Okay, this is my first fanfiction so be gentle. I'm open to suggestions and stuff like that. Plz review and tell me what you think!
So I decided to edit my first chapter and hopefully made it better. Even though I thought about keeping it to show my progress, I ultimately decided to fix all the mistakes and stuff. I might do this for other chapters, idk. Hope you enjoy this edited mess!
Tris(POV)
"What?" I say with shock. He looks at me with complete seriousness.
"I'm staying here." He says a bit slower.
"No, you're not!" I say with as much authority as I can muster,"You can't stay here Toby. You can't. The beatings will only escalate. What do you expect me to do if I find you dead, Tobias Eaton?" I try my best not lose myself to any emotion trying to take me. But this is my Tobias. I mean, he just told me he loved me a few days ago. And I love him too, enough to tell him to choose a different faction. Which is punishable by death.
"I'm not going to leave you here, Bea. It's not safe." He argues.
"It's more dangerous for you," I murmur. My hand crawls up my belly to rest on my heart and the tips of my fingers dig into me, the mixture of fear and anger pushing them deeper into my chest. "No one cares about a harmless little Stiff anyways." I look around the meadow, checking for the thousandth time to see if there's anyone eavesdropping.
"I do, I care. And I'm not leaving." He says grabbing my hand from my chest and crossing our fingers together.
I yank my hand away and point it at his face like I'm scolding him. "You better leave. He will end you within a second." I say in a low yet angry tone. My voice softens and I murmur, "Toby please leave, I promise I will follow you. Anywhere! Hell, I'll go to Erudite for God's sake as long as you don't stay here."
I don't care about who could be listening at this point. He needs to understand that if he stays, then he will always be in Marcus's grasp. Always under his control. I don't want him to be haunted by that monster every time he leaves his house. I know his abuse will always be in the back of his mind and it will always pick at him, but staying here will make it worse. He needs to leave this place behind. Even if that means leaving me behind, too.
I can't take it, with the anger and fear and anxiety, I break down. My knees hit the damp grass and my hands raise to my face. I try to suppress my crying sounds and exceed to some extent, but then I feel a pair of long arms wrap around me and my quiet whimpering turns into loud sobs. I hug him back because I need him. Even though he is the one who is making me cry, I want him to hold me tighter and tighter until there is nothing left to hold. No one else can hold me like this considering Abnegation's boundaries, and I wouldn't want anyone else besides him anyways.
"Please don't stay. I love you. But you're being an idiot." I mumble. I want to help him and I also need him to listen to me just this once. He hesitates for a long time but then I think of something that has to get him to leave. I take a deep breath and hold it for a second. Will he take the chance on risking a bluff...will he even think it's a bluff? Is it a bluff? I don't know. Just say it. I think to myself.
"If you stay," I breathe against his neck," then I'll leave. That's...that's a promise." I suck in another breath and hold it once more. My throat is sore from my sobbing and yelling so my words come out a little scratchy but I keep myself together and hold it in. I've never broken a promise, ever. I realize that I can never take that promise back and I'm dead serious. It would kill me, but I will leave if he stays...won't I? I mean, I promised. I promised I would but, would I give in or ignore my feelings and be a man of my word? God, what did I just do to myself?
Immediately, I feel his arms tighten around my small body. He bends over until his head digs into my neck. I can tell he is thinking about this really hard.
"God, I hate you." He sighs. "I'll go if you promise me something. You never break your freaking promises."
"Anything," I say. I release my breath and smile slightly. I pull away to look him in those gorgeous blues.
"You have to promise me that you won't open your mouth every time you get threatened. And that you won't be reckless." He says with a slight chuckle. He pulls back and looks at me with a look that says he's serious but a smile that says otherwise. I watch as he looks up and around the little meadow we sit in. After he mentally confirms no one is watching us, he gently holds my face in both hands looks me right in the eyes, waiting for an answer. I just simply nod and muster up a small smile. He returns it and wipes away a few remaining tears with his thumb. I start to laugh a little because he's squishing my cheeks together, causing me to make a fish like face. I grab his hands and throw them down, my laughter slowly dying into a quiet chuckle. He, again, grabs my face with both of his hands and puts his forehead to mine, closes his eyes, and whispers "I love you, Beatrice."
