CHAPTER ONE

TRIS POV

"I love you so much, and I knew from the start that we were meant to be together forever. So, Tris Prior, the love of my life, will you marry me?" he asks.

I can't tell him yes, because I don't feel the same way he does, even though I wish I did. He's such a nice guy—but he's not the one for me. He deserves someone who is going to love him just as much as he does, and that person isn't me.

I look down at his smiling, hopeful face, and I almost can't do it. But I know it's better to break his heart now than at the wedding or after we're already married.

I take a deep breath and shake my head sadly.

"I'm so sorry, but I can't marry you. You're a great guy and I don't deserve you…you deserve a girl who loves you as much as you love her. And I'm really, really sorry, but that girl isn't me. You're amazing though, and I'm sure you'll find her someday. Goodbye, maybe I'll see you around town? I hope things won't be awkward between us." I give him a final hug and kiss, then I pick up my coat and purse and leave his apartment.

At least he didn't propose somewhere in public. It would have taken a lot more strength for me to say no when there were people cheering him on and such. And I still feel like an awful, terrible, horrible person. Honestly, what's wrong with me? He is such a nice and amazing guy, yet I don't regret the choice I just made. Somehow, somewhere deep inside of me knew it was the right thing to do. Better now than when we're engaged, or even married. That would be worse, I think.

As I walk back to my apartment—it's only a few blocks away from his, which probably does mean that I'll be seeing him around—a couple of tears roll down my cheeks. I could probably apologize for eternity, and I still wouldn't feel satisfied. But I wholeheartedly agree with everything I just said. I don't believe that we are meant for each other, I don't think that he is the one for me or I am the one for him. I reach my apartment building and I take the elevator up to the sixth floor, where I share an apartment with two of my best friends.

Great, now I have to face them too and become a horrible person all over again. I take a deep breath and unlock the door. I walk into our loft to find the two of them on the couch, snuggled up and watching a movie. When they hear the door, they pause the movie and look up.

"How was date night?" Christina, my best friend since forever, asks excitedly. I shake my head and start crying. Leaving my coat and purse on the kitchen table, I walk over to the couch in the living room and lay my head on Chris' stomach and she strokes my hair.

"Oh no, baby, what happened?" Chris asks worriedly.

"He proposed," I manage to say between tears. Chris looks confused.

"And this is a thing to cry about because…" Chris prompts.

"He proposed, and I said no," I sob.

"Oh my god. Okay. Will, get out," Christina instructs, kicking her boyfriend off of the couch (both literally and figuratively).

All of us are 22 and just out of college, and technically this is my loft but since neither Chris nor Will makes enough money to have their own, I let them room with me and they help out with the rent. Sometimes. Chris just graduated as an art major from NYU, and now she got a job as a tattoo artist with my aunt (she's not really aunt, technically she's just a family friend but she's like family to me). But being a tattoo artist, especially a part time tattoo artist doesn't pay much.

Will has just graduated from Cornell with a degree in prelaw. He's taking a year break before going to graduate school somewhere to become a lawyer. So he doesn't have much of an income either, as he is an unpaid intern at some law firm here in the city for the time being.

I just graduated from Williams College, a small liberal arts school in rural Massachusetts. Although they don't have a premed major, I took enough classes to qualify me for medical school, and now I'm a graduate student at Columbia University here in the city. I hope to become a physical therapist, or a sports doctor, that type of thing. I'm not entirely sure yet, as it's November and therefore I'm still in my first semester of medical school. So technically, I don't have a full time job or an income either, but pretty much I'm the one with the richest parents, the only ones who can afford to pay for a decently sized loft in Brooklyn.

Chris tries to console me, she says that we can eat tubs of ice cream and watch rom-coms together and just cry together all night. It's really nice of her to offer, but we both know that I'm not that type of person. Plus, I'm lactose intolerant so eating ice cream makes me really, really sick.

I decide to go for a run, because that always calms and relaxes me and clears my head. When I mention this to Chris, she objects, saying that it's too dark and late. I'm stubborn though, and eventually she agrees. I go to my room to change out to swap my nice dress for Nike leggings, a Nike hoodie over a running t-shirt, and sock and running shoes. I quickly pull my hair back into a high ponytail and put on a pre-wrap headband to keep my hair out of my face. Finally, I wash all the makeup off of my face, and grab my running watch, my armband and my phone.

"Bye!" I call out to Chris and Will, who have resumed their previous activity of watching a movie on the couch.

FOUR POV

*A COUPLE DAYS LATER*

I sit around the table with a couple of my best friends, Uriah, Zeke and Noah. We do this every week, play poker and talk about our lives. We're all pretty much too busy to get together any other time during the week, except for sometimes on the weekends. All the other guys have busy jobs, along with wives and families. Uriah and Zeke are brothers and they're both married, Uriah to Marlene and Zeke to Shauna. Uriah and Marlene have a little two-year-old boy named Jack, and Shauna and Zeke are expecting as well. Noah is engaged to Lotte, which leaves me, the awkward, single one.

Technically, actually, I wasn't single until a couple of days ago. A couple of days ago, I was supposed to get married to Jessie, but on the day of the wedding, she fled in the middle of the ceremony. She said that I wasn't the 'one'.

"What the hell is that even supposed to mean, I'm not the one?" I ask as Zeke deals out cards.

"It means that you're not marriage material, dude," Uriah says matter-of-factly, as if it's obvious.

"What?" I ask, thoroughly confused.

"You're not the type of guy that girls get married to, or settle down with. You're the guy that girls date before they get married," Zeke explains.

"None of you guys are marriage material, then either," I protest.

"That's where you're wrong, Four. None of us used to be marriage material. But then, we met the one, and we changed," Noah says.

"So really, dude, you're lucky that Jessie ran away," Uriah says, trying to be helpful but failing.

"Yeah, if she says you aren't the one for her, then she isn't the one for you. You're lucky that one of you realized it before you were legally bound together by law. Now let's play some poker," Zeke agrees.

"But I am marriage material," I protest, still not letting the topic go.

"No, you aren't," Uriah insists.

"I bet you couldn't propose to a girl and get her to say yes," Zeke says, "because you're not marriage material."

"Is that a bet?" I challenge. Zeke looks up from his cards and glances at Uriah and Noah. They seem to both agree.

"Okay then. It's a bet. You have…three months to get a girl to fall in love with you and say yes to your marriage proposal. If you win, we'll pay for your honeymoon to the location of your choice. If you lose the bet, you owe each of us three hundred dollars," Zeke says.

"Fine. Bet is on. But I get to choose the girl," I reply, and we shake on it.