I'd Give You My Life

A Maze?

*Thomas's POV*

We sat in peaceful silence, eating. 

"OK!" Newt said, holding up his hands in defence, " Let's cheers to the new Greenie!" And with this he produced a jar of dark amber liquid, slightly carbonated but otherwise entirely looking like a jar of piss.

"Cheers to this!" Exclaimed Newt and took a swig, "Here." He said, handing me the jar. As much as I trusted Newt not to resort to drinking his own bodily fluids when I could hear the gurgling of a stream from my window in the hut, I couldn't help but eye the drink suspiciously. Letting my eyes flick from the drink to his eyes trying to gague how serious he was. 

"Uhhhhhh...What is it?" I asked curiously, not wanting to be poisoned.

"It's Alby's special alcohol substitute." Newt replied, forcing the jar into my hands,"Come on, don't be a shuck face!"

After a moments hesitation.

"Come on, It's nice. I promise." Newt looked me dead in the eyes, puppy pout on his face but I could still hear his sniggering that he was trying to disguise.

"If it's awful I'm blaming you!" I tried to make my voice sound stern but with Newt's ridiculous faces he was pulling, I couldn't help but smile back.

Even though I didn't know what Newt had just called me, I didn't want him to think me a wimp so, lifting the jar to my lips, I took a sip. The stuff was sweet and salty and burned in my throat. I could feel my mouth drying up. So I spat it out.
I looked up and Newt was laughing.

The star spangled sky glittered above us like a sea full of diamonds as me and Newt talked on into the night. Soon after the drink incident, me and Newt decided to go and get something more...consumable.

We both stumbled, drunk on laughter, to the food table. A large ring of boys was crowded around something I couldn't see.

"What's happening over there?" I asked Newt, feeling sparks as I touched his arm to get the boys attention. I felt slightly giddy and my heart was fluttering like a caged bird in my chest.

"Oh, just a stupid thing the gladers do to amuse themselves..." Newt trailed off as he turned his back on me and poured himself some more of a purple drink that smelled of elderflower and grapes.

I kept my eyes focused on the cheering gladers and, when curiosity overcame me, I walked up to the circle. I pushed my way past some of the lads and stumbled forwards onto sand. Before me a fight was in full flow. Gally, the intimidating lad from earlier, was thrashing the skinnier brunette. The gladers war cries were deafening and I wondered if the noise was carrying into the maze. I sure hoped not.

Suddenly, I was thrust forward and landed face first in the sand. The ring of teens was deathly silent as I scrambled to my feet to see who had pushed me. A shadow seemed to descend over me and I gulped, loudly.

"What do we have here then?" I heard Gally's voice question mockingly, "A filthy little shank." He spat the last word with such conviction and hatred that my blood began to boil.
Fresh with the courage from the mystery drink, I leapt to my feet and pushed him hard in the chest. Thank god for the little muscle I have! I thought as I stumbled backwards. Just as I thought I was close enough to the crowd to run, Gally's fist swung out and hit me square in the jaw.
I fell to the floor in a bloody heap, and my vision was blurry. I tried to get back up and my head span giddily. I could hear Gally's laughter in the distance, and I willed my body to get back up, digging my fists into the damp ground, gritting my teeth and spitting blood into the sand. 

A few moments later, I was back on the ground. I could feel the wet blood on my lip; dripping from my nose and I could taste the saltiness of blood and sand in my mouth. I didn't have the strength to haul my weary and beaten body from the ground and so i just lay there. I could hear the jeers from Gally and a few of the fellow gladers but it still wasn't enough to make me get on my feet again.

After what seemed minutes, I saw Chucks feet in front of my face. He, and some of the other boys, picked me up and dragged me over to the bonfire. Alby's enraged voice as he returned from where he had been before. Presumably on look out toawrds the maze walls. Or perhaps just losing himself in the forrest. 

"What the Shuck did Gally do to you?" I heard Alby mutter as he strode his way over to where I was proped by the log. He examined my face before getting up and disappearing over towards the drinks table.

Alby appeared again with a wet cloth and a mug of water. He went about cleaning up my face and tending to my cuts. I saw Newt shifting behind him, unable to make out his facial expression from the the corner of my eye. My face burned with shame and humiliation, blood boiling to the surface of my skin. I should have fought back harder, Gally's probably my age, maybe younger. Perhaps Newt is second guessing his advances of friendship now that it's been clearly decided that I'm the runt here. I should have just stayed in the hut. 

"Don't worry about Gally, he can get a little rough sometimes." Alby tried to reassure me, probably thinking that Gally was the one thing on my mind. 

"A little rough?" I replied incredulously.

"He's a dickhead, that's what he is." 

Newt's voice broke a silence that had been hanging in the air, saturated with my shame that now seemed to dissapate as the one person whose opinion I actually cared about here spoke up.

"Let me do that Alby, you go do whatever it is you should be doing" 

Newt stepped forward, holding out his hand for the cloth, and began attacking my face with it. 

"Don't worry Tommy, we'll have you patched up in no time" he grinned, giving me an overexaggerated wink before moving away to refill the mug of now-red tinted water.