The worst part about living in underground apartments was the lack of natural light. It was sometimes also the best part. She felt the room tilt a bit as she stumbled blindly in the dark, running her hands along the cold and slightly damp feeling stone walls. Almost all of the apartments in Dauntless had the same layout. For that, she was thankful, because it made it so much easier to empty the contents of that nights drinking excursion into the proper receptacle, when needed, or to make a quick getaway. She deftly picked up her discarded items of clothes along the way.
Rule number one, never fully undress. It was so much more difficult to make your escape when you're trying to find your fucking bra using only the flashlight app on your phone, more so when you were still too drunk to figure out how to use the app.
Rule number two, get drunk, but don't ever get pass out drunk. You don't want to wake up and make awkward small talk with whomever you ended up following home from the bar that night, however you also need to be drunk enough to not think about what you're doing.
She finally reaches her destination and closes the bathroom door before flipping the light switch on. Rules number three and four were to always close the door before turning the light on so not to wake tonight's victim, while also assessing your own damage once you can actually see yourself in the mirror.
"Fuck." She whispers at her own reflection. Her honey blonde hair is a mess, her eyeliner is smudged beneath her eyes and there definitely looks like a bit of a bruise is forming on her collarbone. She quietly opens the linen closet and rummages around for a wash cloth.
"Jesus, don't you bathe?" She grumbles when all she finds are ammo, guns and knives. She closes the closet quietly, and turns the faucet on. She dampens her hair to calm it, splashes some water on her face and uses hand soap to try to remove the smudged makeup.
"Can't wipe the stupid dark circles off." She murmurs with a chuckle. She throws her hair up in a quick bun, turns the light off and quietly makes her way out of the apartment.
Dauntless is a complex that never truly sleeps, but luckily the hard partying ways of many of the night owls makes the "walk of shame" a little more bearable as she makes
her way through the maze like corridors. She stops in front of apartment 261 and reaches in her pocket.
"Shit." She murmurs. "No keys…" Her keys are likely at work and she quickly decides it's not worth the hassle to go get them. She grabs her phone instead and shoots off a quick text. She paces nervously in front of the apartment door, and continues to pepper texts that go unanswered. She leans her head against the cool door and sighs. She's caught off guard when the door suddenly opens.
"Jesus." He says quietly as she falls against him.
"Sorry, I forgot my keys." She shrugs as she tries to move past him. He blocks the doorway and pulls the door shut behind him. "Come on Peter, I need sleep." She whines.
"What you need to do is not come here drunk off your ass after doing god knows what with god knows who." He replies angrily.
"Not tonight, please." Tris replies.
"We can't do this anymore Tris." He says quietly.
"What do you mean? We don't do anything." Tris replies sarcastically. "If this is about rent I can start paying…"
"You have your own apartment that you pay rent on, we've been over this." He replies.
"No…" Tris says angrily. "Don't…."
"Fine, we won't talk about it, but you can't stay here tonight Tris. I have company." Peter
replies vaguely.
"I won't bother you, you know this! I'll go into my room and just sleep. I promise." Tris begs and he shakes his head.
"It's Christina…" he begins and he sees the fear in her eyes. "I told you I'd started seeing someone…"
"You never told me it was her!" Tris shouts and he grabs her and pulls her away from the
door and into a small enclave off of the main hall.
"Tris, it's barely three AM, can you please keep your voice down?" He sighs. "I've been honest with you this whole time, I told you I'd started seeing someone and it was getting more serious."
Tris cuts him off. "You never told me it was her though. You know I can't be around her…
you know this… why…?"
"I've been as patient as I could with you Tris. I've given you a place to stay for months now. I've covered for you, I've made excuses for your behavior, I've even dragged you out of countless unknown apartments and away from all of the messes you've gotten yourself into. I've put my life on hold for you but it's time for me to start living again. You should do the same." Peter replies.
"I can't…"
"You need help, Tris, professional help. This is beyond the scope of what I can do. We're
friends, and we always will be, but you've got to get help. I've faced my demons Tris, you have to do the same…"
"Demons?" She scoffs. "You have no idea what you're talking about."
"Peter, where are you?" A sleepy sounding Christina asks from behind the mostly closed
apartment door. Tris doesn't hesitate to turn on her heel and run away from Peter, despite her current condition and his protests.
Tris feels like she is on fire, her leg muscles protesting from the damning pace she is
running, her stomach protesting from her diet of mostly alcohol and little actual substance. She manages to make her way to the elevator to take her to the surface. She just needs some fresh, cool air and to clear her mind and as soon as the doors open she bursts through, running without a destination in mind.
Flashback
"You're slow." Four calls from in front of her as she struggles to keep pace.
"You're also half a foot taller than me." She yells in response.
Christina snickers from beside her. "You seriously have a death wish talking to him like that."
"He's our personal trainer Chris, technically we employ him, so why would he kill me for mouthing off?" I ask in between huffs. "I should kill you for talking me into this."
"You wanted to get in shape." She replies with a grin.
"I never said that I wanted to run." Tris sighs. "Running is stupid."
"Running is one of the best cardio workouts there is." Four shouts from in front of them.
"Now you're just showing off." Tris complains as she watches Four keep pace while running backwards to face them.
