𝐑𝐞𝐝𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐲 - Maze Runner, Newt

Chapter sixty-one - Day Off

I woke up in the same position as the night before; I was lying on top of Newt, his arm was tightly wrapped around me, and one of his hands was in my hair. Daylight shined into the room, making me think it was already late.

'Newt!' I whisper-yelled. 'I need to run.'

He let out a few grunts and opened his eyes.

'I need to run.' I repeated.

At first, he frowned and blinked a few times, but eventually, he responded. 'No, you don't. We have a day off, remember love?'

'Oh, yeah.' I relaxed my body again.

'Do you want breakfast? It's already late. We slept in.' Newt said.

'Sure.' I replied. Newt removed his arm from my waist and I got off him. Quickly I put on some clothes and Newt put on the pants he wore the other day.

'Let's go.' Once we got dressed Newt grabbed my hand and lead me toward the kitchen.

'Morning, Fry.' Newt greeted.

'Hey, you guys. Slept in I see?' Frypan chuckled as he put food on our plates. I noticed we didn't have much food left. Was it because the Box didn't come back up?

'Thank you, Frypan.' I smiled when he handed us our food. I and Newt sat down at a table and started eating.

'Who's leading the Glade now? Alby doesn't talk yet.' I wondered.

'Logan told us not to worry about it.' Newt replied.

'What's this between you and him, huh?' I asked when I felt Newt tense up, again.

'Nothing.' Newt muttered.

I raised my eyebrows.

'I don't like how he protects you.' Newt explained. 'Not that I don't want you to be protected! No.' He quickly added. 'But just the way he does it. So... stern.' Newt tried to find the right words. 'He just grabs your wrist even when you said you don't want to show it. Are you even okay with that?'

'I'd rather not have him do that, yes. But he can't do much about it.' I sighed.

'What do you mean?'

I hesitated about telling Newt about Logan's anger. 'He gets angry fast and can't really control it.' I finally answered. 'If you might've noticed.'

'I think I did.' Newt responded.

In silence, we continued eating our food. It wasn't uncomfortable, it was nice actually.

'I haven't had a day off since... I don't even know.' Newt sighed and let out a chuckle.

'Why didn't you?' I wondered. 'You could've asked, right?'

'I'm the second-in-command and can't just take a day off. Even if I had to, I still wouldn't do it. I'm afraid things will get out of hand.'

'I'm glad you have a day off now.' I smiled lightly. 'To be honest, you seemed a little stressed.'

'Well, I am stressed. We have a lack of food so people are getting moody. I don't even know if there's a way out of the maze. You get me worried every time you go into the maze. Alby's not talking or doing anything. People are getting into fights. Gally's acting like a jerk and he takes others with him. Everything gets me bloody stressed.'

I was shocked by Newt's words. How didn't I notice all the things he was struggling with?

'But right now I'm fine. We have a day off so we should just relax instead of worrying about the Gladers.' Newt decided. When he saw I finished my food he got up and grabbed my hand. Without saying anything he lead me to the wooden tower and we started climbing. Once we were on top of it, we sat down.