So here it is their whole meeting in Tobias' POV. I have a whole headcanon for Eric that involves him not being a psychotic dick he's just a concerned dick. I like the idea of him, Zeke, and Tobias all being buds. And Eric is like the mama hen too. I don't know why but I think if Eric wasn't Eric in Divergent with the factions he'd be a smart dick. Like smart but not like Erudite smart where he's cold about it.
So if you stick with any of my other fics you might get this Eric. (Minus the canon Divergent ones he's a bastard in those and no one likes him).
Oh I added a cover picture it's like the one for Skipping Stones only it's in black and white, since this is Tobias' POV of past chapters/events.
"I don't think she'd be here." The young man next to me says and I glare at him from the corner of my eye.
"Shut up, Eric."
"Easy there, Four. Was just saying that why would she want to be here in." He looks around bored expression on his face. "Where are we?" He asks a woman next to us.
She looks at us, incredulously. "Rockford."
"Thank you." Eric smiles then looks at me. "Rockford, Four! We're in fucking Rockford. Why would she be in Rockford!"
I shake my head, my mother is here I know she is.
Eric walks backwards, sour look on his face. A group of kids no younger than us turn the corner and he knocks into them. Knocking a small blonde and a black girl into a burly boy.
"You okay, Beatrice?" He whispers touching her arm. I roll my eyes and turn the corner after Eric who didn't so much as pause.
"I mean really? Rockford."
"I fucking heard you the first time, Eric!" I shout then bite my lips together when people look at us.
"It's just a little creepy how obsessed you are with this man. Maybe we should go by Thomas' in that apartment building. Ask him he worked at the hospital didn't he?"
I'm standing in the hallway outside that fucker's apartment door.
"He hasn't been home in a while." A little boy sits outside his next to Thomas' door. "Hi I'm Charlie."
I ignore the kid and kick the door. Eric had stayed at the bottom. I don't look at the kid and descend the steps shaking my head. Eric rolls his eyes.
"Well I wonder who we ask now." We head back into town. "You know Four there is this magical thing called a car. You know the bikes we left at the diner?"
I pause and Eric turns. There's a boy not far from us being slammed into a wall by two bigger boys that look about my age.
I start to walk past them when I hear."Stupid nigger!"
I stop again and turn. One of the older kids punches him. I grab the kid's arm and throw him into the opposite wall. My vision is blurred around the edges. I stand over the young boy. "Go." I growl at the young men.
"I'd do as he says. He's killed a man before." Eric nods from my side. One of them scoffs and I hit him so hard his head bounces off the wall. They run and I turn and look at the boy.
"What are you doing, get!"
"Thank you." He says then looks at Eric. "Name's Daniel." He bends over and picks up a book. I notice a five dollar bill on the ground and a drug store paper bag I raise an eyebrow. He grabs both. "Thank you."
Eric snorts. "Such a hero."
We're back at the diner sitting at the table and I finally give up with Eric's staring. "What?"
"I know what your problem is. You need to get laid. If Zeke was here he'd say the same thing." Eric takes a drink of his soda. Then nods at two girls who are throwing glances at our bikes. They're shapely, the girls I like to stare at and I raise an eyebrow.
"I have to find my mother."
"Okay and you're going to realise that you let earth's fine pleasures pass you by trying to find her, Four." Eric sits back, and we watch the girls move on, skirts blowing out behind them. We pay and leave. "Everyone's at the lake we better go catch them before they head back if we're staying here for a night."
We pass a baby blue car and I throw Eric a look. It's a nice car. Eric is off his bike and walking towards the group I see three girls, probably from town, talking to Max and Gabe.
I hear Eric whistle and nudge Max. I'm close enough I can hear Lauren speak.
"Where's Four?" I groan internally and slide my sunglasses into place.
"Why do you wanna know where I am all the time, Lauren. Do you miss me or something?" I walk past Max's car. I know I'm going to have to avoid her that's the look of I have a friend you must meet.
"Hey Four!" I look up at Eric. "Max got himself some jail bait!" Eric smiles, eyebrows raised.
