"Take care of everyone, alright?" Alby patted my shoulder as the doors to the Maze opened. I nodded towards him and Minho, feeling my stomach turn as they both turned around and sprinted into the Maze.

I sighed and felt a body approach as I watched my two friends turn the corner and be devoured through the towering walls. I bit my bottom lip as she held my hand in hers. "It'll be okay, ya know... They'll be back in a few hours."

Deciding to not stress about it, I nodded and faced Mae. She was right, as always. They were the two best guys in the Glade. Of course they would be alright, Minho has run the Maze every day for almost two years straight, and Alby...well he was the leader. The best one out of all of us. I didn't know why I was so nervous. Maybe it was the fact that I was in charge of fifty stubborn boys and a new Greenie until they arrived.

Mae grabbed my cheek gently and looked into my eyes. "It'll be okay." She repeated. I nodded, taking a deep breath with her. I don't know how she did it, but every time my anxiety would start to spiral out of control, she always found a way to cheer me up and calm me down. It was like a superpower. I wouldn't be surprised if it was real, she seems too good to be human.

I gave her a small smile and leaned my head into her hand, feeling my heart race at the small gesture. "We should probably go. It's almost time for the guys to start waking up."

She nodded and removed her hand from my cheek, letting me feel the cold, morning air again. I looked into her eyes for another moment, noticing the dark circles that were under them. She probably hasn't gotten a good night's sleep in a while. From being drunk to mourning the death of the person who tried to kill her. I didn't feel the least bit sorry for Ben, he brought it upon himself. But I knew that Mae was going to have a hard time with it, and I did feel bad about not getting to speak to her before I went to bed.

"Did you get any sleep?" I asked her as I wrapped my hand around her waist, walking both of us towards the Homestead for breakfast.

"No," She shook her head casually, confirming my thoughts. "Did you?"

I shrugged. "Had a bloody hard time getting comfortable, but I think I drifted off eventually. Where did you go after?"

"Needed to clear my head." She fumbled with her fingers as she looked down at the grass, making me furrow my eyebrows. I studied her small hands, noticing that she had small cuts and bruises around her knuckles, and the pads of her fingertips were beginning to blister. She also had bandages wrapped around her palms, which I'm certain were not there the last time I saw her. I stopped walking and took her hands in mine, making her sigh.

"I'm fine." She told me. I shook my head and ignored her protest, lightly grazing my fingers over the cuts and bruises.

"Did you beat someone up?" I asked her with a breathy laugh, trying to hide my concern that she didn't want.

Mae shrugged and took her hands out of mine. "Maybe I did, you'll never know..."

I chuckled at her comment, wrapping my arm around her shoulders this time. It's crazy how hard it was for me to keep my hands off of her. I always just felt the need to touch any innocent part of her for some reason. Her arms, her knee, her shoulders...anything that I could. Ever since I saw the way that some of the guys looked at her, I felt the need to keep her close. And especially with what happened yesterday, she'd be dammed if I even let her out of my sight.

I wasn't possessive. Just protective. She didn't need me. She never has, but I always felt this overwhelming urge to just keep her close as if she'd slip through my fingers at any moment. And now that things were changing around the Glade, I felt that pull more than ever.

"Newt..." I heard someone call my name from my left as we just began to walk again. I stopped in my tracks and looked over my shoulder, seeing Thomas the Greenie standing nervously by himself. He had dark circles under his eyes as well, but it didn't surprise me one bit. I pulled a small smile onto my lips and tried to be as nice as I could towards the newbie who's been put through the bloody ringer in his first two days.

"Tommy," I greeted him, turning Mae and I to face him. "What's up?"

He clenched his jaw and looked down at the floor, his body reeking of anxiety and stress. "Um...I-I was just wandering if I could work with you and Mae today?"

Surprised at the question, I raised my eyebrows and looked down at her, seeing her already looking up at me with those big brown doe eyes that always made me weak at the knees. She blinked at me with obvious sympathy showing for Thomas, and I knew that maybe I should give him a small break to recover before working with the bloody piggies and scooping up klunk all day long.