I close mine as well and respond in a small voice, "I love you too, Tobias." And I mean it, I honestly do. He is everything to me. I hope he makes it wherever he goes. I mean, it's possible to get kicked out of any faction and become factionless. Tobias can get mad very easily. And sometimes, when it's really bad, he for the life of him can't control his temper. It's gotten worse over the years as he's gotten stronger and it's still pretty hard for him to keep his mouth shut. It's what sometimes gets him beat.
"You should probably go, don't want to make Marcus mad the night before Choosing Day."
"Five more minutes." He begs. "He won't leave any physical evidence. Too risky." I open my eyes to find that his are still closed. His forehead feels good against my own.
"Ugh...you're so needy," I laugh out, "We can't stay here for much longer. They'll figure out we're not on our rounds." Every week we go around and give Factionless food. Our bags full of fruit are literally five feet away. "Walk me home?"
"Okay," Is all he says before he lifts me up and spins around. I squeal with laughter and start yelling at him to stop. Of course he doesn't take me seriously because of my laughing, but I didn't really mean it either. He slows, sets me down, and stares at me. But this is a stare I've never seen before. It is, however, a look that I like. Mostly because I kind of feel that it's a look he's reserved for only me.
"What?" I ask curiously. I want to know what this look is for because I'm not a 100% sure. He just leans down and does the unexpected, he kisses me. Due to my extreme inexperience with intimacy—kissing in particular—I freeze. He starts to pull away, but I grab his face and hold him to me. His arms wrap around my waist and he pulls me closer than I thought we could go. This is a new feeling that makes me feel so different. He leans back way too soon and looks surprised at himself. My face must show surprise as well from his embarrassed look. His warm arms leave from their original position, sending a shiver down my back from the sudden burst of cold.
"I'm..I'm sorry, I—" He starts. But before he can finish, I put one finger to his mouth to silence him. He looks at the ground. My hand falls and I shake my head, roll my eyes, and smile a closed mouth grin. I smile because of how amazingly cute this is. I let my head fall to the side and I look for his eyes, trying to meet them. The palms of my hands rest on his cheeks and slide forward until my fingers are in his hair and my thumbs rest in front of his ears. I slowly lift his head to look at me but his eyes look everywhere but mine.
"Hey," I say in a soft, sweet voice. He finally looks up at me. I sigh dramatically and pull his mouth to mine. He hesitates for a second, but then I feel the warmth of his arms wrap around me again and hold me there. The feeling that flies through me is different and scary, but the giddiness erases everything negative. Even though this is my first kiss, I can tell that this is the best I'll ever have. This is all it takes for me to realize that maybe, just maybe, we can work. I'm not an expert on love, but nobody else can make me feel this way. We've been best friends since I was born and we're inseparable. We spend all of our time together and tell each other everything. We can always tell when the other needs to talk or needs a hug or just needs the other in general. Sometimes, we don't even talk, all we do is go out to the meadow that's a mile close to Amity and lay there. We lay in opposite directions, I always have my feet pointing towards the city and he always lays with his feet facing Amity, but our heads are always right next to each other.
We stop with the need for air and I hug him. I don't know why I hug him, I just do. With my head against his chest, I can hear his quick heartbeat. He squeezes me tightly, but then they're gone. For a second I'm confused, but then he puts his arms around my rib cage and lifts me up so that we're eye level. That's actually saying a lot due to the fact that he's a whole foot and a half taller than me. I hug his head to mine, our cheeks squishing together.
He gently sets me down after a few minutes and we begin to walk towards the Abnegation Sector. Such a scrawny thing Tobias is. Wiry and long limbs, yet so strong. I grab his hand and as I pull him along, I begin to get lost in memory.
I was 13 and he was 14. All factions gave Abnegation members a hard time, but this one Erudite in particular had been bullying me for a while and I didn't tell Tobias how bad it had gotten. One day he had backhanded me behind the school and Tobias saw. He was furious. The Erudite boy had just pinned me to the wall by the collar of my dress when Tobias threw him off of me and picked me up from the ground.