My eyes pass over the girls. There's one that's curvy and tall, blonde, out of place. One that's dark skinned, she's smiling like she belongs. Probably does and the third, short and pale, pale blonde. Not curvy. None of them are Max's type.
"Are you jealous, Eric?" I let my American accent drop for the Polish one and putting the Italian on halfway through then back to the American one so fast that no one could tell. Gabe laughs and wraps an arm around the blonde that bites her lip. Says something about older women and I want to laugh, Max's type isn't even older women. Eric stares at the other blonde then smiles at me.
No.
The dark skinned girl pulls them forwards before leaning against the car and continues talking for some reason I find myself watching the blonde, not the curvy one. I stand next to her and Gabe hands out bottles of root beer and I see her stiffen.
"Relax, it's just soda." I find myself comforting her.
Shauna asks them about school and I find myself curious, the dark skinned girl looks the type to skip, not the other two.
"Someone set the girl's locker room on fire. The whole gym and three science labs went up!" The dark skinned girl nods.
"No shit?" Eric raises an eyebrow and throws a glance at me and I shake my head. I'm not playing detective.
The group chuckles and I blink. Max is talking about school.
School. I take a sip of my drink.
Great.
"Four and I, we dropped out. Not much use for school." That mother fucker! I glare at him and he chuckles. Full well knowing that he made me sound like I was stupid. Mrs. Paszek and her husband home schooled me the best they could.
"Money?" I hear the blonde that I'm not standing next to ask.
Max's shop is a sore spot right now. Bunch of white folks think he can't run a business because he's black. Little do they know that he can run that business and theirs better than anyone. Shouldn't have sold him the building if then.
I wonder how well these girls would react if I told them Max ran a bakery.
"Do you have a copy of the contract?" The girl next to me asks and then gets a look in her eyes, much like the one someone gets when a plan is forming in their head on instinct.
"Well of course!" Max says annoyed, he would be it's a question so many ask then assume he doesn't because of his skin. "I'm black not stupid."
The looks like she was slapped. "I-" She furrows her brow. "I.."
"She didn't mean that." Her dark skinned friend says. "At least I think. Did ya?" She smirks.
My stomach drops. That's gotta hurt when a friend doesn't know if you meant something that way.
The girl blushes and takes a step back. "come on, Susan." She looks at the other blonde. "Just for your information, my father specializes in this stuff all the time. I was asking to make it easier on you when I talk to him about it. I was trying to help. Now let's go, Susan. Are you coming, Christina?" she starts walking but neither Susan nor Christina follow her and she turns. "Never mind stay as long as you like, both of you." She turns around and walks off towards their car some ways off. She grabs something then starts walking towards the road to town.
"Should we go after her?" Gabe looks at the girls and Susan looks after her friend.
"Beatrice will be back." Christina frowns, though her eyes keep flicking over to where her friend is walking soon she gets far enough away and turns towards the main road.
"I don't think she is." Lauren nods her head. "Well, Max. There goes one of your jail bait girls."
"Caleb's going to be mad when she gets home and tells him we let her walk." Susan shifts from foot to foot.
"Then you can go after her, Beatrice Prior doesn't own your life Susan. You don't have to be nice to her-"
"But I do. Caleb doesn't like anyone who's mean to his sister." I raise both my eyebrows. Ouch.
"To be honest Susan if Caleb is anything like his sister, he wouldn't know when someone was into him even if they walked him to school everyday."
Double ouch. I back away and get on my bike. I have to make sure she gets home, or at least into town, safely. I see Eric throw a look at me and I know he's thinking something.
I take off down the road and spot her walking, head down. "Hey!" I yell when I pull up beside her. She doesn't turn and for a moment I think she didn't hear me. I cut the engine and place a hand on her arm. "Hey stop."
She looks at me and I lean against my bike. "You can't walk all that way into town."
Her eyes are like liquid grey blue fire. "Watch me." She leans towards me hissing, before whipping around and walking off. My heart races. Fuck.
My jeans tighten and my eyes go wide.
