CHAPTER THIRTEEN
• be my girl •

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HER HANDS WORKED through the strands of hair on Chuck's head, snipping away an inch at all of the pieces. The two exchanged friendly conversation as he sat on a log with her standing over him. Metal scissors-usually used by Med-jacks-were chosen for the task. The rest of the equipment included a bucket, water, and a dry towel. Besides that, all she needed was for the little boy to sit still so no excess hair got accidentally chopped off.

The rest of her friends were in the surrounding area, too. Alec had taken it upon himself to help cut some of the boys hair-Evony had a suspicion it was because he wanted to fit in-so now he was currently trimming the top of Frypans hair. Newt was also keeping watch over them-and honestly everyone-as they did their work.

Then there was the last trio. Minho, Max and Ben. Those three were off in the corner laughing about something presumably stupid. Though only the first boy was getting anything done to him, since the other two had decided a couple days ago to shave off their hair for the rest of the summer.

She had suspicions it had to do with a bet they lost, but that might've just been her.

Currently she was helping Chuck, and then after she offered to cut Thomas' hair as well. He had agreed almost instantly and she had been relieved; she didn't trust Alec or anyone else to not mess up on the boys haircut.

Her hands wove through the little boys wet hair. She had found that wetting hair before cutting made it a lot easier to get precise amounts rather than doing it dry. Evony held up another piece and snipped off the dead ends; just as she did Chuck looked down to the ground at his fallen hair.

She whipped back the scissors, afraid to make another cut while he was shifting around in his seat. "Remember, you can't move while I'm doing this," she reminded him. Chuck nodded then abruptly stopped once he realized that was only causing more movement.

"Why not?"

Evony flinched at the sudden voice. Once again she pulled the metal object away from the peice of hair and faced the culprit with a scowl.

She hated that it had to be Thomas, because she couldn't be mad at him for disturbing her. Not when he pulled his lips into a frown and tilted his head in confusion.

Returning to her task, she held up another piece and measured out an inch; then chopped it off. "If he moves I could accidentally make a mistake; I'm not great at this so I'd rather keep the possibilities of failure to a low level."

"What kind of mistake?" Chuck piped up in worry. After all, he was the one she was currently working on.

"Let's talk about something else," Evony suggested. Conversation about messing up was only making her more anxious to do her job correct.

Thomas nodded, coming around her backside so he could sit on the log next to Chuck. His elbows rested on his knees as he looked up at her concentrated face with a smile.

He didn't know what was happening to him. Every time he looked at her a fluttery feeling-which he could only describe as affection-filled his stomach, warming his heart. It was such a pleasant feeling too; that was the scary part of it all.

"Chuck, do you want the front short of long?" Evony asked, stepping over the log so she could be in front of him. She was blind to Thomas watching her every movement, observing the subtle way her fingers rubbed against each other and how her hair blew with the breeze.

"Uh-," Chuck paused in thought, glancing over to the brunet who was sitting next to him. "How are you getting yours done?"

Thomas snapped up, fixing his posture and repositioning his eyes so they were on the boy. "Oh, probably on the longer side."

Chuck frantically nodded, "Okay, yeah. Yes. I want it however you're doing it."

"Why?"

Evony kicked Thomas' foot with her own, resulting in their eyes meeting in a rather alarmed way. He peered at her with wonder, questioning with his pupils what he had done wrong. She only mouthed 'later' to him and dropped the subject after that.

"That sounds great, Chuck," she said softly, already beginning to trim the hairs above his forehead. Thomas was confined to sitting there with a pout on his face, not liking how he didn't know what was going on.

After only a few more minutes, Evony pulled back from the log and dropped her supplies on the ground. She took a seat next to Thomas on the log, placing her hands by her side while accidentally brushing his.

"Am I done?"

"Yep," Evony stood back up, placing one hand on the younger boy's back, "Let's go show our friends how amazing you look."

She guided him to where most of the guys were, and drew their attention with a clap of the hand. Instantaneously compliments were showered on Chuck.