End Flashback
"No. No. No…." Tris whines as she halts. She grabs her head and shakes it side to side. People stare at her strange behavior as they pass her.
"Mental case." Someone calls out.
"Fuck off!" She shouts.
Flashback
"Fuck off!" Tris shouts at her trainer as he yells at her for the umpteenth time today.
"Do you kiss your boyfriend with that mouth Prior?" Four asks with a shit-eating grin on his face.
"If I actually had a boyfriend I'd kiss him with my filthy mouth and he'd accept it happily." She huffs from her spot on the floor.
"I guess it should be expected that you don't have a boyfriend since you're such a pain in the ass." He retorts.
"You assume I want a boyfriend." She replies as she sits up and wipes the sweat from her brow. She grabs her water bottle and takes a long swig.
"Or a girlfriend… I mean Christina is pretty cute. Mouthier than you if possible, but the two of you would make a cute couple…" He grins back at her as she throws her towel at him.
"Typical meathead, sees two attractive girls who are obviously close friends, fantasizes about them." She rolls her eyes.
"One of them." He corrects before swiping her water bottle and taking a swig.
"Excuse me?" She stutters.
"One of them." He repeats. "I wouldn't necessarily call it fantasizing either. Maybe more of an interest in getting to know her outside of a personal trainer/client relationship."
"Really?" Tris asks. She's been attracted to her trainer ever since meeting him, and she's continued with the torture of working out under the guise she wanted to get into better shape in an effort to get to know him better. Now they're once again alone after Christina cancelled their workout to go on yet another date with this new guy Will she met at the gym, and for the first time it seems as if Four is finally willing to admit there's more than a professional relationship between them.
"Yeah, really." He replies and she can see the blush forming on his cheeks that also rises to the tips of his ears. There is nothing but silence between the two.
"Um…" Tris begins but Four cuts her off.
"So if you want to let Christina know I'd like to take her on a date it'd be awesome." He replies.
Tris can feel herself turning red, and for a few seconds her eyes burn as if there are tears forming. She shakes her head quickly and recovers.
"Oh, um, sure, I can put in a word… I mean she's seeing this guy Will now… but it's new and it's not serious or anything I don't think…."
Four starts laughing at her obvious discomfort before jumping up and reaching down to yank her up off the mat. "Tris, I was totally kidding!" He replies between laughter and she angrily pushes him away.
"Of course you were." She replies as she stalks off.
"Tris, wait, I was only kidding about who it is I'm interested in!" He calls from behind her and she stops walking away. She slowly turns to face him.
"You're an asshole!" She shouts.
"Yeah, I am. So, about that date?" He grins back at her as he closes the space between them.
End Flashback
"No!" Tris shouts as she takes off running again. She makes her way through the dark
streets, running towards the bright neon lights flashing in front of her. She walks into the seedy looking establishment, ignoring everything around her until she finds the bar towards the back. She numbly sits down and she begins tapping her fingers on the tacky surface.
"Hey there, the name's Tori and I'll be taking care of you tonight. What'll it be doll?" Tris
glances up at the bartender and finds the kind brown eyes of a beautiful Asian woman with long dark brown dreadlocks and tattoos running over almost every inch of her exposed arms. Tris can't help but stare at the intricate design and detail of the artwork.
"Your tattoos are beautiful." Tris says quietly once she realizes she's been staring for too long.
"Thank you." The bartender replies. "What are you drinking?"
"Whiskey, neat." Tris replies and Tori grins at her before grabbing the bottle from a middle shelf. She watches as the bartender expertly pours the perfect amount of amber liquid in the glass. She slides it in front of Tris and her eyes travel over the interwoven patterns and symbols on Tori's inner arms until her breath hitches in her throat.
Flashback
"Your tattoo… what is it?" She asks timidly.
She's seen parts of the tattoo creeping above Four's shirt collar but never been brave enough to ask the immensely private man what it was. In all of the time they've known each other, both professionally during their personal training sessions and more recent in the several months they've been dating she's noticed he's never taken his shirt off. It's always struck her as odd considering how overheated they get in their training sessions. Christina actually didn't believe Tris when she confided in her that she and Four had yet to be intimate after dating exclusively for almost five months.
"Do you want to see it?" He asks.
Tris nods her head and in a swift movement he pulls the black t-shirt over his head and turns his back towards her. The tattoo covers his entire back, with five different symbols in a vertical column up his spine along with what appears to be flames moving all across his back and up to his neck.
"It's beautiful…." Tris whispers in awe. She gently traces her fingertip up his spine and across the symbols. "What do these symbols stand for?"
"They're just symbols." He replies stoically before slipping his shirt back on. "Want to order Chinese?"
End Flashback
"Those symbols…. I've seen them before." Tris says.
The bartender narrows her almond shaped eyes and quickly walks around to the front side of the bar. She grabs Tris by the arm and pulls her to a storage room.
"Who sent you?" The bartender asks.
"What are you talking about?" Tris replies.
"You recognize these?" She replies. Tris doesn't answer, which seems to make Tori angry. "Who are you? What do you know about these?" Tori hisses.
Tris can feel the room closing in on her and she tries in vain to open the door before blackness envelops her.