Fuck!
I take a deep breath and I think I should go back, but fuck. Fuck that was hot.
"Shit." I push my bike after her.
Max didn't mean to offend you. Is what I think of saying as I scratch my head. She stops and glares at me.
"OFFEND ME?! OFFEND ME!" She says louder. Damn I said that out loud. She throws her arm out. "He didn't OFFEND ME! My so called friends are what hurt me the most! Christina knows for a fact that I didn't mean that his skin colour made him stupid! I didn't assume he was stupid." I open my mouth to tell her that Max just hears so much about it that he didn't expect her to be different. "I bring that girl lunch." She says more to herself her eyes shooting up to the sky then looking back at me. Her shoulders drop and she shakes her head. "I suffer through the cruel pranks my class mates pull because I'm friends with her." I bite the inside of my cheek. "And Al! Poor Albert, he suffers too for being her friend." Christina's comment about her not knowing if someone was in love with her makes me smirk. "My father, he believes that blacks should have the same rights we do! AND I GET RATS IN MY LOCKER!" I almost stumble with my bike. She gets what in her locker? "Dead birds in our mailbox." Her voice breaks and she pushes her hair back.
I'm angry, she shouldn't go through this.
"And Susan, I thought she was my friend but now sometimes I think she only friends with me because of my brother."
So she does know that Susan only likes her because of her brother.
"Such foolishness love is, isn't it?" Part of her hair blows back in her face and I reach up and tuck it behind her ear, why did I do that?
She smacks my hand. "There's no time for love during this time."
"Well, Beatrice." I like her name on my tongue. "You may change your mind one day."
She rolls her eyes, a small smile on her lips. We walk in silence and I get a thought, an image in my head of her on my bike. I never let people ride on my bike, especially girls.
"You do know I have means of transportation that can get us into town faster." I smile at her, I want her to wrap her arms around my waist.
She looks at my bike than me, "no thank you." A blush colours her face.
"Okay," I smile wider. "So your school caught fire?"
"Yes." She laughs and I memorize that sound.
"You don't seem to look upset, though I guess not," I raise an eyebrow. "Especially since you said people were mean to you." I try not to hiss.
"BEATRICE!"
We look up and a truck stops in front of us. "Al, Robert?"
I push my sunglasses up, Al her friend. Who's Robert?
"Where's Susan?" He asks and Beatrice starts to mumble something and he shakes his head.
"Save it Beatrice. It's not like you to do something like that." I look at her and she's blushing. So she is miss prim and proper. "Al, you stay here with Beatrice. Caleb?" Al gets out and I think I've seen him before. I look at him and when he looks at her and touches her arm I realise Beatrice is the girl I knocked over earlier this morning.
"-just I was worried about you too." I realise he was talking and I smirk. He's so in love with her it's pathetic.
"It's alright, Al." She whispers and looks after the truck. His face falls.
I cough out a quiet 'foolish' under my breath, Christina was right she doesn't know that the boy is in love with her.
The boy turns and looks me up and down. "Oh, I'm sorry. I'm Albert." I consider telling him I don't care. "Who are you?" He sticks his hand out.
I recognise this guys with girls do this, assert this manly image to make a threat back off. Poor him? More like poor her. I remove my sunglasses to look at him better. I hear Tris take a breath.
"Four." I take his hand squeezing it, his mouth tightens and I smile.
"Like the number. Who would name their kid that!"
He's not too bright I look at Tris. I breathe in through my nose. Tris? She's not mine to give a nickname to. Though if she is miss proper she may get angry and her eyes. I laugh at the thought.
"It's a nickname. I don't like telling people my real name." I look at her against and she smiling looking at her shoes.
"-accent?"
"Oh yes the accent. My parents, well my mother came from an Italian family." That's all I explain to him, I don't want to talk about how she was half Italian and how my father. I clench my fists. Was Polish.
"Ah, I see. And you were born here?"