"You look so good, little man," Minho said, ruffling his damp hair.

"Hell, yeah," Ben agreed.

"You look better than any of us." That was Frypan; he had come over and given the boy a quick side hug.The rest of them made quick remarks, soon getting into an argument over who had the best haircut-besides Chuck, of course.

After all was said and done, she returned back to where Thomas was, except now he was standing instead of sitting. The youngest glader came over with her, immediately engulfing the brunet in a hug.

When he did pull away, his hands went to his head, pointing at his hair. "You like it?" he asked cheerfully. Thomas nodded, placing his hands on the boy's shoulders.

"I love it, buddy," he smiled at Chuck then looked past him to where Evony was standing a few feet away. She was entranced as she watched the two boys embrace and share a heartfelt moment. It was adorable seeing the way Thomas cared for him-the same way she cared for the young boy.

The moment was interrupted by one of Chuck's friends calling him over from the gardens. He waved the two teens goodbye and jogged to meet up with the boy.

That left Thomas and Evony alone-well not completely but close enough. They smiled at each other before she pointed for him to sit on the log and take a seat.

"I have to wet your hair first," she told him, already reaching down for the bucket full of water.

"Why?"

"Because it's easier," she explained, "Now lean your head back."

Thomas did as he was told. She helped him by holding his head in her hand and slowly lowering it. Her fingers then reached for the rag; she dipped it into the bucket then ran it over his head. She repeated this process until the entirety of his hair was soaked.

Evony held onto his head for stabilization the whole time, also helping him lean back up so he wouldn't hurt his neck.

"I'll start with the back," It wasn't a question but she still wanted to make sure he knew she was about to start. "You want your hair like Chucks, right?"

"Yeah, except could you keep it a bit longer in the front."

"Sure." Evony isolated a strand of hair and smoothed it flat with her fingers. Then running her hand through more hair, she pulled the bunch out to see the full length. "It's really long."

"I-I know, I hate it."

She questioned the stutter for a moment, but let it go once she confirmed he was fine. Silently laughing, she began to snip away at the strands of hair. Honestly she had little clue what she was doing-she only did her best and hoped it didn't look like klunk.

"Why'd you hate it?" Evony asked. Now she felt like Thomas, prying for an answer because she couldn't drop the topic.

"It tickled the sides of my face," he started, sinking his body lower, "I don't know-it was annoying."

Her hands wove through the back of his hair again, making sure the pieces were even before stepping over to the other side of the log. Evony stepped in between Thomas' legs, her hands finding home on top of his head once again. He wanted to look up at her, but he wasn't unable to do so without moving. He settled on staring at her boots.

"I think the shaggy hair suited you," she said quietly after a couple minutes passed. Evony dropped her gaze down to the boys, meeting his eyes that were already looking up at hers.

She smiled and looked away, going back to focusing on his hair so she didn't get distracted anymore than she already was.

Evony was working on the left side of his head when she felt a sudden pull against her own scalp. Her hand flew to the pain but felt nothing; she then glanced down at the boy in front of her. His pupils were wide, one hand clutched to his chest while the other was halfway between his knee and the loose hair that fell out when she tied it up.

Thomas began to spurt out apologies. "Sorry, I shouldn't have. I should ask, you said you don't like your hair touched. I'm sorry, Evs. I didn't-"

"Hey, hey. It's fine," she reassured. Evony hadn't realized that it was him touching her hair when the pain shot from her head.

Her first thought as she went to finish up on him was that he was going to try to feel her hair again. For some reason that didn't make her irritated like it did when Max or Minho jokingly played with it. Evony didn't know what that meant, maybe she just felt overly comfortable with him. After all, she knew that he would stop anything if she said it made her uncomfortable.

"Hey, uh- another question," Thomas perked up.

"What is it?"

"Why'd you kick me earlier? When we were with Chuck."

Evony sighed, knowing that action had probably scrambled the poor boy's mind. She cut off an inch of hair, "He looks up to you, you know."

