Breathe.
In. Out. In. Out.
Breathe.
In. Out. In. Ou-
"Josh, you okay?"
I open my eyes and look at my two best friends, Charlotte and Burry, sitting opposite me.
Charlotte has beautiful blonde curls that fall around her face, framing her eyes. The blue stands out from her black Dauntless clothes, and her hair makes her stand out from the rest of the Dauntless kids in the room. She gives me a perfect smile and Burry blows a bubble in her gum. Burry is from Amity, she's small with auburn hair and piercing green eyes. Her yellow top looks too large on her tiny frame, and falls over her like a dress, but is short enough for her to wear red leggings underneath. Both may be small but they're extremely strong.
Josh. That's me. This may also sound strange, but I'm a girl. I have just past shoulder length, dull, blonde hair, blue grey eyes and boring black and white Candor clothing. I'm tall, bordering too tall. I mean, when both of your best friends are less than 5"4, being 5"9 can make you stand out a little. I've always been teased and picked on by the other girls. Charlie says it's because they're jealous of my 'beauty' but I know that's a load of rubbish. They pick on me because I'm an easy target. I'll show them soon though…
When Burry and I first met in school, we discovered that we share the same first name, Lauren. But after a while of getting confused of who people are talking to, we decided to come up with nicknames. We call her Burry because as a young child, I had difficulty spelling. I went to call her a strawberry, because of her bright red clothes clashing with her ginger hair, but misspelt it, and thus, Burry was born. I'm not sure why they call me Josh, I guess it just suits me… it might also have to do with the fact I spilt chocolate milk all over this boy I had a crush on in 3rd grade, who's name, coincidently, was Josh.
When Charlotte arrived a year later, we decided to befriend her. I mean, a Candor and an Amity being friends was strange enough, why not push our luck and make friends with a Dauntless? We started calling her Charlie on the basis we though all needed nicknames. We've stuck together ever since. We've got other friends, mainly people from Dauntless we've met through Charlie, but it's always been the three of us. The Three Musketeers, or at least that's what Charlie said we were. I think it was a book she read. Charlie loves to read, she's lent me so many books, and I wonder where she gets them all from.
I give them a smile, "Yeah, I'm fine. Just nervous."
"Don't worry about it, it's only the aptitude test," Charlie says, kicking her legs up on the table and leaning back in her chair. Burry glances at her and a wicked grin spreads across her face.
"Eye spy with my little eye, a hickey on your neck, Miss Eaton. Where were you last night?"
Charlie's eyes widen and her hand quickly goes to her neck. "Are you kidding me?!"
Burry and I laugh as Charlie's nostrils flare. She looks around the room. Her eyes set on one boy, dark haired, wide eyed, playing cards with the other Dauntless guys. He makes eye contact with her and gives her a small wave.
"YOU'RE AN ASSHOLE, LUCAS!" He drops his hand and looks at her hurt, but once she points to her neck a smile creeps onto his lips and he starts laughing. She turns around with a huff, Burry and I looking at her with raised eyebrows. "It was our anniversary, okay? Give me a break, we just had a sleepover."
"What did you do? Have a pillow fight?" I tease. Charlie picks up a pea from her lunch tray and throws it at my head and I laugh
"I know we're not supposed to tell people what we got in our tests, but are we going to tell each other?" I ask after a moment of quiet. It's been nagging on my mind all day. I want to tell them what I get but I only will if they'll tell me.
"What? You think I'd tell Lucas, but not my girls what I got? Hell no. We'll tell each other when we get to initiation, yeah?" says Charlie with a cheeky smile. This was our plan. Charlie is Dauntless through and through. Burry and I might struggle, but we know that's where we belong.
Our conversation dies and my head starts to drift again. I think about the test. Over and over. I think about how I want to do something for myself instead of for my family. I think of how I want to stay with Burry and Charlie. I think of what faction I will be most suited for. I think of-
"Josh! Josh, you in there?" I blink a couple of times and look around me in a panic. Burry and Charlie are looking at me worried. "What happened? One minute you were here, the next you were of someplace else, and then you started shaking," says Burry.
