"So when did you- you know- fall in love with her?" Thomas smirked, knowing he had him right where I wanted him, with his head in Fionaland.
"Woah," Newt defeated with his hands up, "What?"
"I may be slow to getting to know things around here, but...
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As the lines between days became blurry, the emotional and physical toll that life on the run brought grew harder. Tensions in the RV were as strong as the smell. I hadn't spoken much on the journey here, none of us had. Aris and I walked side by side, which usually resulted in some sort of chatter but neither of us knew the right words to say. Once we made it to the RV I came to the conclusion that saying something, anything was better than the silence.
I walked to the backroom, finding him counting the broken ceiling tiles. I flopped down next to him, looking for answers to what was going on in his head.
He surprisingly was the first to speak, "Did you get along with Teresa when she came up?"
"I'm unsure." I thought about that for a second, searching my head, "But we talk little now, I wonder if there was something worth wondering about. Everyone is trying to get my memories back, except her. I had my boys."
A smile had spread across both of our faces, "When I came out of the maze and met the gladers. I nearly pissed myself the first time I talked to Frypan." We shared a laugh, now knowing that he's six foot three, soft. "Minho still scares me sometimes. But I had no problem talking to you."
"It makes sense that we would lose social abilities with our own gender. We didn't exactly have normal developmental times."
"It was funny to watch, looking back at it. In the cafeteria, back at the WCKD compound. We still divided ourselves. It wasn't just by maze, it was by gender. The girls sat on one side and the boys on the other. The girls didn't stop talking about all the boys, sneaking looks over at them. Anyone without their head in the cloud could recognize that the boys were doing the same. But neither of them knew how to talk to the other."
I chuckled, imagining Frypan trying to talk to another girl the same way he spoke to me. He might have just gotten punched in the face. "Perhaps we will be the last generation after all."
He snorted, putting his arm behind his head. The humor died down quickly and the stale silence came over us again. I knew where his worries accumulated in his head.
"They survived the maze, they can survive WCKD too."
"It doesn't make it any easier." He sighed.
"I know. I know. I'm sorry." I breathed out, "Tell me about them."
He started talking about his Icer's laughing about memories and their dumb ideas to get out of the maze. He held a blush when he talked about this girl, Rachel, idling on her longer than the rest. He told me about his Leader, Harriet, and the second in command, Sonya, who ran their maze called the Spring. Harriet reminded him of me and he talked about how they all made fun of Sonya's funny accent. The more he spoke the more I realized even though the mazes were different we were still in the same realm, each maze had its leaders, councils, job, and rules. Aris fell asleep that way, shifting into dreams of a time when he was back with his family in a place that was safer than this.
