SONDER (IV): tmr thomas

For those who've lived

One Year Later

For the first time in my life, I'm running late.

In fact, I barely have time to shove all of my supplies back into their proper drawers, let alone take inventory (although, I'm not really complaining). I jog out of the hut, making my way over to the cliffside. My shoes are getting worn, but I don't mind all that much. Soon, I'm going to be able to feel the grass when I run.

When I spot them, Saph waves at me. She is laughing with Beth, her hands running through the brunette's hair. "You're late."

"Sorry," I say, looking at Beth. It's too early to tell if our experimental treatment for her schizophrenia is working, but she hasn't attacked me out of a delusion in a year, which is a good sign. "Some builder sliced open his- none of you really want to know, or care to know about it. My bad."

"My bad," Gally corrects. He turns around to look at me, though one of his feet hangs over the side of the cliff.

I hate how he does that. One of these days, I'm worried that he is going to fall into the sea below and drown.

I find a spot between Thomas and Minho. When I sit down, Minho stiffens but says nothing. It's the best reaction we've gotten out of him in perhaps forever.

Thomas's hand lies in the grass, propping him up. His pinkie finger grazes mine. After a year of waiting, of close contact but never quite touching, I lock our fingers together.

"I get it," Saph tells me, oblivious to the tension going on between the two of us. "The daycare has been hectic. I don't know if I'm going to be able to manage it on my own much longer. People are starting to have kids now."

The tempting call of relaxation has escaped me now. Thankfully we still have that surgeon, although he is getting older and older every day. Soon enough, I'm going to be the one delivering babies.

"Harriet was just telling us about how elections are going," Beth nudges Harriet.

The other girl sticks out her tongue. "I'm going to win."

"You wish," Minho quips back, the smallest of a smile on his face.

"Minho's making some good promises for the artillery," Hilde winks at Harriet. "I mean, we can't really run a police force with sticks."

"You can always use ropes," Jay offers.

Hilde gently shoves him. Since Jay is built like a wall, he doesn't even teeter. Instead, he offers the beginning of a grin.

"Ropes might work as good traps for fish, but not so much for people," Hilde rolls her eyes. Her tongue pokes out, rubbing her bottom lip. When she turns to Jay, she flips the hair around her head. "Not that you'd know because you haven't really caught that much, have you? Some Keeper you are."

Teresa exhales through her nose, almost a laugh. I watch as her tense shoulders relax. "Both Minho and Harriet have made good promises to the exploration team, right guys?"

Aris nods in agreement but doesn't look up from the brown book that he has been holding. From here, I can barely see the drawing of a new flower which he is working on. Aris in charge of cataloguing every new thing which he comes across, along with the two students under him. When Aris insists upon coming with Teresa and Thomas, Thomas makes them split up, because he can't bare Aris' slow pace.

I can feel Thomas twirling my hair gently beside me. When these debates happen, which isn't often because it's rare that all of the Gladers are in the same spot at the same time, I always wonder why Thomas isn't going for power. He always responds by asking me the same thing.