"Oh God Bea," he said examining my face. He had one hand on the top of my head so I would hold still and his other hand under my chin. I whipped my head to the side so he wouldn't see the giant red mark that was forming, but he already had.
"I had it under control, I'm fine," I said frustrated.
"Under control? You call this under control, Bea?" He said grabbing my face again and turning it so he could see the now growing bruise. I angrily slapped his hand away.
"Awww...how cute," the Erudite said, "I didn't know you could go so deep, Tobias Eaton. You got a good one there, Beatrice. Or do you prefer Bea?" He stood up and dusted himself off, looking Tobias over.
"You don't get to call her that. Touch her again and your bruise will be worse than hers." Tobias said moving in front of me.
"I'd like to see you try, Stiff," the boy said moving closer to Tobias. I moved out from behind Tobias and pushed in between them.
"Just leave us alone," I said looking at the boy.
"Shut up!" he snapped, raising his hand to hit me again. This infuriated Tobias more, and he tackled him without hesitation. Both started to punch each other in various places, grunting and yelling. I just stood there, screaming at them to stop.
I saw a little figure running after us and realized too late that it was a teacher. He ran up to Tobias, pulled him off of the boy and took them both to the office. Mrs. Smith, the science teacher, came up to me and asked what happened. I told her the truth and she sent me home, but I didn't go home. I sat outside the front of the school on the steps and waited for Tobias. I eventually saw Marcus, Tobias's father, go into the school. At the time I didn't know that he abused Tobias, I just thought he was a strict father. He came out tightly gripping Tobias's arm dragging him away. I stood up and looked Tobias straight in the eyes. He smiled a weak, closed mouth smile as they turned the corner to go to their house. I had already thought about sneaking into Tobias's window and talk to him about what happened, but I was definitely going to do it now. That night when everybody was asleep, I snuck over to his house and crawled through the large window. That's how I found out about the abuse. I've taken care of him ever since. I sneak into his house every few days to see if he's okay. If he isn't, I pour rubbing alcohol into his wounds and wrap his back. He normally heals within a day or two. Sometimes, I spend the night. But that only happens once in a blue moon.
Tobias has always been so protective of me and sometimes takes it too far.
I snap back to the present when Tobias asks, "What are you thinking about?" It takes me a moment to find where we are. We are only a few blocks away from my house, which explains why Tobias isn't holding my hand anymore. It would be a disgrace to the faction if they saw me and Tobias showing affection publicly, especially this young. I, of course, don't give a damn about what this faction thinks. But if Marcus found out, Tobias could get seriously hurt.
"Nothing," I say.
"Come on Bea. Just spit it out." He smiles.
"Really, it's nothing. I was just thinking about the time when you beat the crap out of that Erudite boy wh-"
"Eric?" He interrupts.
"Yeah, I think that was his name. When he was bullying me? I remember you how livid you got when you saw him hit me." I murmur, keeping my voice low from the other Abnegation. I feel him tense a little and notice his hands flex into fists until they stay there. After three seconds, his knuckles start to turn white. I step in front of him and turn so I face his chest. I look up to meet his glare. "You can't still be mad about that," I say disbelievingly.
"Actually yes, I am. He had no right to hurt you. He left a bruise on your face that didn't go away for a week! He deserved what he got." He responds with a touch of frustration in his voice.
"Tobias, it was two years ago. You shouldn't be reacting like this."
He pushes past me. "Like I said, he deserved what he got."
"Did you? All he got was a beating from a 14-year-old and a slap on the wrist. Only you got hurt from protecting me..." My words trail off as my mind trails as well. "Tobias, why did you help if you knew all you'd get was a beating?" I ask. He visibly relaxes and looks me in the eyes.
"I hate when you do this. I was helping my best friend." He huffs out like it's obvious.
"Best friends are replaceable,"
"I disagree with that wholeheartedly. But even if that's true, your not."