So, I nodded. "Course. But only today—tomorrow you're going with Winston. Deal?"

"Yeah." He sighed of relief. I looked at him for a second, really taking in his appearance. He looked like he just got out of the seventh circle of hell. His blue shirt was still dirty from his adventure yesterday, and his hair was all oily. I crinkled my nose up and removed my arm from around Mae's shoulders, waving for Thomas to follow me.

"C'mon," I motioned. "I'm gonna show you a little thing called the showers. You'll feel a thousand times better, trust me. And after, you can thank Maisy here for enforcing the rule that everyone had to take a shower first thing at the wake up."

Mae giggled, sending a wave of happiness through my body. I smiled back at her and winked, leading Thomas across the grass and to the showers. Once we were a long enough distance from her, Thomas jogged up to my side and started with the questions again.

"What's up with you two?" He asked looking back at Mae, making me cock my eyebrow. "Are you two like together?"

"No," I answered quickly with a nervous laugh. "Wh-Why?"

He shrugged. "It just seems like you are. So, she's not with anyone?"

I glared at him, feeling my heart start to race at all of these strange questions about Mae and I. The truth was, I had absolutely no clue what we were. Obviously we were friends, but it sure as bloody hell felt like a whole lot more. And I couldn't help but daydream sometimes about what it would be like if we were actually together.

"No," I answered again sternly. "Why? Do you like her?"

Thomas was quick to shake his head, making me hold back a sigh of relief. "I think she's nice...and funny, but I don't like her. Not like that. D-Do you like her?"

I furrowed my eyebrows, suddenly getting defensive. The Greenie didn't have to know about my love life. I hardly even had one. Hell, I could hardly tell the difference between a friend and a friend, so how was I supposed to know what category Mae and I fell under? "Why are you asking me about this?"

He shrugged as we entered the showers. "I'm just curious..."

"Well don't be," I scolded him, turning around to point at the head of the shower. "You know how to use this buggin' thing?"

"Yeah," He answered slowly. "It's a shower."

I rolled my eyes at him and sighed. "Look who grew some nice right-sized eggs over night... Hurry up, ya get two minutes, Greenie." I turned around, leaving him to be the first one to shower. As I exited the small building, a couple of boys were beginning to line up, holding a fresh pair of clothing under each of their arms. I nodded in approval, the line showing just how much they loved Mae's rule.

It baffled me how much she was able to make a bloody difference in the Glade after being here for only a month. The guys all loved her, and tried to protect her. That's why the decision about what to do with Ben was so easy to make yesterday. Everyone was so upset, even Clint started to cry. He told me that he felt so bad that he couldn't help her with her breathing. Told me that he didn't do his job well enough. I calmed him down and said it wasn't his fault, but that it was Ben's. Mae didn't have her inhaler anymore, thanks to him. Now it was buried underneath all of the bush and dead sticks of the Deadheads. Some guys went in to look for it, but they always came out with nothing in their hands.

I walked to the Homestead, looking for the same girl I was thinking about. I was always thinking about her though. She was sitting with Chuck, watching him as he talked to her and carved into that same piece of wood he had been working on all week when he had free time. The closer I looked, the more I noticed that she was holding something in her hand as well. It looked like a piece of string that was braided together, the ones from the Greenie party a few nights before.

Deciding to let them be for now, I made my way over to Frypan to grab some breakfast. I wasn't really hungry, but I knew I needed energy.

"Hey, Newt," He greeted me as I stepped up to his makeshift window. "Alby and Minho gone already?"

I tapped on the wood with my fingers. "Yep. left a couple minutes ago. Should be back before too long."

He nodded, handing me a plate of bacon and eggs. "Do you think they'll find him?"

"No," I replied, popping a piece of the food in my mouth. "Grievers got him, I'm sure of it. And if they didn't then he probably just dropped dead from the sting."

Frypan agreed. "Yeah, makes sense. How's Mae and the Greenie holdin' up?"

