I'm Sorry Tommy

Why do you hate me?

Blinking through the aggressive darkness of my surroundings, I struggle to find my bearings.

"Hello?" My croaky voice echoes through the blackness.

Where am I? Who am I? Questions flood my brain, as I try to recollect anything from my memory. But I am left with a great blank.

A jolt of panic courses down my spine and as I attempt to identify the space around me. Stretching out my arm, I hesitantly brush my hands along the walls that surround me. A metallic surface meets my fingertips and I quickly pull my arm back, surprised. I decided to explore some more and soon after, I came to the frightening conclusion that I was, in fact, sitting inside some sort of metal box. An elevator? Lift? I scrambled to my knees and quickly stand up. How did I know what that was? How did I know what an elevator was, and not my own name? Sitting back down, I clutch my legs with my arms as panic courses through my body as the minutes tick by, and the hours crawl past.

An unfamiliar voice breaks the lonely silence. "Rise and shine greenie. My warmest welcome to the glade. Enjoy your stay."

Blinding light pours into the cage-like room and I snap my eyes shut in shock, only to open them again and squint at the person standing above me. My eyes struggle to adjust to the harsh brightness and I lift my hand up to cover my eyes.

"Where am I?" I gasp, as I peek through my fingers and fix my eyes on a group of teenage boys peering down at me, amused expressions playing on their faces.

"Well shank, if you ever find out, let me know." A boy with dirty blonde hair replies snarkily.

I try my very best to shake off the rude comment and try to focus on the situation at hand, instead of how beautiful the stranger is.

I blink rapidly, confirming my terrifying suspicion that this is in fact real, and not a dream.

An Asian boy offers his hand, and I take it. His grip was firm and steady and for some strange reason it gave me comfort. He pulls me out of the box onto the ground.

"The name's Minho. What's yours? Do you know?"

"Uh, T - Thomas. I think." I stammer, processing the realisation that I finally knew my name. Thomas. The name clicked.

"Good that. Some greenies don't even know their names at the beginning. Ignore Newt, he doesn't have the best manners at times." Minho says, taking a firm grasp of my shoulder and steering my staggering legs across the grass, away from the pack of boys still standing around the box. I could just make out the boy with the dirty blonde hair pointing down at the box and barking orders at the others around him. I stared as some of them jumped down and began to unload items from the box up onto the ground as Newt just stood there watching them.

Suddenly, his gaze lifted to mine and I couldn't look away. I tried to smile at him and expected some sort of friendly wave but instead received a frown. Breaking the gaze, I shook my head - I should stop thinking about him, I get the feeling he didn't want to be wasting his time with a 'greenie' like me.

I don't remember much of my life before the glade, but the feeling of being unwanted is not as unfamiliar as I would want it to be.

"Why am I here?" I turned to face Minho once again.

"Well as Newt has already told ya, if you find out, let us know." Minho chuckled, still walking me towards a big hut.

Newt. I loved that name.

"What are you smiling at?" Minho was looking at me with a confused, yet amused look on his face.

I wiped the dumb smile off my face, dismissing him with a "nothing."