Escape to Paradise/Newt, book 2

Chapter 12

The next morning I woke up, and the first thing I noticed was that Newt wasn't there. Normally when I wake up, his warm arms are wrapped around my waist. But today, it was just the cold sheets. That was enough to bury a seed of doubt in my stomach as I got up, stretching my arms and walking over to the hallway door. As I reached for the handle, I heard voices outside.

"Newt neighbor, Huh? Who knew there'd be a cute guy like you right across the hall."

"Excuse me?" That was when a chill ran down my spine. I knew that voice all too well, and the accent was unmistakeable.

"You heard me. You're the first guy I've seen around here that doesn't look like he just crawled out of a hole." The same girl voice chirped. I held breath, waiting for Newts response.

"Well I appreciate that...I guess." He said uncomfortably. I could sense the awkward tone lacing his words. When he gets nervous, his voice gets slightly higher pitched.

"Where you going?" The girl said again. Newt sighed, and I could tell he was right outside the door now.

"Back to my room. Where my girlfriend is." Newt said finally. I scurried away from the door, into the bathroom. When the door opened, I was pretending to brush my teeth.

"I'm back." Newt sighed, shutting the door behind him.

"Where were you? I was worried." I said, poking my head through the door, toothbrush in hand.

"I went to go talk to Alby. Sorry, I didn't mean to worry you." Newt said, kissing me on the forehead.

"No worries." I smiled, continuing to brush my teeth.
"Who was that girl in the hallway?" I asked casually.

"Oh, her." His smile fell just slightly. "The new girl, across the hallway. She's shucking weird." He made a face, scrunching up his face.

"Okay, as long as nobodies taking my shuck-face." I teased. Newt rolled his eyes, walking over to the dresser.

"Whatever, slinthead. Nobody is gonna make me leave you, Alright?" He said, looking over his shoulder as he searched through the drawer for a clean shirt. He was still wearing pajamas after all.

"Good. Anyone even tries to take you and I'm fighting them." I said, pausing to spit in the bathroom sink.

"Well we don't want that, now do we. We don't need some poor kid on crutches now do we?" Newt laughed, turning away from the bathroom to grab a pair of pants off the top of a drawer.

"Well I did learn quite a things back in the glade from Gally. He wasn't a fan of playing by the rules either." I laughed. I threw my toothbrush into a drawer and walked out, Newt pulling his shirt off in the corner.

"Oh yeah, Captain Eyebrows. You guys used to be pretty close, I forgot." Newt said, slowly tossing his shirt into the dirty clothes bin inside the closet.

"Look, when we make it out, you know, to the safe haven....Gally isn't the same as he was before." Newt explained slowly.

"I Uh, I heard." I said sadly. Newt nodded.

"After you....after you died, he kind of became a loner. He didn't laugh, barely even smiled. None of us knew what was wrong with him, but...." Newt paused, clean shirt is hand as he turned to look at me.

"Now I know why. Oh, by the way." Newt paused, digging into his pants pocket. "Alby gave me this."

I took the folded sheet of paper, as Newt slipped his shirt over his head. I un-crumpled the paper, flattening it out with my palms.

"What....this is my file." I said, confused. Newt nodded, smoothing out his shirt. His hair was messed up, and he ran his fingers through it.

"That entire time you were in the glade, and he joked about being your brother, turns out he was right." Newt smiled.

"You're kidding." I breathed, scanning down the document. Sure enough, at the bottom of the Paige was a scribbled paragraph.

Subject 217, to be named Emmy Noether. Age 4 upon arrival. All known relationships up until this point, Adoptive Brother: age 5. To be named Gallileo.

"Wait, so Gally was my adopted brother?" I said, my curiosity getting the better of me.

"Apparently. Explains why you don't exactly look like each other." Newt said, standing right next to me and looking over my shoulder at the paper.

"Yeah. I guess it does." I whispered, folding it up. "That's crazy, i mean...even when I knew he was joking it was like, almost like we both knew. It didn't feel awkward at all when he called me his sister." I rambled, tucking it into my pocket.

"That explains why after you were gone it was like a piece was taken from him. He talked a lot less, barely ever came out of his room except to work, and, he was just different. I mean, when Tommy came up in the box they got in a fight almost every day." Newt added. I looked up at him.

"Tommy as in, you know..."

"Yeah. The one that got me....ejected, as you all call it." He mumbled. I nodded slowly.

"When you meet him, don't take that out on him, understand? I wanted it. I couldnt do that any longer." Newt explained. I nodded sadly. Newt kissed my forehead again, slipping his hand into mine.

"Come on, let's go get some breakfast, slinthead." He smirked. I rolled my eyes.

"After you, shuckface."