"Fine, best friends AREN'T replaceable. But girlfriends are. Therefore I a-" I'm cut off by Tobias's lips against mine. I push him away and look around. There are at least ten to fifteen people around us. I stare at him in shock that he would kiss me in front of everybody, surely he knew they were here.
"What are you doing?!" I whisper in shock.
"Getting you to stop talking. I love you, Bea. And you're not just another girl. I will wait for you, you know that right? Another little something that caught my attention," he clears his throat, "Did I hear you just call yourself my girlfriend?" He asks a playful smile appearing.
I feel my face get hot and look everywhere but his eyes. "I mean, what do you think I am to you? A friend with benefits? I'd like to think I'm a little more than that..." I finally lift my head to meet his eyes and he still has that dumb smile on his face. "Toby, all I'm saying is that there are going to be girls where you're going, pretty girls and I wouldn't be surprised if you found a girl that you liked or—" I'm interrupted again by Tobias slapping his hand over my mouth.
"Bea?" He asks.
"What?" I say with an emotionless, muffled voice.
"Shut up. You're pretty, why would I like another girl? You're amazing and an idiot who can't keep her mouth shut, but your smart. And...never mind, I don't know where I was going with that. All I'm trying to get at is that I want you, not somebody else. And yes, I've decided that I'm going to think of you as my girlfriend. " He takes his hand away and starts walking.
"I'm not pretty..." I mumble. His head whips around and he stares at me. Damn it, he heard me. I mentally punch myself in the face.
He walks back to me and gets his face real close to mine and whispers, "You're right, you're not pretty," For a second, it stings that he agrees with me. "You're beautiful." He says then starts walking away again. A flush of relief fills me.
He is so stubborn it hurts. I know he'll find another girl. He has to. He deserves so much better than me. I'm just a girlfriend, a first kiss, a first 'I love you'.
Tobias is still pretty far ahead of me when a hand slams over my mouth again and an arm goes around my waist pulling me backward. I am slammed against the back of a house and as the wind gets knocked out of my lungs. My attacker grabs both my wrists, lifts them above my head, and shoves them against the wall. It's all fuzzy for a second before I can see straight and when I do, I shiver. A woman, Factionless from the mix of colors and lack of quality in her clothes, stands over me. From her nose down is covered with cloth. All I can see is olive skin, black curly hair that is covered with a grey tint, and black eyes. All the features I can see are harsh and sharp. She's strong, and I'm not surprised from the way she towers over me. The woman searches my eyes.
"Who are you to him?!" She growls at me.
"What?" I ask breathless, too confused to do anything else.
"WHO ARE YOU TO HIM?!" She screams. But she realizes she screamed too loud. Before I can try to make any kind of sound, she then raises a fist and punches my temple. I fall to the ground and my arms wrap around my head to soothe the newfound ache. She kicks me countless times in the stomach. Suddenly, I feel a sharp pain in my neck that radiates throughout. I open my eyes and turn my head slightly to see a giant glass syringe resting on the grass. My hand goes from my head to my neck and my fingers cover the spot where the pain is radiating from. A panic sets in when I realize the world slowing down. I try to push myself up, but she pelts me with what can only be a rock. I see the rock fall next to my face, then I hear fading footsteps. Quickly and very painfully, consciousness leaves my body.
Tobias(POV)
"WHO ARE YOU TO HIM?!" The question echoes through the street and I turn to see where it came from only to notice a particular brunette not with me. What did she do this time? Where is she?
"Beatrice?" I call out, only to receive nothing. "Beatrice, if you plan to scare me, the payback will be hell." I walk down the rows of houses but see nothing. Even though I'm not worried, I begin to run.
When I reach a big gap in between two houses, I find her lying on the ground with a syringe in her neck. "Hey!" I yell. The figure over her turns quickly, frozen there. It's a woman. A tall woman. She takes off sprinting towards the woods and leaves a lifeless body on the ground. I contemplate running after her, but decide against it and drop next to the body on the ground.
I begin to shake her and call her name. "Bea? Bea wake up! Come on!"
No response. I look around to find something, anything. Instead, I find the empty syringe. What did she inject her with?