"He does?" Thomas said, voice filled with curiosity, "Why?"

She stopped what she was doing, memories of her talks with the younger boy coming back to her mind. "He thinks you're like a superhero for saving me. It's all he ever talks about."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Her voice was soft; she could tell he was having trouble processing the admiration someone was giving him.

He shook his head. Evony didn't have time to tell him to stop moving; his words stopped her own. "I'm not a hero," he mumbled.

She looked at him even though he wasn't looking back at her. There was a weight bearing on his chest, and she knew it. Evony knew he felt responsible for the way the Glade has been acting lately. She knew he felt it was his fault for the box not coming back up. "Well you're his hero," she affirmed, "And I think that should be enough."

Thomas sat in silence the rest of the time-which wasn't long-until the very end where he asked if she was going to dry his hair. Evony answered yes, and grabbed a dry towel from the ground to let him dry his head with it.

"All done," she moved a step back, but still close enough so she could reach forward and ruffle his hair. One stray piece stood up out of place, so instinctively she stepped back forward and ran her fingers through it until it layed down with the others.

"Okay, now done."

Thomas stood up, "Thank you-"

"Evony! Get over here."

Both of the gladers whipped their heads to see a furious Alby waving at them from a distance. She sucked in her lips, pretending to be scared of being summoned over. "The boss is calling," she joked, "See you later, pretty boy."

Evony didn't hear him say goodbye; if he had it was drowned out by the wind whipping at her ears as she ran to meet her leader.

Alby was standing in the middle of the vast grassland, his hands were in his pockets and a scowl was placed on his face. She knew she was needed for something. Unless she did something wrong, but she couldn't think of anything at the moment. She settled for the first option. "Hey, Alby."

"Go to the dead-heads and write the name of the fallen gladers," he instructed, pushing a piece of pencil and paper in her hand.

Evony was taken back from the order. She knew those names by heart; so did he, so why was he asking her to go find something they both already knew. "I could tell you them, if you-"

"No, go make a list and give it to me when you're done." His voice remained direct, but she saw the smallest glissten of tears in his eyes. That's when her brain finally caught up with her words. He wanted to mourn them-especially Nick. Every glader had tried to find some way to forgive themselves for the others' death; it seemed that this was Albys way. If reading their list of names was the way he could finally come to peace, then she would without a doubt go write them down.

She nodded, and Alby kept his gaze hard. Then the two separated, her going to the forest and him going who knows where. Evony knew the spot by memory after all the times she had come there herself. Her hand began scribbling the names of the fallen as she remorsed in their shared memories.

It was just as she finished and was starting to walk back to Alby, when she heard loud feet sound behind her. She didn't have a moment to turn though, because the next few seconds were filled with the person charging her from behind.

He stopped about a foot away from her. Aaron stopped about a foot away from her.

"Evony," he addressed.

The first thing she noticed was that he looked mad, so she took a step back. But he only took another one forward. "Aaron, what are you doing?"

"I need to talk to you."

"Uh-," she paused, searching the area for the best escape path if things got bad, "You can talk to someone else, I'm not in the mood."

He took another step forward; she took two back. "No, I have to talk to you."

"I'm sure Newt or Alby would be glad to-"

"Evony!" he exclaimed, his voice rising a substantial amount, "Don't you get that what I have to say is personal?"

"Yeah- but I bet either of them would be kind enough to-"

"I'm not going to talk to them about Thomas!" he shouted, low enough so nobody in the surrounding area would hear. Her heart started pounding; the worst possible outcomes were already playing in her head.

"Well, you know. Newt is like Thomas' best friend. He knows a lot about him," she tried to reason, but Aaron didn't seem to be having it.

He scoffed, cracking his knuckles against the side of his body. "What's up with you and the greenie?"

"He's not the greenie."

"He's still the newest," Aaron shot back.

Evony raised her eyebrows, "Thomas has been here for three months. I don't think that counts as new anymore."

"Are you sleeping with him?"

