Gally Imagines

=EIGHTEEN= Painful Avoidance

You studied your thighs from over the brim of the still-full wooden bowl balancing on your lap, thinking of what Dan had said, despite yourself. You were usually starving by the time lunch was called, but today your stomach seemed to be in knots, and your appetite had mysteriously vanished.

"Hey, Y/N!" said a familiar voice brightly, sitting down on the log beside you with a second helping of the stew. "What's up?"

"Hey," you replied to Gally's greeting, turning your gaze from your seemingly-larger thighs to the floating chunks of vegetable in your untouched bowl. You didn't look at him.

"Have you been avoiding me or something?" he joked, then at your silence added, "Hey, you alright?"

You didn't answer, but continued to stare at your stew, which was rapidly losing its warmth.

"Y/N?" asked Gally, and you could hear the slight concern in his deep voice.

A part of you longed to throw yourself into his arms and cry your eyes out, telling him everything and allowing him to make everything better, but the rapidly growing fear held you back.

"I'm fine," you stood suddenly, making your way to the dirty dish pile and dumping it-stew and all-before walking back to the unfinished hut and picking up a hammer.

The day dragged on slowly and almost unbearably. Gally would throw you hopeful glances that began to fade into concern, then even worried stares, but you tried to ignore them and focus on your task. Oh, why did Dan's words have to bother you so much!? Why couldn't things just go back to the way they were before!? Self-doubt and uncertainty gnawed at you, along with your growling stomach, but you pushed them aside and doubled your work in an effort to lose yourself. But it didn't work, and by quitting time, you felt worse than ever.

You slid around other Gladers that night at dinner, trying to dodge Gally's view of you so that he wouldn't come over to you or question you further. It was the last thing that you wanted to do, but you were confused and tired and couldn't deal with letting him down any more that day, so you tried to stay hidden from his sight for the remainder of dinner-which you couldn't bring yourself to eat, no matter how much your stomach rumbled at your neglect.

Slamming your hut door behind you, you leaned against it, pressing your back against the wood and trying to make your mind blank and unfeeling. But it didn't work. You were starving and miserable, and you missed Gally! Finally, unable to contain the flood of emotions, you fell on your bed and sobbed into your pillow. All you wanted to do was lose yourself to sleep, to escape the pain that raged inside of you.

Suddenly, a crinkling noise caught your attention. Frowning, you wiped a tear from your cheek as you lifted the corner of your pillow to reveal the edge of a folded piece of paper. You pulled it out from underneath and did a quick laugh-sob as you read your name scrawled in a guy's sloppy handwriting. Sniffing, you unfolded the paper and tears fell off of your cheeks and onto the sheets as the words on the page blurred and tangled themselves together while you read through tear-filled eyes:

                                                "Roses are red 
                                                Violets are blue
                                               What's going on
                                              I really miss you."

You wiped at your tear-stained cheeks uselessly as more tears poured down them, and fingered the precious wooden heart around your neck, trying to subdue the ache inside of your heart and the longing for Gally's arms to be around you, holding you tightly against his chest in the firm shelter of his body. You let gravity claim you and your head hit the pillow, your eyes still locked on that simple poem written in Gally's messy script.

And you cried.