Okay, Tobias, get your head together and gather your thoughts. If she were in the situation you're in, what would she do? She would know. She has the best solutions and has always reacted calmly. What would Bea do, what would Bea do?
She would take you to her house.
I don't know if it's right, but it's the best idea I've got. I slide one arm under her knees and my other under her shoulders. When I stand up, her arm falls over the side and lifelessly dangles down. As I run, her hanging arm swings side to side and hits my leg.
I finally reach her house and bang on the door with my foot. Come on Natalie, be home. The door slowly creates open, and Natalie peaks through the crack. She instantly relaxes when she sees me and opens the door all the way, but then tenses when she notices her daughter's lifeless body in my arms
"Oh God, what happened?" She says in a tone that is furious and worried and calm.
"I don't know, one minute I was walking her home, the next, she isn't with me. I'll explain everything later, but right now I need help with this. I don't know what to do." I know I say that too frantic because she slaps me. She doesn't do it hard enough to hurt, but hard enough to get my attention.
"Tobias, calm yourself. She's going to be fine. Let's just do what we can for now. Lay her on the couch and go get a doctor!"
"From where?"
"Find one." She growls.
It takes only 2 long strides for me to reach the couch. I slowly lower her down to the soft cushions and sprint out, nearly breaking off the screen door in my haste. I honestly don't know where to go. What faction would have the best doctors? Which would help me? Should I go to the hospital wing of Erudite? Even though they aren't really fond of us, would they still help? I don't know any Abnegation with a medical history. The closest thing I have to a doctor is Bea. Candor? No. Not even going to try. I highly doubt Dauntless has any good doctors and they're too far away for me to try. It would take me at least 30 minutes, and even 30 is cutting it close. Amity is even further and it would take me about an hour, maybe 45 minutes if I sprinted all the way there.
I stop in the Square, one of the busiest parts in the city. All I can think to do is to just ask around here and hopefully hit gold. I stop person after person, asking if they know anybody with even the slightest bit of medical experience. But the only response I get is Erudite. I basically scream in frustration and start running towards the center of the city. The tall building comes into view when I'm only a few blocks away and the crystal clear glass sparkles brightly in the sun.
I run up to the first Erudite I see and frantically say, "Excuse me, do you know any doctors or anyone with medical experience?!" My hands shake and I breathe heavy, waiting for her to respond. She looks slightly frightened by my sudden demand for answers.
She takes a deep breath and says, "Go to the top floor of Erudite Headquarters, ask for my brother, Will, and say Cara sent you. He will help you out from there. Is everything alright?"
"Thank you!" I yell over my shoulder as I run into the tall, shiny building.
I follow her instructions and go to the top floor. As the glass elevator moves up, I look out the window and feel my stomach drop. Why the hell did it have to be glass? I am not a fan of heights. I turn my back to the window and look straight forward at the elevator's doors. I try to think of literally anything else. My thoughts drift over to Bea. I think of how protective she is. And how not even an hour ago we were in the meadow, kissing. Just thinking about it makes me blush a little.
When I looked at her, with her hair crazy, her eyes wild, and her mouth smiling wide, I couldn't help it. But then she kissed me back, and I never wanted to let go. We're like puzzle pieces. We fit together.
I finally grew the courage to tell her how I feel, and it was the best decision I've ever made. I wanted to tell her how I really felt before the Choosing Ceremony, that way if I ended up leaving, which I wasn't planning on doing, I wouldn't leave any open doors. I didn't want to die and have her never know. I didn't want to be separated from her for whatever reason and constantly think of what could've been. I just wanted to let her know that I love her. But I didn't expect her to say it back.
The elevator sings wakes me from my thoughts. I walk out to the front desk. I ask the woman where I could I find Will, and she looks at me like I'm insane.
"Will? Will...?" She asks, looking for a last name.
"I don't know his last name! He...uh..he...He has a sister! Cierra? No, Callie...No. CARA! His sister's name is Cara. Cara sent me!" I yell, excited that I remembered her name. She gives me that look again, buts picks up the phone anyways and dials a number.