I shrugged, not knowing the answer. I didn't have a chance to speak to Mae after the event happened, and I didn't even really want to speak to Thomas. I needed time to think.

"Dunno," I replied. "They both seem a little off. Tommy's workin' with me today though... Figured that choppin' up bloody pigs all day wouldn't be the best thing to get him to do after that."

Fry laughed. "Smart. He seems weird though. Different." He pointed to the door of the Homestead, and I just had time to see Thomas as he searched the room, his eyes finally landing on Mae and Chuck. He began to walk towards them, his body now clean and his hair still damp from the cold water. They greeted him happily as he sat down across from them, probably asking more questions.

I turned back to Frypan. "Yeah. Things are different now... Just gotta keep an eye on him."

I bid him goodbye and took my plate of food, making my way back to the table where Thomas had just taken a seat at. I sat down next to him. "Have a good shower, Greenie?"

"It's...It's Thomas." He said in almost a whisper. I chuckled and patted him on the back, shaking my head and looking up at Mae, who sent me a small smile.

Eventually, we all finished breakfast and went to work chopping up a tree trunk from the ground. Chuck and Thomas sat against a fallen tree, while Zart, Mae, and I were busy hitting our machetes against the stump. I had told Mae that she needed to take it easy and rest, but she assured me that she was fine, and that the cut on her back didn't hurt as much anymore. I told her that I wasn't as worried about that as I was her breathing, and I thought she was going to burn a hole in my head with the look she gave me. So, I just shut up and let her work in hopes of not being killed.

Thomas, on the other hand, had little to no injuries, and he was relaxing with Chuck.

"Why did Alby go into the Maze?" He asked, the questions suddenly starting again. I stood up straight and breathed in through my nose, looking down at Mae who was trying her hardest not to smile. "I mean, he's not—he's not a Runner."

I sighed and looked up at him. "Things are different now. Alby went to retrace Ben's footsteps before sundown," I clenched my jaw at the boy sitting down. "Look, are you gonna help?"

"Okay so he's gonna go back to where Ben was just stung? Wh—"

"Alby knows what he's doing," I defended him, giving a sideways glance at Mae. "Alright? He's better than any of us."

Thomas looked down to the ground as I started hitting the trunk again. "What does that mean?"

Mae rolled her eyes and turned around to face him, shaking her head but not answering. I gripped the base of the trunk and stood up again, taking a deep breath to calm myself down before I just decided to answer him. "Alright. It's like you've heard, yeah? Every month, the Box sends up a new arrival. Someone had to be first, right? Someone had to spend a whole month in the Glade alone. That was Alby."

I turned around and started to get back to work, hoping that there was no more questions coming from the Greenie again. He was nice, but he was shucking annoying. But when he didn't ask another question, I kept talking, hitting my machete against the trunk as I did so.

"It can't have been easy. But when those other boys started comin' up, one after the other, he saw the truth," I grunted as the blade got stuck on a piece of wood. "And he learned that the most important thing is that we all have each other."

Mae pulled back to look at me, the new piece of information sparking her interests as well. I continued to look at her. "Cause we're all in this together."

She nodded, agreeing with my words. It always surprised me at how she was able to contain herself enough to not ask about the things that made her curious. The Greenie seemed like he had no self control, while Mae just learned along the way. It was one of the many things I admired about her. Every day since the moment she came up in the Box, she's intrigued me in different ways. Her ability to not ask questions was only one of many.

But as I talked about Alby, I realized that him and Minho weren't back yet. I put the thought aside as I chopped on the tree, my worries starting to increase. But I couldn't let it show. I had to keep my cool or else everyone else would lose it as well. That's the last thing we need right now. Things were already changing enough.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Thomas arise from his position on the trunk, and he grabbed a machete, walking forward and dropping down to his knees. I moved out of the way as I observed the way he hit it, striking the base of the stump.

"Yeah," I smiled, looking down as he finally helped us out. "There ya go, Greenie!"

