pretty eyes ~ newt

chapter 15: cocky bastards

"and we'd swear to remember it all too well"
all too well, taylor swift
—

"Seems like you've met our guard dogs."

I whip my head around to see a young girl who seems to be around our age, her dark brown hair cut short and a gun at her hip. She watches us with a small smirk, raising one eyebrow when we only gape at her in confusion.

"You guys look like shit," the girl declares, looking us up and down appraisingly. My eye twitches by a fraction in annoyance at her words. Um, you would look like shit too if you had just spent a month in the fucking desert—and with nothing but these idiots for company.

"Follow me," the girl says, a moment of silence later. She jerks her head at the door she had come through, gesturing for us to follow her.

But none of us move, unwilling to trust a complete stranger. Even if she is hot as hell.

"What the shuck do you want?" Thomas demands with a furrow of his brow, eyes steadily fixed on the girl. She only rolls her eyes lazily in response.

"My name's Brenda. I'm here to bring you miserable bunch to Jorge, he's the leader of this place," she replies vaguely, turning on her heel and disappearing through the door without another word. But when she notices that none of us have moved to follow her, the girl pokes her head back in.

"Well come on then. Unless you wanna stay with those guys?" she raises an eyebrow, nodding her head at the growling cranks.

I exchange an uneasy look with Aris, before sliding my gaze towards Thomas to wait for his decision. His brow is furrowed tightly, but eventually he squares his shoulders in determination and leads the way through the door after the strange girl.

I hear Minho curse under his breath as we follow behind the two, walking into a large complex of buildings. We all look around curiously, seeing dozens of other people hollering and laughing as they sit around small bonfires. Brenda leads us through confidently at a brisk pace, and it's clear that she knows her way around.

I see a group of men leer at me as I pass by, my lip curling in disgust at their lack of respect. I feel Newt move a little closer to me when he sees them, lightly placing a hand on my lower back.

"Stay close to me," he murmurs in my ear, narrowing his eyes at the men around us. I nod in response, twisting my lip under my teeth restlessly.

"Isadora..." I hear Aris mutter quietly as another group of men catcall Teresa and I as we pass. I'm about to reassure him quickly that we'll be fine, but Thomas glances back at us in confusion.

"Who the hell is Isadora?" he furrows his eyebrows once again, and Aris almost bursts out laughing at his question.

"Me," I reply dryly, rolling my eyes. "My full name's Isadora, not Isa."

Thomas' eyes go wide when he hears my response, and I shake my head in exasperation. What an idiot. Beside me, Newt's still looking around at the buildings around us warily, and he flicks his eyes from person to person cautiously.

"Anyone else have a bad feeling about this place?" he murmurs, and I nod in response.

"You bet," I mutter back, shooting another creep a sharp glare. "These people have no fucking respect, it's pissing me off."

Newt's eyes darken as he opens his mouth to reply, but Thomas turns his head to cut in instead.

"Let's just see what this guy has to say first," he suggests, meeting my guarded gaze. Newt and I nod begrudgingly, trudging on behind Brenda through the massive complex.