"Can you send Will Tanner to the front desk on floor 78, please? Thank you." She hangs up the phone and tells me to go sit down. I do as I'm told and wait. The elevator dings about 5 minutes later and a boy with short blond hair and green eyes walks up to the desk with a worried look on his face. I'm too far away to hear the conversation, but the woman points at me and 'Will' walks over. He's got to be around 15—Bea's age.
"Can I help you?" He asks sheepishly.
"Yes! Do you have any medical experience?!" I say quickly. The anxiety seems to have caught up with me.
"I do, I'm studying to become a doctor actually and-"
"Great. Come with me. I'll explain on the way, but we've got to hurry." I rush through the words too quickly, but I don't have time to repeat them. "Hope you've got a good stamina," I mutter and walk towards the elevator. He follows without hesitation and I tell him everything as we slowly descend to the lobby.
"I can't really say anything for sure because I haven't seen her and you don't know what happened before you got there. Do you have any idea what she could've been injected with?"
I shake my head in response.
"I hate to say this, but depending on what she was injected with, she could be dead by now." I try to hide my shock as best I can. Instead of panicking worse, I grab his arm and drag him out of the building. Once we're outside, I run as fast as my body will let me and he follows, not knowing where to go.
It takes ten minutes to get to her house. I stop in my tracks and Will runs into me. I barely move if not at all from the impact. Marcus sits, waiting on the porch.
"Father," I greet him.
"Tobias," he says back with a smile, but I see in his eyes an extreme anger he holds for only me. I'm not sure what for, I obviously did something wrong.
It's silent for a little while, but then Will breaks the obvious tension by asking, "Is she inside?"
"Yes, and what is your name?" Marcus questions, making conversation to distract from the obvious hostility.
"I'm Will, sir. Excuse me." Is all he says before walking into the house. As the door opens, I see Natalie and she catches a glimpse of me before it closes.
"What were you thinking, bring an Erudite here like this?"
"She got hurt, Father. There was no other option."
He's about to continue, but Natalie walks out and embraces me.
"Thank you, Tobias." She whispers shakily.
I hug her back and whisper, "Of course, Natalie." She releases me and steps back. She sniffs a little. Her eyes are puffy, her nose is runny, and her cheeks are red. She's been crying.
"How is she?" I ask.
"I don't know..." She responds quietly with a shrug. She's about three seconds away from breaking down, I can see it. She looks up at me and I look back at her sympathetically. A single tear falls from her left eye and she completely breaks. She pulls me back in for another hug. I hug back and let her cry into my shoulder. I glance up at Marcus standing in front of us and see the fury in his face. He looks about ready to beat the living hell out of me right now and right here. But instead of cowering, I mirror his look. I don't care what he does to me tonight, the only person who means the world to me could be dead and her mom needs someone to cry on.
Natalie has always treated me like her own. I think of her as a mother figure. I love her, not in a creepy weird way, but in a 'hey, thanks for acting like a parent when one of mine died and the other whips me with a belt.' way. And for argument's sake, I'm being selfless right now. I'm helping another person with their pain and grief. Isn't that what our dumb faction is about? Being selfless and helping others when they need it? I'm probably the only one who will willingly hug her without hesitation because of our 'rules'. Her own husband refuses to even look at her like he loves her in public.
"Natalie? What are you doing?" I hear. It comes from behind me and doesn't sound like Marcus. I don't need to turn around to know its Andrew, Bea's father. Think of the devil and he shall appear. Her eyes open and she lifts her head from its original resting place on my shoulder. I watch intensely as she leaves my embrace and walks up to him, hurt and anger visible in her eyes and facial expression. She stands in front of him, glaring daggers, her hands balled up in fists.
"Natalie, you will never do that again. That was incredibly inappropriate. How da—" is all he gets out before she shoves him, hard. It takes only a moment for the embarrassment to appear on his right cheeks.
"How dare I? How dare you! How dare you try to tell me what to do! How dare you treat me like a child! It's not like anybody else was going to hold me while I cry my eyes out! And where the hell were you, huh? You were supposed to be here two hours ago! Our daughter got hurt bad today, where were you?!" She pauses for a second to breathe. Andrew just stands there, frozen. It's kind of hard to see his face because the sun is setting and it's slowly growing dark.
