This keeps talking and talking to me oO It won't leave me alone! I even have prepared ideas for the next chapter and written out almost another complete chapter.
Still, I will keep my focus on Last Resort, it's really important to me. So if you haven't already, please do check it out!
Thanks for all the lovely reviews and it blows my mind how many already favourited and follow this one :)
It will make me so happy if you tell me what you think in a review!
I do not own Divergent or its characters.
Cautiously Tris looked around the corner to see Eric sitting at his desk with his hands clasped together in front of his face. He looked up at her when he caught movement from the corner of his eyes. He wasn't scowling for once, in fact his face was devoid of any emotions.
"Sixty percent, huh?" Tris asked in an attempt to break the silence leaning against the wall. Eric sighed and looked away pursing his lips, "Uh-huh." He was silent for a few more moments and Tris wished that he'd just tell her what he was about to do about the situation. When he didn't say anything she went to move around his desk.
But Eric jumped up suddenly and Tris froze, he grabbed his jacket and went for the door. She stood involuntarily in his path and he glowered down at her. His nostrils flared when she didn't move aside. Looking up at his face she noticed for the first time that he had a tiny scar on the right side of his nose next to his eye. From further away one wouldn't notice but she was so close to him now that she could almost feel his breath on her face. He was behaving completely differently all of a sudden and she hated it. At least before he was teasing and taunting her, and even though she hated him for doing it she missed it now.
Tris stepped back eventually and he brushed past her roughly. Closing her eyes she flinched when Eric shut the door with a loud thud.
When she heard Eric return Tris was sitting at her desk, for the past hour she had been unable to concentrate on any of the reports she still had to work on. She heard his silent movements in the other room and listened carefully what he was doing but as soon as he was at his desk he was quiet as usual. As if nothing ever happened, so with a sigh she shook her head to focus on the letters in front of her.
Supper time came around and Eric called to her that he would leave to have some food. With a frustrated sigh Tris looked at the clock to realize it was already later than she expected and got up to do the same. Usually they went together, even if they didn't always sit at the same table. It hurt and she didn't know why.
She was poking her food absent-mindedly when Christina nudged her, "Hey, what crawled up his ass?" she muttered pointing her fork in Eric's direction. He sat bent over his food, his eyebrows were knitted tightly in deep thought. Tris shook her head and lied, "I don't know." Christina rolled her eyes, "Come on, you practically share an office." Tris shook her head and shrugged, "Really, I have no idea." Gladly it went unnoticed by her friend for once.
When Eric was done she watched him leave without another look at her. Deciding that she needed some fresh air she went outside with Christina, who was babbling about her day and how people here in Dauntless were amazing and she had so much fun at work. But Tris' thoughts wandered back to Eric, they had grown accustomed to each other's presence over the last few weeks. Even though he was always teasing her, he just demanded to give her best at all times and he was seriously interested in pushing her to become the leader everyone expected her to be. In some twisted way she realized that she liked the attention he constantly gave her.
Tris blinked rapidly when Christina was suddenly in her face, "Hey, earth to Tris! What's the matter?" She tried to give her friend a weak smile, "I'm sorry, Chris. I'm just really tired, work has been pretty busy and Eric is really not going easy on me," she pointed to a dark bruise which was forming on her forearm.
Her friend gave her a suspicious look and contemplated on what to say next for a moment. Her face broadened all of a sudden with a huge grin, "I bet his abs are really tight!" Tris almost choked on her next breath and she sputtered in exasperation, "Chris! What the hell?" Christina laughed out loud and pointed a finger at Tris, "You're blushing!"
Tris huffed and lay back on the rooftop looking up at the sky, "Of course I am, you're an insolent- Ugh!" Christina was laughing so hard she bent over and her head fell on Tris' stomach. Christina sat up with a serious expression on her face, "Now honestly, did you feel him up?"
Tris rolled her eyes and Christina broke out into laughter again. Tris got up and punched her friend on the shoulder, "Why am I even talking to you?!" The other girl drew her face into a mock pout, "Because I am your best friend!" Jumping to her feet Tris huffed, "You're lucky that you are my best friend!" She turned and they left the rooftop.
Tris returned to their office and found Eric hunched over a letter. She sat down opposite from him and watched him as he pursed his lips slightly while moving the pen neatly across the paper. For a man his handwriting was cleaner than her own.
As he didn't seem as though he would acknowledge her soon she leaned onto his desk with her elbows and her face on her palms. Frowning she pointed out, "You can't avoid me much longer." This finally made him look up but not for long, he raised an eyebrow at her and went back to writing.
