Someone to Stay

Normal?

After the odd interaction with the boy named Quintin, the doctor took me to the cafeteria. She guided me by gently pushing me with her hand on the small of my back. I scan the room and noticed the place was full of teenagers. Countless tables aligned with kids like us.

I Newt looks in my direction finding me right away and his face relaxes a bit once his eyes find mine. I watch him walk up to me, immediately embracing me.

"Hi love," he says, grinning at me. "Your okay." He notices, holding me by the shoulders.

"Yeah," I smile at the blonde. "What's going on?" I ask meaning about the rest of the people.

"We weren't the only maze," Newt explains directing me to the table where he was. He takes a seat next to Thomas. I sit on Newt's other side.

"Hey she bean," Minho greets from beside Thomas.

"Hey guys," I wave at the familiar faces. Frypan waves at me. Winston offers me a friendly smile.

"Have you seen Teresa?" Thomas immediately questions. I shake my head in the response.

"Hi," I shyly say, noticing that there are two new boys sitting in front of us.

"Hey," a boy with dark brown hair smirks at me. "And who might you be?"

"Oh, well I" I begin to respond, but cut off as I notice Newt glaring daggers at the boy. I place my hand on his thigh under the table in a reassuring way.

"That's YN," Minho answers for me, "and she's not interested so keep talking." Newt grabs my hand from under the table giving it a small squeeze. I smile at him, rubbing circles on the back of his hand.

"Right yeah," the boy continues on about his story of escaping the maze which was a lot more different than ours. They escaped recently, we all had apparently.

"Except him," a dark skinned boy points to another boy who sits alone. His hood covering his face. "He's been here the longest. A week." I study him. He's got giant eye bags surrounding his blue eyes, almost like he hadn't slept in days and his figure was small and skinny. A few strands of messy brown hair peek out of his hood. The tray of food untouched before him.

"His maze was different." The nameless boy tells us.

"Some guys have all the luck," the other adds. Thomas, Newt, snd Minho all turn their heads back towards the boy sitting in front of us.

"How was it different?" I ask curiously as I bring my now dry hair into a side braid.

"That lucky bastard was in a maze full of girls," the boy chuckles. I roll my eyes.

"Alright everyone listen up," Janson silences the group of loud teens. "Todays lucky winners are..." he reads off a list of names and the people leave the cafeteria. "Now don't get discouraged." Janson says once the crowd lets out groans in dissatisfaction "Your time will come soon enough."

"Where are they going?" Thomas continues to ask more and more questions like his typical self.

"Some sort of safe haven. A farm," the boy explains. "They can only take so many people at once."

*******

Lunch didn't last very long. About half an hour at the most. Afterwards, the guards escorted us to our rooms. They kept us in our glade groups and the few of us that remained followed the guards down the small hallways. With a key card, the fugare unlocked a metal door and pointed for us to go in. I was a little hesitant at first, but quickly followed closely after the others as they entered. Our room had multiple bunk beds and a built in bathroom.