eighteenth - newtmas au

4 - Blankets and Bastards

Thomas was shaken. Teresa and Minho noticed when he had gotten to school and walked past them as they waited for him to run up to Teresa and give her a hug, then do the clap and slap thing with Minho. But he didn't even process that they were there until he was five feet past them, when he turned around to a gaping Teresa and Minho. They had never seen Thomas forget them in the morning. It was practically etched into their skulls, part of their routine, yet Thomas had missed it today. Teresa ran up and gave him a hug and held him for longer than she normally did.

'What's up?' she whispered into his ear, her hot breath rushing onto his skin.

'Oh, it's nothing... just' Thomas paused for a second. 'Where were you yesterday?'

Teresa looked confused. 'With you?'

'No, when you left?'

'Oh my god, sorry about that. I had to call my Matt - you know, the principal of the college I'm going to, and guess what, I got Alby a scholarship spot there!'

Thomas wondered for a split second what Newt would do then. Teagan had made it sound like Newt and Alby were going to stick together after they left.

'Why?' Teresa asked, tilting her head sideways and looking at him curiously.

'Well after you left, Newt got really sick all of a sudden like, he woke up then passed out or something. So I had to carry him to Teagan's office and the doctors said that he had an allergic reaction or something. It was really bad Teresa. I thought he might have -' Thomas choked. He hadn't realised he was crying until Teresa wiped away a tear. Thomas didn't know why he was crying. He didn't think he liked Newt all that much, he guessed it was just his head asking a lot of 'what if?' questions. What if Thomas hadn't been there? Would Newt have survived if he hadn't? Just because Thomas didn't love Newt didn't mean that he wanted him to die.

'Oh, Thomas, I'm so sorry. It must have been really scary for you.'

'It was.' Thomas whispered than pulled back into a hug. Little did he know that when he did, Teresa was smiling gently over his shoulder. Thomas pulled himself together and walked over to Minho.

'What happened? Did the hobo kids attack you?' Minho laughed a little when he said this but had a hint of concern in his eyes. When Minho said this Thomas remembered what Teagan said about the effect of the rumours.

'They wouldn't attack anyone Minho, they're not savages, they're actually really nice people.' Thomas replied shortly. Minho looked a little shocked at his response. Clearly he was expecting Thomas to laugh along with him.

'Dude, just kidding, you knew that.'

'Yeah, well, sometimes maybe you shouldn't joke about things like that.' Thomas replied, but not in a rude way, just an advising way. There was a softness to his words that meant Minho knew there was more behind it.

Teresa was looking at Thomas with her mouth open and it looked like she had the entire galaxy in her eyes they were sparkling so much. She closed her mouth eventually and smiled brightly at him. Thomas just assumed that Teresa was proud of him for standing up for the kids at the school, so he gave her a small smile and walked off, saying something about being late for class.

As soon as Thomas was out of sight, Teresa started jumping up and down and she shook her hands in excitement. Minho had picked up that look, only because of all the times Teresa had done it to him. Minho sighed and smiled a little, before breaking out into a fit of laughter because of Teresa and the whole situation in general.

'Who is it?' Minho sighed, while combing his fingers through his hair.

'You'll see.' Teresa said before literally skipping to class, her brown hair bouncing behind her.