Biting her lip she nervously played with one of his pens, "What are you doing anyway?" He sighed not looking up, "Not writing a report on your divergence..."
Without looking at her he shoved a small pieces of plastic on the table towards her. It looked like a tiny hard drive and Tris frowned at Eric when she noticed it was severely damaged. He pointed his finger at it not looking up from his letter, "In the instructions it says we need a memory stick for the device to record any data," he cleared his throat, "There wasn't any in it."
He didn't look at her and Tris raised her eyebrows when she realized he had purposefully destroyed the evidence about her divergence and gulped. When she didn't move he looked up at her with his pierced eyebrow raised, "What are you waiting for? Go send an e-mail to Jeanine's office and request one." His eyes bore into hers and she could see his jaw working.
He had a five a clock shadow this morning during their fight and she remembered vividly how the stubble had scratched her arm when she was able to pin his head under it. He must have shaved after because right now the skin looked soft and she wondered how it would feel like if she...
Eric cleared his throat and she shook her head, rubbing her face to hide the blush she felt creeping up her cheeks she nodded and reluctantly got up.
His eyes were already on the report again and Tris shivered at the coldness he radiated since the incident with the divergence calculating device earlier. Suppressing a sigh she trotted over into her office really wanting to bang her head on the keyboard.
After a few minutes she sent the e-mail to Eric first so he could proof read it and when he answered via e-mail she hunched her shoulders. It's 'sincerely',Stiff. Even though he was in the room next door, she imagined him rolling his eyes and slumped even further down in her seat. She corrected it quickly and hit the send button. Frustrated she turned to the reports and read with even less enthusiasm than before.
Tris blinked sleepily when she saw Eric standing in the doorway to her office. He was watching her and strangely she didn't know for how long. A tiny smirk tugged at his lips when she noticed him, "Let's call it a day, you can't even look straight anymore." She nodded stifling a yawn and shut off her computer and followed him to leave the office.
When she was right behind him he suddenly stopped and she almost bumped into him. He turned around and she saw his eyebrows drawn together in confusion. Rubbing his chin he stepped closer to her and cocked his head to the side, "Can you be honest with me?" Tris felt heat crawl up her neck and nodding she gulped, "Sure."
"Did you know it?" Unsure of her voice she nodded and felt involuntary tears prick at the corner of her eyes. "Is that why Four was mad at you for agreeing to take the position?"
Tris sighed biting her lips, it had been one reason of many but it was the one that finally caused them break up. They had a huge fight and in the heat of the argument he had pushed her aside so hard that it had left a bruise. Ever since then they rarely saw each other and she was glad it was over since they had grown apart soon after she had finished initiation.
"He thought I'd kill you if I found out, didn't he?" Eric's voice so low and Tris wondered whether she detected compassion in it so she looked up at him. His face was empty and the compassion she thought she'd heard wasn't showing, "Something like that."
He chuckled low in his throat, the first time since this morning and it made her stomach churn in a good way. She had missed it and something in his grey eyes told her that he wouldn't kill her or give her secret away.
"You know, sixty percent divergence isn't much better either. My aptitude test said Dauntless back then but apparently there is some more in me," he smirked, "Maybe it is Abnegation. After all I helped disguise your pretty little lie."
Sheepishly she looked at him and tried to smile, "Thank you," but something told her that this wasn't the end of it.
Eric sneered stepping closer, "Do you think I did this for you? You could threaten my career! Imagine if someone found out that a leader here in Dauntless is more than just Dauntless. And what's even worse that I cannot even find a divergent if they're right under my nose!" She needed a moment to comprehend and then replied in exasperation, "I'm threatening your..." She huffed angrily, "So, you don't even care about what happens to me?"
Her breath hitched when his nose was suddenly mere inches away from her own and stepping back she bumped into the wall. He placed a hand right next to her head and with a low growl murmured, "Give me one good reason why I should care about a little Stiff like you!"
She shrank even further against the wall and watched his jaw grinding in anger. His face softened for a split second when she let out a shaky breath before he returned to his usual scowl.
"I thought you were looking forward to teaching me on leadership," she stuttered, intimidated by his sudden coldness.
Eric leaned back only a fraction and Tris saw his eyes flicker to her mouth licking his lips. Returning his eyes to hers he calmly replied, "I did. And I still am. You have potential. But Tris, if you don't trust me," he gestured between them, "This is not going to work."
She gulped when he placed his other hand next to her head as well, "Now Tris," he emphasized her name, "Is there anything else I should know about you?"