hey guys so this is my new story, incendiary! it's definitely different than my others but i hope that y'all like it! :) please review letting me know what you think!

"You need to leave, Tris." Tobias says, his voice remarkably calmer than it had been 30 seconds prior.

I roll my eyes. He's not actually telling me to leave… right? "You're being ridiculous. We can talk about this. We can get through this. You just need to listen to me."

"No, Tris." He says, averting his gaze. "We can't. Ever since you started leadership training, you-"

"Don't you fucking start on that, Four." I spit. He's harbored resentment ever since I began leadership training with Eric, claiming that I'm doing the wrong thing, that I'm going to get screwed over. Every time I mention my training, he takes the opportunity to go on a tangent about how fucked up he is, and never bothers to listen to what I'm saying.

He closes his eyes, the crease in his forehead prominent as he speaks. "He's corrupting you."

"No, he's not." I groan. "Just because you can't get past your personal prejudice against him, doesn't mean that you can tell me not to work with him. Tobias, I'm not an idiot."

"He threatened to kill you." He says, staring at me incredulously.

"That was 2 years ago! Why can't you get your head out of your fucking ass and accept that he's changed! Just because I've become more independent and more sure of myself as I've been training, doesn't mean that he's out for me and that he's the one having this impact on me! I'm growing as a person, as a leader, and you just don't want to accept it. Your judgement is clouded, Tobias. You have to learn to put your personal bias to the side! He went to a fucking trial at Candor, was put under truth serum, and then locked up for 4 months! I don't know what more you want! If he was truly a bad person, he wouldn't still have his position at Dauntless, and he wouldn't be training new leaders!"

"Tris, he conspired with Jeanine, went against everything we stood for, and now you're best friends with him." He pauses, his cold blue eyes meeting my own. "Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if you're fucking him."

At his statement, something inside me snaps. How dare he use my weakness against me. How dare he imply that I would have an affair. I tuck my hair behind my ear and try regain my sense of dignity, and I set my shoulders back, grabbing my jacket from the bed, slipping my shoes on and walking towards the door.

"Tris, wait!" I hear Tobias' desperate yells behind me. "I'm sorry! Come back, we can talk about this!" He grabs my wrist, pulling me towards him. "I'm sorry, Tris. You know I didn't mean it, I-"

I glare at him and wrench my arm from his grasp, "Don't fucking touch me." I growl. "You told me to leave, so I'm leaving."

I turn around, a cold laugh echoing from my body as my eyes meet his shattered expression. "Funny how quickly the tables turn, isn't it?"

I slam the door as I leave, and I instantly feel like throwing up. We've never gotten in a fight that big before. I've never just… left like that. We always resolve everything.

I turn to look at the door as I walk, but he's not coming after me. In a way, I'm almost glad he's not. We've barely had conversations without fighting for the past few weeks now, and there's been no sex, no touching, not even flirting, for even longer. Our relationship has been over for a while.

Logically, I know this was all inevitable, but still, I can't help but feel like throwing up.

I continue walking through the compound, and I realize that I don't know where to go right now. We've been living together since I graduated initiation- I don't even know where to sleep tonight. I sigh, deciding that I'll figure it out after I get a well-needed drink.

As I walk through the compound towards the bar, I notice that there aren't many people out. Just a few milling around. Hopefully the bar will be the same way. I'm not in the mood to explain my reasoning for being out this time of night.

I enter the bar, greeted by the bartender, Andrew. "Hey Tris, whatcha havin'?"

I ignore eye contact and sit down at the nearest seat, avoiding the gazes of the few people here. "Manhattan." He nods and prepares the drink.

"So, where's Four?" He asks, trying to make conversation.

I stay silent, and he hands me my drink. I immediately down it and look up at him, "Not here." I state, passing my glass back over. He nods, mumbling a quiet 'sorry' and making the second drink.

He hands it to me a few seconds later, and this time instead of making small talk, he goes onto the next person.

As I sit and sip on my drink, I see someone sit down near me out of the corner of my eye. Right next to me, in fact. I continue to nurse my drink as I ignore the jerk beside me.

"How ya doin', Prior?" I practically leap off the seat. Eric. Perfect.

I turn and give him a glare, "There's at least 15 other seats here, Coulter."

He smiles, moving slightly closer to me. "I know. You looked lonely though, and Four's not here..."

I roll my eyes. "Don't you have some girl to be fucking right about now?"

"Nope," He says, popping the 'p'. "Just killing time."

"At 2am? With training tomorrow?" I ask, raising my eyebrows.

"I could say the same to you."

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Ok." He says, not moving. "You can't get rid of me that easily, Prior."

"It's 2am, Coulter." I say. "Leave me alone."

"You're right, it is 2am. Why are you here again? You don't strike me as a late night drinker."