Nosy fucker. "No I was born in," lie. I must lie. "Chicago. I'm just here with a friend." I look at Tris. "Well, Tris it was nice meeting you. You too Albert." I slip my sunglasses on and get on my bike. "Maybe I'll see you around." I need to leave before I decide to tell this girl my story.
I take off and head back into town, I'm back at the apartments knocking on Thomas' door.
"He's still not back." The boy is still sitting there and I look at him.
"Is this something you do all day?"
He shrugs. "Grams is sick, the door gets stuck. The landlord is old so he can't do much. Thomas helped around here, Mr. Lewis is suppose to help but he doesn't like us because Grams is black but I think it's because our mother." He sits up. "Daniel!"
"Lock yourself out again?" The boy that was getting beat up earlier looks at me then Charlie. His arms are full of bags.
"How old are you kids?" I scratch my head.
"I'm nine, I'll be ten in July. Charlie here is six." The older kid shrugs. He unlocks the door and it doesn't budge. "Not this shit again!"
"Hey." I raise an eyebrow.
He looks at the door and whispers. "I can cuss if I want." That's not what makes me freeze. It's the language he used. Polish.
I get their door lose and help them carry bags inside. The kitchen is a mess and I travel through the house and I see an elderly woman lying on a mattress on the floor, a scrap of a thing far from a blanket. One bedroom. There are blankets on the couch and a blow up mattress on the floor. I look through their cabinets and fridge. Almost everything is expired.
"Kid what do you do about food?" I look at Daniel and he looks at the fridge.
"Being a paper boy doesn't get me much. But I can feed him and Grandma and get her medicine. Except for today, I deserved getting beat up. I took a man's money out of his wallet."
"Stay here." I head downstairs and to the landlord's office.
"Hello!" He smiles at me, he's a frail man whos head shakes.
"How much does it cost for rent here?" I cross my arms. "And is there a spot on the second floor? Across from that old woman and the two kids?"
He chuckles. "You know them?"
"No but, I think I should be close in case anything happens." I head towards the door and I notice it squeaks. "Got a screwdriver? I can fix this."
The old man's eyes light up. "If you do maintenance around here I'll give you rent free. How much would you like paid?"
"Nothing. I have a job in Chicago that I do have to go back sometimes for. I could be gone a week to months. Make a list of things that happen and I will do them when I get back. I'll also be leaving money for those kids."
"Why are you here?" He looks at me.
"Peace of mind. Nice town." I smile.
Through out the week I get my new apartment furnished, I fill my fridge and much to the annoyance of Daniel. His fridge too. I buy a set of tools to use. I have fixed seven doors, thirteen windows, repainted the bottom lobby. Met Mrs. and Mr. Lewis who both dislike me. I used my key to open Thomas' apartment and found him dead.
"I'll be in town. Maybe won't be back until late." I pat Charlie's head. I realised if I wanted siblings it would be him and Daniel. Their grandmother Abilene smiles at me from the couch, I bought her a bed with proper blankets and made sure that they got a better couch for Daniel and Charlie kept his blow up mattress.
I made sure that their apartment was better before I furnished mine. I walk through town, I head into the grocery store. The man behind the check out is eying me. I look him up and down and he wrinkles his nose. I watch him interact with a coloured customer and he rings up everything wrong.
"Hey. I assume you went to school" I stare him down. "I know a five year old would know that total is wrong. You're over by ten dollars." I continue looking through the aisles. I don't even know why I came in here. I turn and here a whispered 'damn!' my eyes shoot up and Tris is on her tiptoes reaching for a can out of her reach. She groans. I walk up to her and reach up grabbing it, my jacket sleeve brushes her arm.
"Here." I hand it to her.
"Thank you." She takes it without looking at me.
"No, problem. Tris." Her head snaps up and I smile at her, a smile spreads across her face.
"Hey." She says a little shyly.
I nod and I know there's still a smile on my face.
"Fancy seeing you here," I raise an eyebrow. Didn't I tell her I'd be seeing her around? She shakes her head, "well I assumed if I haven't seen you by now that you were gone." Her voice gets quiet on the last word. "Remember? You said you were here because of a friend and that you might see me?"