"Natalie, I—" he starts, but gets cut off again.
"No, don't. I can't do this right now." She says in a low and hurt voice. She turns around and grabs my wrist, pulling me behind her towards the house. I'm so tempted to taunt him, yell something so incredibly cocky, but decide against it due to the following consequences: I don't want to be murdered by Marcus and I don't want to make things worse for Natalie. Instead, I just give him a mad look.
We walk into the house and Will stands up. He looks at Natalie emotionless and says, " She has a slight concussion...but will be just fine. I haven't figured out what she was injected with, but if she's awake by tomorrow, bring her by the hospital sector and say Will Tanner sent you. You will receive the best care. They'll have more resources at the compound to find out if it's life-threatening or not and we can run some tests. All in all, she'll be okay."
Natalie lets out a breath and puts her hand to her chest.
"Thank you, Will, so much." She says grabbing his hand with both of hers and smiling weakly. He sets the hand she's not holding on her shoulder and says, "Don't mention it. I just hope she's okay." He nods to me and walks out the door.
She then turns to me and says, "I am very grateful for you, Tobias. Thank you for everything."
"Don't thank me, Natalie. I didn't do it for any 'Thank You's'."
"I know. In all honesty, I know a lot of things. Like how you two snuck off earlier today. And every day..." She murmurs with a knowing smile. My breath catches and my body becomes stiff.
She giggles slightly and then says, "No need to get nervous, Tobias. I'm thankful that it's you and nobody else. You're a good boy—excuse me—man. And it's kind of obvious. The way you look at her is the way Andrew and I used to look at each other. Except this will last. What do you do, if you don't mind my asking?"
"Nothing wrong. We just talk. Sometimes nothing at all." I smile.
"I also know about...Marcus and what he does to you." My smile disappears in an instant.
I nod, looking at the ground. "How?"
"I don't know, I think I just figured it out. Just a cluster of things I noticed that eventually added up to a conclusion. Will he hurt you tonight?"
I shrug. "Choosing Ceremony, which means nothing too serious. Or obvious"
"Tobias, I'm so incredibly sorry."
"Don't be. Just, please keep it to yourself."
She covers her face with her hands. "I'm sorry, I must have ruined your night."
"No, if I was really worried, I would've pulled away."
"I'm sorry, Tobias. I really am. No child should have to go through that."
"It's okay, Natalie. Stop saying sorry. It's a crappy situation, but I promised I would leave."
She raises an eyebrow and looks at me, then looks at Bea and nods understandably.
It's only now that I notice all the similarities that Natalie and Beatrice share: Brown wavy hair, long nose, grey eyes, and their smile.
"She made you promise?"
"No, more like she said she would leave if I stayed."
She scoffs. "She was bluffing."
"I didn't want to take the chance."
"Makes sense. She kind of does whatever she wants. Certainly a wild one."
"Tobias, we should be heading home." Comes a voice from outside. I shudder and look at the floor.
She pulls me into another hug and quietly says, "You be brave, Tobias. Who knows, I might visit you on Visitation Day." She pulls away from my arms and smiles at me. I try to smile back, but it comes out weak. She puts a hand behind my head and pulls down. She stands on her tippy-toes and kisses my forehead.
"Goodbye, Natalie, thank you for always being so kind to me." She nods in response and I turn to leave, but stop and look back at Bea. I point at her and say, "Can I...?"
"I'll give you two some privacy," she says, then trudges upstairs.
I walk over to Bea and kneel down. I rest my hand on her forehead and push back into her hair. I lean down and kiss her forehead and murmur quietly, "I love you." I stay there for a minute or two then get up, walk out the door, and stand in front of Andrew. I look him straight in the eyes and don't move until he looks down at the ground. Once he does, I walk over to Marcus and he glares at me. His hand grabs my bicep tightly and he drags me off to the direction of our house. Tonight is going to be hell...fun!
Please tell me what you thought of the updated version! I plan on fixing more chapters and bringing them up to date
As always, I apologize for any spelling or grammatical errors