Infinite (Newt fanfiction)

Chapter 5

Smudged writing covered her bicep. It was her handwriting. She's written this before she came up here but...it didn't make any sense!

She tried to read the words carefully, skipping over the ones that were too smeared to make out.

"You...Newt," she read to herself. Newt?? Why would she write his name, of all people? She squinted at a blurry word. Did it say love? "Don't...him."

Isabelle looked at her arm like she just read a foreign language.  "You Newt don't him." She repeated the words to herself. If one of the blurry words did say love, then...'You love Newt?' And being in her own handwriting, she loved him?

She wanted to laugh at the writing. Sure she thought he was attractive and all, but he was a jerk. Isabelle couldn't love someone like that, could she? Thoughts like this only brought her back to the dream she had. She loved Newt there, but it was only a dream, right?

Isabelle got her answer from deep inside herself.

No, it was a memory.

***

Isabelle made sure to cover the writing from the other Gladers. She met up with Frypan in the kitchen and Newt made sure to keep his distance. She watched him, trying to figure him out. For whatever reason he wasn't talking, it wasn't because he didn't like her. No, he knew something.

Isabelle worked distractedly, and absentmindedly scrubbed at a dish for five minutes. Newt, who was drying them and stacking them, furrowed his eyebrows at her. He reached over and took the plate from Isabelle slowly. She snapped out of her trance, muttered an apology and grabbed another plate to scrub at. Newt shook his head.

At lunch time, Newt started to head off but Isabelle stopped him. She wanted to ask what he was hiding or wasn't telling her. Instead, Newt turned around and regretfully snapped out a reply.

"Didn't you get the message when I told you I want to spend as little time with you as possible? You do your work I'll do mine." Then he spun around and sucked in a breath. He didn't know if he could keep hurting her like this.

Isabelle watched his retreating form as her hands balled into fists. She didn't realize she was gripping a clean fork so hard that she bent the handle. She placed it on the counter and walked out of the kitchen and in the opposite direction of the eating Gladers. She jogged out to the Deadheads and found a wide tree to sit against. She just wanted to be anywhere else then with Newt.

Isabelle pulled her knees to her chest and rested her head on them. She stared at the trees in the forest and admired their beauty. They stood tall and strong, no care in the world. Isabelle groaned. Why couldn't she do that?

She stayed there long after she was supposed to, and sometime after an hour, she fell asleep.

***

Isabelle felt like she was floating. Other things were hovering with her, like thoughts and memories that just wouldn't leave her mind.

Newt, stroking the back of her head. "It'll be okay, we're going up together, remember?"

A blond woman who was screaming at her. "What are you doing? You'll ruin everything!"

Herself. "I don't want to forget you."

Then the blond woman again. "WICKED is good."

Isabelle woke up and turned over before opening her eyes. She could see her sheets under her and her blanket came up to her waist.

Bolting straight up, Isabelle grabbed the blanket in her hand and moved the hair out of her face. She's fallen asleep in the forest. She groaned again and laid back down. That meant one of the boys found her and had to carry her all the way across the Glade. Her guess was Thomas or Minho. Maybe even Alby. She made a note to talk to all of them and apologize.

Isabelle peeked out her bedroom window and saw that the sky was dark. How long was she asleep for? She shook her head with bewilderment at herself.

She let herself out of her room and sneaked down the stairs, careful not to wake the tired Gladers who were rocked gently back and forth in their hammocks by the wind. She crept, barefoot, on the damp grass and walked across the Glade.

Although she had no idea where she was going, she was determined to go somewhere.

She spotted the tower and grinned. Perfect.