"You sound a bit disappointed." I smile hopeful that she did. She continues shopping. "Almost like you missed me?"
"Please I did not." She bites her lip and I let my face become blank. As we turn a corner I hear her whisper, "maybe. A little."
I want to smile. She looks at me then stops her head tilting up looking at a shelf above her head. I grab what I hope she needs and she smiles taking it, her cheeks pink.
An elderly woman next to us smiles. "Hello, Beatrice."
I tilt my head looking at Tris' basket. "Oh dear, is all the chili powder gone?" The elderly woman frowns and I walk over.
"Here, I got it." I pat her shoulder and grab it off the shelf. I guess this is why short women like tall men. She thanks me and I see her place a hand on her back as she bends for her basket, the hand on her back moves to something on the shelf and I grab both to make it easier for her.
"How about I help you? Do you mind, Beatrice?" I smile at them both.
The woman says something and I offer her my arm, I let her lead me to what she needs and I grab it for her. I don't know if Tris follows us.
"So are you and Beatrice together?"
"Excuse me, ma'am?" I look at the woman.
"Are you courting Ms. Prior?" She smiles at Tris who is down the aisle frowning at something before putting it back.
"No, ma'am. I'm just a friend." I tear my eyes off the blonde.
"Friends don't look at each other like that. She's a good girl, stubborn, but good. She needs someone who will take care of her when she needs to be taken care of but at the same time let her be strong. No one here can do that." The elderly woman leads me to the counter. "If you do think of courting her. Treat her kindly, she is a good girl." I help her empty her basket and step back.
Tris comes up behind her and waits, I want to ask if she heard our conversation but then the woman cries and I look at the man behind the register. Then at the amount on the register. The total is enough to buy both the woman and Tris' groceries. My hands ball up.
I watch as Tris gives the woman her money then sit through the man taunting her. Tris pays for what she can and leaves, I look at the man that was behind her and he looks at me in shock.
"Can you believe that? He does that a lot, bad for the community."
"To be honest, I can believe it. Uh, do you mind if I?" I gesture in front of me and the man nods at me.
"Go ahead."
I lean across the counter and stare the man behind it down. "Didn't we already have a talk about this earlier?"
The man smirks at me, "please. They're niggers, they ain't people." I reach forward and grab his shirt and pull him over the counter.
"You want to run that by me again?" I hiss.
"I'll have you thrown out." The man says and motions to someone in a corner. A cop comes up to me.
"What seems to be the problem here?"
"Ted," the man who let me in front of him looks at the cop and explains what happened. "And this young man I think is angry that his girlfriend was treated so wrong."
"You're Beatrice's boyfriend?" The cashier, Jack I notice his name tag reads.
"Is that a problem for you?" I narrow my eyes. "I want her groceries and if you don't mind a newspaper and a pack of Winstons." I let him go and Ted the cop crosses his arms.
"I don't see a problem with anyone here but you, Jack." He walks off to a back door and Jack glares at me.
"I'll need ID."
I lean over the counter. "No you fucking won't. If you know what's good for you you'll hurry." I stare him down as he bags everything and I put the cigarettes in my pocket. I take the bags and head out the door, hopefully Beatrice didn't get to far. I see her down the side walk and I job up to her.
"Tris! Wait up!" I stop next to her. "You forgot your stuff."
"I." She bites her lip. "You didn't have to pay for everything!"
I hand her a bag, her fingers brush mine. I explain to a summary of what happened then she laughs and thanks me.
"No problem. Can I walk you home?" I'm nervous.
"Sure." She blushes and looks down.
We're walking down a street when I see a man struggling to get a new couch of the back of a truck. I hand Tris my bag and go to help him she tells me her house is at the end of the street, there's a group walking towards her. I help the man carry it to his yard where he sets it down.
He nods at me and I take a step on the sidewalk. I don't know if that was an invite to go to Tris' house or not. I start to turn around when I hear a scream and turn back around, Tris is lying on the ground. Two boys and a girl stand over her, the boy with red hair pulls back his foot and I shout at them. Running to Tris.