"I don't want to talk about it." I say, sterner this time.

"Ok."

We sit in silence for a couple minutes more before he speaks up again. "You know… if you keep training the way you have been, you'll earn your leadership spot faster than anyone ever has."

"You think I don't know that?" I snap, hoping to end the conversation. Why is he telling me this? He's never friendly outside of training, except on rare occasions.

"Ok, ok!" He says, putting his hands up in a mock surrender. "Wait, where's number boy? Did you finally dump him? I mean, I-"

I abruptly cut him off, finishing my drink and standing up. "Look, I don't know why you're trying to be Mr. Nice Guy all of the sudden, but I'd like it to stop. Leave me alone. We're friendly during training and that's it."

He finishes his drink as well and stands up, "I'm just making conversation, Prior. How about I walk ya home and then you won't have to deal with me until training, like you said?"

I begin walking out of the bar, "I can get myself home just fine."

"Well, of course you can. But if you and Four really did break up, you don't have anywhere to stay." He pauses. "Stay with me tonight."

I turn around, our eyes meeting, "I'm not going to your fucking apartment."

"C'mon, it's not like I'm a bad guy, Prior. I've been helping you out with training, we even ate lunch together a couple times."

I sigh, admitting that he's kind of right. Leadership training has been going on for the past 6 months, and in that time we've become friendly acquaintances. He helps me out with training, staying late and giving me pointers to make me better.

We've been mildly flirty while training, but in an entirely harmless way. I always had Four to go home to, and he always had whatever girl he was with that week.

"Alright," I sigh.

He abruptly stops in the hallway and turns to look at me. "You're serious?" He asks, his face shocked.

"Yes." I say quickly. "But, I sleep on the couch and you sleep in your bed. Nothing's going to happen between us."

He nods and we continue walking towards the leadership sector. We arrive at his apartment a few minutes later, and it's fucking huge. Soon, I'll have one of these apartments of my own.

He enters his code in the door and we walk in. He goes into what I presume is his bedroom and comes out with quite a few blankets and some pillows. He hands them to me. "Thanks," I say, awkwardly standing with the items in my hands.

He gives me a small smile, his lip ring catching my eye. "You sure you don't want to sleep in my bed? I can sleep on the couch."

I wrinkle my nose. "I'd rather not… I've heard stories about what goes on in there…" I tease, eliciting a small laugh out of the man.

He scratches his neck, "Those girls..." He begins. "I never really care about them. I definitely wouldn't have offered them a place to stay after a breakup…"

A grin finds its way onto my face, "Are you saying I'm special, Coulter?" I tease.

A light blush tints his pale complexion. "It's probably just the alcohol but… I'm just saying, I consider you a friend. I care about you, whether I show it or not…"

Oh, fuck.

"Well," I say- I can feel I'm the color of a tomato. "...thanks for letting me stay here."

He smirks, "If you need anything let me know." He says with a wink. There's the Eric I know.

"Oh, yeah." I laugh, shoving his arm as he walks into his room. "I definitely will."

He grins, "See you tomorrow morning, Prior."

I can't stop the smile from breaking onto my face as I speak. "See ya, Coulter."

-/-/-/-

I wake up at 6 the next morning. I roll off the couch, feeling a nasty crook in my neck. Eric doesn't seem to be up yet. Good.

I'm almost surprised we didn't wake up next to each other, after his, admittedly minor, confession last night. I crack my back, trying to stop my brain from continuing these awful thoughts. Technically, I still have Four. Maybe I can still salvage that.

I groan as I pull on my shoes, realizing I'm going to have to go back to the apartment to get dressed. I'm ready to try to patch things over, but not this early in the morning. However, I sure as hell can't leave Eric's apartment and then show up at training in yesterday's clothes. The rumors that would start! I quietly walk over to the door, careful as to not wake him.

"Leaving so early?" I hear a gravelly voice from behind me. Crap.

I turn around, my eyes meeting his shirtless chest, which is covered in various tattoos. Honestly, he looks sexy.

Not that I would ever think about him like that.

"I have to go change." I say. "You gonna miss me?"

He smirks, "Obviously. I'll see you in an hour, Prior. Don't be late to training."

"I never am." I reply with a small smile, opening the door and leaving. Thankfully, there's no one in the hall right now and therefore, no one to see me leave Eric's apartment.

I pull my hood up as I walk across the compound, suddenly feeling anxious about seeing Tobias again. I didn't feel very upset last night, but I think it's because I was kind of… shocked. It's been rocky for a while now, but we've never gotten in a fight this big. I can't say I'm surprised we got in a fight, I'm just surprised it happened in the middle of the night and when I left, he didn't come after me. I guess I'll try to talk to him… But… not right now. I can't deal with this at 6am.

