Boxes [The Maze Runner ~ Newt] [BOOK 1]

Bad

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Her day was a whirlwind of confusion.

When Marie woke up in her hammock she felt naked without her knife on her belt loop. She wondered where her knife went. Then she realized it had to be back in the armory by now. When she didn't see James at breakfast, she kept an eye out for him so he could join her and talk before going to work. It suddenly hit her that he was gone and dead in the Maze, and it served him right. What caught her most off guard was not seeing Newt walk around the Glade, checking in on boys and helping them with their jobs with a small smile upon his lips. He woke up early that morning to spend 24 hours in the Slammer with only one meal to eat. She couldn't get the heavy feeling out of her. She felt as if it was her fault that he was locked up in there. Marie wondered how much longer things would have been normal if her knife hadn't been revealed to James. She tried reminding herself that things happened for a reason, but she couldn't think of a good reason for all of this to happen to her and Newt.

Nick was the only one to sit with Marie during breakfast. She didn't look up at the Leader as he seated himself at the picnic table. She just moved the hash on her plate from side to side with her fork as he glanced up at her.

"I think its best you take the day off," Nick murmured before taking a sip of his orange juice.

Marie glared at him for a moment then turned her eyes back to her plate.

"I'm grateful that you care about my well-being," Marie began, "but I need to distract myself from-" but she couldn't say anymore. The Builder's name got caught in her throat and it wouldn't allow her speak. She swallowed the fear and quickly tried to pull herself together. "I need to distract myself from him...."

"I'm sure you can do something else to keep your mind off things besides work."

"If you don't work, you get sad, right? That's what everyone around here says."

There was nothing he could say to object. Nick allowed Marie to work seeing that she had made a good point. All throughout the day, Marie could feel the weight of everyone's eyes on her whenever she walked by. In the Gardens, she would often catch Lou and Zart staring at her. And during all their meals, no one dared to speak to her as she waited for her food in line. Frypan simply dumped a scoop of beef stew on her plate with a forced smile hoping that it would be contagious, but it only made her hate everything more. No one was talking to her all because of James.

And the thing was she wanted to talk to them all. She wanted to laugh with Frypan and Minho as they ate and she wanted to harvest with Lou and Zart and even listen to Alby and Nick bicker, but throughout the whole day, she didn't say a single thing. The only thing she could think about was James and what he nearly did to her. She trusted him. She considered him a friend. But that had all gone to waste as he betrayed her.

She wondered if it was bad that she felt joy knowing he was dead.

There was this buzzing in her head. All Marie could make of it was voices. She thought about all the things James, Newt, Minho, and all the other boys in the Glade had said to her, and she thought about all the things she'd say to James if he was still alive. She had constructed a monologue of what to say to make him feel so guilty that he'd die on the spot.

That morning was what Marie considered to be the calm before the storm.

After Marie ate dinner in silence with Minho, Frypan, Nick, and Alby, everyone wandered around then finally turned in for bed. Marie curled up in her hammock after another day of working in the Gardens. The work was never enough to tire her out like it used to. If anything it felt easy. She wanted to run around the Glade like she did at the Bonfire. Then she thought about Minho's subtle offer to make her a Runner and how she declined it. No matter how interesting it seemed to her, she could never handle it within those walls. She knew she was capable of doing such a task, but she cared too much for her sanity. Every opinion she had about the Maze always returned to Newt and how much it scarred him. She didn't want to see the things that made the once innocent boy grow up.