She needs me.
The girl squeals and jumps back as I reach them, a boy with dark hair looks at me eyes wide. I grab the boy that went to kick Tris by the shirt. I pull my arm back and punch the kid a couple of times, one I hit his face and hear a crack, blood pours out of his broken nose. I push him down the sidewalk and turn the other two are running off.
I hold out my hand to Tris who doesn't take it, I look over and see Christina and Susan staring at me, Al's eyes are narrowed, the fourth person a blonde looks at me smiling and nodding to herself. Tris takes my hand and I smile helping her up. She won't meet my eyes and I see the state she's in covered in eggs and milk.
Her lower lip wobbles and I wrap an arm around her.
"Come on I got you." I pull her close. We walk past a fence and through it, a woman with blonde hair is on the porch poking at a potted plant. I clear my throat and she looks up.
"Beatrice what's the- oh. Oh my god. Andrew! Come inside honey, come in." The woman runs down the steps and places a hand on her back. I should let go but I feel like if I do that will be the end of the day, I need to make sure she's okay.
A man pulls out a chair for her his hair is dark and I realise they share the same eyes. As her mother runs a rag through her hair I explain what I saw, my hand stings. I ignore it, my eyes rarely leave Tris. Her face is red and I know she's angry. I cross my arms, hands holding my biceps when I'm done.
"Your knuckles seem cut there, son." Her father raises an eyebrow.
"I may have punched one of the boys." I remember his nose crunching under my fist. "Sir."
"Oh," he nods and looks at his wife. They don't seem angry with me. Tris gets up and walks out of the kitchen. I straighten up, suddenly nervous.
Tris' mother smiles at me then gasps. "Your hand!" She furrows her brow and takes my hand. "I'm sure Beatrice has something in her bathroom for your hand. Go through the living room here and there'll be a hallway to your right with stairs. Beatrice's room is the first one."
I remove my shoes and place them by the front door. I walk through the living room taking in the open space in. I find a door to the back yard, two rooms and the stairs. I find Tris' room and I try to stifle a laugh. The carpet's pink, the bed is covered in purple blankets, she has a vanity like every girl that's white. The dresser across from her bed is also white. Her curtains are green. I sit on the bed hearing footsteps come towards the door. I look up as Tris enters and I think I nearly swallowed my tongue, she's only in her bra and panties.
"Your mother said you could find me something to clean my hand with?" I sit up straighter, don't get hard. Do not, for the life of me, get hard.
"Why are your shoes off?" She looks around the room.
"Well isn't it polite to not track dirt and mud through a house, especially a fine young lady's bedroom." Can she tell how breathless I am, put a shirt on please. Can she not tell that I'm fixing to scream, I'll even cry. I watch her reach up and wrap her arms over her chest. That makes my breathing halt, she doesn't think she's beautiful? Something smears along her arm and I notice blood.
I lean forward, "you're bleeding." I reach for her arm.
"Oh." She whispers absently. "I am." She leaves her room, I remove my jacket. Should I follow her?
She comes back and sits on the end of her bed facing me, she takes my hand and cleans it. My eyes never leave our hands. When she's done I see that her arm is still bleeding, I pick up the rag and wipe down the cut before taking the band-aid she brought and smoothing it over the wound. She bites her lip and looks up at me through her lashes. I reach up and touch her face, my thumb brushes the bottom of her lower lip. I wonder how her lips would feel against mine.
I lean towards her. Her mother calls up the steps and it's like a bucket of water is thrown on me. She looks up at me, face flushed. "Do you?" I can't look at her.
"Sure." I jump up. "Bathroom's just right around the corner, right?"
"Yes." I nod and all but run out the door, I have to get away from her. I don't know her and she doesn't know me. That's not how a first kiss is suppose to be anyways. You're suppose to be in love with the person that you kiss, you have to be sure that they like you back. When your lips meet you're suppose to see stars. I lean against the window at the end of the hallway outside the bathroom. I won't let Tris be one of those meaningless kisses, though I doubt she'd like me in anyway like that, even if she knew the real me too.
