Saving Newt

Chapter 28

Hey,
Thank you so much for reading. I may be able to update once more before I go on holiday, I just decided to update now.
Please vote and comment, particularly on your own ideas of what might happen or what you might want to happen next.
Enjoy,
Annabelle_the_reader
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'Hey, Frypan!' Brianna said gleefully ambling towards him in the kitchen. She knew nothing compared to running, but she decided to keep an open mind because she needed something to do while in the Glade.

'Hey, Bri.' He grinned back cheerfully. No matter how protective of his kitchen Frypan was, he always appreciated an extra pair of hands around the kitchen. 'Can you help with the vegetables for lunch? I don't know how much you know about cooking, but you just need to chop 'em.'

Brianna nodded as enthusiastically as she could muster and began to amble over to begin preparing the vegetables, knowing how important vitamins are for the prevention against disease.

'So, how are you enjoying not running?' Frypan asked curiously, hating silence. Frypan adored cooking, but he always liked to be sociable as most of the day he spent in the kitchens, perfecting everything.

Brianna chuckled again, but didn't stop her therapeutic slicing, cutting and chopping. 'It sucks like a pile of klunk, Frypan.' She moaned and he laughed. 'Running is what I want to do, it's like telling you to stop cooking and go shucking water a shucking plant or something.'

Frypan replied with a defeated huff, realising exactly what she meant. Cooking was something he knew he was meant to do and he couldn't imagine what else there would be half as good as cooking. So, eventually, he said, 'I get it, Bri. I'm sorry.'

Frypan approached her and slapped some dead animal parts on the table, making her stomach churn. Brianna had never had a particularly weak stomach, but the animals were so disgusting and Frypan was so relaxed about that that her whole body wretched. 'Not a big fan of dead things, eh?'

'Not really. I can't see how you can slice that thing up and not want to vomit everywhere.' Brianna mused and he chuckled in turn.

'Maybe, Brianna, I'll keep you on chopping the vegetables and not carving the meat for now.' He teased and Brianna laughed, pleased that they were finally sort of getting along. It was the first time that Brianna had spoken to Frypan without the other Gladers, so she was pleased he didn't look like he wanted to throw his knife through her brain like Gally had. 'How's you and Newt?'

Brianna ignored his suggestive wink and laughed. 'Great, actually, I really like him.' She said, not friends with him enough to report how he was slightly jealous of Thomas, but it didn't matter because they trusted each other.

'I can see he loves you.' Frypan observed, stabbing at the meat and ripping apart its flesh, making my stomach churn. His eyes sparkled with happiness on her behalf and Brianna wrapped her fingers tighter around the knife, trying to keep my heart, already frozen beyond repair, warm enough to melt the outermost layers.

'Oh really?' Brianna scoffed. Frypan returned to his chopping, but his slices were more methodical and slow. She paused to think things through before replying, as if thinking of the best way to phrase things. 'I'm sorry to snap, it's just sometimes I doubt. Sometimes I wonder where he was when everything was falling apart. He just seems to find me cold, lost and insecure, a little too late. He finds me after everything is finished, so he can pick up the pieces, but not hold me close enough to protect me from smashing.'

'And it is for that very reason I know you love him too!' Frypan smiled knowingly and Brianna glanced up at him from her slicing in confusion. He sighed, putting down his knife as Brianna continued to chop vegetables. 'You wouldn't have complained if you didn't love him back. You love him beneath it all, don't you?'

'Yes.' Brianna shrugged and Frypan beamed triumphantly at his own intellect. 'He's the only person who's ever knows who I really am and who I'm not and who I was and who I want to be. I love him so much it hurts, Frypan, he's hurting me.'

'You guys are perfect for each other, your personalities combine to make one perfect person. It's cute.' Frypan said eventually, picking up his knife again and brutally slicing the meat in anger, making the slices spin off of the chopping board, before tossing them into the cooking pot.

Brianna valued her friendship with Frypan. They were the kind of friends that could sit there for hours without saying anything, but leave feeling like everything had been solved and they had had the deepest, most open conversation ever to have been conversed.