Her heart stopped for a second, "No. Why do you even-"

"Is he your boyfriend?"

"No, I'm confused. Is that what this is about?" she questioned, looking over her shoulder to see that they were slowly moving closer to the outer tree line.

His eyes locked on hers. "I've been having these visions. I think they're past memories. You two are always in them."

Her weak attempt of a laugh fell short, "That's disturbing," she cleared her throat, "But if you're having visions you should definitely talk to someone."

"I'm talking to you."

"Someone other than me." Her anxiety was getting worse, she could feel it crippling up her body, causing her to freeze under pressure.

He charged at her again, "You know what's not fair. The way Thomas has been here all of two seconds, yet he gets to go around acting like you're his everything."

"We're not dating."

"Oh come on, Evs," he taunted, making sure to amplify the nickname with the pronouncement, "Don't you think that term is a bit subjective?"

At this point she was enraged. He had no right harassing her with questions she didn't want to answer. Aaron was an asshole; he deserved to pay for the pain he inflicted on others. "You dick!" she yelled, "You don't get to say anything like that!"

"Evony, listen to me. We would be perfect for eachother..."

"Do you hear yourself? Aaron, when are you going to understand that I don't like you!" she snapped. Her face swelled with anger, her tone of voice cold and unforgiving.

"Be my girl, Evs. We can-"

Evony-so full of rage-did the first thing she could think of to release her anger. In a sudden motion, she brought her knee up and kicked the boy in the groin. Hard.

"Asshole," she spit, glaring at him one more time before turning around and walking out of the forest.

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Thomas didn't have a chance to say goodbye; Evony had already sprinted away before he had a chance to mutter a word. His hands went to his head, running his fingers through the freshly cut hair. It felt a lot shorter, for which he was glad. He didn't like the way the long hair fell on his forehead.

He turned back around and joined the rest of the boys who were sitting against the logs. Minho greeted him first from his spot on the wood. It seemed at the moment Alec was taking responsibility for cutting the Keepers hair.

"There's lover-boy!" he exclaimed. Thomas couldn't see his face-the slicer's back was blocking him-but he knew a smirk laid on his lips.

His face reddened; his hands rubbed against his pants. "Hi, guys."

"Thomas, my man," Max greeted, rising out of his seat and coming to clamp a hand around his shoulder. He led the brunet over to the log, and sat him down in between him and Ben.

"So, Thomas," Frypan started. He stood across from them, over-watching Alec and Minho along with Newt. "Did you enjoy the haircut?"

"I think he enjoyed the person who was giving the haircut," Ben cut in with a laugh.

Newt nodded in agreement, "We saw you blushing, Tommy. There ain't no hiding that."

Thomas licked his lips, his hands still rubbing on his pant legs. "I- well, it's because her hands were in my hair and I didn't know-"

"Yes, she had her hands innocently in your hair while you not so innocently sat there red-faced," Minho spoke up. His voice was a bit quieter from getting drowned out by Alec's body but it still got the point across.

"I wasn't thinking anything bad," he defended himself.

Frypan gave a content nod, "You better not have. Or else you'd have six boys ready to beat you up."

"Oh, give the boy a break. It was adorable the way he practically melted in front of her," said Max.

Minho gave a sharp laugh, "Adorable? Max, you sure you haven't taken a liking to him."

"Sounds to me you're jealous if I have."

"Now why would I be jealous?"

Thomas waved his hands, "Can we stop talking about you guys liking me, please."

"Sure," Frypan concluded, "I mean it's not like you would do anything about it anyway. Your minds already set."

"Can we try to have a conversation without humiliating me?"

"No," everybody except Newt and Alec chorused at once. Thomas rolled his eyes, moving to get up off the log. He was stopped by both Max and Ben who took it upon themselves to keep him in place.

He let out a heavy sigh, "How do you all know about this anyway? About me liking her."

"It's easy."

"It's actually the most obvious thing ever."