I head towards the stairs and stand behind Tris as she tells her parents about how cute I was helping that woman.
"How did you pay for ours then?"
"I did." I finally speak up and Tris jumps, I smile a little.
"So you just paid for them?" I take my eyes off Tris.
"I may have told the man that charging more for an item because of someone's skin colour was wrong." I shrug, maybe the news will spread that I almost hit the man.
When her father asks how I know Tris, I pause what can I tell them? Your daughter and her friends went to the lake without telling anyone? That I may be stalking their daughter? That's what I'm doing isn't it, stalking her? I feel like it is, I barely know this girl and I've already seen her almost naked, helped her with groceries, and I think I'm eating dinner with her parents.
There's floundering and a young man a year or two older than me pats Mr. Prior on the back. I know this kid.
"Four here helped me the other day. Susan had car trouble. And Beatrice and Four walked to the university to get me and Robert to help. She asked Four to let her go alone but he wasn't having any of it." He was in that truck that got the girls but that's not how I know him. He smiles at Tris. "Four here is friends with a buddy of mine that transferred to Chicago."
That's it!
I have a flashback of Eric angrily beating on a door to his secret girl's house. Of him running to the university in Chicago hoping to see her. Finding that her aunt and a student were going at it on her desk chair.
"How is our buddy doing?" He looks at me and I remember his name is Caleb.
"They're good. Miss you. Maybe one day you would like to go back up there with me and we could all hang out. Or They could come down here? If that's okay with your parents?" I smile, I wonder if they know that their son is having an affair with an older woman.
We eat and I stay to help with the dishes, it's the best I can do without feeling guilty. I tell everyone goodbye. I'm sure they'd like to get on with their evening. Mrs. Prior hugs me and I freeze, her hug is warm, the kind motherly hugs are suppose to be. She tells me to come around more often and then hands me left overs.
I give Tris a small sheepish smile. The good mood doesn't stay though, because I have to open my mouth and make it worse. We're staring at each other and I'm slightly hurt that she'd accuse me of only being nice to her to get into her bed.
"If I wanted sex I certainly wouldn't go to you for it!" I hiss at her and turn around, fingers tight against the containers in my hands. I stop and turn around to look at her, her hands are clenched and shaking. I feel bad, I remember how she covered herself earlier less out of embarrassment and more out of shame. Shame for her body. I wrap my arms around her, breathing in the scent off her hair.
"Tris, it's not that-" I can't tell her that I would have sex with her. "You don't seem the type to be for sex only."
We stay like that her head against my chest, softly whispering. A car could hit me as I was walking home and I'd be okay to die as happy as I am now. I make her an open-ended promise to teach her how to skip a rock and to teach her the metaphor Mr. Paszek had taught me.
I watch her walk back around the hedge and I suddenly miss her. I hurry home and head up the stairs, I use my keys to get into the boy's apartment and set the food on the counter. Charlie looks at me.
"Where were you?"
"Out with a friend." I hand him a plate.
"Girlfriend?" Charlie smiles. "You're face is red and you're smiling. You look like that couple downstairs whenever they think about the other."
I swat his head. "Eat."
I head across the hall to my apartment and don't bother turning on the lights just falling into bed. I get a call from Eric in the morning about how I'm needed back in Chicago. I leave a note for Daniel, one for the landlord, and I write one for Tris. I drive by the Prior house and leave it in the mailbox for her. Hopefully I did leave my jacket with her, I'll have to get a new one while I'm in Chicago.
Okay I am working on three, YES THREE, fics. The Chicago Trip from Tobias' POV, the wedding, and a new story that's been buzzing around and if I don't write it I may actually explode.
If you want any other Tobias POV related anything, before Tris I can do that, from my story I can do that, anything they talk about that there's a story behind it you can have that too.
Chapter title is Can't Help Falling In Love. I'm sure everyone knows that song. The tumblr for my fics is almost up (by almost I mean if I worked on it instead of writing I'd probably get somewhere.)
Love!