Mae let out a small chuckle, copying Thomas' way of hitting the bottom with her machete. I had to keep it to myself, but she looked really pretty doing that. I smiled down at her, but just when I was going to hit the trunk again, Thomas looked up at the walls of the Maze, checking to see if anyone had come through them. Mae noticed and she straightened her back.

"It's alright, Thomas," She gave him a comforting smile. "Don't worry, they'll be back before lunch." Her eyes met mine, telling me that she was uncertain of the words she just spoke. I swallowed and kept hitting the stump, knowing that they should've been back by now.

Lunch wasn't any better. I couldn't bring myself to eat Frypans stew as I stared off into space at a table underneath an awning. My jaw was clenched in worry, and my mind was racing of the worst possible situations that could happen. But when the boys came up to me, asking where Alby was, I plastered a fake smile on my face and pretended like everything was okay. That was something I had learned to do easily in my years of being stuck in this place.

"Hey," A familiar soft voice that immediately warmed my heart and broke the terrible thoughts from my head as she sat next to me, setting her bowl of stew onto the table. "You okay?"

I nodded, but I knew that she could see right through my mask. "Mhmm, just tired."

She glared at me as I kept my eyes on the food, too ashamed to look at her after I lied.

"Don't do that." She told me in a soft voice, placing her hand gently on my knee to comfort me.

Only then did I take my gaze away from the table and move it to her face. My heart squeezed as I looked into her worried eyes, not not only were they for Alby and Minho, but they were for me as well. I shrugged, keeping up the stupid lying act. "What do you mean?"

"Pretend you're okay when you're not." She whispered, making my jaw clench. I inhaled a shaky breath through my nose at her words that have never been spoken to me before. If only I had heard them a little earlier, then I probably wouldn't have a scar on my heart, and a limp in my leg. I felt my eyes start to glaze over with tears as I took my hand in hers.

"It'll be okay." She murmured to me, squeezing my fingers. I nodded and blinked away the tears.

They'll be back, I repeated the thought in my head like a chant when something wet hit our intertwined fingers. I furrowed my eyebrows and looked up at the sky, only to have another drop land right in between my eyebrows.

"It's raining..." I spoke to myself in confusion. My head turned to look at the other Gladers who seemed to be just as confused as I was. As the sprinkles of water started to come down faster, some of the boys stood up and took their lunch under the same awning Mae and I sat beneath. I swung my legs over the bench and stood the both of us up, walking over to a pole where the water couldn't seep through the fabric.

I leant against it, hearing the rain and watching all of the other boys scramble to seek shelter as we all watched the East doors. Mae kept her hand in mine, even if I could feel the drops of sweat roll down my fingers. Thomas looked back at me with frantic eyes, and I squeezed Mae's fingers, feeling her squeeze back as the boy approached.

"They should be back by now," He informed me as if I didn't already know. I subtly nodded, not wanting to speak to anyone at the moment. But apparently he thought different. "Newt? What's gonna happen to them?"

I turned my head slowly to meet his eyes, and I licked my bottom lip, squeezing out the last of my hope that I had in me. "They're gonna make it."

Thomas sighed in frustration and looked back at the walls, then back at me. "Yeah, but what if they don't?"

I felt Mae squeeze my hand again, listening to our entire conversation but deciding not to speak. I ran my thumb over her knuckles, looking at the Greenie again and staring him dead in the eye. "They're gonna make it."

As soon as the rain stopped, it was like a flip switched in all of us. We sprinted towards the doors and all huddled around the opening, making sure that the tips of our toes didn't go farther than the grass stopped.

I kept Mae's hand in mine, refusing to let go for my own mental well-being. Thomas shoved his way into the front along with Gally and Chuck.

Staring down the dark corridor, I had a flashback of when I was a Runner. Stretching with Minho every day before any of the guys were awake...we were a team. Him and I. We were always making jokes together in the Maze, laughing to forget how depressing each day was. Eventually the laughing got old, and we both had to live with the idea that there might not be a way out. I gained my hope from him—or should I say I kept it. He was always telling me that he would find a way out, even if it was the last thing he ever shucking did. That's why I needed him to book it back through these bloody walls right now.