A Way Back - The Maze Runner (♡Newt) UNDER EDITING/REWRITE

Chapter 60

Cally's pov

The next morning, I woke up from soft knocks on the door to my room. I growled as I peeked at my window and saw it was still dark outside. The knocks sounded again, "Come in." I growled, my voice still scratchy from sleeping. I didn't look up as the door opened, and someone walked inside. I didn't have to, as I recognized his voice and accent immediately.
     "Cals?" I only growled in response as I buried my face in my pillow. I heard the door close, his footsteps on the wooden floor, and a moment later, I felt my bed give in slightly under his weight as he sat down. "I know ya're awake."
     "No, I'm not," I said, my voice muffled by my pillow. I heard Newt chuckle before he continued, "Don't worry, I'll let you sleep soon. I'm just here to tell ya that you're supposed to work again today." And again, I growled, but this time because I had to go back to work.
     "And you're waking me up this early because?" I asked with my muffled voice.
     "Because I've got a Gatherin' to go to, and I had to let ya know before that. Besides, I couldn't tell ya last night." When he mentioned last night, I started to think about it. After I had walked away from the small group, Ezra had followed me. I was upset, but he knew how to calm me down. We talked for a while about everything that had happened and how scared it made me. Ezra tried to understand, but I knew he didn't fully. That was okay. It's a lot to take in, and I didn't fully understand it myself. Of course, I hadn't told him about what could happen. This was hard on all of us, and I didn't want him to worry about something that may or may not happen.
     I turned around in my bed and sat up against the wall. "About last night..." I started, voice soft. Newt re-positioned himself, so he was facing me. I cleared my throat in an attempt to get the sleepiness out of it before I spoke.
     "I'm sorry I snapped, I shouldn't have..."
     Newt smiled at me and took my hand in his, "That's okay. It all just became too much. Most of the Gladers who went through what you went through react way worse." I nodded that I understood as my eyes were staring at our hands. I knew we had been holding hands a lot lately. It felt nice, to have this kind of contact with him, but I still didn't know if it was because I needed a friend or because I wanted more from him.
     "You 'kay, Cals?" Newt asked while his thumb made small circles over the back of my hand. The small gesture stirring a somewhat familiar feeling in my stomach and suddenmy I felt a lot more awake than before.
     "Yeah," I answered, pulling my hand away from him and acted as if the back of my head was itchy. "Just um... did you just say there's gonna be a Gathering?" I changed the subject. Luckily, Newt didn't say anything about it and just nodded as  response on my question.
     "Why? What about?"
     "The Glade's bloody hero, of course." he answered, sounding slightly annoyed by something. Only I couldn't place what he thought was annoying. "The Slinthead broke our number one rule but did save two Shanks in the process. The other Gladers keep askin' what's gonna happen with the guy. So it's time we decide on that."
     My eyes grew wider as I remembered the last time someone broke a rule. "You're not Banishing him? Right?" I asked with fear creeping into my words.
     "Probably not, but it depends on what the others'll say."
     "Please, don't let him get Banished." I really didn't want Thomas to get pushed back inside that horrible place. He didn't deserve that.
     "I'll try. Believe it or not, I like the Shuck-face, don't want to lose another friend."
     Almost on instinct I felt my hand resch to give him a squeeze, but I stopped myself, settling on sending him a reasurring smile. Or what I hoped passed for one. "Then you won't."
     The blonde boy in front of me let out a bit of an exasperated sign. "If it only was that bloody simple."
     "It is. If you're one of the people in charge." Seeing my words did not seem to be having the effect I was going for, I softly bumped my shoulder against his to draw his attention. "You can be pretty persuasive, I should know, you managed to sway more than half the Keepers against my favor not that long ago."
     Newt let out a hesitant chuckle, the teasing in my voice fortunately not going unnoticed. "Yeah well, Alby did half the work there."
     I waved the guy's comment away. "Give yourself some credit, Newton. Your opinion matters to those shanks. A lot more then you think." Without really thinking about it I continued. "It does to me anyway."
      Newt looked down for a moment, his face obscured from me by his hair before turning to me with a bit of a tight lipped smile and maybe a little more color to his face then a moment ago. "If ya say so."
      For a moment, my eyes scanned his expression, the tight lips, the way his smile did not quet reach his eyes... he either did not believe me... or I said something wrong... suddenly my last spoken words and the fact that I lay in my bed in my pyjama's with uncommed, messy hair dawn on me. Quickly I looked away, feeling my face heat up a bit as I pulled my hands through my hair to try and make something better of it. Eventually, I cleared my throat, "well, yeah, I say so."
     The few seconds of silence that followed might as well have been hours.
     "Okay then, I'll just let ya get an hour or so more shut eye before your day back on the job." The discomfort I felt clearly also sounded through his voice. He barelly waited for a response before he walked off.
     "Yeah, thanks." I managed to weakly call after him.
     The moment he'd closed the door behind him I let myself slide back into the comfort of my bed, hands pressed to my face, letting out a frustrated, embarrassed, growl.