"Guys," I squeak. "What if… what if we don't get the same faction? What if I don't get Dauntless? What if-"
Burry grabs hands. "Josh, look at us." I'm still looking around the room, my heart rate rising. I can't breathe. What's happening? "Look. At. Me. Josh." She speaks louder this time, grabbing my attention. "There are no 'what if's, alright?"
"But-"
"No 'but's either," Charlie says with a calming smile. "There only is what there is. And everything is going to be fine."
I nod. I believe them. I don't know why, but I do. I always have. They're the only people I trust.
It's now I notice two other faces have joined the table. Two dark haired boys to contrast our light haired ones. Lucas sits beside Charlie, his arm around her waist, and someone is sitting beside me. Nicky is a tall and strong looking, which is strange for an Erudite, and is also one of our closest friends. He's attractive, sure, in some aspects, but not my type. I can see Burry looking at him. His muscles strain against his bright blue shirt and I follow her eyes as they look at his biceps. She glances at me and she's knows she's been caught because her cheek are a flaming red. I look to him for explanation for what they're doing sitting with us and he picks up on it.
"We wanted to see if you were alright. Well, I did. Lucas just wanted to do that." He lifts his finger towards Lucas, whose tongue is currently down Charlie's throat. I look at Burry and we both make gagging sounds but neither of them seems to notice. I lean across the table and slap them both around the sides of the head. They break apart with cocky grins and laugh.
Charlie looks around the cafeteria. "You guys, think about it. This is the last time we're ever going to be here in the cafeteria. In the Hub." She sighs into Lucas' chest. "I'm going to miss this place."
I give a loud snort, causing Burry to laugh. "I'm not. I'm finally getting out of this Hell hole," I say. "I also hope the door hits a lot of people of the way out." Nicky laughs and Burry gives me a high five.
An Abnegation woman walks into the cafeteria followed by some Abnegation men, an Erudite lady, a Candor man and a Dauntless woman. She gives Charlie a wink and Charlie smiles. I don't know why there is an extra non-abnegation volunteer this year but I don't question it.
They stand in a line and call names. "From Erudite, Jason Jones and Nicholas Montague." Nicky mutters under his breath. He hates it when he's called Nicholas. We gave him the name Nicky when we met in Math, I've never seen him smile so bright from behind his glasses. "From Dauntless, Charlotte Eaton and Lucas Brown." Charlie gives Lucas a kiss on the lips and Burry and I roll our eyes playfully. "From Candor, Lauren Peters and Mason Williams." I stand up at the name of Lauren Peters, my real name. "Amity, Felix Chance and Lauren Fourie."
"IT'S PRONOUNCED FU-RIE, NOT FOW-RIE. JESUS CHRIST, GET IT RIGHT!" she yells as she stands up. Many of the Abnegation and Amity gasp at her rudeness, but this is one of the only times she's herself. She's so quiet, with her nose in a book. But if you get her name wrong, you'd better run for the hills. I laugh loudly as she storms ahead of me towards the corridors.
Finally, they call the Abnegation but I don't know any of them.
"Goodbye, Hellhole!" I call as I saunter after Burry. The others follow me and we are each lead into different rooms. Lucas and Charlie share one last kiss before she's taken off into a room by an Abnegation woman and he by an Erudite man.
"Lauren Peters?" the Dauntless woman says. I step forward. "I'm Tori, I'll be administering your test. Just follow me." I walk backwards after her, so I can see Burry.
"See you on the other side!"
She smiles and shakes her head before blowing me a kiss.
I hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter:) As I said, this story is a spin off of Intoxicated Love by (my favourite Divergent author) favorite5 so a lot of things shall be similar (As it's from one of her character's POVs) but things will also have changed. Please please please go and read her stories Divergent Fanfic and Intoxicated Love (preferably in that order) because they're absolutely amazing.
(I just want to say, when AJ first wrote about the character Josh it didn't register in my head until she described the way she looked. When I figured out she'd based Josh from me I was so incredibly happy that I screamed and didn't shut up about it for weeks on end. I still talk about it now. So, being said character, I decided to do a story from my POV. I hope that makes sense...
If you read Intoxicated Love you'll also notice I've swapped one character for another, there is a reason for this and it adds to the plot later in the story.)
Thank you so much and please review :)