch of photos, compiling a sort of inspiration board for the style and making jot notes on both paper and on the doc, of kinds of pictures you could take or locations you could use.

This, of course, went on for the better part of an hour. As you worked on your third type, heavy footsteps thumped down the stairs, drawing yours and Sonya's attention from your computers as you both leaned over the back of the couch.

Newt thumped down the stairs wearing a plain white shirt that seemed to be so faded it could barely count as white anymore, and slightly oversized blue plaid pajama pants. There were indents on his arm from the way he had slept, and his hair was untamed, sticking up every which way. He was still squinting, his face was pulled into a definitive frown as his body was still waking up. He scratched his scalp as he reached the bottom, shuffling his way into the kitchen, where he grabbed a box of cereal and began pulling out handfuls, shoving them into his mouth.

You bit back a laugh as he carried the box outside the kitchen, wanting to make his way back upstairs. There was no denying that, even though you were sure no one should look as cute as they did after just waking up, Newt managed to pull it off. The thought caught you off guard, and you did your best to calm the heat burning your cheeks and neck.

Sonya, whose face bore a mischievous smile, called out, "Nice to see you've woken up from your coma."

Newt jumped, nearly sending the cereal clutched in his hand flying across the hardwood floor. "Bloody hell! Sonya, what the hell were you-" he turned, finding you sitting next to his sister. You laughed as his eyes widened.

Lifting your hand from the couch, you wiggled your fingers with a smile. "Hey,"

"What are you doing here, exactly?"

"Group project." Sonya answered for you. Newt seemed to take it, nodding before continuing his journey back up the stairs.

You turned back to your computer, as did Sonya, but Newt's departure only seemed to make things worse. Without his presence, your mind allowed itself to think more about his appearance, as well as your initial thoughts when  you saw him. It kept running in circles, bouncing from what happened just now back to what your friends told you a few weeks ago.

"Y/n? Y/n?" Sonya called, snapping you out of your thoughts.

"Hm?"

She laughed, "I said we're pretty much done. Just a few more photos and ideas and we can pick this up again on Monday."

"Oh," you nodded. "Okay. Yeah, that sounds good."

"Are you okay? You zoned out for a bit there." You watched Sonya raise an eyebrow, her features pulling into a slight frown.

You nodded, adjusting the computer on your lap. "Yeah, I'm fine, don't worry. I'm just thinking about something I gotta do when I get home."

You felt bad about lying to Sonya, especially because of how caring she was, but there was no way you were going to tell her that you were thinking about her brother. So, you dived back into your work, digging up whatever photos caught your eye and pasting them into the doc, letting Sonya give feedback whenever she pleased.

When you finished, you helped Sonya with the bowls of fruit, thanking her when she put what was left of it into a container for you to snack on later. You promised you'd bring it back to her Monday morning, and she smiled at you before walking you to the door, where you said your goodbyes.

The walk back to your place was filled with the distraction of music, both your headphones filling your head with your favorite songs as you enjoyed the cooling air that came with New York Octobers.

When you finally got home, you quickly checked on Chuck, finding that he was still asleep before heading upstairs. You knew that your dad and Maggie went into the city, since your dad had a meeting and Maggie wanted to go with him. Thomas was out with Minho and Gally, so you were in the clear to spend the day lounging around.

Rushing up the stairs, you dropped your bag by your desk and closed your door, exhaling through your mouth and resting your forehead on the wood. The only thing you could manage to think of was Newt, and it was starting to become overwhelming. You thought over every single detail of every memory you had of the boy since the two of you met in the parking lot, every word spoken, every gesture made.

You wondered why he even went through the trouble of arranging a meeting with your friends and taking you to see them, when he normally spent his Saturdays sleeping until noon. You thought about his hair, and how it always looked so perfect, even when it looked the way it did when you saw him earlier. You thought about his voice, the slight gravitas and occasional cadences, and how it was always so soothing to you.

You thought about his eyes, about how much he cared, how much he did for everyone, everything he went through just because of his father and still pulled through. You thought about every single thing you knew about him, physical or emotional. How adorable he was, no matter what he did. How honest and open he seemed to be, how he was quick to make jokes about his friends, and how he was so- oh.

Oh.