We'll talk tonight.

I find myself moving almost robotically as I walk to the apartment. I arrive a few minutes later. I almost decide to not go in. To just borrow some of Christina's clothes and avoid him. But for some reason I find myself opening the door anyways.

I enter the code, my fingers automatically doing it for me, and step inside. The lights are all off; he must still be asleep. I quietly close the door behind me and cringe as I open the door to our bedroom. It better not squeak.

Eeeeeeer. Fuck.

He stirs, but doesn't seem to wake up. I walk over to the closet, flipping on the light and silently changing into shorts and a tank top. I hear the covers shuffle and panic, rapidly shutting off the light. Shit!

"Tris?" He says. I hear the covers move and the floor creak as he walks closer. The light flicks on, and there he stands.

He raises his eyebrows, looking mildly exasperated. "Where did you go last night?"

I glare at him, quickly pulling on socks and my tennis shoes. "Does it really matter?"

He sighs, leaning against the doorframe. "No. Look, I'm sorry, Tris." He says, his eyes meeting mine. They're bloodshot.

"I know." I say. "But it's not enough." His eyes continue to bore through me. "Tobias, think about it. We've been over for months. The only issue was, neither of us wanted to admit it."

He walks closer, taking my hands in his. "Tris, we can't just give up. You can't just give up on us." He says, his voice quiet.

"Tobias, we've been trying. I've been fighting to keep this relationship alive, and it hasn't been working. You and I both know it." I take my hands out of his. "We disagree about so many things. You never listen to what I have to say. In fact, we haven't had a regular conversation in months. You probably don't even know that I'm due to earn leadership in 2 weeks."

His mouth goes agape, "What? Two weeks? That's impossible, that's faster than Eric, faster than a-"

"Anyone. I know. And I've tried to tell you, but you always go on some rant about how biased Dauntless is or how I should be ashamed I'm working for Eric or some shit. You don't support me."

"Tris, of course I support you." His hand touches my arm. "You know I'm always here for you, always-"

"But you're not!" I snap, standing up and releasing myself from his grasp. "You're not here for me, Tobias, despite what you say. Yesterday, when we were finally talking about our issues, you decided to imply I've been cheating on you, with fucking Eric. We could have been fine and resolved everything, but your jealous ass just had to say that!"

"Tris, come on, that slipped out of my mouth. I didn't mean it."

I scoff, walking towards the corner of the room and picking up my duffle bag. I pack some clothes in it, as well as my toothbrush and toiletries. "Tris, listen to me." He pleads.

"What?" I snap. Funny how he suddenly decides that I matter to him, after months of practically pretending I don't exist.

"I love you." He says, his blue eyes boring into my own. "I love you so much. We can't just throw this all away! I want a life with you, Tris. It's what we both want."

I roll my eyes, trying to hide the fact that tears are quickly pooling up. "You missed your chance," I say, throwing my duffel bag over my shoulder. "How many times do I have to say it? It's too fucking late."

I head towards the door, sniffling. "Tris," He begs, his voice breaking. "Don't leave me. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"Well then," I say. "I guess you'll have to figure it out."

I leave the apartment, ignoring him crying out for me as I walk. So much for waiting until tonight.

Honestly, I feel sick to my stomach. I have no idea how I did all that with a straight face. It has to be the adrenaline. I'm definitely going to cry later. I set my shoulders back and set my face. I just need to get through training today and then I can finally… relax.

I arrive at the training center a few short minutes later and walk into the locker room, quickly shoving my duffel in my locker and tying my hair up before heading into the training room. There's almost no one here, as usual. Good.

I silently wrap my hands before moving to a punching bag and warming up before training officially starts. I punch the bag, pushing myself further than usual as I picture the bag as Tobias. What a fucking dick.

"Wow, Prior." I hear Eric's annoyingly familiar voice behind me. "You're really going for it, huh? Maybe you're picturing a certain someone is the pun-"

I turn around, "Shut the fuck up, Eric." I spit, my deathly glare meeting his. I lower my voice as I step closer. "You're the only person who knows. Officially."

A look of surprise passes over his face. "So I can expect you at my place again tonight?" He smirks.

I roll my eyes with a smile and move closer. I stand up on my toes, his cold blue-grey eyes meeting my own. "You wish." I say, almost breathily. I glance down at his lips and bite my own, looking up, our eyes meeting again. His hand begins to move closer, when I quickly whip around and kick the training obstacle behind me, knocking it flush to the floor. I put my arms up and step into stance as I throw 10 jabs and a hook punch, the bag swinging with my force.

I look behind me and see Eric standing, dumbfounded. "Whatcha starin' at, Coulter?"

He smirks, clasping his hands behind his back and looking my body up and down. "Nothin', Prior. Just supervising."