He glared at both Frypan and Max, them both simultaneously shrugging in response. He didn't enjoy the teasing that came with being around them. It made him feel that he was a fool for liking her, when in reality that's not what he thought at all.

Thomas had just gotten to the topic to drop when a loud shriek came from the other log. Alec abruptly stepped away from the log, dropping the razor onto the ground and backing up a few feet away. Everybody was up in an instant, moving to get a closer look on what had happened.

He saw it almost immediately. A patch of black hair that was at least an inch shorter than all the other pieces.

Minho stood up too, facing the group and their shocked faces. Several of them were trying not to laugh, but Thomas could only stand there with an open mouth. The Keepers hands flew to the back of his head, feeling a source of panic. "What- what happened!"

Max and Ben were dying laughing now, the two of them leaning against each other to keep one another from falling. Newt and Frypan were standing off to the side, not making a noise as they watched the scene fold out in front of them.

And then there was Alec.

Minho must've at some point felt the shorter spot, because in a split second he was pointing at the shorter boy, demanding an explanation. "What did you do!"

"I- I didn't mean to-" Alec tried, stuttering through his words. Newt grabbed at his hand and pulled him away and off to the side.

"My hair, what have you done to my hair," he looked around frantically for anything he could attempt to see himself in, but of course there was nothing. Perhaps the pond would've worked, but it was too far away to make a quick dash to.

"Evony! I need Evony to fix this!" he searched the crowd of them, "Where did she go?"

"She left a while ago, I saw her go into the forest," Thomas recalled, "I'll go get her."

"Hurry, before it gets worse."

"I don't think that's how it works-" Frypan corrected. Thomas heard the boys laugh collectively behind him as he headed for the woods.

There was a slight jog in his step as he walked, quickly trying to find the girl before Minho could throw another tantrum. He also just wanted to see her, even though he was with her only a few minutes ago. He spotted Evony up ahead, hurriedly rushing out from the trees with a stressed look upon her face. His step picked up, now racing so he could get over and make sure things were okay.

They ran into each other; his hands went to her shoulders as his eyes checked her over for injuries. She nudged out of his grip, "Thomas what are-"

"What happened? Are you okay?"

He saw her eyes shift, a solemn look replacing the tense one. "Yea, why wouldn't I be?"

"You looked like something was chasing you," he stated, looking past her into the forest. That's when he saw him-Aaron-frantically following in her footsteps as he emerged from the woods aswell. Thomas glanced over at the stressed look Evony was trying to hide; then back at the builder.

She seemed to pick up what he was noticing, because her first reaction was to try to stop him. "Thomas," she told him, "I took care of it, leave him be."

He didn't answer back; his hands were already curling into fists. There were other pleas from the girl next to him but he didn't listen. In the next few seconds he lunged towards him and threw not one, but two punches at the builders face.

Aaron screamed-not for help, Thomas knew, but to draw attention to himself-and curled up into a ball on the ground. He backed away from the boy, letting him stay there in the fetal position while Alby and the others made their way to the scene.

The blood on his fingers was a clear indicator; immediately the Leader ordered for him to be taken to the pit.

"Asshole!" Aaron bellowed. Thomas held up his middle finger back, snarling at the pity excuse of a man. One of the guys dragging him-Gally-whacked his hand down, muttering curses aimed directly at the brunet.

Thomas saw Evony in the distance shouting at Alby and Newt, pointing to the ground where Aaron laid. He couldn't see what she was saying, but he hoped she was telling them what happened with her and the builder.

Sure enough, a couple more seconds went by and Aaron too was being led by Alby and Newt in the same direction he was going. He caught Evonys eyes from behind them. There was no smile on his part; he knew he shouldn't have lashed out like he did. However, when he saw her shake her head with a smile, he figured standing up for her might've been worth a couple nights in the pit.

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MAE's FUN NOTES
wrote this chapter three
times so funnn but I like
it a lot now.

credit to : FictionBoys4Life
for the Alec cutting Minhos
hair idea

ALSO look at what I made
I'm literally in love

OMGGG