eighteenth - newtmas au

8 - Love and Life

Thomas climbed into the front seat of the car beside his mother.

'What?' Thomas asked, with a hint of the days gloom laced in his voice.

'What's wrong, honey?' Thomas' Mum immediately picked up on his sadness. Normally he was so excited and rejuvenated after visiting the school, but he had an aura around him that made her weary of his mood.

'Nothing... well, its just- actually, don't worry, its nothing.' Thomas mumbled. On the one hand, he wanted to tell his mother everything, about Newt moving and falling in love with the cute boy that is going to be in his foster family and then getting married and Thomas won't even be invited to the wedding because Newt will probably have forgotten about him by then and- well, it just gets worse from there. But on the other hand, that would involve Thomas admitting that he would actually mind if Newt started going out with someone else, which he wasn't prepared to do, especially to his mother.

'Well, if its nothing, I have some big news. You know how when you were little, you were always bugging me to get you a sibling because you always hated being an only child?' Thomas opened his mouth to reply, but his mum was on a roll. 'I saw an advertisement in the paper the other day about a potential, last minute adoption.' But Thomas didn't want a random stranger in the house, he wanted Newt. 'I looked into, because it said it was urgent, and I didn't want to let a little kid be out on the streets alone. I rang up the contact, and it turns out that the kid in need was actually at the school already, and was about to graduate, but apparently that's a bad thing there?' Thomas was confused. Newt and Alby were the only ones graduating this year, and they both already had homes. 'Anyway, I talked to Teagan, that really nice lady who takes care of you, and we organised to adopt them!'

'You what?' Thomas asked incredulously. He didn't want a sibling anymore. He was also a little annoyed that his mum had gone through with this without even asking him if he was okay with her bringing another kid into the house.

His mother looked a little sad at Thomas' reaction. 'I thought you would be okay with it?' Her voice was riddled with regret and sadness. 'Especially since the kid is Newt, and you seemed to have grown pretty fond of him lately, so I thought that you wouldn't mind.'

Thomas nearly died of shock.

***

Newt was back in Teagan's office, who had just gone off to make them both some tea before beginning to go through the details of the 'adoption' together. She walked briskly back into the room with two steaming mugs of english breakfast tea. Newt hugged the cup with his cold hands as Teagan began speaking.

'Newt you have to understand how thrilled I am about this opportunity.'

Newt nodded (his mouth was full of tea).

'This could be life-changing for you, and it could really help you in the future.'

Again, Newt nodded, his cheeks blown up like a chipmunk in an attempt to hold the scorching hot tea in his mouth.

'But obviously, if you don't like the family, or if you just don't want to do it, I would be totally fine with that. It's your life after all.'

Newt nodded once more, as he took another massive gulp of tea.

'So- the family. You actually already know a kid in the family. Your friend Thomas and his family have offered to take you.'

Newt spat his tea all over the floor.

He opened his mouth a few times in an attempt to find the right words.

'Seriously?' Newt asked, his eyes popping out in shock.